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Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself

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Ok, so this is going to require something of a budget. This is because of the simple fact that shooting bullet time requires a whole mess of cameras in order to pull it off. But this creation from Sebastian Staacks takes bullet time to the next level. Designed as an alternative to the standard photo booths often seen at weddings and events, Sebastian’s project is a bullet-time video booth.

As well as the usual array of stills around a subject, it also shoots video, allowing you to capture a short clip before spinning around the subject, and then it comes back to the video at the end. It’s an interesting project, with a lot of problem-solving and challenges to overcome. Sebastian walks us through the process, including everything from picking the cameras to creating the final result.

The Phantom VEO 610 is the new “budget-friendly” Super 35mm camera that shoots HD at 7,420fps

Anybody who’s ever watched The Slow Mo Guys knows who Vision Research are. They’re the company that makes the ultra-high-speed slow-motion Phantom cameras the boys use, along with most of the rest of the scientific, commercial and artistic world when they need some super slow-motion footage. The only problem with these cameras is that they cost a fortune. Which means they’re mostly not available to the likes of us.

Well, now, Vision Research has released a new entry-level VEO 610 camera that they say is a little more “budget-friendly”. We just have to take their word for it, though, as they don’t appear to have actually announced a price yet. What they have announced, though, is that it captures “HD” at up to 7,420 frames per second. And it does it using a Super 35mm sized sensor!

Researchers in Scotland develop “affordable” high speed HD camera tech that shoots millions of frames per second

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Researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland have developed a new advanced camera technology that can capture full-colour high definition (1280×720) resolution images at millions of frames per second. Yes, not just a million frames per second, but millions. Plural. The advanced camera tech developed by the team at Heriot-Watt University is set to receive funding to help it commercialise from Scottish Enterprise’s (SE) High Growth Spinout Programme.

The inventor of the technology and associate professor at the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, Dr Xu Wang says it “uses a novel architecture and advanced mathematical algorithms to deliver high-resolution images across its full speed range” and that it “has been achieved at a notably lower manufacturing cost than other market products”, like the Phantom line from Vision Research, by being able to use off-the-shelf components.

The new Phantom TMX 5010 camera captures up to 1.16 million frames per second

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Vision Research has announced its new Phantom cameras. The first is the TMX 5010, which is considered an entry-level camera in the Phantom TMX series – yet still goes up to 1.16 million frames per second. This series also includes cameras like the insanely fast TMX7510 (which goes all the way up to 1.75 million frames per second).

The other is the T3610, which only goes up to a relatively modest 875,000 frames per second at minimum resolution. Both cameras feature a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor for maximum light-gathering ability, and both offer a maximum resolution of just over 720p at 1280 x 800 pixels.

This is the most frugal DIY clamp for high speed laser triggers

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A few years ago, I became interested in what stuff looks like when falling through space. Specifically, I wanted to see the accidental shapes which occur when something is unrestrained in the air.

First, I asked a young woman model to jump from a wall about two feet high. This way I could see the configuration of her body when she was in mid-air and not posing. Interestingly, when she was concentrating on something else — the landing — and her pose was sort of beyond her control.

Then I took some photos of the model lying on a sheet. I separated her image from the background sheet, and placed her “floating” body on a public domain photo of the crab nebula. There she was, floating in actual Space.

Freefly launches Wave – A 4K slow mo camera that shoots up 9,259 frames per second

Freefly, yup, that Freefly, the one who makes drones and gimbals, has launched a camera. It’s called the Wave and it’s a small high-speed 4K camera with a passive locking Sony E lens mount and a global shutter sensor. It shoots up to an insane 9,259 frames per second. It has a Super 35mm sensor, 2TB of storage and weighs a relatively lightweight 716 grams.

Creating experimental bullet-time footage with 15 Raspberry Pi cameras

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While the name Eric Paré might be very familiar on here for those who do light painting, many readers of this site might not know about his other activities with Xangle, often involving many cameras for shooting full 360° bullet-time sequences and capturing light paintings from every angle all at once. He’s even developed his own software for it, which you can buy.

Eric likes to experiment with his kit, and as he had a stack of Raspberry Pi 3B+ with cameras lying around, he decided to see how far he could push them to shoot bullet time, and the results are pretty awesome.

Scientists managed to capture a light beam moving between a set of mirrors

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There are some pretty epic video taken with high-speed cameras: from the smell of rain to light’s “sonic boom.” But have you ever seen you’d see the movement of light? Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne managed to capture a light beam bouncing between a strategically placed set of mirrors. They used a frame rate of whopping 24,000 fps, and even though it’s short, their resulting video is super-impressive to watch.

This woodworker uses a Phantom camera to show the power of table saws at 19,000fps

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As somebody who likes to make stuff, I follow a lot of channels on YouTube that have nothing to do with photography. People like Alec Steele, Clickspring and Jonathan Katz-Moses. Now all of these guys work with some pretty dangerous equipment. Like, limb-severing types of equipment and safety is paramount.

When it comes to table saw safety, there’s the obvious blade guard, but there are also companies like Sawstop, which produce saws that can actually detect if your skin touches the blade and stop it spinning immediately (almost literally). Jonathan decided to rent a Phantom V2640 high-speed camera to see just how quickly these things work and how much damage they prevent from happening to your fingers.

These clips show how different frame rates affect a final shot

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Chris Vanderschaaf is a cinematographer specializing in slow motion video. He goes to the world armed with a Phantom Flex4K to capture amazing footage (check out @chrisvtv).

Today though, Chris shares with DIYP readers some of the tests he regularly makes to show how different frame rates affect final footage.

Some of the tests are absolutely stunning, especially when they involve liquids, fire or explosions that are hard to fully see with the naked eye.

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