Jury-Rigged Cameras Capture Tesla Coils In “Bullet Time”

Rob Flickenger wasn’t satisfied with the common images he was getting of his experiments with Tesla coils using a single camera. So obviously, the answer was to get 10 digital cameras and set them up to capture images in Matrix-style “bullet time” (although not actual bullet time, because that term is a registered trademark of Warner Bros). Flickenger purchased 10 Canon A470 cameras and configured them to work as a single 70-megapixel, 10-angle camera.

According to Flickenger he chose the cameras because they were able to run CHDK, the scriptable firmware for Canon cameras. This allowed him to write code to streamline the process of taking all ten photos at once, and then get the images off of the cameras easily. By wiring all of the cameras to the same 10-port USB hub, and using CHDK’s syncable USB remote feature, Flickenger was able to wire up a single button to make all of the cameras fire at once.

(via Laughing Squid)