Just for fun... I want to get a shot of a firecracker exploding. Actually, it's my grandson who wants to try this.

The setup will be in my basement workshop in the after dark hours. We'll cover the window as much as possible so for practical purposes it'll be totally dark.

The firecracker will be ignited by an electric igniter like used used by the model rocket folks.

Camera will be focused on firecracker, lights turned off, shutter in bulb mode. Assuming there is a flash with small firecrackers we should get an image. BTW: the fire cracker is small enough to not cause damage to camera from a 5 to 10 foot distance.

Any thoughts?? Suggestions... Dangers other than the obvious from playing with fireworks..?

I wouldn't be surprised if photos of a firecracker exploding had already been done. However, those examples were done with really specialized equipment and the OP just has an ordinary camera and some curiosity. He's not going to spend a few thousand dollars on a specialized high speed camera.

If I had a bunch of firecrackers and a small kid, I might be tempted to try this too. (Maybe more than just 'might', and maybe the kid would be optional).

I would first want a pile of crackers large enough that I could do some experiments. Probably the first thing would be the bulb exposure to try to find an appropriate aperture. Then maybe a few bursts at as high a frame rate as the camera could do, probably with some lighting. Then I would try to cobble up something that would detect the explosion and trigger a speedlight with it. That would probably need a bulb exposure because triggering the camera would be too much time delay (although it might be worth the experiment). Maybe placing the firecracker on a metal plate supported at one side and having a wire under it. The explosion would push down the plate and make contact with the wire. That could be used to trigger the speedlight. For that you would have to know what triggers your speedlight. Is it a pulse of voltage or a contact? (Old cameras triggered a flash with a contact. I suspect the new flashes need a pulse of a few volts to do that. Might need to do some research there).

Naturally I might want to find a nice plexiglass plate to put between the firecracker and the camera for protection.

Fortunately (for me) I don't have a pile of firecrackers handy since I'm pretty busy this week.

I would think an external activation would be too slow to be effective. You would get a photo of the end of the explosion.

On the other hand, having sound activate a speedlight might give you some pieces flying away from the explosion. Camera on bulb, speedlight triggered by sound and aimed at the center of action. Would probably require several tries.

And I agree with doing this outdoors. Less debris for the wife to clean up. Less smelly fumes to annoy the wife. Sound bouncing off interior walls can be pretty loud. Just find a box to block outside lights and put the firecracker inside that with an open side toward the camera.

Here are a quick couple test shots using a cap from a hair spray can, it bounced nicely. Captur Pro shutter trigger in sound activated mode with zero delay.

Done strictly in automatic camera mode, no attempt to fine tune camera settings of shutter or aperture.

The bounce is the after first contact with table top, not a second bounce since the object went out of camera view onto the floor.

Looks promising.... my concern was how quickly the camera could react to the sound trigger. I suppose if I thought hard enough I could remember my physics and determine time after contact.

One shot shows the object being focused on and the other bounced.