Does anyone know what equipment would be needed to take high speed pictures of bullets? Approximate cost? A good supplier? I know I probably need something in the 1000 frames per second speed, but have no idea what I really need. Thanks for any help!

I know you better have deep pockets!

I took this photo with a Vivitar Vivicam 10, which I got from Walmart for 49.95, plus tax...






Just kidding... A fellow forum member, Turok shared this site with me. Here's the link:
http://home.snafu.de/l.moeller/Bremse/Muendungswolke/Muendungswolke.html

Enjoy!

Dan

Are you talking about motion pictures or still photos? I often visited Doc Edgerton's lab where early high speed still photos were taken. For that you need a good camera, a highspeed strobe light and a triggering device.

Almost any decent strobe will stop a bullet-- what you need is a couple of fine wires stretched in front of the barrel. as soon as the bullet touches them, it completes the circuit and fires the strobe. Of course you'll have to anchor the muzzle down so the bullet path won't wander too far from the wires and you may have to take several shots to get the picture you want.

Although video would be really cool, I doubt that I can afford it, it is just a hobby after all. What I'm really trying to accomplish is getting pictures of bullets passing through gelatin, apples, melons etc. I would like to get pictures before, during and after the bullet hits the target. A bullet coming out of a barrel really doesn't interest me. I'm more interrested in what happens to the bullet after it hits the target.

Do a search on google.

Go to amazon.com and begin searching "ultra high-speed photography", look for textbooks as these will tell you "how to".

You are correct in the cost of video. I telephoned a company just for kicks and was quoted ~$20,000.00 for a video capture system capable of taking slow motion digital pics of bullets ect. You can lease for ~$2,000.00 per week. If you want to go really fast you'll need a rotating mirror camera...up to 3 million frames per second.
You can get ultra high-speed cameras and film cameras from the gub'mint but you'll have to know how to rebuild them.

Thanks everyone for your help! It appears that I'm going to have to either find a cheaper hobby or find a way to get a research grant from Gov't. If I had $20,000 grand to spend I think it would be better spend on a nice hunt. Again, thanks

Then try it here:
http://www.zurzzeit.de

Photo above ist also made with one of those
cameras.
And interesting other photos and movies on the
page, too.

M1rage---

It's fairly easy to do. All you need is a strobe, any camera with a "B" setting (time exposure) and some rather innovative circuitry.

Using microswitches or simple screen wire and a control box that fires the strobe either when a circuit is broken or completed, depending on how you set it up, the only other thing you need is a TOTALLY dark space where the picture is taken.

The camera is set on B and the gun fired. When the circuit is completed to the strobe it fires and the only image recorded on the film is the one at the instant of the strobe.

I haven't done it in 40 years, but I got some really NEAT pictures of an exploding Citron (wild melon of the south) hit with a 303 British. I used a refridgerator box layed horizonal and painted black inside with a stand for the melon.
The trigger was a piece of door screen layed on top of the melon for one side of the circuit and a wire through the top of the box as the other. When the melon blew it threw the screen against the wire and fired the strobe I'd borrowed from my eigth grade science teacher.

Be SURE to use a piece of pexiglass in front of your camera.

It is much easier to use a laser trigger with attached timer (~$1,200.00).

I went into this a bit deep. I corresponded with a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York regarding this. This is what he teaches. Industrial photography with stills, film, and digital. In his first semester he teaches the students how to build their cameras to take Schlerer photos.

I threw him $20.00 and kind words, he sent me his syllabus and all his handouts for his class. All I have to do is buy the two books he recommended and have the time to read them, I will be good to go. After school (yawn).

[ 03-10-2003, 05:31: Message edited by: Roger Rothschild ]

Let me correct bullpup's typo - it's

www.kurzzeit.de

and well worth a visit.

See my posting on the Technology forum.