Aerial Photography

[Guest]

WowB Your 15 quid camera is the problem. You need a shutter speed of 500th sec for engine-on pics. Camera is isolated easily by packing in a large wad of not too soft sponge-foam. The high-tech stabilising devices are way out of our league but many modern cameras have that built in. I`m using old Canon T-70s. A s/h body can be obtained for very little these days as everybody flocks to digital. Only fly on calmish days with good bright light,(sunlight will give harsh shadows.) Use UV filter to protect lens and a rubber lens hood will keep muck off lens. 200 asa film for most purposes. I prefer Fuji "Superia". A standard 35mm lens saves you having to go very high to get a fair area covered in pic. Camera mounted under port wing, inside fuz, pointing down at about 45o. Fly cone pattern round target area, take more shots than you think you might need, film is the cheapest item in the whole set-up. You are right about electric do, a web-search for the Pointer RPV, why didnt we have these batteries on the civvy market years ago. Now back too the JUMBO construction factory...unless the weather improves, looking good so far. Sun has just came out.......

[Guest]

Thanks for the good advice once more Duncan. How much will a second hand T70 cost roughly? And what about lenses, any preffered type I should look out for? Also, and most importantly, how heavy will the complete camera be?

Yep, shutter speed - my £15 job has 1/90th

[Guest]

you could try www.ffordes.com

there in inverness-shire and have a very good second hand selection

t70 is an slr , so will be heavy

[Guest]

in fact , you`ll pick a t70 or t 50 for around 60 quid m8, with a 50mm lense (roughly speaking , the same view as the human eye, give or take a bit )

[Guest]

Wowb. Cheapest I`ve got so far was £65 for body in good nick , averages 80/90 in second-hand dealers. Canon lens about £50 to £80, other makes to fit much less,say half. It has a remote cable socket so your prefered switch or servo can be anywhere. Set focus on "infinity",Tape it well with electricians tape to stop lens being accidentally moved, put a 15" day-glo ribbon on the lens cap to remind you to remove before flight ( done it !). Go semi auto ie shutter priority @500th and let the chip decide on f stop to suit. T70 is auto-wind at 2 frames per second. It was originally made for use by "non civilian" use and came in a tasteful olive drab. If you spot one of these , grab it, they are much sought after by enthusiasts. I`ve only ever seen production black ones. Dont be tempted by the T50, a much lesser machine, though similar. Only had two rendered un-usable in 16 years,both to salt water ingression, instant junk. Used a Pentax 645 for a while but cost didnt justify the risk (£1400) Results were astoundingly good but customers wouldnt pay top price. Slide film only if you want top quality prints but your local mini-lab wont do them in 30 minutes. Weight is about a pound and a bit I think......and it rained so nearly got ailerons finished but clubmate came round for natter and that was that.....:shoot:

[Guest]

Adz, 50mm doesnt have the spread of the 35mm so you have to fly very much higher to get same area in shot. A pound and a half isnt much for a BIG glider. I`ve carried a full size video camera in it (90 powered for that though). I mean about twice the height. When you find FFFFFFiordes let me know the map reference.:noidea:

[Guest]

i wasnt` sure on the weight restraints there dunc, but seems like you have tried and tested different variations .

was this an occupational avenue or purely for personal interest ?

[Guest]

: Professional Adz, but I`m still a poor manhno:

[Guest]

Some interesting stuff HERE

Scroll down a bit for the airbourne stuff.

[Guest]

Years ago I ran an after school modelling club at the school where I used to teach.

One of my pupils decided to make a model for aerial photography as a design project during his sixth form year.

After much research he designed and built a model with a sort of cut out under the fuselage below the centre of gravity. The camera used was a Kodak disc - the only thing which seemed to be available at the time which was reasonably compact, cheap (expendable?) and had automatic "wind on".

Shutter operation was via a normal servo with a single arm set up to operate from the retract (fifth) channel which was operated by a two position switch on the Tx - switch was moved briefly from one position to the other then quickly back thus the arm depressed the shutter.

The model, similar in design to a Tyro Major, was flown first without the camera to prove its flyability and then again with the camera in situ.

Power was an OS 40 - initial flight with a 10 x 4 prop. This proved to be unable to get enough speed to carry the extra weight of the camera so it was swapped for a 10 x 6 and this did the necessary.

We got some pretty good pictures of some of the school and playing fields and later of the field I used with the club I belonged to at the time. One of these showed a couple of members flying a c/l model.

I'll try to find them and let you have a look - prepare to be bored.

Malcolm