camera lightning trigger

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serialport
 
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camera lightning trigger

Post by serialport »

Hi, I'm working on a simple Arduino based lightning trigger for my Panasonic camera. So far I ordered the appropriate 2.5 mm 4 conductor plug that should work with my camera to trigger the shutter. Now I'm trying to determine what type of light sensor would be best. I know this has been done before using a phototransistor but I was wondering if the TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor Breakout would also work. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know. In order to capture any lighting pictures, the sensor would have to be able to detect the flash rather quickly (per wikipedia, the average flash duration is approximately 30 microseconds).

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: camera lightning trigger

Post by Franklin97355 »

(per wikipedia, the average flash duration is approximately 30 microseconds).
Are you sure your camera is capable of taking a picture in 30 microseconds after being triggered? (most aren't)

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: camera lightning trigger

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

30us is 480 ticks of a 16MHz Arduino's system clock. That probably isn't enough time to run all the code necessary to communicate with the TSL2561.

A common strategy for time-critical work is to pare away everything that isn't absolutely necessary to do the job. Once you get down to the "if I take anything else away it will stop working" level, you can look at the pieces you've pulled out and decide whether the benefits they offer justify the amount of time/effort necessary to make them work.

In this case, the minimum signal you need is "it just got very bright", and a phototransistor can give you that information as quickly as any device I know.

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serialport
 
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Re: camera lightning trigger

Post by serialport »

Thanks very much for both responses. There are a few diy "lightning triggers" I have seen and I think I may have to do a little more research to better understand how they work. As pointed out, the shutter lag would likely be the biggest delay and this varies from camera to camera.

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