Kite Aerial Photography

SethJohnson writes "People have been attaching cameras to kites for quick-and-dirty aerial photographs for almost a hundred years. Hobbyists have progressed the art far beyond it's quick-and-dirty origins to produce stunning results. NASA even has a fairly detailed how-to using a disposable camera. Looks like a fun science fair project for those dads out there with kids."

Comments

Re:Estes Rocket

[AntiPasto]

I looked into these, radio controlled airplanes, and others. Kites are a) very cool b) very broad in design c) what spawned aircraft. It's also fairly cheap combined with the amount of control. You can go up to SLR cameras (any may do) and I've seen enough sadness in my dad's RC plane buddies to know that losing a plane *and* a camera would be devistating. Kites of course need wind, and in lack of wind there's always balloons, but I felt in my study of all of this that it was less risky than other low-altitude photography.

We don't need no stinkin' kite!

[AmigaAvenger]

We've sent our little 35mm's up to 112,000 feet! try that with a kite!

High Alt Balloon Group

Pencam - much smaller, lighter, and easier

[pm]

I attach a small, cheap, 1.3MP digital Pencam to my R/C planes for aerial shots. Aiptek makes a 1.3MP "pencam" that weighs about 50grams. (without batteries) that works pretty well. The pictures out of the CMOS sensor and the cheap lens aren't as nice as conventional photographs - even from disposable cameras - but you can take a lot of them, and the really bad ones don't cost anything to develop.

The camera is ~US$60-70 at Walmart and Circuit City.

The official Pencam web site

And a picture taken with my pencam from my R/C plane

Re:how about X10

[Rolo Tomasi]

This guy has some interesting info & footage.