the basic stopshot settings are in the manual for the unit for using the Cognisys stopshot as I use a solenoid valve supplied in the UK which has different characteristics. From about two feet the delay between droplets should be around 60-70ms for a collision, start with 60ms if you don’t see an impact gradually increase the delay value by 2ms at a time and eventually you should see the second droplet appear in the frame. I tend to shoot without lifting the mirror and the shutter is set to 1/10 second. I haven’t found any real quality benefit with mirror lockup except when you need a faster response from the camera after triggering. You might find that the delay in the wireless signal will introduce a second image which will degrade the final impact and as you want to move onto ballistics I would strongly recommend getting a hotshoe adaptor for the 580Ex so you can wire that directly to the stopshot and eliminate any issues with synchronisation. It is also possible to fit a 3.5mm jack socket into the 580Ex foot which I’ve done, a Google search will find the modification for you.

Great work! I am using a Canon 7D with a 580EX and a 580EX II and would like to know the best settings for the Stop Shot settings with the optional water droplet solenoid relay, connections and camera lag compensation.
The 7D camera is set to mirror lock up, manual exposure 1/250 sec at f16 manual focus. The 580EX II is connected to the Stop Shot directly but the 580 EX cannot due to a lack of the terminal. I am thinking of triggering this using the slave mode setting via wireless. The water droplet height is set to 2 feet. I would like to do water droplets and then move on to ballistics for a baloon using the IR sensors. Thanks for your help.

It looks like you were able to remove all the gaps. Which method did you use to do this? I’ve looked at the links you mention but there are various methods described, from Photoshop blending algorithms to rotating the photo over itself to fill the gaps.

Which method worked for you?

Thanks so much once more.

Emma, just be wary in thinking that the precise design of the JSB pellets always remains constant. I’ve seen a couple of minor variations in tins marked as AA Field and a couple of variations in tins marked as JSB Exacts. This has lead to the situation where some batches of AA Field are all but indistinguishable from JSB Exact (or Daystate FT/Select etc). Other batches are quite distinctly different.