RE: Safe distance for photographing operating tesla coils with digital cameras?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <Gary.Lau@xxxxxx>

I've never seen any issue with the camera being too close to a coil.  As
long as it's out of striking distance, it's fine.  I've never seen any
interference, and I routinely shoot from 10-12 feet, to my coil which
has generated up to 80" strikes.  Personal safety is the only concern.

Your purity-freak is quite a case.  Such thinking may exist in other
circles, but unless there's a deliberate misrepresentation - i.e.
Photoshopping in some ball lightning or stretching the arcs and
reporting a miraculously efficient coil - no one on this list cares.

Regards, Gary Lau
MA, USA

> Original poster: "Garry Freemyer" <garryfre@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Recently, I posted a url to my website that has some pictures of my
tesla
> coil in the photography Usenet group and the subject came up about the
main
> picture here ....
>
> http://home.pacbell.net/garryfre/
>
> and what is the minimum "safe" distance one should be from a tesla
coil when
> taking a picture, given the output power or voltage of the coil before
it
> starts messing with the camera.
>
> Someone replied that by publishing this picture, I was risking the ire
of
> the entire tesla coiling community. They said "You are publishing a
false
> representation of what you actually saw when taking the pictures. What
would
> happen to your credibility with them?"
>
> I asked him to elaborate on exactly what mis-representation he was
talking
> about but he didn't reply. All I can guess is that he was taking
exception
> to the publishing of the picture with artifacts that might have been
due to
> EMF or maybe dust floating in the air, but he was quite serious and
sounded
> angry. I am amazed how many crackpots are in that forum. Still it was
only a
> guess that he was having a cow over some elite standard he had set
called
> "Photo-Purity" and that artifacts constitute lies and that everyone
should
> hold to this standard. Does anyone have any other clue what this hoser
was
> talking about?
>
> I remember, that all my pictures from the Northern California
Teslathon were
> ruined because I was too close and didn't know it. I had one picture,
on the
> digital stick where the foreground was a wonderful picture of
streamers from
> a coil at San Francisco, but was ruined by a clear image of my living
room
> curtain from my apartment some 300 miles north. Bleah!
>
> So the question still remains. What would be the minimum distance for
coils.
> Does anyone have any guidelines that might be a clue? With my small
coil
> capable of 5 foot streamers, I kept a minimum of 30 feet away, and if
I had
> to be fifty feet away, I'd have to sell my left leg for a telephoto
lens,
> but I think it would not hurt to ask. Someone else might know via the
lesson
> of hard experience, so that I don't have to. I find myself cringing at
the
> idea of getting close to this coil I have, but how close is too close
is
> something I have no real idea.
>