Kite Photography (strings attached)

[nightshade]

I tried kite photography rather half-heartedly many many years ago
but have always had an interest in kites and kite flying
One of our WAB members does it for a living and it set me thinking
I have a Cody Kite only a small one,good lifter and very stable so I
thought I may have a go at photographing my local area from the air
to get a better idea of Bat/Wildlife corridors
First task find a camera that has a good lense but is not going to cause
tears (I used Russian Lubitel cameras last time I think)
The kite I have,my deep sky reel is missing but the only difficulty there
is finding a Sturmey Archer 3 speed gear hub
Here is a site for anyone interested
http://www.makezine.com/images/01/KAP_mini.pdf

[richardkm]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I tried kite photography rather half-heartedly many many years ago
but have always had an interest in kites and kite flying
One of our WAB members does it for a living and it set me thinking
I have a Cody Kite only a small one,good lifter and very stable so I
thought I may have a go at photographing my local area from the air
to get a better idea of Bat/Wildlife corridors
First task find a camera that has a good lense but is not going to cause
tears (I used Russian Lubitel cameras last time I think)
The kite I have,my deep sky reel is missing but the only difficulty there
is finding a Sturmey Archer 3 speed gear hub
Here is a site for anyone interested
http://www.makezine.com/images/01/KAP_mini.pdf

I'm considering swapping my present Olympus C3030Z camera for the new water and shock proof Olympus 770 SW for my kap kit. The problem with any digital compact is the lack of electronic remote release facility, so it is necessary to build a radio-controlled electro-mechanical release. As someone to whom electronics is a total mystery, this is the hardest part for me.

Richard

[eeyore]

research into KAP was actually responsible for bringing me to WAB in the first place (on a dark winters nigh , long long ago ) there is a site called digihack which among other things gives you instructions for modifying a camera to fire the shutter every 10 secs until the card is full - with a camera set to relatively low res and a big card this could take a heck of a lot of pictures so the idea is that you set it firing then fly the kite into position thus getting round the remove firing problem

that said i never actually did it because digihack also featured a link to this strange and mythical place called wild about britain , and after following that I suddenly found mysrlf without any "free" time

[nightshade]

I have been reined in on this project but there is a KAPS online
magazine with a whole section on timers and cradle design
Did you find the Deep Sky reel article?
I think that a good basic radio control with a bell-crank servo
(possibly augmented with levers) would be the way to go but then
a gearbox from a radio controlled model could give pan and tilt also
where do you stop

[nightshade]

I have just found an example that seems pretty good
a servo with a rotary cam
KAP. Elektronics. Camera electrically release without remote control? Yes, with the Servo-Autotrigger
http://www.brooxes.com/newsite/BBKK/index.html