High speed photography, basic principles, high speed camera structure and a little history.

In this article I will deal with the most basic principles of high speed photography, and camera structure. In other articles we will discuss in more detail each of the issues.The history of high speed photography as well as normal photography, began with film cameras. At that era  high speed photography  technique used film and  had some limitations. that  have been resolved with the transition to high speed digital photography, but some still exist at various levels.

1. The first limitation was the need to coordinate the time of the incident and the shooting time effectivly. High speed film cameras needed to work with  pulling engine and collection engine. It took  them some time until they arrived to the desired speed.

2. The second limitation was the amount of light that needed  to expose the film. It required a very sensitive film and the picture quality was poor.

3. Limited  speed: it was not possible to reach speeds of hundreds of thousands of frames per second as you can get today. Understanding the limitations of high speed film photography is important for understanding the benefits of high speed digital cameras. In order not to bore the readers with something that already passed away, I am writing few words about the principles of high speed digital photography  today. This article refers to a shot of  large number of frames in a given period and not a single picture or a few pictures.(Motion picture)

Schematic structure of a high speed  camera.

Types of high speed cameras

There are different types of high speed cameras, operating forms varied depending on uses. Here are some typical options.

High speed camera connected to a computer.

High speed camera structure

High speed camera that the processor is on the computer

high speed camera schem

 High speed camera with it’s on processor Camera connected via PCI communications

high speed camera schem2

The advantage is that the camera is able to shoot non-stop directly to the computer all the time that the computer’s memory  have enough space. The downside is the limited data transfer rate, that does not allow transfer of files with large  resolutions and high speed and cable length is limited. One solution is to double the media communication cable  that connects the two PCI cards.
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but the cable length limitations still exist.

 high speed camera with head control

control head schem

Designed for shooting under severe vibrations. Splitting the  processor from the camera sensor allows a sensitive component not to be involved during the vibrations. Usually it is allowing  a connection of  number of high speed cameras along. The ability to separate camera head (especially sensor), power supply unit, and memory allows the creation of small cameras that can be installed in many locations with minimal G force response (because of low weight) .