Jump to content

Lightning triggers/sensors


paulie_smith1

Recommended Posts

<p>I am looking at lightning triggers or sensors for the camera. The type that sense the flash and quickly trip the shutter so I get a daylight photo before the flash disappears. My reaction time is way too slow to do this successfully for anything but the double hits.<br>

One I saw also works for small object setups and that would be a real plus.<br>

Anyone with field experience using various types of these electronc marvels is welcome to give their advice. I have a bit til lightning season as I have to wait for Winter to stop first - tho we do get lightning storms with snow at times.</p>

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<p>I use this product on my Canons (40D & 50D) and highly recommend it for daytime lightning photography. You can see my images in my "lightning" gallery. <br>

First of all, be safe. Study the patter of storms in your area and position yourself outside of the path of the storm. <br>

This company modifies an OEM remote shutter release for your camera model & as a bonus, include the other half so you can use it as a regular shutter release cable, too. <br>

Use aperture priority, somewhere around 11 or 13, whatever is the sweet spot for your lens, manual focus set on infinity, tripod, ISO for light conditions. Experiment for best results.<br>

If you have other questions, drop me an e-mail. Good shooting, Karen </p>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

<p>Most lightning strikes are so short even the camera would not be able to respond to the trigger fast enough to catch the first strike. Even the manual at the link Mary provided states:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>The device triggers on the first bolt it detects. Your camera shutter mechanism is not fast enough to catch that first bolt, but fortunately, most bolts are followed by many more. Thus, you want to have the camera shutter open for a fairly long time to capture those subsequent bolts (we’ve used 10 seconds with good results).</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Most lightning pictures you see are taken with conventional cameras without any fancy trigger. Most photographer simply set the slowest shutter speed they can get, trip the shutter and hope a lightning strike occurs while the shutter is open. Sometimes they get nothing, sometime one, and sometimes many. All a lightning trigger does is reduce the number of nothing shots (an obvious advantage when using film but not so much with digital). Obviously a tripod is required even if you have a lightning trigger.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>First of all, be safe. Study the patter of storms in your area and position yourself outside of the path of the storm.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Not good advice. Lightning has been observed traveling sideways for tens of miles before touching ground. Sometimes it never does reach the ground (called cloud to cloud lightning). People still get killed even though they think they are far enough away to be safe.<br>

<br /> The only full proof safe place to be is in your car. The rubber of the tires offers no protection, but the metal of the car will safely carry the energy around you until it gets to the bottom of the car body where it safely jumps to ground.</p>

<p>Role the window half way down, clamp the camera to the window (making sure no part of it touches metal) and trigger the shutter.</p>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...