Catching Muzzle Flash..or 357 SIG vs .357Mag

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datasmith

New member
Greetings everyone. I'm not sure which way I would like this thread to go... a discussion about the obvious differences between the 357 SIG cartridge and the .357 Mag...which is where I was headed when I took these images. Or, a general discussion on muzzle flash... or both, heh?

We've started a new section of hands-on handgun reviews on our website. The section is not officially linked yet, but you all can get a first peek here:

genitron.com - Handgun Reviews

Since one of the first two guns I reviewed was a 357 SIG, I thought I'd do some hands-on comparison with my S&W .357 Mag revolver. What I thought would be interesting would be a comparison of the muzzle flash between the two.

I'm not a still photographer, but I do some video photography and have a decent camera (Canon GL1). So I thought I could set the camera up, fire a few rounds in front of it, and capture some muzzle flash. I figured the camera snaps 2-1/60 sec interlaced frames every 1/30th of a second. I ought to capture something. But not so! Out of a total of fifty rounds fired, these were the best captures I got. Most of the shots I got nothing at all.. So I figure that the muzzle flash must be considerably shorter than 1/60 th of a second, to be missed so often. Since I didn't feel comfortable with the accuracy of the results... I opted not to use the Pics in my review. But, I thought the one capture of the .357 Mag I got was cool so I thought I'd post it here for your enjoyment.
 

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Pezo

New member
454_flash.jpg
thats a cool pic. here is one of a .454 casull I beleive, going off. this pic is from a moderator IIRC who posted it on one of these forum's for us to use as wall paper. I love the unique flash of a high powered revo. :D
 
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cas

New member
From my experience, they don't compare. The 357 Mag being much worse.

I suppose if you really want to put the two up one another, you'd need two short(er) Contender barrels in each caliber. The revolver is going to have cylinder gap flash and always be worse.
 
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tulsamal

New member
As a photographer, if I was going to try to take a picture of muzzle flash, I would take it at night and from a tripod. And I would use a very long exposure. Most 35mm cameras used to have a speed marked "B" which held the shutter open until you released it. You screwed a cable release on there and mounted everything on a tripod and you were ready to go. Photographer hits the release and yells go, shooter fires, photographer releases the shutter. You get all the flash in the image.

You _could_ do it with just a longer exposure time but it will be trickier. If the camera will go into manual and at least allow 1 or 2 seconds then you should be able to do it. But use a tripod!

Gregg
 
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Stiletto

New member
Well, if I was going to do it at night, I would do it this way:

1. Set up the camera off to the side on a tripod.

2. Get it framed nicely, I would opt for a bit of zoom so the camera can be clear of the gun. (You do NOT want to be cleaning residue off of a lens surface!) Avoid any real bright glare from lights.

3. Have someone manning the camera, and while you hold the gun up, do a test exposure with aperture all the way open with an exposure time of about 1/2 second. Have him/her crank it down until it looks a bit dark.

4. When you have exposure settings locked in, have the other guy do a fast countdown (like 5-4-3-2-1-click instead of 3--2--1--click) so that you pull the trigger early in the exposure. This will put the muzzle blast somewhere in the middle of the exposure.

At a half second, it'll smear, but it'll show pretty much all of the muzzle blast. You might even need to reframe so that you capture the front end of the flame.

After some practice with this shooting partner, you can try for shorter exposures, like 1/3, 1/4, maybe even 1/5s.

A picture I took, but not of a gun.
 
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