What's New
January 2012 - Check out our latest sensor the RangeIR. Designed for birds and wildlife.
November 2011 - Power your StackShot or StopShot longer in the field with our new Li-Ion Battery Pack
November 2011 - The Universal IR Remote now has the capability to start and stop video recording for Canon cameras. UIRR
October 2011 - Visit our new customer photo gallery.
June 2011 - Check out our new Flash Sequencer. Fire multiple flashes or cameras in rapid succession.
April 2011 - In response to many customer requests Cognisys introduces an Extended Length Macro Rail - 200mm
Software Updates:
Thank you to all of our current customers who suggested many of these ideas to us. We very much appreciate the feedback. Keep it coming!
Until now making shutter lag measurements with StopShot was an iterative process that took a fair amount of work. Now there is a dedicated function for this purpose. This is especially useful if you camera's shutter lag is variable (most of them are). Shutter lag measurements are taken by selecting the Shutter Lag Measurement from the Global Configuration menu, then connect your camera with a flash up to Trigger 1 (you will need a camera specific shutter cable for this). Point the flash at the beam sensor that is included in the StopShot kit and push the up or down button to start the measurement. StopShot will then fire the camera and wait to see how much time elapses between the output and the flash. This time is the shutter lag. It will reported on the LCD module in mS (1/1000 sec).
This feature will make cleaning out your water valve much easier, either after a shoot or if you want to change the color of the liquid being dropped. The water valve is generally used in "Manual" mode when taking water drop pictures. When in this mode cleaning your valve out is now a matter of holding down the up or down button. As long as you hold the button down the valve will stay open and the display will read "purging". Release the button to return to normal operation.
In the old versions of StopShot the pulse durations for the pulses needed to be equal. The pulse durations are most frequently used to control the valve open times for water drops. This restriction forced the two drops to always be equal volume. The latest software gives you the flexibility to make the first drop a different size than the second one. It is another creative knob to turn when taking water drop photos.
StopShot now comes with presets stored in memory for both a single drop and for drop collisions. You will need to make sure your physical setup has the same dimensions as ours (see manual for specifics), but once this is verified creating a water drop collision is a sure thing. The presets will give you a place to start with all of the right settings to capture this very short lived event.