It wouldn't be the shutter speed, that's partially the width of the slit and partially how fast the slit moves. What's important here is the shutter tension setting that controls how fast the slit moves; the lower the tension, the slower the slit moves, and the more the distortion of moving objects.
"I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."
Sure, it's just that the speeds are marked as such. I'm working on a Zeiss Miroflex at the mo' marked with a top speed of /2000 ... but it's just that it's a very narrow slit. Naturally you'll see more distortion using a slower speed, just as it will be more evident in a vertical format compared with a landscape shot as the slit travels a greater distance from top to bottom.Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer
As for the shutter speed used by Lartigue, I suspect it may have been a fast(ish) setting to compensate for the speed the vehicle was going past him. Mind, I'm only guessing on that.
Sandeha-
sounds like some practice is in order. I'm sure you can find a plae where cars are passing by at 70mph. Burn some film- find out- show your results!
usually this roller blind shuters that are really old don't make it to 1000th or 2000thS
they have been stored wound up ... and the springs are tired..
when i have taken pan images like with things bending/leaning it was low speed, not high speed.
it was with a graflex slr at about 1/30thS
( i have timed my shutter with a calumet tester, AND at a friend's repair shop, so i know the speeds )
The other thing that happens is the shutter ribbons (on the side of the slit) and curtain can stretch enlarging the slits...
I was very lucky with my RB when after restoration, the 1/800 speed went down to 1/500, 1/300 went down to 1/250, and the 1/60 and 1/30 stayed the same, so my speeds "modernized" themselves making it easier to meter and set the camera on the fly... Just lucky!!!
But I don't use the high tensions to help prevent shutter breakage... (I broke one on a SG many years ago, one of those "wartime" models that used non-standard materials due to war shortages...) I still get nervous using the narrow slits with the greater tensions... :-0
Also, Lartigue sometimes combined panning with the slit distortion, where in that racer blasting/leaning forward, and the spectators leaning the other way effect, so one can introduce distortion by quickly panning, also... You just have to figure and test which way to pan for the "lean" you want... (You might even have to pan the camera upside down!!!) Quite a skill for a kid!!!!!
Steve K
you can say that again !
I'm hoping some car practice, that is, pre-1949 cars with visible wheels, will be possible next week on a local speed-run beach.
All good points, but my Soho runs well and exposes well, at least with stationary beasts ...
In the end the spectators were kept well away from the race cars on the beach. Over 100 metres away. Oh well, there'll be other opportunities maybe.
little update on the car reviving this informative thread:
One of the four cars in the race (at least a partly restored car) was in 2005 auctioned by Bonhams and provides some of its history:
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/12170/lot/645/
The answer is rather simple: the effect came about because Jacques Henri used a large camera which he panned to follow the car (but not quite fast enough) and he used a focal plane shutter of which the slit moved from top to bottom. In this way we see different moments in time projected on different parts of the film. In the image the slit of the focal plane shutter moved upward because of the bottom-up projection of the lens.
Both the leaning of the bystander and the deformation of the wheel and spokes can be explained in this way, demonstrated by this animation (which I wrote in MatLab). The animation should speak for itself.
BUT... the image on the ground glass would be inverted by the lens, so the focal plane shutter would have moved from the top of the camera to the bottom. True?
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