What's the Buzzzzzz?

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Frank McBride

Frank McBride

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This was a new one. I was covering aftermath of a high-speed 18-wheeler chase. A trooper asked me to move because I was in the "scene". I decided my best shot was going to be from out in the field next to the freeway, so I pushed through the ankle-high weeds until I got a decent angle.

As I was shooting, I noticed a strange vibration on my hand when I was touching the zoom rocker and iris control. It wasn't constant, but it was frequent. There was no visible problem in the viewfinder, and just looking at the lens I couldn't SEE a problem.

My first assumption was that it was the zoom servo acting up, so I threw it into manual. It kept doing it. Then I unplugged the lens cable altogether. It kept doing it. Then, just to be sure, I turned of the camera. To my surprise, it STILL did it. I had never felt this before and was stumped how I was going to explain this one to the engineers.

I powered the camera back up and rejoined my reporter and other media by the police tape. As we got soundbites and traffic shots, I noticed the vibration was gone, completely. Now I was really stumped, but when we were waiting for the police PIO to come give us the official word, I figured it out.

Strung directly over the piece of field I had used for my shots were multiple high-voltage power lines. I apparently was in a strong elecro-magnetic field. I never saw any glitches in the video resulting from it.

Has anyone else experienced this or heard of it? I'd like to know what it was doing to me and my camera. I'm just glad I'm done having kids!

FMc
 
ewink

ewink

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Frank -

Funny you bring that up. I was under some high voltage transmission lines chatting with a cop on a story and I could feel it.

It was freaking me out, so I left. I felt bad for him though because he had a flat tire...
 
elvezz

elvezz

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I keep waiting for somewthing like this to happen to me.
I shoot around substations and under 345k lines all the time.
Nothing yet.
 
addixicon

addixicon

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Yes, I have felt this before, I had a live cable strung over one of those metal guard rails, which appearantly was conducting a mild current, because when I lifted the cable off the rail, it went away. We were also near some high voltage power lines. Little freaky.
 
Just Wondering

Just Wondering

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Ok....Here's the short version..... Electricity travels on the OUTSIDE of the wire. The wires you refered to are most likely 60k lines in a group of 3 or more. You get what is called RF field. That is what a live van censor is reading when it shuts down by the way.

Pay close attention to the porcelin isulators notice how short or long they are. They are that length for a reason. That reason is.... Arcing distance. The isulators are a buffer zone if you will. You get inside of that zone and you are toast.

That is why you felt the vibration. You were in the RF field. It would be a good thing to leave the area. Chances are you won't get toasted by why push it. You are a direct path to ground.

Notice birds don't get toasted when the are in the middle of the lines while watching traffic go by. They are now a part of the current flow. The INSTANT they are within an "arcing" distance to ground.....POOF.

That same thing will happen to a live van mast as well. get inside the safe zone and.....POOF you are now the news story.

Hope this cleared it up for you.

[ May 06, 2005, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: D.Magical Photo Flow ]
 
S

SmlMktChief

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Frank...

Take one of those 3 foot flourscent(sp) bulbs out to the same spot, and the bulb will light up! Pretty strange and cool at the same time. Best light is after dark.
 
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