# Super fast exposure time - BBC News



## Menace (Aug 2, 2013)

"Scientists in the US have built a camera that can show light moving by taking pictures with an exposure time one billion times shorter than a normal camera.

The device, built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, can take an image every two picoseconds."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23536536


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## Click (Aug 2, 2013)

Cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.


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## kennephoto (Aug 2, 2013)

That's pretty damn cool! Especially the part about the taking a photo of something that's not in your line of sight! Crazy stuff.


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## tbadowski (Aug 2, 2013)

will it work with HSS? or do I have to replace my 430EX flash?


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## Hardwire (Aug 2, 2013)

Does it use dual DIGIC6+ chips?

Can I get it in a 5d body for less than $4000?

Is this what the upcoming Canon announcement is for??

;-)


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## Click (Aug 2, 2013)

I'll wait for the mk II


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## PhotographAdventure (Aug 2, 2013)

Cool technology, but to light the scene, you'd need a constant light that would blind the eyes.


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## kennephoto (Aug 2, 2013)

PhotographAdventure said:


> Cool technology, but to light the scene, you'd need a constant light that would blind the eyes.



Pretty sure you can use any light, since its quite literally capturing a photo of light. You just adjust the exposure to compensate for the amount of light like we already do.


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## neuroanatomist (Aug 2, 2013)

kennephoto said:


> Pretty sure you can use any light, since its quite literally capturing a photo of light. You just adjust the exposure to compensate for the amount of light like we already do.



Right, so at 1 billionth of the current max shutter speed of 1/8000 s, to 'just adjust the exposure to compensate for the amount of light like we already do,' you'd need to go 36 stops higher than ISO 100. Know any cameras that can set ISO 6,871,947,673,600? :


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## Viggo (Aug 2, 2013)

Sorry, but how is this news ? I saw a video like
This on YouTube a loong time ago..

Still pretty awesome though!


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## luciolepri (Aug 2, 2013)

WOW!

It looks strange they're using a old Sigma 28-70/2,8 instead of a superfast lens, considering they need multiple exposures to get the image at that crazy fast frame rate.
Thanks to the new Sigma service, I could borrow them my Canon 50/0,95...


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## luciolepri (Aug 2, 2013)

Viggo said:


> Sorry, but how is this news ? I saw a video like
> This on YouTube a loong time ago..



Yes, I think this video was made around 2010-11. So MKII should be out within next year...


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## brad-man (Aug 2, 2013)

I am unimpressed with the DR of the around-the-corner shot...


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## Drizzt321 (Aug 2, 2013)

luciolepri said:


> WOW!
> 
> It looks strange they're using a old Sigma 28-70/2,8 instead of a superfast lens, considering they need multiple exposures to get the image at that crazy fast frame rate.
> Thanks to the new Sigma service, I could borrow them my Canon 50/0,95...



I think the BBC report was using that as an example. I'd be they are using their own custom optics for this. Probably. I could be wrong though.


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## JPAZ (Aug 2, 2013)

Wait. Isn't this a Nion device?


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## Drizzt321 (Aug 2, 2013)

JPAZ said:


> Wait. Isn't this a Nikon device *Sony sensor*?



FTFY


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## comsense (Aug 3, 2013)

neuroanatomist said:


> kennephoto said:
> 
> 
> > Pretty sure you can use any light, since its quite literally capturing a photo of light. You just adjust the exposure to compensate for the amount of light like we already do.
> ...


Actually you both are wrong. You cant use any light. You need femtosecond pulsed laser source to illuminate the scene. Then streak camera, PMT or other device is used to capture reflected pulses to create a probability distribution by acquiring millions of scans and calculate arrival time of photon (extract time information). Image is then calculated and integrated for whole scene using piezo-controlled mirrors. In short for people with non-technical background, repeated measurement of scene illuminated by femtosecond spaced pulses combined with maths is used to calculate the time information at a point/line. This is then calculated for all points/lines in scene to construct an image. So its takes quite a while to construct one super-fast timelapse (counterintuitive isnt it). 

Small issues getting it into Canon 1DXXX:
1) You need at least two people to hold even simplest of femtosecond lasers
2) Its a two piece assembly with micrometer beam alinment on optical table; good luck with handholding
3) You need the scene to repeat millions of times. Like if you want a video of kid running, you will need the kid to run same path millions of times (this is only for time lapse imaging; does not apply to their around the corner imaging)
and many more but I am bored.
I am sure they will overcome these problems sometime in future!!!!
Source: I use the same camera at nanometer scale. So I collect images with nanometer spatial resolution and picosecond time resolution.


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## Drizzt321 (Aug 3, 2013)

comsense said:


> neuroanatomist said:
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> > kennephoto said:
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Interesting...sounds almost like a reverse ray-tracing rendering!


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## luciolepri (Aug 3, 2013)

comsense said:


> neuroanatomist said:
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> > kennephoto said:
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I love CR...


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## neuroanatomist (Aug 3, 2013)

comsense said:


> neuroanatomist said:
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> > kennephoto said:
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Ok, but I was being facetious. 

FWIW, many years ago I used femtosecond laser time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy to study reaction intermediates of visual pigments (rhodopsin, etc.). Nd:YAG flashlamps, beamlines running across massive air tables decorated with mirrors and dichroics, fun times. I currently use a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser (pumped with a frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 laser) in fluorescent imaging applications.


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## comsense (Aug 3, 2013)

Interesting...sounds almost like a reverse ray-tracing rendering!
[/quote]
Final part is more like scanline rendering if you like computational graphics lingo. The maths for first part is quite old and solid, its just tech catching up. Google TCSPC (time correlated single photon counting). This is the principle behind extraction of time information.


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## comsense (Aug 3, 2013)

neuroanatomist said:


> comsense said:
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> > neuroanatomist said:
> ...


I could see your humor; just wanted to make it geeky accurate with hand holdable Ti:sapphire ;D :'( ;D
Good to know you are spectroscopist and have used it; you can visualize very well what I mean. 
Also, how many LP6 batteries would it take?
The around the corner image reconstruction from this group is pretty cool. Laser tech is developing so fast and people are already working on solid state femtosecond pulse lasers. If high pulse power is not required, its possible to have hand holdable version in near future.


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