Man-made flying objects are almost universally inspiring. As a kid, I launched Estes rockets and always wanted the model that had the 110 camera (film!) built in (http://www.apogeerockets.com/estes_snapshot.asp). Looks like even that has been replaced with video now: http://www.apogeerockets.com/Estes_Astrovision_Video_Rocket.asp. Well, I still have the rockets, but figured I'd start small. A local toy shop had a nice selection of kites. I found a plain, triangular kite with a 7' wingspan.
That would be enough to lift my cheap-o flash-based camcorder. I knew that I would just rig the camera to the kite's keel. After several too-complicated harnesses, I settled on just the thing: duct tape. I secured the camera to the keel on three sides of the camera. Low-tech, but it worked just fine. The whole family got involved, with the kids helping launch the kite. We made several runs, only two of which I've added in the video. Turned out to not be a really windy place and time. I've left the audio in the picture, unaltered (which, yes, is odd for me). Turn your speakers/headphones down as the high-end is kind of raw. The audio does serve one purpose, though: it points out how much stress that kite is under as it fights the wind and the attached line.
This was clearly a very version-1-point-oh effort. Some things to improve upon for next time:
- Stability: how can I stabilize the video? (without hoisting up a really expensive camera that has a video stabilizer built in...which probably even couldn't compensate for the shaking).
- Longer line: In the first half of the video, the reel is all the way out. I want it higher.
- Optimal camera angle: The first half of the video has the camera pointing down the kite's keel. The second half has it facing forward on the keel. Seems like the ideal is somewhere in-between.
Thanks to H.264 compression, this movie compressed down nicely, and still looks decent at double-size. If you're into that sort of thing, get the movie file directly here:
http://www.radiotope.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/Marczak_KiteCam-2008110...
Enjoy, and, as always, suggestions welcome.
Very nice! Slight change in
Very nice!
Slight change in perspective is often what separates great photography (or cinematography) from the merely good.
Given the limitations of the camera, having your face (and therefore the camera's back) to the sun will help a lot.
The audio quality is actually far better than I imagined it would be.
--chuck
Thanks! One thing that you
Thanks!
One thing that you don't get to choose when flying a kite is which way the wind is blowing and, therefore, which way the kite is facing. So, next time, the camera may point down that back of the keel, depending on the time of the day.
As far as the audio, yeah....you can hear speech from people on the ground, even when the kite is all the way up.
I'll just have to try again on a day with more wind...perhaps in December!