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Build Your Own KiteCam

Posted by michael on from the sacrifices-necessary-in-the-cause-of-Science dept.

wally writes "Paul Mutton successfully managed to kill an expensive digital camera taking aerial photos using a kite, parcel tape and some bubble wrap. The geek explains the ups and downs (excuse the pun) of his attempt to take some aerial photographs with a friend using a Casio EX-Z3 digital camera attached to a kite in good ol' Blue Peter style bubble wrap and parcel tape. Paul did however manage to take 2 or 3 pretty photos of Kent University before his precious camera speed to the ground at a speed with enough force to render it quite unusable. Out of bits left intact was the flash card and a 30 second clip leading up to the crash. Remember children: Don't try this at home!"

14 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Also... by Machitis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My brother had strapped a cheap digital camera to a remote control airplane and took some pictures. Simply incredible what he did with that. He also got some great crash footage that was priceless. :)

  2. Did it myself... by GoRK · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I crashed my kite rig once too. I think it's kind of a rite of passage in the hobby. Lots of things can go wrong. This crash cost about $1 per foot fallen for the camera repair luckily. The camera was a Canon Powershot G2.

    This has been a really fun hobby. I got into it after seeing a very old /. article about it. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to get out and do it for about a year, but I'm not done by far :)

    BTW to the person who submitted about the 360deg aerials, I have made one as well. They are pretty difficult to get right, but they are singlehandedly the most awesome photos I have ever been able to take on a fairly shoestring photography budget.

    More of my KAP stuff here for those curious.

    1. Re:Did it myself... by GoRK · · Score: 4, Interesting

      On second thought this guy really had it coming. His rig was not adequate for the task he was trying to do. Most people in this type of shoestring setup of taping the camera to the kiteline opt for very cheap ($10) film cameras or disposables with small mechanical shutter releases. Hopefully, this setback won't discourage him from further attempts to do some kite photography, but hopefully at least next time he will use a proper rig with a proper suspension if he wants to send up a couple hundred bucks worth of camera equipment.

      BTW any KAP'ers who happen to be on Orkut, there is a group called Kite Aerial Photography I am trying to start up over there.

    2. Re:Did it myself... by GoRK · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The total bill with shipping came to about $150. For a drop of as many feet, it was a good deal. BTW this was back before the G3 was even out. The G2 was still selling for >$800, and so we had dropped basically a top of the line camera! Canon's support and repair services were absolutely excellent, and I have encouraged the purchase of very little but Canon since.

      Canon's new S1 IS is an awesome little camera. My dad just got one. It's not even a 4 megapixel camera, but buying a point and shoot on this ridiculous statistic alone is like buying a computer based on the processor's raw clock speed alone. This is an excellent camera so far at a very good price.

  3. Kites... by k4_pacific · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of things I've learned about kites in my life is that they tend to hit the ground at blistering speeds with alarming frequency. I've toyed with the idea of trying something along these lines with a digital camera, except I always planned on using a balloon filled with Helium with a string running back to the ground. This way, if the wind changes suddenly, its not going to slam the kite into the ground from an altitude of several hundred feet. Still, you have the danger of the string breaking, but in this case, you can include on your balloon probe a small form factor motherboard, a cellphone modem card, a GPS receiver and an RS-232 interfaced control valve to bleed the helium. This way, if it gets away, you can call it, ask it where it is and tell it to land.

    --
    Unknown host pong.
  4. RC Heli Photography by TimeTrip · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you think Kite photos are cool, check out some of the pix taken by RC heli pilots with their rigs:
    Pictures here

    --

    You crazy man? You piss off supahfly!
  5. X10 cam? by Cheerio+Boy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I gotta ask - isn't this the sort of thing those damn X10 cameras would be good for? A kite can't be too far out of range of the wireless camera and a good laptop.

    What's the resolution on those things anyway. I was so annoyed by their advertising schemes that I forgot that they might possibly be useful in some way.

    --

    "Bah!" - Dogbert
  6. Re:What about an actual Do It Yourself? by GoRK · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A much easier solution is to get one of those so called "disposable digitals" from Ritz camera or Walgreens. They are very cheap and you can hack them to extract the photos, change batteries, etc. They are really quite ideal cameras for KAP. They don't have a screen, but you don't need it!

  7. Re:Well... by azadam · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Seems like the drag of the parachute might manifest a crash of its own. ;)

  8. My Dad Used to Do This by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    back in the 1930's. he used a box kite and a piece of ice, which would melt and trigger the shutter on the camera.

  9. Re:there's MUCH better work out there. by blamblamblam · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I agree--these guys are relative lightweights. Several years ago, a friend of mine used RC car parts along with a cage-like assembly to suspend a normal film camera along the line of a kite. With this setup he could angle the camera up and down, as well as let it travel up and down the line, and take pictures when he wanted to. The 10-second delay tactic the guys in the post used is pretty lame by comparison.

  10. How about on a Gameboy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Game Boy Kite Aerial Photography

  11. Uh-Oh. The bandwidth bill will kill him by rainer_d · · Score: 3, Interesting

    According to Netcraft, the site is hosted by NotNet Ltd.
    http://www.notnet.co.uk.
    They have several hosting-schemes: 1, 2, 4, 8 and 20 GB transfer per month, with additional bandwidth for 5 GB-pounds per month per GB or 20 GBP for 5 GB...
    The domain itself responds with a errorcode 500 now...
    But at least, the hosting-provider is up-front about not offering any kind of "unlimited" hosting-schemes...

    --
    Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
  12. Re:camera fund by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's even an article on doing this in the "home science" or whatever it's called section of Scientific American sometime in 1961. 1961, folks! Even back then they knew not to do it with something you couldn't afford to drop.

    YLFI
    --
    One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.