Some time ago I built a light beam trigger for cameras. I have sold these to some mates and they have been working ok. I wanted to test a few things today, one was to run the beam switch from a 9Volt standard battery. Some feedback, was that the 12V lead acid battery was not that easy to move around (Point Taken), the second test was to find Mountain Bike positions to suit to the beam switch.

The First thing to do is to test the theory in the comefort of your own home.

The first test in the field was a horizontal Front 3/4 with a 16-35mm…..not a bad shot, but there was some motion blur as the subject passes across the frame. I moved the shutter up to 1/800th and it was better, but still not great. If it’s dark and in the morning, use a flash and 2nd curtain, or in full light use a high shutter speed.

Next was the same idea, but in portrait. 16-35 portrait. The problem with this one was that the position on the track made a great difference to the framing of the subject. i.e. far more out of frame shots….This is not a keeper.

Third was Fish-eye in Horizontal. Again, not really all that crash hot, as you get the beam switch in the frame, and you need to shoot so close to the target it will make identifying them from their race numbers far tougher.

Fourth was more like the shot I might be after. The theory is the opposite to before where you shoot the wide shot with a hand held camera and the long shot with the beam switch remote. Problems here are with set-up time and location. If you have the time to get this right, it’ll be really nice.

This next one is the same as before but in portrait…not bad either

Same ideas the the two above, just lower and in horizontal. The might be the easiest to set-up overall. Camera on a tripod, entire track in the frame (minus beam switch stands and me). As with the other remote shots, metering is the key. As you may be in the location for some time, the light will change.

So what’s the best solution?? From this set of tests, I’d say use a wide hand held lens up close so you can move with the subject, and a long remote shot in Horizontal across the entire track. This all depends on the location and the light conditions, so It’ll have to be trial and error.