While I’ve been making progress exploring the world of High Speed Flash Photography, I felt the duration of my flash unit (1/1000 second while off camera) was too long to freeze the action well enough. After doing some research, I settled on acquiring a Vivitar 283 flash unit, which can be set for a flash duration of 1/30,000 second – a significant improvement. I was able to find a used one on eBay for $40, and so I was excited to give this a try.

First, though, I wanted to make some improvements to my sound detector device. As originally built (see High Speed Photography), it’s a bit exposed to the elements – and by elements, I mean the cornstarch, water, and whatever else I come up with as I expand my range of pellet gun targets.

Sound Detector

So, as seen in the picture to the right, I enclosed the electronics in a plastic box with a metal lid. I drilled holes in the box for the wires that extend out, and velcroed the sound pickup device on the side.

I added a dip switch so that I could turn the device on and off, while keeping the battery connected.

And lastly, I put in a new potentiometer for controlling the length of the sound delay, connecting it to a knob on top of the device, and eliminating the need to use a screwdriver to make adjustments.

Balloon and Pellet

To test the new flash, I went back to the beginning and fired the pellet gun at an inflated balloon.

As you can see in this picture, the shorter flash really improved the stop action feel to the picture. The balloon is clearly popping, but has not completly deflated. The pellet (traveling at about 400 feet/second) can be seen exiting the balloon on the left. In fact, you can see the exit hole in the balloon.

There is still some blur – even at 1/30,000 second, things are moving fast. And there is a side effect to such a short duration – less light is thrown from the flash, and hence, less light is reaching the camera sensor. This can partially be compensated for by moving the flash closer to the subject. The only other controls are to open the aperture as much as possible (f/4 in this particular case) and/or adjust the ISO. Using a high ISO does help, but it also increases noise in the picture – so for this picture I kept it as low as possible (ISO 200).

Now that I think I have the basic pieces I need, and understand the basic mechanics that work in my environment, I hope to explore more subjects in the coming weeks in order to create some truly unique pictures.