Weirdness with a Golf Club

The Image Team

The Image Team

Messages
285
Name
Nicholas
Edit My Images
No
Shot my first game of Golf today getting used to my new babies. Found weirdness happening with the clubs when shooting a swing from 90 degrees relative to the balls travel. An example:

TaptonPark_JMB-0540.jpg


Shot on Fuji X-T2 with XF35mm f1.4 at f2.8 and 1/2000th of a second shutter speed.

At first I thought it was something to do with the wide angle of the lens but its happening too on a 100-400mm too. Anyone know the physics of this funkyness??
 
If you look in the press you'll never see shots when the club is moving.
Nothing to do with physics or cameras. It's just that golfers go ape if you press the shutter before they have hit the ball.
In big tournaments you run the risk of being kicked off the course.
Doesn't answer your question, but might be of interest in future!
 
mickledore said:
If you look in the press you'll never see shots when the club is moving.
Nothing to do with physics or cameras. It's just that golfers go ape if you press the shutter before they have hit the ball.
In big tournaments you run the risk of being kicked off the course.
Doesn't answer your question, but might be of interest in future!
Click to expand...


Beauty of a Fuji. Its mirrorless, so you can turn the shutter noise off!

posiview said:
That's just a bent club, isn't it, go on admit it :)
Click to expand...


Dear god, she will go bonkers if she hears you calling her club bent! She's as proud of her 3 Wood as I am of my new Fujis.
 
minnnt said:
I'm gonna go with a Fuji rolling shutter...

:banana:
Click to expand...
Which is the electronic one, am I right?

It's also something to do with distances. The club head is more blurred than the shaft or the golfer's legs.
I had this once, taking a 45 degree shot of a moving train. The front was all blurred but the rear was static. I'll see if I can find the shot.
 
Last edited:
No he sold his Nikons!
Here's the shot. I couldn't work out why the train appeared to be going backwwards. It's a long time ago now, and someone did explain it, but I can't remember what it was.
Running backwards....jpg
 
Hmmm, more weirdness. Nice shot though.
 
I think it's something to do with the type of shutter; some mobile phone cameras produce a similar effect, 'bending' straight objects rather than showing movement blur.
 
A similar, (but not as pronounced) effect was happening on Mechanical Shutter too.
 
Where is Prof. Stephen Hawking when you need him! This is weird-assed physics and stuff.
 
The Image Team said:
Where is Prof. Stephen Hawking when you need him! This is weird-assed physics and stuff.
Click to expand...
Looks like google may be able to provide the answer for why it's the shutter.

https://www.tutelman.com/golf/measure/focalPlaneDistortion.php

Quote from the website 'The apparent shaft bend is completely an artifact of the way the focal plane shutter exposes the film'.

Video of a XT-2 shutter showing the downwards shutter movement that would cause the apparent bendy golf club.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k8U_Z5aHhQY
 
Last edited:
It's because the shutter is not fully open above certain speeds - the curtains move together, exposing a small gap between them - the shorter the exposure, the smaller the gap. The moving club was changing position, possibly even accelerating, all the way through the exposure to create this bend effect.

This is also why shutter speeds for focal plane shutters are limited when using flash - above a certain speed the shutter never fully opens.
 
Ahhh, makes some sense. Thank you Mariner.
 
Thanks Rob, going to do a bit of reading on that website when I am working tomorrow.
 
Yes it is the way a shutter lays down the image.
Focal plane shutters have always done this.
Leica ones used to move sideways and Contax ones vertically.
Bladed shutters do not have this effect as their movement is concentric like a diaphragm.
Digital cameras have added a new phenomenon to the mix using the scanning of the sensor as a shutter which adds the rolling effect,

The best way to stop a golf swing is with a bladed shutter with high speed flash as the fastest bladed shutter only went to 1/1000 second. And a majority to only 1/500 sec

There wsa a lot fof debate in the 1930's about whether a Leica or Contax was better at capturing a speeding car or train, as the one stretched or shortened it depending on direction and the other made it lean forward or backward depending which way up uou held the camera.. in general the contax won the debates, as it added a speedy look.
 
Last edited:
ancient_mariner said:
It's because the shutter is not fully open above certain speeds - the curtains move together, exposing a small gap between them - the shorter the exposure, the smaller the gap. The moving club was changing position, possibly even accelerating, all the way through the exposure to create this bend effect.

This is also why shutter speeds for focal plane shutters are limited when using flash - above a certain speed the shutter never fully opens.
Click to expand...

The Image Team said:
Ahhh, makes some sense. Thank you Mariner.
Click to expand...

But in this instance the sever effect is caused by using the electronic shutter, it's well known and documented. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter

Try with the mechanical shutter and see what happens, it should at least look relatively normal.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top