The typical consumer doesn’t view a camera as something that is meant for scientific use. In fact, in this day and age, cameras are often used to take photos that are meant to be deleted in a matter of time. The average person could use a camera to take a picture of a beautiful scene, or to capture a memory. They could just as easily take a photo simply to be silly, or to show off. Less likely is a photo being taken for artistic purposes, but it’s certainly more in the public mind that photos being taken for scientific reasons. There is nothing wrong with taking photos for any reason at all, but certain types of cameras are not meant for casual use. High speed cameras were created for and are still used for scientific purposes. They can capture images with more precision than typical commercial cameras — and for that reason, they’re not only used for scientific reasons, but within the entertainment industry as well. Slow motion cameras and high speed cameras can make a big difference in scientists’ abilities to capture fast-acting phenomena. They’ve changed our understanding of how certain scientific activity works, and will likely continue to do so in the future. Let’s look into the history and abilities of these cameras, from high speed cameras to slow motion cameras, and their roles in vision research.
High Speed Cameras: A Short History
High tech cameras have been around for a lot longer than you might think, and the reason why they were created was purely scientific. In 1878, there was a debate as to whether or not a horse picked up all four feet off the ground in a full gallop. This debate would be solved after Eadward Muybridge used a high speed camera in its first practical application. In capturing a photo of a horse at a full gallop, he solved the mystery and proved the worth of these cameras in the scientific field. It only makes sense that cameras would become more widely used after that. By 1888, the Eastman Kodak company would be created; by 1976, it had captured 90% of the American photograph film’s market share. Going back to 1950, however, we know that high speed cameras had been used for scientific purposes since Muybridge’s original breakthrough. That year, Morton Sultanoff, an American army engineer, created a high speed camera that took frames at one-millionth of a second. With this ability, he could record the shock waves of a small explosion. This, of course, also proves the camera’s worth to the military as well. But what are the full abilities of cameras like these?
High Speed Cameras: Their Abilities And Applications
The applications and abilities of high speed cameras are numerous and varied. Cameras like these are often measured by their shutter speeds. Shutter speeds, in turn, are measured in fractions of a second, ranging from one full second to 1/1000th of a second. It should make sense, then, that the longer a shutter remains open, the more light is allowed onto the film. Typical photography taken in sunlight work with shutter speeds around 1/125th of a second. High speed cameras, in comparison, can have shutter speeds of 1/8000th of a second. Ultra High Speed cameras on the other hand can take up to 100,000 frames per second; these are usually used for laboratory research. With that being said, cameras can have faster shutter speeds. Certain cameras have been known to reach shutter speeds of one million frames per second. When documenting activity that occurs too quickly for the human eye to register it, cameras like these can make a major difference. They can truly be the difference between missing data entirely and catching information that could entirely alter research findings.
Now that you know more about high speed cameras, hopefully you can understand why many breakthroughs can be linked to such technology. Its importance certainly shouldn’t be discounted.
