This is something that I have never thought about until yesterday afternoon.
Those transmitted pictures are all the more amazing considering they are from multiple analog television cameras transmitting an analog signal.
These results were truly astounding technology considering the signal synchronization required to obtain that high speed photography from the vaccum tube and power transistor based circuitry that I had thought available to the electrical engineers in 1965.
I'm thinking a "shutter speed" frame capture rate of significantly
under 1/1000 of a second to get pictures of the clarity shown at the relative impact velocity of 2,670 metres per second (8,800 ft/s).
The final image taken before impact has a resolution of 0.3 metres (12 in).
Use VLC to play the video at 3:52 and set the playback rate to x0.03. That way you can best see the sharp details as they come into view in the final frames.
Using this setup in full screen, when viewing the top left image it looks similar to one of those fractal zoom in animations.
Given the nature of the scanning tube signals used in any known pre CCD video cameras, the motion blur would manifest as disjointed images.
Considering the fact that there is absolutely no motion blur residue at all in the final frames,
neither towards the perimeter for off center objects, nor expansion smearing of objects closer to the center of the impact,
speaks to a very advanced state of analog electrical circuit design being demonstrated by NASA's live television transmission.
Final two images taken by Ranger 9 before impact
Simply incredible.
