I just got a Fastec Sportscam (up to 500 fps) for slow motion golf swing analysis. Can someone please advise me as to how much and what type of lighting I will need to use this camera at speeds over 100 fps in an indoor setting?

I had been using 60fps DV cameras with no problems....but with the same lighting I can barely get an image with the fastec.

I don't know much about photography, so any help would be most appreciated.

Harry

sorry, i can't advise you on any sort of continuous lighting, I only know strobes, which none that I know of can work at 100 fps.

If the camera is recording 100fps, I'd say you'd be better off with continuous light, rather than trying to fire a strobe at that speed.
You can get strobes that fire that fast, but they will be expensive to put out a high light output because they will need to recharge very fast. Also at that speed they're likely to run hot, which means shorter tube life.

I don't necessarily have a lot of experience with video, but it seems like there's a reasonable comparison to photography here. By doubling your framerate, you're effectively halving your shutterspeed, so it makes sense to me that doubling the lighting output would result in a comparable exposure. Then again, I'm not much of a videographer!

I'm an old school television photographer, maybe I can help you out with some stuff that won't cost you an arm and a leg. I was a lighting master when I did it, feel free to send me an PM if you don't want to talk about it on here. Reading what you are doing I think you could prob light this for less that 50 bucks, and one trip to the hardware store.

Are you looking for hard light or soft? What type background are you shooting agianist? Is there any natural light coming in? What are the dimensions of the area? How is the White Balance set (auto, preset, manual)? Any other info you think could help me in helping you (maybe a picture of your setup?

Adorama has continuos lights listed on their site as well as high speed strobes but those would be fairly expensive. A cheaper option may be the halogen lights you can get at any hardware store, you would however need to set the WB manually. They would definately light up a gym though. The problem is the bulbs tend to have short lives and need to cool completly before moving or they will have shorter life span. Two placed on the floor and two on stands should give you plenty of light.

JS

Do what John said, and if you want soft light for CHEAP, with his idea go buy a cheap umbrella and spray paint the inside of it (where the rain wouldn't hit) with silver metallic paint. It will give you softer light, by reflecting the light off the umbrella. Like what someone would do with a strobe, we used to do this all the time in TV. Now the paint will start to flake off after a while but its a lot cheaper than going out and buying the professional stuff.


Adorama has continuos lights listed on their site as well as high speed strobes but those would be fairly expensive. A cheaper option may be the halogen lights you can get at any hardware store, you would however need to set the WB manually. They would definately light up a gym though. The problem is the bulbs tend to have short lives and need to cool completly before moving or they will have shorter life span. Two placed on the floor and two on stands should give you plenty of light.

JS

but be careful with how close you put that umbrella to your light source. Continuous light sources can get very hot, to the point where it may even ignite your painted umbrella. Just be careful.