If you’re a regular reader, you know that I am on-the-record with a deep belief that photography and filmmaking are not all about speeds and feeds or how big your megapixels are compared to mine. Nonetheless, I do have a healthy respect for the technical side of the craft — and for those who dive in deep.
Like the guy who made this video, for example.
This optical illusion is “purportedly” made possible by synching the camera shutter speed with the rotation of the helicopter’s blades, giving the latter the appearance of “staticity.” Some cry hoax. Others say it’s real. Those who believe it is real have engaged in lengthy debate about how it was achieved. The two sides’ arguments break down like this:
SS: “As the title of the video suggests, the filmmaker synched his shutter speed with the rotation of the helicopter blades to make it appear as it does.”
FR: “This is a matter of frame rate, not shutter speed. The frame rate has to be synched such that with each frame exposure the blades are in the exact same position.”
So here’s the quiz – what’s your take? Real or fake? Shutter speed or frame rate?
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I think it’s a combination of freezing the blades (high shutter speed) but as mentioned you wouldn’t have them in the same position like they do in this video without syncing the frame rate.
100% real. First of after the heli idles up, ie rotors are up to speed lift is not created by blade speed but by the pitch angle of the blade. They also compensate for additional power needs while changing the pitch angle to prevent the motor from being bogged down. Next up, you can mute the sync some by using a dividend of they rotor speed. Lastly the tail looks proper since it rotates at a ratio of the rotor speed, it too changes force by changing the pitch on the blades. Its rotational speed looks nice and constant. Lastly, a cheap tool used to check a radio controlled helicopters head speed aka rpm of the blades, is nothing but a shutter glass, you change the shutter rate until the blades appear static and it displays your head speed in RPM’s.