Build Your Own KiteCam

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!"

Comments

Well...

[XeRXeS-TCN]

Just fit the camera with a parachute, and you're sorted ;) Not using a really expensive camera would also probably be top of the list :P

Re:Well...

[azadam]

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

Re:Well...

[JWSmythe]

We have a mirror HERE, and mirrors of most other story links here

"30 second clip leading upto the crash"

[stefanlasiewski]

Wait, did you mean the kite or the server?

camera fund

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate to be a dick, but I'm not going to donate money to this guy's "camera fund". If it had been stolen or something, that might generate some sympathy - but the dude damaged his own camera in an idiotic "Tim the Tool-Man Taylor" sort of way... Next time... well... don't do that.

Re:camera fund

[GoRK]

Not to mention that he's trying to raise the money to replace the camera. The last time I dropped an $800 digital camera from a kite, it only cost $100 to have repaired and it was equally as trashed as this dude's.

Re:camera fund

[Anonymous Coward]

I do mean to be a dick

You succeeded. Remember that feeling, it won't happen often.

Re:camera fund

[MBCook]

See, that's odd. I am MORE willing to donate to this guy's fund than if it was stolen. He did something interesting and a little bit humorous. I could see myself giving the guy a pound or a dollar or two.

On the other hand, if it was stollen, I get a whole "poor me someone help me" feeling from it, and I wouldn't donate.

He damanged it doing something cool. I won't give him 150 pounds, but I could give him one or two.

PS: No, I won't actually be donating because I'm broke and cheap.

Re:camera fund

[stienman]

I could give him one or two.

PS: No, I won't actually be donating because I'm broke and cheap.

Typical response - "I'm more likely to donate to X than Y but I'm not donating to either because of Z"

You could be infinitely more likely to donate to one than the other and still have the same result if you didn't plan on donating to either in the first place.

It's always easier said than done, isn't it?

Not to pick on you personally, but it is disheartening to see this lack of action that is so common on message boards such as slashdot.

-Adam

Re:camera fund

[YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT]

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

Re:camera fund

[anon*127.0.0.1]

Later on today, I'm going to buy an expensive video camera, wrap it in a little duct tape and bubble wrap, the throw it out of the tallest building I can find. I should get some REALLY cool pictures on the way down. Not to mention the impressive crash footage.

I doubt anything bad will happen, but just in case... I'll have my PayPal link set up and ready.

Re:camera fund

[GoRK]

Yes. Actually it wasn't my own camera but a friend's Canon PowerShot G2 (back when that camera was still worth $800). We were both getting into the hobby together.

I had trusted the bridle knot that was already tied on the kite when I bought it and never retied it myself. It gave way and dropped the camera rig about 150 feet, and the kite folded and landed about 1/4 mile away. Luckily it was not a frame kite or I probably never would have seen that again either.

Everyone who does KAP accepts the risk that sending up their equipment entails. Most of us choose to either minimize the risk itself or minimize the cost of the equipment that goes up.

In my case, I was going for option #1. The rig I was using was designed to take the brunt of the impact off of the camera. Despite the fact that the camera fell 150ft onto hard, dry dirt and gravel (construction area), repairs were limited to a thorough cleaning, refit of the lens assembly, and new plastic outer housing. The rig did its job and completely mangled itself in the fall.

This fellow really did neither. He was using the wrong kind of kite (power kites are not designed for lifting), the wrong kind of rig (big unaerodynamic sphere of bubblewrap that tumbles uncontrollably), and the wrong kind of shock absorbsion in the event of a disaster. Bubble wrap cannot take much of an impact at all without a hard outer shell (ie cardboard box). A couple of pounds will easily compress a few layers of bubble wrap as this article clearly indicates. He would have had much better protection with a few inches of closed cell rubber padding instead.

there's MUCH better work out there.

[Matey-O]

(and I won't grouse about my week old rejected submission either.)

Go look up Kite Aerial Photography on google, and check out this guy's 3-d panoramas:
http://scotthaefner.com/kap/360panos/

Re:there's MUCH better work out there.

[snookerdoodle]

Yea, but where's HIS 30 second crash clip? ;-)

Mark

Re:there's MUCH better work out there.

[blamblamblam]

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.

Re:there's MUCH better work out there.

[Burstwave]

Haefer's work is superb and contains a wonderfully crafted tutorial on the professional methods used to craft these impressive images.

You're a good man...

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't seen the video yet, but judging by the summary, I half expect to catch a glimpse of Charlie Brown on the other end of that string...

Re:You're a good man...

[platypussrex]

No Charlie Brown visible, but if you do watch the video, and observe this fellow's kite flying "skills", you will quickly see why it crashed.

Also...

[Machitis]

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. :)

Did it myself...

[GoRK]

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.

Re:Did it myself...

[GoRK]

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.

Re:Did it myself...

[GoRK]

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.

kittycam?

[mr.scoot]

On first look, I read that as "Build your own kittycam". I began to wonder what kind of monster image stabilization system you would need to couteract a pissed off bundle of fur and claws spinning at 120rpm.

Interesting choice for a camera...

[JaredOfEuropa]

Just 2 comments (at +2) and the server is already dead. A new record? Anyway....

Why use such an expensive camera? There's loads of R/C airplane pilots taking aerial pictures, now that the price for a decent digital camera has dropped. These days, a nice 2-3 megapixel cheapo camera will cost less than the radio gear in a typical plane. Use that rather than one that costs 300 pounds.

So... I won't be contributing to his fund for a new camera. As any aeromodeller will confirm, crashing is part of the hobby.

Full Article Here

[bugmenot]

Here is the full article from their page before it gets /.'ed.

The Day I Broke My Camera
One sunny day, a friend of mine had this crazy idea of sending a camera up on my kite to take some aerial photos. He was unwilling to use his camera, so I foolishly used my own. The end result was that I broke my digital camera worth over 300. If you're thinking of trying something similar, this story may make you think about planning it a bit better than we did.

The Kite
The kite we used was a Flexifoil Super 10. This has a parachute-like appearance and has a span of 10ft. It would have no trouble lifting most cameras, although if it gets too windy, it pulls very hard and it's difficult to stand still.

The Camera
My camera is (was?) a Casio EX-Z3. This is a very small and light digital camera that seemed suitable for airborne photography. It is capable of taking a sequence of three photos after a ten second delay, which gives plenty of time for the kite to get into its highest position from a standing launch. Andy was kindly responsible for pressing the shutter button and launching the kite while I held the control lines. It was also his idea to do this in the first place. Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to him!

Protecting the Camera
Obviously, my main concern was that I'd paid over 300 for the camera and I didn't want to break it. I put on my Blue Peter hat and cunningly crafted a fine blend of bubblewrap, toilet roll and parcel tape. The idea was that even if the camera fell from a great height, the camera would be safe. Maybe I should have used more bubblewrap...

Testing the Camera Protection
I slotted the camera into its impromptu bubblewrap casing and it looked like it felt at home. Elastic bands and some string kept it from falling out. I tested it out by throwing it around the room while it counted down from ten and took some photos. The lens was able to get a good, unobscured view courtesy of my patented Toilet Roll/Bubblewrap Hybrid Lens Protection System (TM). (That's a joke, by the way, in case someone else has already patented it...)

Weather Conditions
We were getting excited, because the wind looked a lot better than it had the day before. There seemed to be enough, but not too much. It was a very hot day! Towards the end of the aerial photography session, the wind died down a bit and it became increasingly difficult to fly.

The First Flight!
The first flight was quite successful, but in the bright sun it was difficult to see how well the photos had come out. The only way of attaching the camera to the Flexifoil was to suspend it on a 10ft piece of string between each end of the carbon fibre leading edge spar, so I was a bit worried about how "steady" the camera would be during flight. It did seem to wobble about quite a bit (particularly when I performed a few loops) but it was a lovely bright day, so the exposure time was pretty short.

Taking More Photos
The bubblewrap casing seemed to be doing a good job of protecting the camera. None of the landings had been particularly heavy so far, so we sent the kite up a few more times to take some more photos. The next photo shows Eliot College at the University of Kent. The pointy building in the distance is the Electronics lab. You can also see The Venue, Keynes College and Beckett Court in this photo.

Taking Even More Photos
It was a bit of a gamble taking the photos. Some of them were just bits of grass and most were taken at weird angles. But we carried on taking a few more before moving on to taking some short video clips.

Pushing the Envelope
While we were trying to take the video clips, the wind had died down to a level that made it almost impossible to control the kite. However, every now and then, a gust of wind would come along that made it possible to launch the kite and camera combo. During one particularly gusty session, the wind seemed to totally disappear and the kite ended up facing towards th

Did he help out with the Mars Beagle Probe ?

[TheUncleBob]

I see a similarity here - no matter how much you spend on bubble wrap - if you drop it from high enough, it WILL break.

Now He'll Need a Bandwidth Fund Too

[Limecron]

Hmm... 3Mb AVI * 100k Downloads = Uhoh (Not to mention the page views.)

I hope his ISP doesn't charge too much. :)

I can just see the net loss of this whole endeavor sky rocketing further. I hope it wasn't his "friend" who submitted this one.

Re:Now He'll Need a Bandwidth Fund Too

[Basehart]

Looks like he knows almost as much about encoding video as he does about sending a camera up on a kite without trashing it.

In future I'd recommend downloading a little app from Microsoft called Windows Media Encoder and messing around with the settings until you get a really small file that plays back double size.

Better still, upgrade a copy of QuickTime to the pro version and make a 160x120 12fps movie using sorensons codec with an avg bit rate of around 40k and set it to play back double size.

A little research means you'd still have a camera and a server!!

Nothing new

[trainsnpep]

Don't see what all the fuss is about: Charlie Benton has been doing it for years....only thing is, he hasn't been wrecking 'em.

SlashCam

[Konster]

I have invented the SlashCam, an open source project that acts as a plug-in to Slashdot that allows the viewers to see (in real time!)your server go down in flames seconds after an article containing your address is posted!

http://sourceforge.net/projects/microsoft/iis/sl as hcam

Cheaper digital cameras for aerial photography

[pm]

There are several pretty good, really cheap cameras out there that take decent pictures and don't weigh a lot that would work better in this application.

For example, the AIPTek Pencam 1.3 weighs 2.4oz and takes 1.3MP pictures. The imager is CMOS (rather than CCD) and so the pictures are sensitive to the lighting, but they usually come out pretty good. AIPTek also makes several other models that work well. You can buy them at Circuit City and Walmart and if you hit the sales right, you can buy one for $50.

The Mustek Mini 3 is also very light and takes pretty good pictures and can be purchased for less than $100.

A good resource for aerial photography - although aimed at R/C airplane aerial photography - is the aerial photography forum at RCGroups.Com. Check out the thread at the top labelled "Digital Cameras under 5oz for aerial photography".

For triggering, you could rig an R/C servo to the switch, or use some form of PIC circuit to trigger it on a timed basis. Some projects like this are listed here.

Kites...

[k4_pacific]

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.

Re:Kites...

[Hatta]

Why not use a simple single string parafoil kite for this kind of thing? I have one of these, it's so stable I can tie it to a post and leave. It's almost boring, but I prefer to think of it as serene. The only way it hits the ground is if the wind stops.

RC Heli Photography

[TimeTrip]

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

X10 cam?

[Cheerio Boy]

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.

Re:X10 cam?

[GoRK]

I have an X10 camera on my rig as a spotting camera. I modified it to accept external video input so I can hook it to the A/V output of the digicam and see exactly what picture I'm taking. If I'm using a cheaper camera or a film camera I can use the original X10 cam to see where it is pointing as well. The camera runs on a rechargable 9V battery run through a small 12V DCDC converter. The receiver runs on a 2AH Gel Cell worn in a pack. The video screen is a small 2" LCD with a sun hood that is attached to the R/C controller.

Academic slant...

[jim_deane]

I don't mean to shill for my university, but I am a graduate student in the physical sciences at Emporia State University, where we have a Geospatial Analysis program. One of our professors is heavily into KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) and other SFAP (Small Format Aerial Photography) including anchored baloons and more conventional planes and helicopters.

We generally use both color film and color-infrared, and have begun to use some digital. The hard part (aside from not crashing the kite) is the image processing. We use ground markers and GPS units to determine some reference points, and use Idrisi software to do a rubber-sheet transform on the image. We then use the same software to stitch the images together and do more detailed analysis (color channel seperation, specialized boolean operations, etc.).

Using color and infrared images, we can make high-resolution images similar to the comparitively low-resolution satellite (see: Landsat) images. Through the analysis, we can identify land usage, soil moisture, vegetation types, vegetation/crop health, and many other factors.

Now the fun part: if you like science, we have graduate and undergraduate programs in the physical sciences department where you can specialize in Geospatial Analysis. The other best part--you can do it on-line if you wish.

See The Emporia State University GSA homepage or the Physical Sciences homepage for more information.

And we're not the only university that has such programs--do a search for "Geographic Information Systems site:.edu" or "Geospatial Analysis" and you'll find several more.

(I don't consider this too much of an ad, because anyone who thinks the kite photography is cool should see that there are education opportunities and careers to be made that involve this kind of work.)

Re:Blue Peter Style ?

[Basehart]

Actually, for projects requiring a layer of padding they always suggested using a wig to put between the stickyback plastic and the object, after asking a parent or grandparent for permission first of course.

Oh, how we would laugh when granny would go off to the shops wearing our latest project on her head because she couldn't get the stickyback plastic off.

Re:What about an actual Do It Yourself?

[GoRK]

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!

Popular Science Magazine

[armyturtle]

Do they always post all of the popular science magazine articles in here? This was in this months issue. Just curious.

Fate of Payload Inversely Proportional to Cost

[Rob Carr]

"Paul Mutton successfully managed to kill an expensive digital camera taking aerial photos using a kite, parcel tape and some bubble wrap."

High Power Rocketry folks have known for years that the probability of a successful flight is inversely proportional to the cost of the payload divided by the average cost of payloads being flown. For many years, expensive video cameras ensured failure.

It's only been through the addition of multiple onboard altimeters, accelerometers, computers, amateur radio transmitters, GPS units, rocket locators, and other horrendously expensive gizmos that lone video cameras are now fairly easy to fly.

BTW: There's a fun traditions if you are launching an on-board computer running Windows. If the flight fails, you call Microsoft Support and report that your computer crashed.

Of course, if you were running Linux, maybe it wouldn't have crashed....

IIRC

[c0dedude]

IIRC, Scientific American had an article a few years back about how to make a stable kite cam with a disposible (read: invincible) camera. Here's a link, but it costs $$$.

/.ed ?

[propus]

Google's cache for those who can't access the site.

Here's a Mirror of the site (with video)

[nacs]

Here's a mirror of the page with pictures and the ~3MB video:

http://personalpages.bellsouth.net/s/a/sanv/kiteca m/

A Flexifoil???

[droopus]

He used a Flexifoil? Then the guy is simply an idiot.

I've been flying multi line kits for almost twenty years. A Flexi is a fast moving kite two-line with tons of pull. I have three ten footers, and even in a light wind ONE is enough to work my arms out. In 15 mph + it will drag me down the beach.

Flexifoils are commonly used in buggying and speed and pull are the reason they are used.

In light winds I've stacked the three ten footers and they literally lifted my 175 pounds right off the ground like a bug.

Kite cams are nothing new...we were doing kite photography in the 80's. But we would NEVER have used a Flexi for that, Kite cams are best on single line kites, perhaps a large delta.

I don't donate to people who use the wrong equipment for something that was done much better 15 years ago.

Seems a little loose for a /. story. Must be a light news day.

Visit Steve Winwood's site for free music and video!

pfffft

[Timesprout]

A real nerd would build and launch his own satellite camera rig. Then when it crashed he would launch a global appeal fund to rebuild downtown LA.

Re:beggar

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

Pushers: Spammers
Pimps: Porn sites
Prostitutes: Camwhores
Insane Asylum Throwouts: IRC
People Pushing Shopping Carts: Amazon.com
Gangsters and Drive by Shooters: gangwars.com
Drunks and Potheads: IRC again
Cokeheads and other General Scum: Working for Microsoft

Re:beggar

[Lehk228]

crackheads: www.sco.com

Uh-Oh. The bandwidth bill will kill him

[rainer_d]

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...

dup!

[bandy]

This has been covered twice on /. before. December 2003 and November 2002