Re: coil photography

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Barton B. Anderson" <bartb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Scott,

I've got a decent Canon Digital, but still, there is no comparison to 
using my old Minolta XG1 35mm Film Camera (IMHO). If you have or can 
find a 35mm film camera with a half decent lens, it's really hard to 
beat. The problem with 35mm camera's is that developing businesses 
are going out of business due to the digital craze. The art of 
development is being lost. Nowadays, the set parameters of a 
developing machine determine the quality of your pics. Often, if the 
light level is too low, they won't even print the pic (I have to tell 
them to print everything regardless of exposure) and when I see them 
looking for the manual to the system to set the parameters, I know I 
went to the wrong place. So, I have chosen these days for 
convenience, to swap quality pics for something I can at least 
control (my digital).

The camera is important (especially digital). Having control over 
exposure is very helpful. Good digitals are expensive however. If you 
do have a developing business near you that is good, 35mm is the way 
to go. But, if the people running the system are high school age 
getting paid minimum wage, chances are they won't know anything about 
the systems their using (just a monkey throwing the switch).

Some of the film developers will copy the files to CD (including 
film). So, scanner is not a requirement. Somewhat larger cities will 
usually have a decent development house where the employees actually 
know what their doing. You just have to find it. Often, if you walk 
in and there's a single machine and 1 or 2 employees, don't even 
waist your time. Walk out and find a development house that has 
several systems. BTW, really good development houses also do many 
other types of printing technology. So, if you see a lot of machines, 
there's a good chance they actually know what their doing and can 
develop the film to your taste.

Take care,
Bart

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Scott Bogard" <teslas-intern@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Greetings all,
>     I am having trouble getting good pictures of my Tesla coil in 
> operation.  It seems the cameras I have available, do not have a 
> very adjustable exposure time (and I don't have any clue how to 
> take a double exposure, without using conventional film, which is 
> useless to me as I don't have a scanner, so I cannot put my 
> pictures on the computer).  I can get "decent" videos, but still 
> shots captured from them generally only show the arcs, and not the 
> coil (which gives no perspective of actual size), plus the DPI is 
> too low for my taste anyway.  Any suggestions would be appreciated 
> (even referrals to the archives would be great, if you could give 
> me a general place to look, they are vast, and I am pressed for 
> time!)  Thanks a heap.
> Scott Bogard.
>
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