Original poster: Steve Ward <steve.ward@xxxxxxxxx>
David,
If your Canon A80 is similar to my Canon A60 (and i think it is), here
is how i set my camera to capture my spark pictures (and it can work
very well).
http://www.stevehv.4hv.org/DRSSTC2/spk2-3-18-05.JPG
Set the camera to "manual" mode (M on the rotary dial). Set the
shutter to 1" to 2" (1 to 2 seconds) and set the aperture in the
2.8-3.5 range. Set the ISO (film speed) to 200 or 400 (any more and
it gets much too grainy, any less and it seems to dim the spark's
appearance... at least for my camera, your results may vary). Use a
tripod of course. Set the camera to burst mode as well (in the
function>drive mode menu). This way you fire up the coil and just
hold down the shoot button and it takes a whole bunch of pictures
without you having to think ;-). You may also want to turn the flash
ON if it is really dark outside. The flash only lasts a short time
compared to the 1-2 seconds of shutter time. The flash is just enough
to illuminate the coil clearly, and you still capture all those
sparks:
http://www.stevehv.4hv.org/mag2-4-30-05/spark7.JPG
I think those spark pictures are not too shabby considering its just a
$200 camera (and several years old at that). You should be able to
achieve similar results with your A80.
I will be looking forward to the spark shots ;-).
Steve
On 8/23/05, Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Original poster: "David Rieben" <drieben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Here is a link to a new webpage that's hosting the
> pics with a brief description caption for each pic of
> my "Green Monster" 15 kVA Tesla coil project.
> Check it out:
>
>
<http://dawntreader.net/hvgroup/david/gm.html>http://dawntreader.net/hvgroup/david/gm.html
>
> This website is still in the development phase so bookmark
> it and check back periodically for updates. Sorry that
> we still haven't gotten around to getting spark pics as
> we haven't been able to work that out yet. Incidently,
> from what I've been reading from others, it seems that
> the old 35mm film cameras with a cable control to
> manually control the aperture opening of the camera
> give the best spark pic results. I assume 2 to 4 second
> shutter speed gives the best multiple streamer affect?
> Can you get any decent spark images with a digicam?
> My Canon A80 does have a "slow shutter" feature but
> I still don't think that it allows the option of manual control
> of the aperture opening time, though. So, we're still waiting
> to get soemone with an old 35mm camera with a remote
> aperture and a tripod to get some PRESENTABLE spark
> pics. Any suggestuions along these lines is welcome :^)
>
> David
>
>
>