Lift off pics

What are you using to get all the great pics at blast off?

This doesn’t always work out but the images below were “taken” with my iPhone 7. They are actually videos that I paused and then took a screenshot shot of the video.



Not too bad and better than lugging around the DSLR all day

This is a DSLR picture. Nothing fancy, an old Cannon EOS T3i with a 55-250 lens. Don’t remember the settings, fstop etc.

Sorry, you said blast off.

dhkaiser said:

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Sorry, you said blast off.

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Well done

Just about covered the monitor in coffee

David Schwantz said:

What are you using to get all the great pics at blast off?

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Use the camera in a 'rapid fire' mode. My Canon DSLR shoots about 4 frames /sec. An iphone shoots in continuous mode if you hold the button, I believe. Start shooting right before ignition.

Club member took a couple shots of my 3" School('d) Rocket on a G127. At .1s between shots during his iphone burst, I estimate it's already at 100+ fps.
I kinda like the motion blur as it scoots away on a motor the rocket was never designed for




Now it's going the right way

A Canon 7D MK2 coupled to a Canon 70-200 IS F2.8L MK1

This is a frame capture from the video I took of my LOC IV using an Aerotech H100.

dhkaiser said:

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Sorry, you said blast off.

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Timing is everything!

Those look great, can't get that close at our launches to use my phone.

About 250' from the pad - shot with a DSLR and a 300mm telephoto lens. Shutter speed needs to be 1/1000 of a second or faster to "freeze" the rocket.
My camera will shoot 8 frames per second, so I just press and hold the shutter release when the countdown reaches 1. ** A telephoto lens "compresses" the perspective. The trees in the background are over 1000' away.



$50 Chinese "Go-Pro" knock-off, mounted on an orange traffic-cone to keep people from tripping over the camera.
It takes pretty good video. This is a still-frame from the video.



RUNCAM2 wifi video camera - taped to the rocket with vinal electrical tape.
This is a still-frame from the video.



Wildman Competitor 2.6 on a CTI J244 to 5502 ft

Scott, great idea. I'll have to give it a try.

I use my phone (S9+) on a tripod filming 4K 60FPS. Results in a really nice video of the liftoff and nice images (screenshots).

Hey Ben, i have same phone. Are you just letting it run after setup? Or can you remotely power it on? Nice pics.

Fantastic shots, Mach diamonds clearly visible.

David Schwantz said:

Hey Ben, i have same phone. Are you just letting it run after setup? Or can you remotely power it on? Nice pics.

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It has a 5min recording time so I just set it up and turn it on. Allows for a few minutes of preparation before launch, if something comes up I just go out and reset it again. An option could be to use one of those remote selfie controllers but then you wouldn't have a way of confirming that it was on. Thanks for the compliments about the pictures, I've had a lot of really nice shots come from it.

Sometims it can take a half hour at our launches before the buttom is pushed. i did just order a go pro knock off and will try that. it has a remote with it.

David Schwantz said:

Sometims it can take a half hour at our launches before the buttom is pushed. i did just order a go pro knock off and will try that. it has a remote with it.

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Some of those knock offs have wifi controls so you can see what it sees and can turn it on/off. I know that my yi camera has those features.

This one did say it has wifi. I just wonder what the range is?

A polerizer helps too.
Sometimes the launch has the sun behind the launch rack, so you get bad lighting.
Sometimes your exposure is set for the dark trees or bright blue sky, so it's then either washed out or too dark.
Shoot in RAW so you have a greater latitude when editing.

Just Cell Phone Cameras for this one !

And even a drone for this one...……

Cell phone cameras are amazing for how small the lens are.