Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Meatwad on July 29, 2006, 08:56:26 PM
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I always wanted to take pictures of lightning, but my current camera doesnt have anything that would do it. I would perfer something maybe only around a couple hunderd dollars if its possible. Anyone know of anything good?
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does your camera have a "B" or "bulb" setting?
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"It's not the machine, it's the man."
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You'll need a camera with a timed exposure, variable F-stop, tripod and maybe a cable / remote trip.
Good luck at this, those can be some really neat pix. You planning on film or digital?
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Im going for digital. Currently I have a Samsung Digimax 200 which it is ok, but it may be time for an upgrade someday as it is getting a little old and the button is getting somewhat messed up. I have fiddled with it and I havent been able to get it to do a timed exposure unless there is something that I am unaware of
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I've had this in my collection for years...one of my fav lightning shots:
(http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/9204/lightn1dd4.jpg)
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Methinks that tree has bad luck........
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I don't know about you but lightning scares the bejebus outta me. When a lightning storm comes I am GONE!!!!!
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Originally posted by xrtoronto
I've had this in my collection for years...one of my fav lightning shots:
(http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/9204/lightn1dd4.jpg)
YOU took that?!!!! That is badas*!!!!!!
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like Maverick said, you need a camera with a timed exposure,
and i doubt a digital cam will do this in a good quality or at all.
Film is still very good for such FX.
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Current digital cameras do it with ease Ghost. I managed to get a shot of one on handheld this summer with the Canon EOS300D which is already old tech.
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Originally posted by Masherbrum
YOU took that?!!!! That is badas*!!!!!!
No, he didnt take that. That is a famous lightning pic because it shows the negative electricitiy (ground) reaching up to the sky in the form of a streamer. Note the telephone pole and the left part of the tree. The streamer that reaches first gets the t-bolt. Thats why you want to curl up in a ball on the open ground if you start to feel static electricitiy during a storm.
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I also recall that it follows the path of least resistance. That means a lot of you will have to remove your tin hats during a storm :D
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I posted a page a while back about a lightning storm we had at edwards. Unfortunatly the page is gone now but there was some cool pics in it taken with a pretty plane digital camera.
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Originally posted by Masherbrum
YOU took that?!!!! That is badas*!!!!!!
nope, didn't take that shot
(been in my collection since about 93/94)
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Originally posted by WhiteHawk
The streamer that reaches first gets the t-bolt.
those 'streamers' are called Step Leaders:
Step leader
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A step leader is a path of ionized air which extends downward from a thundercloud during the initial stages of atmospheric breakdown during a lightning strike. Often, there are multiple, branching step leaders. As the step leaders form, these branches of ionized air form in a stepwise fashion, followed by a short period of inactivity, until the final step leader reaches the ground, a tall object on the ground, or a positive streamer extending upward from a ground object. At this point, the lightning strike begins as an extremely large negative electric current that flows along the path defined by the step leaders from the thundercloud into to the ground.
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Yeah, heck, I took some decent lightning shots 5 years ago with my Nikon Coolpix E995. I still have the camera, and it's still my primary...
B(ulb) setting is very useful, but all you really need is a shutter-priority mode with exposure compensation. Set the exposure compensation to say underexpose one full stop, and run the shutter for a couple seconds on a tripod. Keep shooting until you get the lightning.
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Originally posted by xrtoronto
those 'streamers' are called Step Leaders:
Step leader
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A step leader is a path of ionized air which extends downward from a thundercloud during the initial stages of atmospheric breakdown during a lightning strike. Often, there are multiple, branching step leaders. As the step leaders form, these branches of ionized air form in a stepwise fashion, followed by a short period of inactivity, until the final step leader reaches the ground, a tall object on the ground, or a positive streamer extending upward from a ground object. At this point, the lightning strike begins as an extremely large negative electric current that flows along the path defined by the step leaders from the thundercloud into to the ground.
That's why some people brag about being struck by lightning 3 or 4 times in their life. Me thinks they got struck by a step leader and not the that bolt you see hitting the tree! :) If someone got hit by that, I think their brain would evaporate.
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My dad said that he was out in a outhouse years ago taking a dump when lightning hit it. (well someone from the house seen it hit). He (they) said he took off running out of there like a bat out of heck with his pants at his knees and crap all over his butt :rofl
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Originally posted by Dinger
Yeah, heck, I took some decent lightning shots 5 years ago with my Nikon Coolpix E995. I still have the camera, and it's still my primary...
B(ulb) setting is very useful, but all you really need is a shutter-priority mode with exposure compensation. Set the exposure compensation to say underexpose one full stop, and run the shutter for a couple seconds on a tripod. Keep shooting until you get the lightning.
zOMG brilliant!!
i forgot that with digital u dont need to worry about conserving film.
i photo-graphed lightning & metor showers near Tucson in '96 with my FM-2...
...i would use shutter prioroty for the guy running with his pants down also...
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Originally posted by BTW
That's why some people brag about being struck by lightning 3 or 4 times in their life. Me thinks they got struck by a step leader and not the that bolt you see hitting the tree! :) If someone got hit by that, I think their brain would evaporate.
this isnt possible as far as i know.
the leaders are not much more than static electricity.
objects on the ground, trees/buildings/people etc send off an almost imvisible leader.
as the staitc leaders from the thunder cloud decend, they search out for the easiest to reach leader from a ground object and once a connection has been made by a cloud leader to a ground leader the thunder cloud discharges all the trapped electricity down the 'wire' of the two connected leaders.
the forks coming out of the lightning are leaders that failed to reach the ground first, and the very faint one from the tele pole is a failed ground leader dying out.