We've always wanted to take some of those remarkable photos captured at an exact split second. Now we can emulate the accomplishments of the great high-speed photography pioneer Harold Edgerton with the Universal Photo Timer, bringing laboratory photo tech down to a $170 price point. Connect the unit to your camera and up to two flash units, and you can snag outrageously cool pics like those in our gallery below.

Besides just timing your exposures, the palm-sized unit has a built-in microphone, letting you trigger shots by sound. So, for example, you could frame up a camera shot on a lit lightbulb, and then when you shoot a bullet into it, the sound of the gun triggers the shutter and two flash units.

You can add other triggering attachments such as a $25 optical sensor, used in the "water droplet" and "water drop falling onto a lit match" photos in the gallery below, or a motion sensor to capture wildlife in action. These comparatively low prices are the game changer — only about $120 more than a simple wireless remote shutter release.

Universal Photo Timer, via Oh Gizmo