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Taking Photos

Quoting Scott Myers <scotty-at-wesnet-dot-com> (from long ago):

> I need to take some photos of my coil in action.  I have heard
> some say that 400 ASA film with a 1 second exposure works well. 
> I have a small  problem.  I don't have a great camera that I 
> can just set the shutter time on. 

My brother and I were just shooting a couple of rolls of film
last weekend. Good spark photos are not easy to get, but are
still worthwhile attempting.

You need a cheap 35mm camera. No bells and whistles. It does need
to have a mechanical shutter speed setting to infinity, (in my
non-photographic vocabulary) meaning that there should be a
shutter setting where the shutter stays open until the shutter
button is released. In addition to this you need a tripod, and a
remote shutter cable.

Load the camera with ASA 400 or ASA 200 film. Set the shutter to
remain open until the trigger is released, then thread the remote
trip cable into the shutter button. Set the camera on the tripod,
focus on the coil, and be sure that the spark gaps are not in the
viewfinder. I backlight the room with a 40 - 60 watt bulb in a
reflective housing. Position the bulb facing close to the back
wall of the room behind the camera. This backlighting will 
illuminate the photo sufficiently to provide good references: you
will be able to clearly see the coil, backgrounds, etc., but the
sparks will still be brilliant and well defined.

Turn off all other lights with the exception of a red panel light
to illuminate the coil controls. Fire the coil.

Trip the shutter with the remote cable. This prevents the camera
from moving when depressing and holding down the shutter button
by hand. Hold the trip cable down and manually count off seconds.
One second is a minimum shot, twelve is about the maximum. About
four - eight seconds of exposure gives nice looking photos.

It really helps to take the exposed film to a photo lab where you
can leave instructions for the technician. EL-Cheapo Labs will
frequently ruin film because they have no idea what it is they
are developing. Dealing with many "family photo" groups etc., I
have had them overexpose the prints in an effort to bring out a
"typical" looking photo. If you go to a good camera shop with an
in-house lab and you are able to directly hand the film to the
techinician who will do the developing he can frequently
improve the quality of your prints by doing some highly selective
"burning and shading" on the print paper as the image is
transfered from the negative to the paper. This can bring out the
background details without overexposing the sparks.

Don't spend good money on a new camera for Tesla work. The
electronics in many newer cameras are vulnerable to the EMFs
produced from a coil system. The 35mm with all the "bells &
whistles" is not a good bet. Go to your friendly camera store
if you don't have a camera that will fit this bill, spend under
$100.00 and walk out with a 15-20 year old used 35mm (including
the lens). Just be sure is has the required shutter features. If
they have a large selection of used equipment, and you bargin,
you may be able to get a used camera, lens, tripod (maybe), trip
cable, and a beat up case for your $100.00.

For those of you out there with video equipment, good news. The
advanced electronics on video camcorders are very well shielded.
Unless your tripod is all metal and it is acting as an antenna,
you should be able to take nice spark videos right out of the box
with most of camcorders available today.

Richard Quick


... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12