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Im trying to shoot a bullet time shot . And im wondering is the shutter lag is equal in many cameras with the same model?

Ali
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4 Answers4

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No it is not. But you'll never get a bullet shot by trying to use a very short shutter time with any conventional camera. That's because even at very short shutter times it still takes around 3-4 milliseconds for the slit between the first and second shutter curtains to transit across the sensor.

The trick to getting bullet shots is to shoot in a relatively dark room, using a longer exposure time, and freezing the motion of the bullet with a very short duration but powerful flash.

For more, please see this existing question and answers here at Photography SE:

How can I capture the movement of a bullet?

Michael C
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    IMHO you talk about shooting bullet in fly, not bullet time shot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_time – Romeo Ninov Oct 22 '21 at 17:33
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    Bullet time shot would be video, not still photography. – Michael C Oct 22 '21 at 17:40
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    In some degree. But IMHO it is also photography because you take consecutive photos from different cameras and then in post make a movie. Something like timelapse. – Romeo Ninov Oct 22 '21 at 17:44
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Shutter lag differ from camera to camera, but you want to create video from photos so it's good to follow the rule about 180-degree shutter rule. This rule say if your movie is 25 FPS your shutter speed need to be 2*25=1/50 of the second. You can read more here.

As a general guide for normal shooting conditions, the 180-degree shutter rule says that your camera’s shutter speed should always be twice that of the frame rate when filming video.

Tv = 2xfps
Tv = Timer value or shutter speed fps = Frames per second
fps = 50
Tv = 2×50 Tv =1/100

So difference of few milliseconds do not make big difference.

Romeo Ninov
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  • IDT the 180˚ rule is applicable to a bullet time shot. It is actually the use of an incongruent (apparent) shutter speed that creates the effect (e.g. freezing motion between frames/images). – Steven Kersting Oct 23 '21 at 13:16
  • @StevenKersting, this is standard rule for movies and do not change when used for bullet time. And IMHO my answer is the only which actually answer the question. – Romeo Ninov Oct 23 '21 at 13:25
  • The standard rule (180˚ shutter) only applies when you want natural (standard) looking motion blur transitions between images/frames. Other shutter speeds (and frame rates) are used for special effect. – Steven Kersting Oct 23 '21 at 13:36
  • @StevenKersting, yes, you want this smooth effect when shoot consecutive with many cameras too. – Romeo Ninov Oct 23 '21 at 13:59
  • No, the "smooth motion" for a bullet time shot is controlled by the number of images/angles captured for the duration. E.g. if you want the sequence to rotate 180˚ around a water splash frozen in motion to last for 1 second in a 25fps video; the SS for all images needs to be fast enough to freeze the water splash (say 1/2000), and you need 25 images spaced evenly around the 180˚ rotation. – Steven Kersting Oct 23 '21 at 15:14
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Mechanical shutters will have slight variations in lag due to their physical nature. For ordinary still photography applications, variations from camera to camera tend not to matter because photographers become familiar with the cameras they use and adjust their anticipation of fast action accordingly.

Electronic shutters are likely to have less variations in latency because there are fewer moving parts.

In between, some mirrorless cameras allow setting the first curtain open, and therefore have lower shutter latency.

Movie cameras traditionally have a rotating shutter mechanism driven at a constant speed. This mechanically simpler shutter mechanism provides high consistency across devices.

For what it is worth, the way to get started with specialty shots is to start trying to make them, look at the results, and make changes to try to make it better.

My advice is take whatever cameras you have on hand and see whether the results are good enough.

Bob Macaroni McStevens
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Not exactly equal, but probably close enough.

It may depend on whether the images used for the bullet time shot sequence need to be exactly simultaneous (frozen in time sequence), or whether some motion is acceptable (controlled time sequence).

Steven Kersting
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