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how to capture green beam shots with a camera?

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Rswitz

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I have a 9 mega pixel digital camera, but when ever I aim it at my x100's brilliant green beam at night, it will not see it. Do I need a video camera or something? Is there a special way? Thanks.
 





Grix

Grix

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What kinda camera is it? The number of pixels are irrelevant for shooting beamshots. If it's a cheap cellphone camera it's possible that it sucks too much to capture the beam. If not you should raise the exposure time and try again. Keep the laser and camera completely still while it captures, preferably with a camera-mount or something.
 
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digital_blue

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If you're trying to do beamshots indoors, try using some fog or incense smoke. Also try shooting parallel to the beam(downrange), cameras sometimes don't work too well if you're shooting perpendicular to the beam...
 
chipdouglas

chipdouglas

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is it not picking up anything or is it getting a pinkish white beam. if the latter, your camera is getting too much of the ir. in which case i have no help. my olympus stylus 1050@w and my blackberry tour both pick up the green beam of my 100mw led shoppe laser.
 
randomlugia

randomlugia

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Grix said:
What kinda camera is it? The number of pixels are irrelevant for shooting beamshots. If it's a cheap cellphone camera it's possible that it sucks too much to capture the beam. If not you should raise the exposure time and try again. Keep the laser and camera completely still while it captures, preferably with a camera-mount or something.
Click to expand...

Do you really think a cell phone camera has 9MP? lol

I posted an explanation a while ago here: http://laserpointerforums.com/f45/just-got-my-rayfoss-200mw-laser-49769-2.html#post684031
 
T

Things

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Make sure your camera and laser are stable, and set your camera to do a long exposure. A couple of seconds should be fine depending on the laser, but ANY movement from the laser or camera will ruin the shot.
I think this was something like a 3 second exposure.
IMG_2270.jpg


Also, adding fog makes a huge difference, but dont add too much or the camera will pick up a lot of the fog too, and the laser will end up looking like a torch.

The key with long exposures is all the light already in the room will be amplified. If you have a light on in the shot, it'll most likely end up washed out.
 
randomlugia

randomlugia

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Another tip: make sure you use a remote switch for the shutter or a 2 second self-timer, as the shaking caused by you pressing the button can ruin the shot.
 
Grix

Grix

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It's a Sony Ericsson Satio. The camera is not very good, megapixels don't really matter in picture quality.
 
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Tech_Junkie

Tech_Junkie

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High MPs also generate a lot of noise in dark areas. I took better pictures on my cheap 3 MP Canon camera, than my 5 MP Minolta in a dark areas.
 
randomlugia

randomlugia

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Name also has a bit to do with it. One of the better 12MP Canons would still probably take pictures than the Minolta.

Another thing, camera tend to take the best pictures at a certain aperture, and it's usually at the middle. So stay away from the extremes, and you'll get less noise.
 
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