High Quality Raw Luftwaffe Gun Camera vs USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators

[LukeFF]

 

[Kurfurst]

The final clip, when the 110 sits behind the Fortress and picks gunners, engines, fuel tanks one after the other while casually emptying hundreds of cannon shells into the plane until forced to turn away at point blank is easily the most harrowing combat footages of WWW for me.

 

There were 10 young men on that plane and it must have looked like a slaughterhouse afterwards. ? 

[JG1_Vonrd]

It seems like gun camera films are, in general, shown at reduced speed and these seem the same. I played back at 2X speed on Youtube and they seem more realistic. Does anyone know if it's true that they are slowed down and if so, what is the correct speed to view to reflect RL?

 

BTW, these are very interesting but horrifying as well. Thanks for posting.

[Aapje]

It all depends on the FPS of the camera and at what FPS you play it back. If the camera FPS is higher than the playback, the footage slows down and vice versa.

 

PS.  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5242367/Rare-Nazi-WWII-gun-camera-appears-eBay-7-000.html

[JG1_Vonrd]

Yes, I understand that. The Luftwaffe camera that you link to "uses 16mm film shooting 16 frames per second".

We might assume that 16 FPS is probably standard for cameras of that period. So, how do we tell what FPS Youtube is presenting it at and adjust accordingly?

[Aapje]

6 hours ago, JG1_Vonrd said:

Yes, I understand that. The Luftwaffe camera that you link to "uses 16mm film shooting 16 frames per second".

We might assume that 16 FPS is probably standard for cameras of that period. So, how do we tell what FPS Youtube is presenting it at and adjust accordingly?

 

Right click on the video and choose 'stats for nerds'.

[JG1_Vonrd]

12 hours ago, Aapje said:

 

Right click on the video and choose 'stats for nerds'.

Thank you! I was not aware of that feature. Still, I don't see FPS. Am I missing it?

[357th_KW]

It's likely impossible to know, since it would depend on how the recording was transferred from film to a digital format.

[Aapje]

12 hours ago, JG1_Vonrd said:

Thank you! I was not aware of that feature. Still, I don't see FPS. Am I missing it?

 

The value behind the resolution and the @ is the frame rate, so 30 FPS.

[DD_Arthur]

On 3/3/2024 at 9:22 PM, JG1_Vonrd said:

It seems like gun camera films are, in general, shown at reduced speed and these seem the same. I played back at 2X speed on Youtube and they seem more realistic. Does anyone know if it's true that they are slowed down and if so, what is the correct speed to view to reflect RL?

This footage was intended to be viewed in slow motion. It wasn’t intended to be used to confirm kills either but as a learning tool to debrief pilots and help improve their gunnery.

As the war progressed many US aircraft were fitted with 32mm systems that could be manually operated by the pilot but most of this footage - especially LW - was taken when the camera was operating and that was linked to the firing mechanism; the cameras rolled when the guns were firing. This was rarely more than three or four seconds and often less.

I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this before but a friend of mine has a small brass Spitfire which is of slightly less than 1:72 scale.

It has a threaded hole in the base beneath the cockpit. It was part of a projector system built to view Spitfire gun cam footage.

The model Spitfire was projected onto the screen as the gun cam film rolled and range and off angle of the guns  when they were fired could be accurately assessed.

 

I don’t go a great deal on gun cam footage. It’s one thing having fun with a video game but I’m sure we’re all aware that in these old, flickering frames we’re quite often witnessing the last moments of some very brave and very young men.