Fast image recording - Introduction

Human reactions to a sudden event are not immediate. So it is for an observer in the presence of an animated scene. Just as when looking at this scene, the details he can resolve are limited in dimension, so he cannot distinguish changes that are too brief or too rapid; in addition to its spatial resolution, human vision is limited by a temporal resolution (of the order of tenths of a second).

The study of brief or fast-moving events therefore requires an initial phase of recording a single image or a series of successive images, followed by a second phase of playback, during which analysis takes place.

This section describes the various ways of recording short exposure images and high-speed image sequences.