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Toys Technology

The Expensive Hobby Of Kite Aerial Photography 156

Posted by timothy from the where-do-you-get-6mp-for-cheap dept.
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.
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The Expensive Hobby Of Kite Aerial Photography More

The Expensive Hobby Of Kite Aerial Photography

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  • obligatory clod comment

    • sub $50 kite + camera + trigger exists here (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      See bill nelson's ice cube trigger here:

      http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/equip/ice.html

      Suggested items:
      1. kite
      2. DISPOSABLE camera
      3. Camera rigging for kite
      4. ice cubes

      The main advantage is that the whole thing can be made/bought for $50.00 and is no big loss if it is destroyed/lost.
    • Lucky for me I do have a kite, so I'm going to go fly it. lol
  • I mind as well dangle $100 dollars on the kite and let it fly around.

    Nowadays some 17-year old sniper will probably shoot down my kite cam for the fun of it.
    • haha! when i was young we glued shards of glass onto the strings of our kites, then flew our kites under the paths of others cutting their strings!

      oh, back in the day!
    • ultra small TV cameras and transmitters are lighter and cheaper this mag is loaded with them
      http://www.nutsvolts.com/
    • Nowadays some 17-year old sniper will probably shoot down my kite cam for the fun of it.

      That's probably the "xmas terrorist threat" that Blair and co have been talking about.

    • I've dangled more than that $100 from a kite, I've dangled my body! Modern skydiving canopies are pretty much just large modern kites. They use a lot of the same design techniques and some canopy manufacturers make kites also.

      And yes it is better in person. Don't take a picture. Use your own eyes! JUMP OUT OF A PLANE!

  • Hmmm... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 77Punker ( 673758 )
    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.

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AmigaAvenger ( 210519 )
      Been done, for years... I've (and many others) have flown both digital cameras and also x10 and the like wireless video cameras on planes and helis... take a look at http://www.ryankramer.com/planes/avistar.shtml (near the bottom I've got some arial pics)
    • Well then, you're obviously not an Afghan guerrilla [go.com].

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      check out this chat room:
      http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/forumdisplay .php?s= &forumid=128
    • I saw a show on TV once that had these guys (im thinking it was in the northern midwest states someplace, wisconsin rings a bell). They would take fairly large remote control planes (probably, 8ft wingspan it lookd like) and put a camera on board. They then would have to fly to a target and take the best picture. The pilot with the best picture won the contest. Pretty interesting I thought.
    • a wonder I haven't seen any model airplane cameras yet.

      I used to have an ATV (Amateur Radio TV) transmitter and camera in my unlimited-class glider. Got some great footage at the last competition I participated in... Camera the size of an ice cube, transmitter the size of a postage stamp... Both ran on a 9v battery... The battery was actually bigger than the transmitter was!

  • Kite photo gallery (Score:5, Informative)

    by linuxwrangler ( 582055 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:48PM (#7831488)
    Check out Charles C. Benton's Site [berkeley.edu] for collections from years of kite photography.
    • Check out Charles C. Benton's Site for collections from years of kite photography.

      Excellent site, thanks for the link. How did he get the stuff in the centre of Berkeley? That's admirable.

  • on the other hand (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Neophytus ( 642863 ) * on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:48PM (#7831489)
    Clever people will get a $50 wired video camera, run the wires down the teather and get some funky video capture software going
    • Yeah, what a great idea. Make sure you take video of the kite flyer on the ground, so we have a visual record of what happens when the kite string and wires comes in contact with power lines.
    • hmmm, I dunno what sort of wind you have around where you live, but most of my long line kite flying the string becomes a major weight component.

      you're already carrying a deadweight of camera and now you want to add kilo's of wire?

      Quite tricky tensioning to prevent the wire becoming load-bearing at any point I imagine as well.

      Wireless could be interesting, you should have quality LOS.
      • I'm with you. There is no way you could just strap a camera on and run the wires down.

        What you'd need to do is get a tiny camera from somewhere (like this [ramseyelectronics.com] or this [ramseyelectronics.com] one). Then you'd attach it to a strong tini transmitter (like this one [ramseyelectronics.com]) and hook it all up to a battery. Instant spy kite. Not that a kite above a compeditor's company all day every day with no one flying it would ever look suspicous. Still might be too heavy though.

      • What about using the wire directly as the tether? Two is all it takes for video. You'd need to insulate them if you wanted to do loops though!!
      • My neighbor has one of those 8' wide parasail kites. When we goto the beach he starts off by driving a stake a couple of feet into the ground with a hand winch at the end of it. He then gets the kite airbourne and unwinches a couple hundred feet worth of super thin steel cable. The kite itself (material wise) wieghs probably 25lbs. I can't imagine another 1lb worth of weight is going to make a significant difference.

        Instead of a digital camera I'd rather use one of those X10 cameras and put a small an
        • When we goto the beach

          And when you want to take pictures anywhere but the beach you won't have the kind of wind to support a 25lb kite with 200 feet of steel cable.

          on the other hand if you are using steel cable anyway (what the hell do you do if it starts to storm, cut the rig?) then shoot, run a signal down it.

    • Re:on the other hand (Score:4, Insightful)

      by freeweed ( 309734 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:31PM (#7832002)
      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.
  • A pretty accessible pastime, so long as you can afford to lose the lot in a sudden gust!

    Eerm, you know you CAN tie knots in said string . . . like for instance tying it to something heavy?
    • I think he't talking about the string breaking, or the structure of the kite collapsing causing your beloved camera to plunge a few houndred (or more) feet to the ground.

      I'll bet you that nobody who puts that much money on a kite would let go of the string.
  • Like, don't fly one of these things on four hundred feet of string inside an ATZ?

    Please?

    I really wouldn't want to fly into one.

  • what about strapping camera's to rc cars? (Score:5, Funny)

    by narkotix ( 576944 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:50PM (#7831510)
    we sometimes strap one of those x10 type wireless cams to rc cars...can be an interesting view especially when your chasing your dog/cat/annoying neighbourhood kid.
    • I attached one of the new x10s to the underside of my front scoop. Got some cool video for a video of the kids "Going to Grandmas"

    • I attached my Sony camcorder to the top of an RC car once. I got some cool video but after it rolled a couple times it stopped working very well. Probably should have figured that out before I had that brilliant idea. It actually rolled three times on the street in front of my house and still worked. Then about 1 month later it was dead. Probably not worth 10 minutes of video.

  • a friend did do that (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jeffy124 ( 453342 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:50PM (#7831512) Homepage Journal
    a friend of mine during college did something like that for his senior engineering project. his team (composed of a few mech eng's, EE's, and some graphic design majors) basically hooked a camera to a kite and then did some processing on the images to generate some simple 3D imagery of the landscape.

    if i find links i'll post 'em, but it's going back several years and the webpages have probably been purged.

    • Re:a friend did do that (Score:5, Informative)

      by jeffy124 ( 453342 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:59PM (#7831576) Homepage Journal
      found it! http://prism.mem.drexel.edu/projects/kite/index.ht ml [drexel.edu]

      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.
    • I got into college with a full scholarship for doing something like this, and I was only doing it for a hoot. I was just playing around with trains of kites in various formations to study how they could be used for lifting tasks. To have something to lift I used a camera rig and took photos of my neighborhood.

      Of course this was back in the day and I had to use this stuff called "film". Remember that stuff?

      Played around a bit with tissue paper hot air balloons too. Fun stuff.

      Makes me all nostalgic to see

  • Or you could use a balloon (Score:4, Informative)

    by gotr00t ( 563828 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:53PM (#7831532) Journal
    This was featured earlier on /. about creating a Linux powered balloon that had a camera on it. Quite an amazing feat, even though the pictures were a little low resolution.

    http://vpizza.org/~jmeehan/balloon/ [vpizza.org]

  • Rocket cameras are much cheaper and easier (Score:3, Interesting)

    by weeble ( 50918 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:54PM (#7831540) Homepage
    I got a rocket camera for Christmas from my brother :-)

    estes rockets [esteseducator.com]

    It uses a couple of explosive packs and takes a picture at its apex.
    • Sure, and those are cool, but you get only one picture, and you have no control over where the camera is pointed. The nifty think about kite aerial photography is that the photographer can aim the camera, and pictures are normally taken from relatively low altitude. With practice and some luck, you get great photos taken from a very different perspective from what you're used to.
    • where's the estes rocket camera you're talking about?

  • If you have an extra $1,000.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by herrvinny ( 698679 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:56PM (#7831552)
    ...lying around, try getting the DraganFlyer IV ($750) [rctoys.com] and mount an EyeCam ($250) [rctoys.com] on it. The 'flyer looks interesting, as well as the camera. Although, if you don't want to pay out that much, the Super Aviator ($190) [rctoys.com] looks interesting as well.

  • Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iamdrscience ( 541136 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @07:56PM (#7831556) Homepage
    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.

    • Re:Huh? (Score:1)

      by mlk ( 18543 )
      You could do it in Hyde Park safely.
    • I only suggest that because snaps of tiny dork surrounded by lots green park can be pretty dull. Rooftops and stuff are far more interesting. However, say having got the thing up to 1000 ft or so and it nosedives, yes you're right, it could cause injuries. But you just hand the string to the most vacant looking person nearby. And of course, in my neighbourhood, sacrifice your gear to opportunists.

      ;-)

  • High-res digital cameras have come down somewhat in price since the last time we mentioned this.


    When was the last time this was mentioned? Three days ago?
  • Think about it, a kite, assuming you can get a favorable wind direction, makes for an excellent platform to snap spy photos or those n00die photos of Kathleen sunbathing.

  • helium balloons (Score:4, Interesting)

    by actiondan ( 445169 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @08:02PM (#7831600)
    We did some aerial shooting using a bunch of helium ballons to carry a cheap,light wireless camera.

    We then attached the receiever to a camcorder video in to record the results.

    You could just as well use a corded camera (we used the wireless one because we had it) but you would have to allwo for the weight of the wire with an extra balloon or two.

    The biggest problem is keeping the camera stable but when there isn't too much wind, the balloons provide a nice platform to hang the camera from.

  • I feel the sudden urge to take up ariel kite photography and go photograph the coastline in and around Malibu. We could document how certain mansions are intruding on the coastline and ruining the view. One in particular seems to obstruct the view more than the others.

    Does anybody want to come along? This could be a lot of fun.

    -Art

    .sig what's that?

  • Don't loose the kite (Score:3, Informative)

    by Charles Gaudette ( 103519 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @08:04PM (#7831611) Homepage Journal
    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.
  • Try taking a photo of being struck by lightning, however does require flying a kite a night in an electrical storm, well it could be the next adrenalin junkie fix to replace base jumping.

  • Amateur Radio Groups Having Done This For Years (Score:4, Informative)

    by gpmidi256 ( 638924 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @08:23PM (#7831704) Homepage
    Loudoun Amateur Radio Group [k4lrg.org] 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 [k4lrg.org].

  • Solution: Breakable Link and parachute (Score:4, Informative)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @08:23PM (#7831711)
    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.

  • When I was a lad... (Score:4, Informative)

    by CmdrWiggle ( 697247 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @08:24PM (#7831718)
    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 [mindspring.com].

    Inevitably, everyone I knew would pull out the camera and launch lizards (frogs, bugs, etc.) instead.

  • I've strapped cameras to airplanes.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by mumblestheclown ( 569987 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @08:55PM (#7831828)
    my two hobbies are aviation and photography. As a small airplane owner and a fairly experienced pilot, I have the luxury of being able to and knowing where I can safely attach a camera to the outside of the airplane to get some interesting shots. however, to date I've only attached a video camera (using duct tape--seriously) to the outside of the airplane and never a still camera. Why? because I don't have a digital camera that supports a remote shutter like i would like.

    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.

    • Really, garbage bags. Kite photography does not have to cost lots of money.

      You can make great kites from bamboo, garbage bags and duct tape. The cheap-o rogalo wings scale up just as well as they scaled down to begin with. A large garbage bag or two, with carefully placed duct tape reinforement makes a very large kite, 6 to 9 foot wingspan.

      A $100 camera can take good pictures. I've got a nasty old sipix with 1200x1600 resolution that works well. All you really need to worry about is protecting it fro

    • For remote shutter control (and time-lapse) of a huge number of digital cameras, check out Harbortronics [harbortronics.com]. They have several (cabled) remote/time lapse controllers starting just above $100. Some models are compatible with an RF triggering system for wireless setup.
    • While not as good as a remote shutter, you might want to look into a timed shutter. My new digicam can take one picture every X minutes until it fills the card. If you set that to one minute, you should be able to anticipate where the plane will be when the shutter goes off (And make a couple of extra passes to make sure).
    • A bit of bodging should solve your problem. There are two solutions I can think of right off.

      1) The shutter release on the digicam is just a switch. Tear the camera apart and connect wires to the switch contacts.

      2) If you don't wan't to rip it apart, build a remotly operated finger. Find a solenoid somwhere with enough power to push the button. Build a holder for it out of wood/metal/hot glue/duct tape and run wires back to a battery in the cockpit. Push a button, energize the solenoid, press the s
  • To be sure that you will get some nice pictures you could go up with the camera [sunrise.ch]. I took this picture with my mobile phone at about 800m (2600 ft) above the ground while flying around with my paraglider.

    This will also solve the problem of losing the "kite". Well, if you lose it you will have a serious problem.
    --

    There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels - St IGNUcius

  • Finally, a use for those old PDAs: TRGPro + CF 802.11 card + Kodak PalmPix = cheap airborne wireless webcam.
  • I've got three Walgreen's Pure Digital camera's on their way to PA right now ... at $9.99 each. And the codeman has hacked a smart-media card into them. If we can get the USB port working, I'll be flying my parafoil with them in the spring.
  • Our kiting club held a competition this year, and afterwards a guy from Germany showed us some neat videos he made by strapping a video camera to his Prophecy [prismkites.com] two-line stunt kite. The quality wasn't great (it was one of those cheap and lightweight battery-operated record-to-CF cams), but he managed to do some Axels [prismkites.com], Snap Stalls and other neat tricks with it, and the video sequences were truly impressive.

    I'd like to try something like that with my Revo [revkites.com] once, quad-liners give you better control over the kite
    • I did this very thing yesterday!

      I have a Revolution that I bought from Into The Wind. (www.intothewind.com)

      I have a Sony DSCP7 with a 64 meg memory stick.

      I sewed a ziplock bag to the center of the kite, then placed the camera in it with a piece of duct tape acting as a spacer in order to keep the camera aimed at me when in flight. I used a bit more duct tape to back up my sewing.

      I put it on video mode, had a friend press the button before launch, and let it rip.

      The frame rate isn't wonderful, but the
  • For around $200 you can purchase everything you need to get an R/C airplane that is suitable for hauling up a lightweight digital camera ready to fly. Looking at the prices for these kites, it's not all that much of a premium for the extra controllability you'll have with the plane.

    The GWS Slow Stick is a very good choice for a beginner plane that is well suited for hauling aloft a little bit of extra weight. Check out the Aerial Photography [rcgroups.com] forum at RC Groups for more info.

  • Cheapskates (Score:3, Funny)

    by Molina the Bofh ( 99621 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:38AM (#7832880) Homepage
    The Expensive Hobby Of Kite Aerial Photography

    Expensive ?? I had to buy a chopper to take pictures, you insensitive clods.
  • Is the an aerial photo of the International Fountain in the Seattle Center, or is that a fountain in Kansas?

    If it's in Kansas, I think they stole our fountain, because they look identical...
  • Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster [fortunecity.de] of these?
  • People are complaining about the expensiveness due to the risks of the camera just falling out of the sky. I think it was posted before on /. that this "disposable" camera can be cracked into so you can download the files and then purge. It is only 1.3 megapixels. But you can adjust the focus and rig the shutter button without having to worry about burning out the cicuits.
  • The RCGroups Aerial Photography Forum [rcgroups.com] has plenty of information about doing still photography and wireless video from Radio Control aircraft, including helicopters, powered planes, and gliders. There's plenty of sample in-flight photographs as well. The Aiptek pen cams seem to be favored and are easily modified to be actuated by a spare channel via direct plugin to the model's receiver. Very cool stuff, and you can fly where you want as opposed to being restricted by a string.
  • does this explain all the digital cameras i keep seeing on ebay with scratched-up and broken cases and duct tape residue?

    just a thought.
  • Sometimes I feel that people nowadays are using complex technologies where simple solutions will suffice.

    When I was a kid (late'70s early '80s ), I've seen something similar done without expensive digital camera's. they just took a cheap 'chemical' toy camera (plastic lens, thumbwheel transport) which they let ride along the string (I believe the wind blows it along), and they rigged the shutter to go off when the camera reached the top of the string. All done with coathangers and wire. And if it crashed,
  • They actually used these kites [coastalkites.com] (scaled up somewhat) to lift up military observers, so the civilian version should be good for even a video camera...

    They're a bitch to get up though, I'd recommend 20-30mph winds for a reliable experience. Also, strong arms: at least 100lb test line is necessary.
  • ...is doing a Spherical panoramic picture from a kite, ala my friend and hero Philo [philohome.com].

  • With the advent of "disposable" digital cameras and protocols to read them, one can use a disposable for this.

    Of course, the company selling it would be upset at the modifications required... but if you never return it, they don't really need to know, do they?

    And remember, most of the cost of a digital camera is in the screen (followed closely by the battery)... What do you need a screen for if it's on a kite? That's how they get the cost of the disposables down, ditch the screen. And then battery consu

  • Done with film cameras in 1917 (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This article [uagrad.org] in the Arizona Alumnus magazine (University of Arizona) talks about a 100 year old photographer who did this back when he was 14. Here's the relevant quote:

    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. B

  • http://www.bahneman.com/liem/photos/other/SandSati ons/Aerial/ [bahneman.com]

    Using a regular nylon delta kite and some hard drive
    packing foam I managed to get the coolpix up for some aerial photography at Long Beach, WA.

    The camera has a remote cord that can take pictures at a minimum 2 minute interval, so I activated it,
    packed it into the housing and sent it aloft. I didn't have any fancy RC PTZ controls like another fellow at the beach, but it seemed to work fairly well and with the luck of the wind, managed to get

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