Camera to record welding

[LutzTD]

I would like to video record some welding. I have a GoPro and a couple of older cell phones as equipment, 8mp on one of them. I tried with just a cell phone or the GoPro, and the weld itself is too bright. Also zooming in to get detail (about5X) becomes too grainy using digital zoom. next, I want to try to use an old welding lens to see if that will get rid of the washout brightness, but the 5X is still an issue. I bought a lens kit but the macro is only good if the camera is 6 inches from the subject, so that's no good. So what I need, is a lens to get 5x magnification, but able to focus from 12-18 inches away. Do any camera guys out there have an idea what I should be looking for in an adapter lens? In the end, I may try to adapt a helmet to have 2 welding lenses, one for me and one for the camera so I can record what I see

 

[king nero]

I've had good results with a digital camera (not a cell phone), with a fixed shade 10 glass held in front of the lens with rubber bands...
Not professional by any means, but good enough for DIY purposes...

 

[bdbecker]

To add to king nero's comment - a digital camera that you can manually control all the settings on is the key to getting this to work. Used DSLRs from Adorama, KEH, or Ebay can be had for surprisingly low prices. You'll still need to buy a lens, but for what you are doing, I wouldn't be afraid of picking up a cheaper variable lens that gets you above 50mm focal length (like a 55-200mm). That should allow you to zoom in on the weld while keeping the camera at a safe distance. All in, I bet you could get setup for around $250 or less.

 

[Monza Harry]

I used to be into film photography, and for filters these were the "GUYS" I see they are still around, so to add to King Nero's and BDBeckers train of thought go here: https://cokinfilter.com/blogs/news/the-beginners-guide-to-mastering-cokin-filters Go to filters, Neutral Density, and choose one or two for the camera you end up with, also fashion a holder for the tripod to hold a plexi shield in front of everything. Oh and now you should share with us as we are now invested ! Harry

 

[LutzTD]

thanx for the replies, I was hoping to get a flatter solution than a full DSLR, is there a thin format DSLR? I was really hoping to get it in the helmet with my big head . I don't want to add a tower over my head, but I guess that is an option too. In the meantime, I will see about getting a #10 shade glass lens

update, the individual lens are fairly cheap so I got 8-10 and 12 to try out

 

[thejimmy]

As you have found out the cell phone and action cams fall short of what you want, I went thru this to some extent, however I do have a DSLR and went with that. This is one I took.

 

[Spareparts]

I am not into cameras that much but when trying to take a short film with a go-pro I tried a lens out of an old set of cutting goggles to help with the glare and it seem's to work, not near as dark as the #8 or 10 out of the welding hood, besides it was easier to mount the little round lens.

 

[LutzTD]

As you have found out the cell phone and action cams fall short of what you want, I went thru this to some extent, however I do have a DSLR and went with that. This is one I took.

that looks pretty nice, what did you use for a filter? weld looks good too

 

[LutzTD]

I am not into cameras that much but when trying to take a short film with a go-pro I tried a lens out of an old set of cutting goggles to help with the glare and it seem's to work, not near as dark as the #8 or 10 out of the welding hood, besides it was easier to mount the little round lens.

thanx, I bought #8, #10, and #12 replacement shades to try out. the shades are here but with everything else going on I have not had a chance to try them

 

[thejimmy]

that looks pretty nice, what did you use for a filter? weld looks good too

Thanks

I used a #8 green lens, dslr with a 50mm lens, all manual

 

[bdbecker]

How far away from the work area was your camera using that 50mm lens? I was trying to guessitmate what to suggest in my earlier post and was thinking that something around 75mm would be good so that the camera could be setup a foot or two away.

 

[thejimmy]

I'd guess about 26 - 32" or so.
Other idea is to zoom in some in post, in fact the pic I posted was a screen grab from video, so a higher resolution video would allow a little more room in post processing. My video was taken with a Canon DSLR (brand doesn't matter) and all settings were manual, especially the focus since the camera would probably be hunting for something to focus on. I did multipule trial runs to get to a setting I liked. I should have wrote those down ;-(

Someone mentioned using a zoom lens, you have to be aware that the close focus will be further away, which might be ok if you have the room to do that, also the depth of field might be smaller. The 50mm is a good choice for all these reasons and its a great lens at a very affordable price if you have a dslr

 

[LutzTD]

A lot of great info thanx. My setup I hope will be from a head mounted camera which would place it usually about 12" away when I weld. I would like to get a zoom or magnification of 5X or so which is the same as the glasses I wear when I weld to get a good view of the melt puddle from that distance. I would have to manual focus because I think the combination of the zoom and #8 shade would be too much for any autofocus camera logic. still hoping someone has experience with a smaller lens/cam combination I can helmet mount, but I am also searching

 

[LutzTD]

have received several camera candidates over the last week. I had settled on a small camera footprint, with an m12 lens mount. this way I can helmet mount it and it won't be too intrusive. I am looking at a couple of formats, either an FPV type camera/screen using PAL/NTSC straight to a screen, or a USB straight to a raspberry pi, or use a pi camera using the pi onboard image processor, not sure which will work better for what I want to do, there are a lot of options out there. I also spoke to a lens designer and he recommended and sold me a lens group in the m12 size that should give me good close in magnification, hopefully the depth of field will be manageable. will keep updating as things settle out

 

[thejimmy]

Whatever you do please post back, I'm very interested ...

 

[LutzTD]

the lens the guy recommended did not work, not even close..... while playing awaiting this recommended lens group, I did notice that one of the cameras focuses and enlarges very nicely from 4-5 inches away with the fisheye type lens that is stock on that sample cameras, now I am wondering if I could put it on my glove? but, in the meantime, I am trying to see if I can get some discrete lens and make my own compound lens to do what I want.

 

[thejimmy]

Here is a Link to a short video I made

 

[LutzTD]

Here is a Link to a short video I made

that is exactly what I want to get to, thanx Can you tell me how far away your DSLR was and what lens you used?

 

[thejimmy]

I used a 50mm lens about 28-36" away, other things to consider is the close focus of the lens, so you may be able to get a little closer, however if you record at a high resolution then you can "get closer" in post processing. The other thing is you'll need to focus manually as you don't want the lens hunting for focus while recording. In fact all my settings were done manually.