Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron von Kriterium
http://www.velonews.com/2017/07/tour...stage-7_443075
"Rather than shoot frames that are thousands of pixels wide using some sort of shutter and digital sensor (the modern replacement for film), the finish line camera is a slit camera. Old slit cameras run film behind a lens. In the timing camera’s case, the design exposes a digital sensor.
"A flatbed scanner is a type of slit camera. So imagine pointing one of those at the finish line and scanning the riders coming across. Frame rates can be so high because there is no shutter to close and the cameras only record a one-pixel wide image at a time (10,000 times per second). This type of camera, pointed at a finish line, is guaranteed to show you who or what got to that finish line first, because it shows almost every moment. This is also the source of the distortion we associate with finish line photos. The scanner has a set speed, and anything going slower gets elongated — anything faster gets squished.
"No shutter means nothing is missed (because shutters close, and you miss that part). That’s good when the riders are crossing the line .0003 seconds apart from each other."
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That's cool. I remember they showed that image once briefly and I couldn't tell who was ahead. I guess if you actually had the image you could look way closer at it to make the determination.
It was extremely close, unlike today. Tomorrow should be interesting.