Details on how to use the Phantom v4.3 high-speed camera.
The Phantom v4.3 (specs) features 2100 fps at the full resolution of 800x600. Features a global shutter, auto exposure control, 2GB storage. Our camera has the standard 1" C-mount, so adapters will be needed for other lenses. Phantom is expensive, with used cameras going for $30k. Lower-priced competitors such as Chronos and Edgertronic are more competitively-priced at under ~$15k, while Photron come in the middle somewhere.
Use lens equations or use existing lenses to determine what lens purchase may be necessary for your needs. See this link for example. You will use the size of your subject and its distance from the sensor to roughly determine the necessary lens focal length.
Generally, the longer your lens, the lower your barrel or fish-eye distortion will be. But if your subject is mostly in the center of the lens anyways, distortion will be minimized. Look into barrel and pincushion distortion in reviews when making lens purchasing decisions. Generally, a prime lens (fixed focal length) will be cheaper than a variable focal length lens, and will probably have better optical characteristics, too. But it will be less flexible in application.
You will also need to be aware of the minimum focusing distance of your lens. Consider the depth of the boiling surface, use that as your depth of field, ensure your depth of field accommodates the depth of the subject.
It is important to have consistent lighting, you may be able to manipulate framerate to "cancel out" light strobing issues. Otherwise, you will need to purchase high-speed specific lighting, which is about ~$2k to ~$4k. Consider saving some room in the budget for purpose-built lighting.
Line up notches on the cable, push to connect, then twist the locking ring. The red Capture light and green Ethernet lights should be illuminated. Ensure the power supply is connected, and the ethernet cable is connected to the computer. Configure your properties so that the IP address is 100.100.100.1 and the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0, with blank DNS server addresses.
Launch Phantom Camera Control (PCC) software. If no cameras are detected, you have probably misconfigured your ethernet adapter settings. Close the software and attempt to reconfigure your ethernet adapter, then try launching the software again. Go to "Acquisition" in the toolbar, then "Setup and Recording". Here, you will see a preview window. My settings are as follows:
- Resolution: 640x480
- Sample rate: 1200 pps
- Exposure: 300 us
- EDR 0 us:
- PostTrigger: 1 p
There is a trade-off between resolution and sample rate. A lower resolution enables a higher sample rate, due to a maximum throughput limit of the camera. For this reason, use the minimum resolution necessary to capture your subject. Consider the minimum resolvable bubble as well.
Leave the lens in our lab, mount the camera in their lab. The C-mount ring on the camera came loose. Remove that first before attaching the Nikon lens mount adapter. The Canon lens mount adapter remains in the Pelican case.
Plug in the switch. The blue cable goes to the computer, the gray cable to campus wifi, and the black cable to the camera.
Plug in the switch. The blue cable goes to the computer, the gray cable to campus wifi, and the black cable to the camera.
Unplug the gray cable. Right-click on the internet options, go to "Open Network & Internet Settings". Go to "Change adapter options", right-click on Ethernet and go to "Properties". Go to TCP/IPv4 settings, click "Properties" again. Set IP to the settings in the image. Click OK and close out all windows.
Launch PCC software, called "Ph663" in the Start Menu. Allow access through the firewall if prompted. If the camera is connected, you will see 7767 in the title bar.
When finished reviewing and saving video, click the X in the top-right to close the video preview. To get back to live imaging, go to Acquisition and continue as before. To begin capturing more video, click Capture. In the dialog box, click to start new recording.
