It is not easy to photograph flying insects. Actually it is twice as not easy an anything else.
Firstly, if you are doing it really up close with a macro tube, and still want a sharp photo, you need to pin-point your (frantically flying) subject inside the Depth Of Field which can be a few mm wide. Secondly, if you want to increase the Depth Of Field, you close down the aperture and then you need more light, and need to sync a strobe.
Sounds pretty hard, right? Not if you have an ArnoSync.
The ArnoSync built by Flickr member Frans Eggermont is a flying insects photography rig, which houses an Olympus XZ-1 or D50, two (modified) strobes and a Laser sensor. With the Olympus it syncs up to 1/1600. Neat right? That’s not all.
Here is the smart part, the camera is set on bulb mode in a dark environment, and when an insect crosses the beams, the strobes pop and capture a perfectly sharp moth or bee or small butterfly. Or anything that is moving too fast to otherwise capture.
If this is not enough, Frans also made a DIY shutter that provides an override over the bulb mode of the camera. It is made from a 40GB old hard-drive. And yes, there are hard-drive to shutter conversion instructions on this link. The entire rig circuitry is on this link.
FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!