Shooting Cameras With a High-Powered Rifle to Test StopShot's Abilities

Host of The Camera Store TV (TCSTV), Chris Niccolls, has seemingly gone a little stir crazy while his Video Producer and bosom buddy, Jordan Drake, is out of town. To help him past the time, Chris takes a few old cameras, a large caliber rifle, and a Cognisys StopShot camera triggering system for a little hands-on field mayhem... I mean testing. Watch as Chris fires a few rounds, decimates a few cameras, and scores a few snapshots. 

From the perspective of someone who isn't actually interested in this kind of photography or triggering system, this video can feel a little long-winded, but I love Chris' reviews, and he does reward my patience with some good ol' fashion, high velocity destruction. Kidding aside, if you are into taking high-speed photography, then this review of the StopShot controller is very thorough.

The Stopshot has programmable outputs, is configurable, accepts a variety of different sensor inputs, including infrared beams, lasers, sound, and more. Several flashes can be set off of this thing from one output. Its timers can be adjusted to manual or sequential, time-lapses, and long exposure. In truth, I glazed over a lot of the finer details, but that is what Chris is for. By the way, if you're super sensitive to the presence of firearms, you can skip to the 8:00 minute mark, where Chris tests out the StopShot with some heart-racing water droplet action. 

[via TheCameraStoreTV]

Kenn Tam's picture

Been holding this damn camera in my hand since 1991.
Toronto / New York City

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11 Comments

I wrote this late in the a.m. and wasn't really taking the actual review of the gear as seriously as I maybe should have but ya, this thing looks like it would be a super powerful tool for all manner of shooting.

Kind of have to disagree about the gun shot remark though, as I personally find them fascinating. If not from a photography sense at least from an engineering / physics perspective.

What is the calibre? Makes a difference in fps and the ability to capture the image.
Larger and slower will be easier with lighter and hot loads making it more difficult.

That's an SKS. So 7.62x39. Roughly 2200fps, give or take ~100.

Which is still 983 568 856 fps slower than the speed of light, so I don't see how that would make it any more difficult, Jim. Maybe for the camera but not for the controller's ability to register.

I think his point was that you have an extremely fine margin of error to work with when dialing it in to the right timing.

And not for nothing, but a signal doesn't move through copper at the speed of light. Rather, it's around 0.8c. :-P ;-)

Ahhhhh. True true. I was referring to the IR and lasers sensors' trip speed though.

That's slower than my favorite handgun. ;)

I got a book of Edgerton's photos as a gift many years ago. Apparently, he was well ahead of his time.

And at about 1600ft/lbs, it's ~500% more energy delivered into the target than your fav handgun. :-D

If by "more", you mean a LOT less.

http://www.ballistics101.com/460_sw.php

My bad.

In my (weak) defense, almost universally everyone who makes that kind of remark is talking about the 5.7. I erroneously assumed you were. Apologies.

It's all good. Most people don't buy a .460 to punch paper, and the occasional steel plate.