Spokes bending in photo finish pics

[hugh stone]

Anyone have any idea why photo finish shots always seem to show the spokes bending away from the ground?

[toolonglegs]

Because it is not a standard photo... finish line cameras only record the actual finish line . An image only a few pixels wide photographing multiple frames at highspeed then stitching them together with each individual frame time stamped. So basically you are looking at a composite image with 100's or 1000's of images stitched together.

[hugh stone]

Am I right in thinking that what is show in the picture is only of the finish line at different times and so when the bike passes through the wheels also rotate to create the bendy spoke effect?

[hugh stone]

I guess the gaps shown between bikes is time rather than distance?

Not the first one to wonder about this.

http://inrng.com/2012/04/photo-finish-camera/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[toolonglegs]

Basically only the part of the bike / rider crossing the line is photographed, not the bike as a whole, as each part of the bike crosses the line it is photographed and stitched together. I suppose that is what causes this effect.
Think of it more of a scan than a photograph, only the scan head is held still ( over the line ) and the picture is the part moving... does that make sense .

[hugh stone]

I mistakenly had some paparazzi style camera in my mind (and wrongly thought it was a angle shot as the winner crossed the line).

All makes sense now. Thanks Toolonglegs.