Launch Control

Philosophy

These pages describe the philosophy and methods used at Rocketry Photography. This set up and technique has been developed for over a decade, always striving to make improvements.

When these methods were first being developed high speed film cameras were used. Due to the high cost of processing the film, it was essential to run the cameras for only the amount of time required. Timers were used to run these cameras for just a few seconds.

Today, controlling of the digital cameras carefully helps sorting of the files and saves editing time. Cameras that run for 15 minutes to record a rocket launch that may be interesting for only 30 seconds create very large files, require larger than necessary memory cards and a lot of unnecessary editing during post processing.

At Rocketry Photography the cameras typically start about 10 seconds prior to motor ignition and run for about 25 seconds. Enough time to capture the only the action desired. This in one reason why all the files for one launch can be delivered so quickly and on a small memory card.