In flight insect photo rig

posted Dec 27th 2008 10:35am by Caleb Kraft
filed under: news

insect_rig

This amazing looking set up is for photographing insects in flight. While this is similar to a past project we covered, this one seems to have several improvements. There are no longer any arms that you have to position on either side of the insect. This system uses an additional lens, picture at the top, to detect the reflected laser light off of an insect. Requiring only 40 microseconds to determine if the insect is in focus, capturing a flying wasp shouldn’t be too hard. You can see four lasers in the pictures, two are IR and used for focus, the other two are simply to help the operator target their bugs.

[thanks Woeka]

Comments [19]

Reader Comments

Umm… examples of what it can do?

Posted at 1:58 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by Adam Ziegler

@Adam Ziegler

“This amazing looking set up is for photographing insects in flight.”

Posted at 2:16 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by Cyrozap

@Cyrozap

so where are the pictures of insects in flight? All the link does is show how it works, we want to see the results!!!

Posted at 2:20 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by barry99705

check the link. he says it’s winter, so no bugs to shoot.

Posted at 2:39 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by charlie

That’s like saying “I have an anti-sasquach gun, but since I can’t find a sasquatch I can’t prove it to you.”

Posted at 6:09 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by Ghrayfahx

Well he needs to throw something in front of it. little green army guy, marshmallow, something.

Posted at 6:51 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by barry99705

As others have noted… I was looking for examples of photos it has taken. Sorry if this was unclear.

Quote from one of fotoopa’s comments: “…Now the first live tests are done I can say that this works very very good!”

That suggested to me that there would be some examples to see.

Posted at 7:08 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by Adam Ziegler

This may be an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoopa_hs/3119676153/

Posted at 7:10 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by Adam Ziegler

ON ONE SIDE, AND REMEMBER I AM NOT ANY KIND OF ENGINEER, THE WRITEUP SEEMS FAIRLY COMPLETE. IF I HAD THE KNOWLEDGE TO BUILD SOMETHING LIKE THIS I WOULD NOT WASTE MY TIME FINDING A FLY TO PICTURE.

NOW IT SEEMS LIKE THIS THING IS ALSO BUILT WITH THE STRICT INTENTION OF TAKING HIGH SPEED PHOTOS OF INSECTS THT STAY STATIONARY FOR JUST A SECOND OR TWO AT MOST AND THAT IT AUTO DETECTS WHEN THEY ARE IN FOCUS AND WHEN TO SHOOT. IF THAT IS SO THEN TAKING A PICTURE OF A MARSHMELLO WOULD REALLY NOT SHOW YOU ANYTHING BUT THE QUALITY OF THE CAMERA/LENS HE WAS USING

Posted at 7:16 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by kyle

I’ve been pretty impressed with the quality of posts on HAD lately. There was a short while I wasn’t totally satisfied but not anymore.

However, to look at the positive of that at least it got rid of miked. That guy annoyed the hell out of me.

Posted at 7:37 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by aaron

Another example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoopa_hs/2833716826/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Posted at 11:05 pm on Dec 27th, 2008 by Wwhat

I know the creator of this setup from a dutch electronics forum, and believe me, he can do AMAZING things.
When there are bugs to shoot, believe me, you can see the hairs on the eye of a fruitfly (IF they have hair on their eyes…)

Posted at 1:37 am on Dec 28th, 2008 by Tom

By the way, here’s a collection of his work: http://www.pbase.com/fotoopa

Posted at 1:52 am on Dec 28th, 2008 by Tom

ok, i dont see what is so special about this. i have been trying to figure it out all morning. i seem SLIGHTLY more portable then a standard set up. but i dont see what cant be done here without a high-end macro lenses and a couple of wireless flashes.

Posted at 12:38 pm on Dec 28th, 2008 by ACEdotcom

Have you read the “in flight” part of the title?
Just try to get a flying insect into the focus point of your camera, and taking a picture at exactly the right time. You won’t succeed in a thousand years.

Posted at 3:07 pm on Dec 28th, 2008 by Tom

You can succeed, but it is very difficult and only possible with slower flying insects.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y220/Ziphius2/hoverfly.jpg?t=1230513634

The shot above was taken using a Pentax Optio 750z with manual focus set at a few mm. I literally chased the insect with the lens until it was in focus. Because hoverflies pause for a second or two and hover, it made getting the insect at the correct focal distance much easier.

Would love to have a fancy rig like this though!

Posted at 5:34 pm on Dec 28th, 2008 by Steve

Haha Steve, I think people might like a youtube of you chasing that insect to focus on it in flight, must be quite a sight :)

Posted at 9:05 pm on Dec 28th, 2008 by Wwhat

acedotcom: you should spend less time thinking, and more time looking at his pictures and notes :)

- higher-speed shutter (less lag)
- higher-speed/more precise focusing
- focus can also detect very small objects
- lcd readout
- UV leds with adjustable frequency
- its automated

Posted at 1:43 am on Dec 29th, 2008 by jproach

Folks, read the article.

WTF?

Posted at 5:46 am on Dec 29th, 2008 by strider_mt2k