High Voltage

[Big V]

The night before I departed on my adventure to Townsville, Nature threw this one down..

I am hoping for more whilst I am in Queensland for the next two weeks..

[surenj]

Nice capture BigV.

How long did it take you to capture this?

[DanielA]

How long did it take you to capture this?

The EXIF says 2 seconds.

That's a great shot V. How many shots did you have to take to catch this? Or did you use your new magic device?

Daniel

[Big V]

First time out with new magic device - as you can see it works well!

[surenj]

The EXIF says 2 seconds.

Ha! Sorry my exif viewer craps out each time firefox updates! So I couldn't see it.

First time out with new magic device - as you can see it works well!

Don't tell me you've got some light or thunder sensor going...

[Mr Darcy]

First time out with new magic device - as you can see it works well!

Don't tell me you've got some light or thunder sensor going...

Probably neither.
It definitely won't be Thunder. Unless you get fried by the lightning, the thunder (sound) will get to the sensor loong after the flash is gone.
Unlikely to the light as, while the flash will still be going on when the sensor fires, by the time the shutter goes it will be gone.
Most likely an EM sensor that detects the first electrical discharge that creates the ionised path that the main strike follows to the ground.
Still sounds like a magic device to me though & how it gets the camera to point in the right direction is completely beyond me.

[Big V]

Yup it works on EM discharge as well as sudden bright light change. I wanted it mainly to capture lightning during daylight as this has eluded me in the past. For night time, you can easily to timed exposures and hope you get a strike whilst exposing but this magic device makes it all a little bit more scientific.

[biggerry]

Very tidy picture

magic device makes it all a little bit more scientific.

so, does this magic device have a name? The only ones I know of are the sensors installed on aircraft...and they ain't cheap.

[Killakoala]

Spectacular. Need i say more

[surenj]

does this magic device have a name?

ditto.

[ozimax]

Yep, I would say absolutely spectacular, wonderful timing.

[Big V]

It indeed has a name - it is a lightning trigger and as to cost, well that would depend whether you make one yourself or purchase one. If you make it yourself maybe 40 dollars all up, If you buy they can be as expensive as $450 landed here in Australia.

[surenj]

It indeed has a name - it is a lightning trigger and as to cost, well that would depend whether you make one yourself or purchase one. If you make it yourself maybe 40 dollars all up, If you buy they can be as expensive as $450 landed here in Australia.

Thanks BigV.

It's about $270 in fleabay. doesn't seem to be a common commodity.

Gerry, how about making one? I am sure you will have the technical know how...

[biggerry]

Gerry, how about making one? I am sure you will have the technical know how..

already on it

http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=16

but, methinks I will get one made up and not see any lightning for the next 12 months... so it better be cheap...

I love to track down a US (Unserviceable) version of one these babies (with the hope of getting is working for non a/c use)

http://www.avionix.com/store/stormscope.html

I have put a few of these in aircraft and i reckon with the ability to pick up lightning at 200 nautical miles I will have the Sydney basin covered

[surenj]

http://www.glacialwanderer.com/hobbyrobotics/?p=16

I had a look at that earlier, Where can you get that Arduino thang??

EDIT* looks like available on Fleabay.

[Mr Darcy]

This might do the trick, though you would need an interface to the camera. $AUD330

[Big V]

I paid $220 delivered in 10 days and that included the necessary cable.

[bigsarg7]

wow, thats one incredible looking shot!! love the main bolt of lightning but i love the chain lightning in the right hand corner, very very well captured!! i'd love the magic device!! but i think i will have to make do with my remote for a wee bit longer!! All in all, i look forward to seeing more shots like this, lets hope you get some more storms to photograph so we can see some more magic!!

[biggerry]

I paid $220 delivered in 10 days and that included the necessary cable.

are you referring to this one?

This might do the trick, though you would need an interface to the camera. $AUD330

[Big V]

Nope, it is advertised on flea bay. You just have to pick the correct buy it now price as every now and then they chuck up a couple of cheaper prices to entice you. Also the Canon is cheaper than the Nikon because the Nikon cable has something like 10 connection wires to the Canon three connection wires.

[biggerry]

for the completeness of the thread...

The ones BigV is referring to can be obtained thru ebay, or thru their own webbie, prices appear to be the same..they do have a few ones starting at AUD170 with AUD43 postage so the best price you could get is around the 213 mark.

ebay seller:
http://shop.ebay.com.au/dcakaiser/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

The webbie...
http://www.aeophoto.com/

now if only i had one right now..cause there is plenty of lightning up the midnorth coast at the moment..

[biggerry]

EM discharge as well as sudden bright light change

does it actually work on EM? or is it purely a light based sensor? I cannot see anything in its very limited spec sheet about EM based triggering.

[Big V]

Biggerry, I had it sitting on the seat between Rockhampton and Mackay and decided to try it whilst driving along for interest and it was definitely firing the camera even though the strikes were not in the visible to the unit. When you get the unit it does say that em devices will trigger the device and you may get some false hits. Can only report what I have experienced. For what it is worth I think these are a brilliant little device, well made and work as advertised and its a lot safer for those of us that are not handy with a soldering iron...

[surenj]

Big V can you post a photo of the back of the unit where the sync cord originates? What my real question is, that can you modify the sync cord to fit if you change camera?

[Big V]

Yes you can, the cord has a join half way down where they obviously swap the connections for each of the manufactures. It is only using the fire shutter wire as you have to set the lens to manual focus, other wise you would miss the shot as the lens hunts for focus. My friend has purchased the Nikon equivalent and it is exactly the same, only the end is different.

[surenj]

Thanks BigV.

This is very tempting but I could buy nearly 4 manual ebay speedlites for this price.... Decisions...

[Big V]

Only you can make that decision, for me it has been a goal of mine to capture reliably, daytime lightning strikes. Night time is easy but daytime has resulted in the necessity of using some technological wizardry to help!!! Good luck in making your decision and there is always time in the future to obtain that which is on the wish list, no one said you have to have it all now.

[biggerry]

For even more completeness to this thread, are we offtopic yet?

Regarding the EM sensoring side of things, these items only detect visible and IR light, they are directional to they *should* only go off when point in the lightning direction.

Here is the response I got from the very helpful chap at AEOphoto.com

The sensor we use senses in both the visible and infrared portion of the
spectrum. This ensures its "directionality" so that your camera only
triggers on what the sensor is pointed at (although the field of view of
the sensor is bigger than your camera, so it will still trigger on events
just outside the field of view, as well as any reflections). The IR
sensor also sees cloud to cloud inside the clouds which can be a precursor
to a ground strike, so if your shutter time is set long enough, you catch
those too.

While VIS and IR are "technically" EM radiation, I think you're referring
to Radio Frequency (RF) detectors for lightning. We don't use that type.
An RF sensor would pick up lightning strikes hundreds of miles away in all
directions, so you would have a LOT of false triggers for your camera.

I am sooo keen to get one now.....

nearly 4 manual ebay speedlites for this price.

I know straight away which would get used more

[surenj]

I know straight away which would get used more

That is where the problem lies.