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Re: Safe distance for photographing operating tesla coils with digital cameras?
Original poster: Terry Fritz <vardin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi Garry,
At 11:09 AM 8/2/2005, you wrote:
Recently, I posted a url to my website that has some pictures of my tesla
coil in the photography Usenet group and the subject came up about the main
picture here ....
http://home.pacbell.net/garryfre/
and what is the minimum "safe" distance one should be from a tesla coil when
taking a picture, given the output power or voltage of the coil before it
starts messing with the camera.
Someone replied that by publishing this picture, I was risking the ire of
the entire tesla coiling community. They said "You are publishing a false
representation of what you actually saw when taking the pictures. What would
happen to your credibility with them?"
Since the picture is quite famous and has been used by countless
people (me too) as a screen saver for years, I don't think you have
to worry at all about that ;-)))
I asked him to elaborate on exactly what mis-representation he was talking
about but he didn't reply. All I can guess is that he was taking exception
to the publishing of the picture with artifacts that might have been due to
EMF or maybe dust floating in the air, but he was quite serious and sounded
angry. I am amazed how many crackpots are in that forum. Still it was only a
guess that he was having a cow over some elite standard he had set called
"Photo-Purity" and that artifacts constitute lies and that everyone should
hold to this standard. Does anyone have any other clue what this hoser was
talking about?
A typical Usenet Parasite:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
Wash your hands well after handling them, eeeaawww! :o)
I remember, that all my pictures from the Northern California Teslathon were
ruined because I was too close and didn't know it. I had one picture, on the
digital stick where the foreground was a wonderful picture of streamers from
a coil at San Francisco, but was ruined by a clear image of my living room
curtain from my apartment some 300 miles north. Bleah!
So the question still remains. What would be the minimum distance for coils.
Does anyone have any guidelines that might be a clue? With my small coil
capable of 5 foot streamers, I kept a minimum of 30 feet away, and if I had
to be fifty feet away, I'd have to sell my left leg for a telephoto lens,
but I think it would not hurt to ask. Someone else might know via the lesson
of hard experience, so that I don't have to. I find myself cringing at the
idea of getting close to this coil I have, but how close is too close is
something I have no real idea.
Digital and Video cameras less than a few years old seem very immune
to noise from Tesla coils. It is very unlikely that anything short
of a direct streamer hit will damage them. Video cameras like to get
noise streaks in them, but now a days cameras are so well shielded to
pass all kinds of EMI standards that not much gets into them. Most
of the noise they get comes from the spark gap.
I think we should really ask is if anyone HAS damaged a camera with a
Tesla coil and if so what were the circumstances?
Of course, if your camera is real expensive, greater caution is
needed... I got a cheap camera since the expensive one costs too
much to have any "real fun" with ;-))
Here is my little oscilloscope riding directly on the top terminal:
http://hot-streamer.com/temp/DaveTest-83.jpg
A little foil insures that it is shielded even better. The scope did
not mind the ride at all and it's electronics are far more fragile
than any camera.
Cheers,
Terry