Posts Tagged ‘pinball’
4 Million BC
Here’s a glamor shot of my newest toy – a 1971 Bally 4 Million BC. I’m not really into the old-school pins – but I’ve always liked this game. When an opportunity came up to buy one locally, I couldn’t turn it down.
It’s surprisingly difficult to shoot pinball machines. If you use a flash, well – it looks like it. Long exposures are about your only hope – but with all the chasing lights on the playfield, it looks strange because multiple lights will turn on and off while the shutter is open. Depth of field is also interesting – you have to close focus on things, and because of the flat view of the playfield – much is out of focus without a very small aperture.
As for getting the ball to show up – well, that’s my little secret.. 
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 135 f/2L ISO 200, f/8, .8 sec.
High Score
Low light pictures in an arcade are hard to pull off – you have a choice between using a flash, a very fast lens, or a high ISO setting on the camera. All have disadvantages – using a flash gives that harsh ‘flash’ look (unless done carefully). A fast lens (like f/1.8) is good, but you have low depth of field. And.. unless you’ve got one of the modern generation of cameras, high ISO will give you a really ‘noisy’ shot.
In this case – since I didn’t want to use flash, I used my 50mm f/1.8 wide open to let in as much light as possible. I also juiced the ISO up to 3200 – which is very usable on the 5D Mark II.
Vital Stats: Canon 5D Mark II w/Canon 50mm f/1.8 II @ 50mm. ISO 3200, f/1.8, 1/60 sec.