Destin: So this is from the 30s right?
Ari in a Finnish Accent: …So this is very old..Very old technology. You can put it on by turning it here.
Destin: WHAT!?
Ari: Yeah…. And then there’s this kind of stroboscope…Type of…
Destin: It’s a mechanical stroboscope!
Ari: Yeah, yeah, there is a light bulb in the middle of the drum that has the exact amount of, like these grooves and it has to be rotating in a certain feed value and then you can get accurate results from this.
Destin: So how does it work? So…so this is our source… How do we…?
Ari: We have to have feedback.. So how do we measure?
Ari: Yeah yeah there’s this kind of uh, you just look through this uh image port. And then you can get very -
Destin: OH! So you do it with your eyes?
Ari: Yeah
Destin: Oh I saw it! [SNAP] Oh it’s rolling shutter!
Ari: Yeah…you..the rolling sh…[Destin] HOLY COOOOWWW
Ari: You basically use the same method as rolling shutter.
Destin: You use rolling shutter with your EYES!
Ari: He he…yeah.
Destin’s nerd excitement intensifies: Can I see again?
OK there’s no way my camera’s gonna do this..
Ari: Yeah yeah it’s difficult to shoot.
Destin: OK so…This machine is amazing, and I know I haven’t explained what you’re looking at yet but that’s how I experienced it I wanted you to feel that too. This is what’s going on, so back in the early 1900s the people that made Leica cameras made the undisputed best cameras in the entire world, but they had a problem. They have this little thing right here on top, you know a camera shutter works like that right? but they have this little dial right here and check this out let’s see if I can focus my camera that dial lets you dial the shutter speed of the camera, and then you wind the camera and then you fire the thing [CLICK] BOOM. The time that that shutter is open is critical because if the shutter speed is open for too long you over expose the image and everything gets really blurry, but if the shutter speed is open too SHORT then your image gets dark like this and it doesn’t work so this is just for like the motion camera I’m using here, but for a still image this is even more important so, that says one one thousandth of a second. [camera shutter snap] THAT was a millisecond. It’s very fast! So if you’re an engineer in charge of tuning these cameras to make sure they’re spot on a millisecond how would you do that? Measuring a millisecond mechanically. That’s what this machine does.
Destin: So show me what we should be seeing.
Ari: OK.
Destin: So that’s the frame..
Ari: Yeah. And then you see kinds of uh, grooves there and there. You should check out the kinds of -
Destin: So it’s not just a line it’s also a shape, it’s a curve. So can you show it one more time?
Ari: Yeah. So… You look through the image port -
Destin: Okay so you see diagonals and you count. So, I’m gonna turn this off, Can I - Can I turn it off?
Ari: Yeah.From here.
Destin: And then turn it back on so you can see it rotating, starting up. Look at that! Okay, so you can kind of see it my - [Ari] [Laughing] [Destin] In my camera, you see that? Eh heh ha ha! Alright… Here, let me switch my modes on my camera. So let me go to… shutter speed. Let’s see if we can get this. [camera shutter snap] Yeah okay we’re starting to get it. Hold on, we’re gonna get this Ari. Okay so nope, that’s - Here’s my shutter speed, 250… I’m gonna go… Okay. [camera shutter snap] [Destin] Yes! [Ari] Yes! [Destin] Did we get it?
This image is all a camera technician needed back in the 1930s to instantaneously assess whether a camera like this is functioning properly. I recently connected with Juho, a guy from Finland who is famous for driving from Finland to Kathmandu, Nepal with some friends. We have a lot in common and he started a company in Finland called Kamerastore. They restore and sell old film & digital cameras and run the camera rescue project. I was so interested in film photography that I scootered across the town of Tampere, Finland to the shop. I spent two days learning about all they do and was amazed by the complex things they figured out to keep these precious mechanical marvels alive. Juho then introduced me to Ari and the Leica repair team.
We had to use a service manual to figure out how to test the shutter speeds correctly. Although my German was not good, Ari wasn’t either. We were able to draw the exact patterns to determine if the speed was in tolerances. Back in America, I used halogen lights to do slow motion, but a company called NANLUX said they had a light that doesn’t flicker. I was excited to see how it would perform.
We had a Phantom high speed camera running at 20,000 frames per second and a Leica camera that Juho & Company sent over. We had to wind it and then push a button to fire the shutter. We had a ketchup bottle with a Line 3000 to help us. We turned the light on and fired it, triggering the high speed camera. We could see the first shutter open and the second one following shortly behind it, moving from left to right. We were able to see what the shutter itself looks like. We then tested it with the ketchup bottle contraption. We were able to see that the shutter was literally a rolling shutter, rolling from one side to the other. I woke up today wanting to explore rolling shutter, and I thought what better way to do that than with a ketchup bottle! So I set up my camera, and used an additive animation technique to show exactly how it adds up, and how our eyes use persistence of vision to create a pattern. After playing around with the rotational rate of the ketchup bottle and using the strobe effect to time it, I was able to dial in the correct velocity so that the strobing light on the side lined up with the spinning dots on the side. This is called aliasing, and it blew my mind that a human came up with this technique to measure an analog device to millisecond accuracy. Now, I’m ready to go back to the camera store in Finland to see how this can be used to measure a mechanical camera shutter. I think this is amazing–let’s go check it out. Okay, Ari has a phone with an electronic rolling shutter. The difference between the electronic rolling shutter and the film rolling shutter on the Leica is that the Leica has a spring in it that’s driving it, so it has to accelerate and decelerate the shutter. But the electronic shutter is linear, right?
[Ari] Yep.
[Destin] So that’s 1/250th? Can you change it to 1/500th please?
[Ari] That’s 1/500th.
Okay and now to… 1/1000th. Okay and can we look at the difference in those three photos? So it’s getting wider. But we’re not seeing the curve, and I think the reason is that this is being driven by a spring. Does that make sense?
[Ari] Yeah.
[Destin] This is what we’re going to do. So we have two cameras. One of them has been serviced, so we know that this one has a good shutter, correct?
[Ari] Yep.
[Destin] And then we have this one, which is not a Leica, but uh, it has not been serviced, you just got this camera.
[Ari] Yeah, I just took it from there, so it’s kind of–there can be issues with the shutter.
[Destin] So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna test these. I have the camera setup with a long exposure time. So let’s turn this thing on.
[Ari] Yep.
[Destin] Alright.
[Ari] Yep.
[Destin] All right so let’s go 250 first (1/250th). Keep going. 250 (1/250th) ’till we get the shot. It’s pretty good.
[Ari] Okay.
[Destin] He’s going to 500 (1/500th).
[Ari] Yep, and then one thousand (1/1000th).
[Ari] Yep.
[Destin] Okay so we’ll put up the screen captures of that. We have 250, 500, 1000 (1/250th, 1/500th, 1/1000th). And you’re gonna compare that to what it should be right here.
[Ari] Yeah, it was totally the same.
[Destin] Totally the same.
[Ari] Totally the same.
[Destin] And so now we’re gonna test this camera.
[Ari] Two hundred and fifty.
[Destin] Yep that’s 250, looks pretty good.
[Ari] Then about about 500…Looks quite okay.
[Destin] Move it down - there you go.
[Ari] Okay, one thousandth. Okay that’s like…Those are like too narrow and too small.
[Destin] So that means this camera is firing too fast.
[Ari] Yeah.
[Destin] So we have a camera set to one thousandth of a second. But it’s firing less than that. Can we check it on the electronic machine?
[Ari] Yeah. We can.
[Destin] Just verify that, what we in fact see…We’ll see how they did in the 20s and 30s.
[Ari] Okay so this is like 1000th speed, everything is…
[Destin] That’s fast. That should be 1 millisecond, but it’s 0.6 millisecond.
[Ari] The 500th is kind of okay. 250…a little slow but still kind of okay to use.
[Destin] Haha, that’s so good! So we took a uh..we took a completely analog “gut feel” method
[Ari] Yeah yeah.
[Destin] And we were able to get kind of a discreet reading and it was accurate. So we know that that camera is firing faster than a thousandth of a second and we knew that before we measured below a millisecond, in 19 what - 20? 1930?
[Ari] Yea, at least the technology is from there but of course this unit can be a little bit younger but the idea is that old.
[Destin] There is no sponsor on this video. This video is provided by the patrons of Smarter Every Day. Also, I do want to mention Kamerastore though–again no sponsorship here, I just like these folks and think you would like what Juho offered to give me free shipping on my camera purchase if I participated in some kind of affiliate share. I decided against it and instead found a better way to get free shipping. I can now get free shipping from Kamerastore.com/smarter when I order a camera from their website.
I’m grateful to everyone who supports Smarter Every Day on Patreon. Last video you bought me missile parts and this video you helped me go to Finland and film. So I’m grateful. That’s it! I’m Destin, and you’re getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. Bye.