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The Expensive Hobby Of Kite Aerial Photography
GoneGaryT writes "The BBC is running a cool article
- strapping your digital camera to a kite and doing D.I.Y. aerial photography. Examples of suitable kites can be found here. Anyone want to try this from the top of an apartment building in London or NY? A pretty accessible pastime, so long as you can afford to lose the lot in a sudden gust!" High-res digital cameras have come down somewhat in price since the last time we mentioned this.
Check out Charles C. Benton's Site for collections from years of kite photography.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
http://vpizza.org/~jmeehan/balloon/
found it! http://prism.mem.drexel.edu/projects/kite/index.ht ml
IIRC, they had to develop a business case for the project (in other words, what engineers developed had to have a practical usage), and there was also some sort of entrpreneurial business plan competition sponsored by the business school going on at about the same time, so they also entered that contest using their kite project as a product and got an honorable mention. the page linked is what they submitted to that contest.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
The way to not loose the kite is to use a deep sea fishing reel. A good modern high-test deep sea fishing line will not break unless your out in weather that would break the kite first anyway.
Loudoun Amateur Radio Group has been launhing balloons with both still and video camera's on them for years. Info and pics on all 8 of LARG's fights are avalible here here.
~Paul
If one is worried about losing the kite and camera, then clever use of a weak link could help. Strong kite string would lead to the camera and weaker string would bind the camera to the kite. Excessive force from the wind would severe the link between the kite and camera, not the camera and owner. A parachute tied to a light tertiary line (a rip cord) would yank the camera's parachute when the kite breaks away. (An even better design would design a failure mode into the kite itself so that the kite loses its aerodynamic shape if the wind load becomes too high).
Although there is still a chance of the camera being caught in a kite-eating tree, wind gusts and line breaks need not lead to loss of the camera.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Does anybody remember doing this with model rockets? There was one model that came with a Plexiglas payload and a specially fitted camera. The camera took 110 film (I think), and snapped a single shot at the moment when the engine's ejection charge blew off the nose cone.
See, e.g., here.
Inevitably, everyone I knew would pull out the camera and launch lizards (frogs, bugs, etc.) instead.
I am desperately looking for recommendations for a digital camera that supports a remote shutter. A cable assembly is fine, as long as I can get a cable preferably longer than 10-15 feet, though a wireless setup would be ideal. even more ideal would be if this is available in Sony, as all my gear is Sony (in fact, my current digital camera is a well-worn DSC-S75 which is about at its retirement age).
The one piece of advice that I can give for aerial photographers, be they of the kite, airplane, or helicopter variety is this: invest in a wide angle lens. I bought the most expensive and "best quality" wide angle lens for my dsc-s75 that I found on ebay - a .38 lens with adapter for about $70. It opens up a WORLD of possibiltiies for photos taken of the ground from the air. for example, I've taken photos from right above skyscrapers (well, the legal limit above) with the macro and I get some really superb shots that way.
Remote-shutter digital camera recommendations really appreciated. Preferably of the "normal price range" of 500 +- a few hundred at the most.
About the time he was 14, he started taking aerial photographs. "I started taking aerial photographs before anyone ever thought of it," he contends.
Bowers' aerial photos were taken not with a plane, mind you, but with a seven-foot kite and a Brownie camera. Other supplies included some string, a slow-burning fuse, and a rubber band. Bowers lighted the fuse, which burned through the string, which held the shutter release. Then, the rubber band snapped the picture! The entrepreneurial Bowers would drop the kite, advance the film, place the camera in a holster attached to the kite, and take it up for another shot.
Ingenious