High-Speed Video CASE STUDY

July 2021 brought the opportunity to work with the team at Cinespeed to film some content with the new Phantom TMX 7510 in the Pittsburgh area. We lit off both high explosives and large caliber precision rifles to capture some unique high-speed footage at hundreds of thousands of frames per second.

Installing Canon 50-1000mm lens onto Vision Research Phantom TMX 7510

We started the shoot on the explosives side at a private property featuring a quarry that allowed for safe standoff distances for everyone on-site. By collaborating with Dem-Tech, a national structure demolition company, we had all necessary safety protocols in place for transport and handling of the explosives themselves.

Extremely high-powered lighting was needed with the short shutter speeds in play

Vision Research staff on-site to demonstrate features of the new cameras

One of the biggest challenges with capturing such short-duration events like high explosives is estimating proper exposure. To prevent the image from completely blowing out in the bright blast, we had to dial in sensor sensitivity, lens aperture and exposure time, while also setting up the frame in a way that the light from the det cord and blast itself could be used to light the rest of the image. We wanted a cohesive overall image, not just a fireball in a black void. By using high-output lighting we attempted to raise the background exposure to a level where we could maintain some visibility of the surroundings.

Some of the exposures we ended up capturing were in the neighborhood of ISO 50,000 and a shutter time of 3 microseconds for capturing at 309,000 frames/second. That resulted in a total frame resolution of 512x384px. The long lenses we had onsite let us crop in tighter on the action while maintaining safe standoff to protect the equipment.

Playing back events capturing in temporary memory

Another challenge is refining the data captured to just the interesting event. These cameras are “always recording” and running through a digital buffer that is frozen upon a trigger signal. By triggering the camera after the blast occurs (we did this remotely via computer), a few seconds of footage prior to the trigger would be saved into memory. Then you’d sort through those millions of captured frames to find the few thousand relevant ones. This can often be automated through the use of pixel change tracking in the capture software.

Being fluent in this offload process is the key to staying efficient on-site. The quantity of captured data can really slow down a shoot if you don’t have a good workflow between each shot itself.

Getting some charge assembly instruction from the demolition company staff

Featuring our logos in explosive fashion

From the quarry we shifted the production out to a long range shooting facility and with the help of Spark Munitions were able to capture 338 Lapua rounds coming out of a rifle/suppressor, through vehicle barriers and into ballistic media.

Checking focus for where bullet will be exiting the suppressor

These exposures were a bit more straightforward, as they involved lighting up the space where the bullet would be in flight, rather than a fireball being created. We were also able to capture the events from a much closer vantage point.

338 bullet speckled for movement analysis

Capturing effects on ballistic medium after passing through auto glass

Thermal image of Phantom camera, high-output lighting and rifle

I’d like to thank Ryan McIntyre of CineSpeed for the opportunity to participate in this shoot. He is a fully trained Phantom operator and able to access their array of incredible cameras for high-speed shoots.

Explosives video from CineSpeed:

Case study video from Vision Research: