Photo-Sonics 1B, 16mm

Lou Nar · March 2, 2009

Hello All,

There are some great threads here on high speed motion picture cameras. Has anyone here shot footage on the Photo-Sonics 1B? I know there are some other posts about the company and other cameras but this particular model seems a little more obscure. I guess the camera people involved with these were mostly part of the crash test crews or on other tests.?

Thanks in advance for any additional info you would like to share.

Doug Gerrard · September 2, 2009

Hello All,
There are some great threads here on high speed motion picture cameras. Has anyone here shot footage on the Photo-Sonics 1B? I know there are some other posts about the company and other cameras but this particular model seems a little more obscure. I guess the camera people involved with these were mostly part of the crash test crews or on other tests.?

Thanks in advance for any additional info you would like to share.

I have shot with the 1B as well as other high speed cameras. I was not impressed with the 1B HOWEVER there are some very specific circumstances that I still use it. First the cons. It was my first use of a rotating prism camera and the image is not steady like a pin registered camera. This seems to be caused by the drive mechanism from the camera to the magazine. Every revolution of the drive mechanism corresponds to 8 frames of film and when viewing the film there is a bounce of the image that corresponds to roughly every 1/3 of a second. In addition the frame rate does not seem to be well regulated. For these reasons, I only use it at 1000 fps beyond the capability of pin registered cameras. It also has a very fast shutter as all rotating prism cameras have at high frame rates with the slowest shutter at 1/5 the frame rate or 1/5,000th second.

The pros include a very well build camera. It is spec'ed to operate up to 200 g's and I have have tested this. One of my set ups slams the camera while operating at a force that approaches this acceleration and it works. In addition it is extremely easy to load the film into the magazine. Mounting the magazine onto the camera is a little trickier but not too bad.

I have a copy of the manual or if you have any specific questions, just let me know. In addition to the 1B I have used the 1P, 1F, and 1VN from Photosonics as well as some Milliken cameras. I'm no expert but I do have some experience working with them.

Doug

Lou Nar · September 3, 2009

Hi Doug,

Thanks for the info. I have a few 1B bodies, mags, lenses, etc. that I've sent you a message about.

Doug Gerrard · September 3, 2009

Hi Doug,
Thanks for the info. I have a few 1B bodies, mags, lenses, etc. that I've sent you a message about.

Here is a link for a clip that I used the 1B that shows the instability of the image BDCR Take off Shot. There are more clips using the high speed cameras I listed above that can be seen here. Lou, I'll reply to your message shortly.

Doug

Lou Nar · September 3, 2009

Nice footage, that must've been one heck of a fast tilt up!

Doug Gerrard · September 8, 2009

Nice footage, that must've been one heck of a fast tilt up!

Yes, for that mount the camera pitches from 55 degrees down to straight up in about 0.5 seconds. For the 1B I use it on a sliding mount that moves the camera about 5 feet out from underneath the rocket in less time than that. It stops the camera very abruptly that subjects it close to the 200 g limit. Unfortunately I don't have those clips transferred over yet.

Doug