Lightning at 210 FPS

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

Hey all I just purchased a Casio Elixim EX-FH20 and I just got it in time to field test its high speed movie capability on an ordinary thunderstorm close by. I shot at 210 Frames Per Second which is 7x the resolution of a standard 30 FPS camera. This also means that it will play back 7x slower than actual speed. Anyway the following is a lightning strike I captured with it:

This video first shows what the lightning looked like at actual speed. Note this is still 210 FPS but sped up to show what it would look like in real time. A standard 30 fps camera would barely show the strike, if it picked it up at all. Thereafter is shows it in the slow motion of 210 fps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUHN23AWnpY

Additional note: It looks like you can actually see a step leader real quick at 39 seconds just before the full stroke appears from the ground up. Also as I was taking the footage there were flashes not seen with the naked eye.

Finally this is the original 210 FPS file with no editing at all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYlj2uUm38s

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

I want your camera! Perhaps I shall buy a similar/exact model sometime soon...

I had a point-and-shoot Exilim EX-S500 that worked very well until I tried transporting it without a hard case in my pocket one too many times... let's just say there's not much room for the lens to come out when it's jammed up against your wallet. Despite my transport issues with the camera (which was my fault), it performed very well and upgrading to a camera like yours would make me miss a lot less lightning due to artifacts and frame-chopping!

Can't wait to see what else you manage to capture with the new camera.

 

[M. Drabowski]

I wish to know what type of camcorder was used to make this video. It's lightning slowed down 300x. Just amazing.
http://www.wimp.com/lightningslowed/

 

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

M Drabowski a camera with the capability shown in that video would cost thousands of dollars. In fact probably 5 or 6 figures in most cases (USD or Euros).

Mark thank you it is a very affordable camera and yes it eliminates most of the frame chopping seen with 30fps cameras. Most 30 FPS cameras probably would have nearly missed this bolt entirely. I also can't wait to see what I can capture in future and more intense storms. Unfortunately the forecast suggests I will be waiting for awhile.

 

[Rejean Boudreau]

Tim A. Warner used high-speed video cameras capable of recording lightning at up to 54,000 images per second in those videos. To get such results you need (patience) a camera capable of at least 15000 fps. Slower than that will give you poor results - there's still a trade to do between quality (resolution) and speed (FPS).

Expect a price tag between 50K to 100K with the options and lenses. More than that if you want the very plus extra kit. See Vision research web site for more details.

You can see slow motion lightning shots taken by Warner between 2000 and 2007 at http://www.krisabel.ctv.ca/post/3829525.aspx

I think Tim Samaras did similar work with very high speed video/photo of lightning.

 

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

Here is another at 210 FPS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xkcqa0rNG0