Perspective: High speed photos with the Samsung NX100 #1

I have been wanting to post some experimental photos with my Samsung NX100 to showcase that Samsung cameras actually produce pretty good photos. If I were I asked what camera do I use and if I were to mention that I'm using a Samsung camera, the typical response would be.. "Samsung, really?" with a wild bewilderment in their face.

Anyway, this post has been way overdue. Photos were taken in November of 2011 and its about time I start posting some of them.

All photos below using the slow shutter in the dark technique. I first got the idea from hiviz which hosts some tutorials and explanations on how to do high speed photography without the need for having fancy equipment. This technique required the whole room to be completely dark and the shutter left open during the photo shoot. A single burst of flash during that moment simulates a camera capturing at a high shutter speed without the need for a lot of light. Therefore the duration of the flash behaves like the duration of the shutter.

Coming from an electronics background, I decided to get some help from technology to be able to make more precise shots. I used and modified the circuit diagrams from glacialwanderer which sells a great kit called Camera Axe which has a whole bunch of different sensors that can be used to trigger your camera or flash.

There wasn't any documentation I could find about how to trigger the Samsung NX100 shutter. So had to experiment myself. The shutter and focus can be triggered by shorting the wires connecting to the external trigger of the NX100. I'll post some wiring diagrams in future.

The photo below was taken using a sound trigger. As the coins were dropped and collided on the floor the noise would be picked up by the microphone and trigger the flash.

Coin drops

The next few photos are one of my favourite's, as I have been wanting to take this type of shot for a very long time. These were also triggered by the pop of the balloon.