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Aerial Photography:
I've always fancied the idea of doing aerial photography from a model, so I have been experimenting with various methods of taking videos and still photos.
Click Here to have a look at the still photos.
Aerial Videos:
First fitted a digital video camera to my Thunder Tiger Raptor Radio Controlled Helicopter and took some video footage of the local flying fields:
The Camera Setup: A Kodak MC3 Digital Video Camera attached to a Thunder Tiger Raptor 30 size radio controlled helicopter
Download these files by either left clicking on the link and waiting for the movie to load or right clicking and selecting 'Save Target as.....'. Download to your hard drive then find it and click on it to play it. |
| The Flying Field in Aberystwyth one circuit (4 Mbs, 45 secs) |
| The Flying Field in Aberystwyth, whole flight ( 8mbs, 1 min 44) |
| The Flying field in Tywyn 3 Mbs |
| The Flying Field in Tywyn after heavy rain, 2 Mbs |
Onboard Digital Camera This was using a Mustek MDC 4000 in video mode on a Prangster EPP aeroplane:
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Live Video Footage The next attempt was much more complicated. I tried using a mini wireless video camera on the plane to transmit a signal back to a reciever in my car which was attached to a video recorder powered by an inverter from the car battery. I have 2 cameras: |
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| The first camera is an 800Mw 2.4 Ghz with a separate
transmitter. I first tried this in a high wing trainer,
but I had problems with too much light getting in the
lens, so that the pictures were only recognisable when
the camera was pointing down: This clip shows Tywyn Beach and the road next to the running track (662KB)
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| Soon after this the plane went out of control and
crashed. I worked out this was due to a poor connection
in the power supply to the camera interfering with the
radio, so I removed all the plugs from the camera and
soldered all the connections. I then fitted it to a
Prangster EPP 3D aircraft, which is indestructible (I
have tested this and it is true, it went in from 200 feet
and buried itself in the ground which broke the prop and
ripped a bit of the tape covering, took 15 minutes to fix
it. I had a job digging it out of the ground). This is
the second attempt, but still having problems with too
much light in the lens: This clip shows the lake and flying field in Aberystwyth (592 KB) |
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The second camera is a 200mw 2.4 GHZ camera. It is
really tiny, as it is just 2 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm. This is
fitted to the front of a Twinjet, which is a foam
aircraft powered by 2 480 electric motors. The camera is
powered from the 8.4v battery pack. The quality on the
ground is not quite as good as the 800mw camera, but it
is much smaller and lighter, easier to fit, and doesnt
have the same problem with too much light getting into
the lens, so overall the results are much better. The
camera is under the duck tape behind the black nose cone.
You can see the aerial sticking out of the tape:
This clip is of a flight round Tywyn (2 MB) This clip is a flypast down the runway at Aberystwyth (700KB) |
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| The videos look jerky on the computer because I had to compress them, and I use a USB video bus so the transfer quality isn't very good, but the quality of the original tape is much better. I also need to get a better day with more light. I now have an electric glider to fit the cameras to, which will be easier, as the twinjet is very fast and flies a bit nose up, which isn't ideal. | ||
| Keep checking, experiments will continue | ||
