Being a photographer is an expensive gig, and treading into the waters of high speed photography, even more so. The equipment currently used to film those well-known shots of small events like water droplets falling and frogs jumping cost big money, so it’s not hard to see why it isn’t more prevalent. Matt Kane wasn’t a big fan of the excessive costs, and created the Vela One to make it more affordable to do quality high speed photography.
The Vela One does away with the need for a high-speed camera costing tens of thousands of dollars as an LED-based unit that packs one million units into a sturdy polycarbonate box. The Vela One is capable of pulses as short as 500 nanoseconds, 100 times faster than standard speed light flashes and fast enough to shoot a rifle bullet. Since the device isn’t based on high voltage sparks and doesn’t require dangerous equipment to operate, it’s so much more versatile and accessible. Photographers can combine the Vela One with the fps1000 for truly low-cost, quality shots, making the former practically necessary to most any photographer. A donation of £550 (~$856) will get backers a Vela One by May 2015 should the product reach its campaign goal of £25,000 (~$38,900).