Filming a Welder - Need Filters???

1. KenzoFKC
   Member

   

   Howdy, a friend of mine is a welder, and he's going to build a steady-tracker type unit in exchange for a short business profile video for his website.

   My question is about shooting the actual welding. I know the arc is so bright it will damage your eye to look at. Does anyone know anything about pointing a video camera at it?
   Is there a certain filter you need?
   I would think if the arc was bright enough to hurt a human eye it could potentially damage the fragile circuitry of a modern camcorder.

   I don't want to ruin my camera in exchange for a steady-tracker...

   Ken Carlson
   
   http://kineticvisionmedia.com

   Posted 2 months ago # Login to Send PM

2. grinner
   Member

   

   Filming it is hard only because of exposure challenges. If shooting video, throwing it in auto aint nuttin' but a thang. You can play with different shutter settings to your liking and you'll have no problem watching this all through the LCD screen in real time.
   ...assuming you're not shooting with an old tube camera, anyway. ;)

   Posted 2 months ago # Login to Send PM

3. composite1
   Moderator

   

   Kenzo,

   Looks like you're using a semi-pro camera so you should have a couple of ND filters on it. I rarely if ever use auto exposure. With autoex, you're completely at the mercy of the cam's exposure response time. If you use the ND filters, you'll have far more control over the scene. I've shot torch welding, arc and foundry furnaces in action and have used ND filters every time with great results. However, there's nothing stopping you from running test footage to see which method will get the results you can live with.

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4. KenzoFKC
   Member

   

   Heh, thanks again. I figured I would be able to dial it in altering exposure, and or ND filter if I needed to. I do a lot of weddings so I'm used to flipping ND filters on and off on the fly. I was just concerned about the arc damaging the CCDs. Which, it sounds like you guys have experience with that, and it should be good to go!

   Thanks for the info Grinner and Composite!

   Posted 2 months ago # Login to Send PM

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