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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.
WIth rocket cameras, helicopter cameras, and kite cameras, it's a wonder I haven't seen any model airplane cameras yet. Now that would be neat.
Flying a kite in a populated area like New York or London sounds like a nice way to get electrocuted or, failing that (like if you've got underground lines like most people in NYC) it sounds like a good way to cause some traffic accidents and pedestrian injuries... not to mention the cost of the camera.
Read the article, learn basic math, and buy yourself a scale.
These guys are taking pictures at incredibly high altitudes for what you suggest. 100 metres is considered LOW. That's 300 feet, in case you're a yank. Ever pick up 300 feet of RCA cabling? These guys use 6 foot wide kites just to handle the weight of the camera, which is probably 1/5th of the weight of that much wiring, if that.
Now just try it with 2, 3, or 400 metres of wire. Yup, that's sure clever.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Conductive kite strings are bad....