chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

Only other choices I can think of - maybe there is a place that will rent it?

Or, roll your own unit in a wooden case. If you have knowledge of electronics, you can probably build one on the cheap using an Arduino - you need to generate pulses as short as 1 microsecond, driving a bank of high powered LEDs via MOSFETs. The LEDs over driven with overvoltage but since the duration is very short the LEDs are not damaged.

Either way you will have to spend something in terms of time and/or money, unless you know someone who has a Vela unit you can borrow.

Note too such a device has many other apps - and some of these things I wanted to do as well - freezing an egg the moment it starts to crack open, popping a water balloon at the moment the water still maintains the shape of the balloon, droplet shots (easy to do just never got around to it), etc.

sourdough58 Loc: Maine

I was on a hunting trip and my wife was filming the hunt with a Sony video camera at 30 frames per sec. I was hunting with a Black powder 58 cal. rifle .570 279 gr. round ball, Hawkin rifle. later after the hunt while editing frame by frame I saw the RB in flight about 20 ft in front of the rifle as a gray streak looking like the gray stopped about a ft or so before the target all in one frame and the next frame showed RB after it passed through its target and rick-o-shayed off a rock up at a 20º angle. I know it's not the stop action that you are looking for but I found it interesting.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

With respect, some may not know, RB, is round ball.

Dennis

Botherbro

Begging pardons but first off I would say that to try to trigger on the sound would be folly. One needs to trigger on the bullet by electro optical means. Then it is just precise measuring and timing. And I hope you don’t believe that it was accomplished on a single try. Yes hand loading of the round would help as you could reduce the bullet velocity. But optically triggering the flash as the bullet passes is the only way to fly. Sound is too slow folks. Yes you can use chrono screens to trigger your strobe. You don’t really think they used strobe lights triggered by sound to take pictures of nuclear weapon explosions do you? . Projectiles passing through objects are carefully measured and timed events and almost all of them are triggered using chronographs. Yes the device you use to measure velocity for fired weapons.. this is way not rocket science.. but methodology.

John7199 Loc: Eastern Mass.

I was associated with the MIT Juggling club in the early 1980,s. Doc Edgerton came to the club and asked us juggle in his lab at MIT, so he could take pictures.

He used a strobe (which he invented) that flashed continuously. I don't know how you could reproduce that.
John

therwol Loc: USA

I went to MIT in the early 70s. Doc Edgerton's pictures were displayed in one of the hallways in the main buildings. I wasn't aware that he was still teaching at the time. I was a Biology major and never had contact with him or his classes.

JBRIII

Thinking about it, I believe a sound trigger could be used. You would need to know the time between the sound and the electric pulse sent by the trigger. The trigger would be at the gun. Then how long to travel to the flash and time to flash. If done by wifi, the response time at each end would need to be known. The problem would be acturate timings. If too fast, then need a delay in flash, again accuracy would count. Might be hard to get accurately, but might be done with several tries, if possible, cheaper than a 1,000,000 fps camera. Also use a wide angle lens to cover a wider area.

Someone said only needed 30,000 fps, I believe the Krontech might be capable.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Awesome ✳️✳️✳️

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Very interesting. Thanks.
Mundy

Botherbro

Well lemme tell you this is like 40 years later. And the bullet thing chronometers are cheap these days 100 bucks or so. And with measurements and triggering the lights and camera from the chronometer takes about 5 bucks of electronic parts.
Not trying to take anything from Doc Edgerton but: The strobe, it only looked like it was continuous. And that is because your eyes have persistence with bright lights. Juggling is way not fast. Very easy to stop that motion. Especially nowadays man that was 40years ago. Electronics alone is way better not to mention camera technology. Some of these cameras you could bright light the jugglers and slow motion and or stop action. The equipment available then is no match for what you can get now.. The camera system in the SR71 moved film almost as fast as the plane moved.. That is pretty awesome but you aren’t buying those from amazon..my comments about the bullet picture just stated my opinion about the triggering method. Far easier to trigger on the bullet actually. Yes the chronograph is used to measure the velocity of bullets in flight. The bullet is fired between the measuring screens which are set at a known distance apart. Forget about the sound for triggering there is too much delay because most rifle rounds these days are yes supersonic lol but you still need to be able to measure the velocities if you are a marksman/handloader... just saying not hating. Botherbro

MrPhotog

But Edgerton was the photographer who made the gear that made the picture.

Maybe that just confuses the issue. 😎

MrPhotog

A few thoughts:
1) no one has directly mentioned the use of a suppressor ( or silencer) on the gun, although the idea of putting trash between muzzle and target has been covered. Suppressors are Legal in many areas, but I have no knowledge of your local laws. They do reduce muzzle velocity.

2) change the angle of your photograph. Shooting from the side requires the shortest exposure, but shooting directly in line with the motion is less of a problem.

Set your camera in line with the flight of the bullet, or just a few degrees to one side. Maybe mount it directly over your firing point and use a telephoto lens. The bullet will be in the frame all the time it is in flight, with the apple as the background.

3) Setting the light at about a 30 to 45 degree angle to the line of flight should give a distinctive shadow. A piece of paper on the other side of the apple makes a cheap reflector for a fill.

4) If your trigger sets off the strobe a bit late you’ll see a cloud of applesauce with the butt end of the bullet roughly centered ( assuming your aim is good 😜) If your trigger is a bit early you’ll see the bullet in front of the apple.

5) if the bullet is travelling at, or close to, the speed of sound: you should be able to put an accoustical trigger directly under the target. The sound of detonation will arrive at the same time as the bullet. Any tiny delay in the trigger is compensated for by moving it closer to the gun ( the sound gets to it before the bullet teaches the apple, then after the delay in the trigger, the flash goes off as the apple is hit)

6) you can use a simpler trigger. Cut a few inches off the end of a standard pc sync cord. Attach a paper clip, or alligator clip to each of the two wires. Use hot-melt glue to connect the clips about 1/4” apart. Insert short, thin strips of aluminum foil into the clips, and bend the foil so the two pieces nearly touch. Set this out of sight—mounted to the platform the apple is on, on the unseen side. When the apple is hit, the pieces of foil make contact and trigger the strobe. If you need something stiffer, cut thin strips from aluminum beverage cans and lightly sand off the exterior lacquer and interior coating. If you left enough extra wire, you can reconnect the pc fitting back on the test of the sync cord. A little hotmelt glue reinforces the joint.

If you want to build a faster strobe on your own, you can buy used ones, for parts, and not spend too much money.

The duration of the flash is determined by the voltage of the system, the size of the capacitor, and the resistance of the flashtube and its connecting wires. You can’t do much to change the resistance of the flashtube, but you can change the capacitor and the voltage.

In a simple electronic flash: Once the flash is triggered it remains on until the capacitor is discharged. A smaller capacitor empties faster. Triggering two (or more!) flashtubes at the same time drains the capacitor faster, and gives a shorter duration flash.

Until the invention of the thyristor there was no easy way to quickly shut off a capacitor once it started to discharge. The first automatic flash units used a hidden flash tube ( a ‘quench’ tube) that was triggered when the electric eye determined enough light had been delivered to the subject. It drained power from the capacitor and shut off the flash, but used up all the charge in the capacitor. Later thyristor circuits could actually stop the flow of current and retain most of that in the capacitor, giving much shorter flash duration, faster recycle times and many more flashes from a set of batteries.

If you can find a disposable ( film) camera with a flash you can scavenge a small capacitor, triggering coil, power supply and flash tube. At one time these were free (after the film had been removed) if you asked politely at the one-hour labs. They may still be available online for a buck or two. This may lead you down a rabbit hole of circuitry, with no better results—but it is a starting direction.

7) Edgerton’s books are expensive to buy, but you can go to your local library to get a copy. It mat not be on the shelf, but ask a librarian about ‘interlibrary loan’, and you can get almost any book from almost any library. There are usually special borrowing rules, such as due dates. And you may need to wait several weeks for the book to be sent to your library. Usually there is no cost, but if they ask you to pay for shipping, it will be cheap.

Good luck with your project.

Denny357mag Loc: Sparta,Mi

I did this back in '62. Used a 45-70 loaded with 5gr of unique. My flash was an old honeywell and for a dark spot. I shot at night. An old Tower 57 camera tri x developed in D76.
It worked the first time.

Shutterbugger2 Loc: Chicago

Another way to make brief flashes is a chemical flash. Again, from memory, you would mix powdered aluminum with a powdered explosive, such a mercury fulminate and detonate it, whereby the burning aluminum gives a bright, fast flash of light. There may be an article on Sciencemadness.org.
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/forumdisplay.php?fid=3

I read about this in a book about the physics of explosives, but never tried it.

Shutterbugger2 Loc: Chicago

Here is how I did strobe.
1) Epoxy electrodes at each end of a glass tube, with a hollow metal tube also at one end.
2) Clip a wire to each electrode and connect to about 5000 volts DC. Use a chicken stick if necessary. I used a rectified neon sign transformer to supply power.
3) Using a vacuum pump, remove air from the glass tube till the tube starts flashing. You vary the flash rate by changing the amount of vacuum or voltage on the tube.

Be aware that your insurance company will not be happy.