Why Do You Need 250 60D's?

[Canon Rumors]

“Creative lab” Party has released a music video for the band androp that required the use of 250 Canon 60Ds wired together. The effect is a wild and creative strobe show.

I wish they had clicked my “buy a 60D here” link.

Inspired by the song’s lyrics, “not to make it a memory,” Party created the video using 250 Canon still cameras; their flashes were controlled via a potent DIY cocktail of arduino, openFrameworks, and Flash. The effect is a “light animation” produced with no CGI at all.

Source: Fastcompany

Thanks Raed

cr

[douflag]

Wow, those are 580EX II's also!

[terwilliger]

If you look at the video, it seems clear to me that they're using several different kinds of cameras, and several different types of flashes (the silhouettes are not the same).

I guess it's sort of neat, it seems like a really painful & expensive (foolish) way to get this effect.  Couldn't you get the same effect for a lot less money by:

1) Not having a camera at all, and just triggering the flashes with a PC cable?  (HiViz sells kits that can trigger a flash for ~$20).

2) Not using a flash at all, and just triggering some kind of bulb directly?

If they did this with only 60D + 580EXII, then that's ~$425,000 worth of kit.

[terwilliger]

...er not PC cable; I guess I meant by shorting the pins on the hot shoe.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Getting the timing correct is not easy for that type of photography.  Breeze has done custom software to control dozens of cameras at a time.

I use it to capture studio images.

Note the image on their home page with 120 Canon 30D's all linked together and controlled by 5 laptops.  I think they were fired sequentially to give a moving image effect.  There were no large format low cost video cameras back then.

[gmrza]

Most expensive cold shoes I have ever seen....

[J. McCabe]

I agree with previous posters - the cameras are used just to turn the flashes on, and as the same lights effect could have been created with cheaper & simpler ways, this looks like a gimmick.

[wtlloyd]

Actually, it looks like a video shoot done with Canon Marketing input.

[fman]

Actually, it looks like a video shoot done with Canon Marketing input.

Is 60D selling so badly in the light of Nikon D7000/D5100?

[RuneL]

I'm a bit disappointed. That is very little they got out of those 250 cameras.

[c-law]

You do realise those were rentals. They hardly went out and spend $400,000+ on cameras for a 2 day use. If Japanese rental prices are at all comparable to US then the cost would have been about $25,000 if they had used all 60D's and all 580EX's which I'm not sure they did. I think they have 60D's with different lenses and different flashes.

And the reason for the "expensive cold shoe stands" is that the cameras loosely tied in with the lyrics of the song.

As for  cheaper ways to get the same effect. They could have green screened it but that has been done before. Doing it manually gives it a much cooler vibe that is important for a music video to have if it wants to stand out.

Overall, pretty interesting.

[hutjeflut]

You do realise those were rentals. They hardly went out and spend $400,000+ on cameras for a 2 day use. If Japanese rental prices are at all comparable to US then the cost would have been about $25,000 if they had used all 60D's and all 580EX's which I'm not sure they did. I think they have 60D's with different lenses and different flashes.

wel they must have rented all the cameras in the entire country then as i highly doubt any rental store has more then 15/20 of the same camera's avaieble at one time.

[Stuart]

Seems to devalue the camera to me - as a 60D owner (one) it seems wasteful even if rented.
At the minuite mark the letter t come accross the screen, the flash seems to continuasly strobe for quite a while, recharge times seem good, maybe too good to beleive?

[RuneL]

Seems to devalue the camera to me - as a 60D owner (one) it seems wasteful even if rented.
At the minuite mark the letter t come accross the screen, the flash seems to continuasly strobe for quite a while, recharge times seem good, maybe too good to beleive?

The 580EX II is pretty hefty, if you set it to minimal charge you could fire it till it got too hot. I'm figuring that should be possible even if no external power pack was used.

[kode]

You do realise those were rentals. They hardly went out and spend $400,000+ on cameras for a 2 day use. If Japanese rental prices are at all comparable to US then the cost would have been about $25,000 if they had used all 60D's and all 580EX's which I'm not sure they did. I think they have 60D's with different lenses and different flashes.

wel they must have rented all the cameras in the entire country then as i highly doubt any rental store has more then 15/20 of the same camera's avaieble at one time.

the Greater Tokyo Area has an urban population of some 30 million people, if I remember correctly. You could probably find 250 cameras for rent in a few rental stores without going through too much trouble.