Some of you probably have your own stories, if so please share them. Here is mine from last night...
So we're camping up on the Mogollon Rim of AZ, an area that is heavily forested and above 7000 feet. The weather is great and I'm looking forward to taking some beamshots, mostly just for fun, not for a review or anything scientific. Late in the afternoon I set up my tripod, get my camera ready (Canon EOS), mount the camera to the tripod and take some test photos of my target area. Then I measure out the distance to the two main targets, one tree was 132 feet away and the primary target was 247 feet away. I even checked the operation of the camera and made sure the manual modes were working properly, etc. I also get a notepad and pen ready so I can take notes of each picture taken, probably typical of what many of you do.
Now I must explain the other part of this embarrassment... My wife and our two best friends are not really "flashaholics" but they put up with my obsession and at least show an interest. They have come up with a term they call a "Lumen Show." So as I prepare they are joking with me that they are highly anticipating the "Lumen Show."
Darkness falls and I am about to begin the Lumen Show. When camping I carry my flashlights in a Craftsman Tools suitcase. So I pull out the suitcase, full of more than 20 lights, and get ready for the beamshot pic session, AKA the Lumen Show. :D
My first candidate was my new-ish Fandyfire 2100. It lit up the test area awesomely! Tons of throw and flood combined. For a light that is supposed to be around 350 lumens I was very happy with the output of it. Good ol' Fandy lit up the tree 247 feet away with no problem at all.
So I go to take my first picture... the damn camera won't take a pic. WTF? I try different settings and the camera literally WILL NOT take a pic. Then I notice it says low battery. WTF again? I had just charged that battery a day before. And when I took my test shots earlier it said the battery was full. ARRGGGHHH!!!
I eventually gave up on getting beamshots as I am not going to do beamshots with a cell phone camera (as my wife suggested).
Hopefully I just need a new battery for the camera. Perhaps it just can't hold a charge anymore. But it sure was disappointing getting everything ready and then having the camera fail. Never had a camera battery fail before.
Thats hurts :bigsmile: That cam you have is a very nice cam :D I like EOS, very good pic quality. I hope that place (Mogollon Rim of AZ) was not so far of where you live. So get a new batt for that Canon and show us that "Lumen Show" too :p
Reason why I still use AA powered camera till today. I have a stash of eneloops I know will not fail me.
During one of my mountain climb, I brought a small tripod and a camera to take beamshot but to my dismay night was covered by fog. On the next climb I was a bit optimistic as I know it's a foggy mountain but insects is everywhere attacking any light source. Maybe next time I'll try again.
I once tried to take a beam shot of the light produced by a Fusion 36 dropin in a Mag . The beam is so diffused and so floody that i found it impossible to configure my camera in any way that could adequately represent what I saw with my eyes .
It was to be my last attempt at a beamshot of any kind .
The only problem I have with taking beamshots, is actually finding the time to take the beamshots. It is not a quick process relatively speaking. To do it right you need a gameplan! You need a checklist. You need ur computer. You have to make sure the batteries are all charged and ready at the same time. You need to make sure the exposure is close to actual conditions. You need to safely transport all your lights and keep track of what shot was which light.
You know what really sucks? Taking all the pics and later realizing that they're all out of focus. Nothing worse than an out of focus (non-white wall), outdoor beamshot. I also get peeved at long exposures that make all the lights look like lightsabers. But I know, it's better than nothing. ;) I appreciate any and all effort members exert taking beamshots, regardless of how crappy they come out. :) (jk)
But PLEASE...no more white wall pics unless you are trying to show closeup beam quality.
Was it cold up there? Your battery might have failed you just because it got the chills. I was in Montreal in winter one time, maybe around -10 C, and my camera kept shutting off because of a low battery. I needed to take a few more shots though, so I took out the battery and held it in my armpit (under my jacket) for a while, then quickly put it in the camera and got one or two shots. Did it again for another one or two shots, and I was done.
I have one spare battery for the 1D MKIII, but i never need it because i can take more than 3.000 photos with one battery. The spare battery is in the refrigerator at about 2°C to keep it from "aging" too soon. A lithium-ion battery will loose about 20% capacity per year at 20°C, at 2°C it is just 2-5%. (Not talking about selfdischarge, but actual loss in capacity from aging.)
I have not bought a spare battery for the 5D MKII, i always start the photoshoot with a fully charged battery, and there is always a lot of capacity left, even after more than 1500 photos.
I had several BP511 batteries for the 300D, 20D and 40D, but these were very cheap (4,99 Euro) compared to the batteries of the 1D MKIII (140 Euro) and the 5D MKII (80 Euro).
I'll take 5 or 6 lights outside to go to beam shots, taking Low, Medium, High. Then I'll come back in, put the card in the computer and I don't remember the order of the lights. And at that point all the pictures look pretty much the same. So erase the card, go back out and do it all over again. I've probably done that a few times. I'm sure the neighbors wonder what's up. He's back out there again!
I've certainly done that. A notebook is essential, when I've not had one I've ended up wiping the card.
I usually find the car's boot (trunk for those who speak US English) pretty much full with cameras, tripod (must get another one for aiming the lights), lights, batteries, chargers, meters, notebook (Once I forgot to take a pen - all that effort wasted). and so on. It is fun but rather time consuming...
I'm glad it's not just me, either. I've never been happy with any beam shot I've ever taken. A lot of it is a time issue which, instead of finding a suitable location, I simply step out to the back yard (5 feet from my computer) and do the deed.
I try to keep everything consistent, reducing any variables as much as possible. I line up the participants in an order that will remain the same from start to publication. On our patio table, I place a piece of tape or otherwise mark the exact spot for every flashlight. (this I didn't do consistently until after several sessions) Once the camera is positioned, it is turned on and I won't turn it off until the last flashlight is done. I use a 10 second shutter release delay for every shot and I take 2 shots of each beam. With my fairly inexpensive camera and after much experimentation, I found that a 1/4 second @ f2.8 seemed to accurately record what my eyes were seeing. Sometimes a full moon will mess with this but I leave it alone, just the same. After two shots are taken, I walk back to my computer (5 feet away, remember) and jot down the flashlight, emitter, reflector and battery used and upon uploading, name each file thus.
However much I dislike my location, one plus is that I can do a beam shot and put it to a much older shot and still have a valid comparison, even months later. Again, consistentcy is key.
I must add too, the reason I first made the attempt at all was after veiwing Don's spectacular comparisons when I first joined the forum. It is the sole reason I made my very first XM-L purchase, in fact. Some of the finest beam shots I've ever seen.
) and the 5D MKII (80 Euro).