Extensions to our hobby

[Brian Clamp]

One of the things I like about our hobby is the variety it offers. There is some thing available to everyone ( well almost), from just weekend club flying to full blown competitions in all the many disciplines. PHOTOGRAPHY for instance can be either an added dimention or the sole reson for being involved.
I have had this 'bee in my bonnet' for many years about taking pics from planes. ( I also like to photograph and film them in flight and on the ground). My first excursion into airborne photography was to strap a cardboard disposable camera to the side of my then current model a Moonraker. This worked ok but had 2 drawbacks: the model had to be landed to wind on between shots. I had to wait for the film to be developed.
My second excursion was to build (?lash up?) an airframe around a cheap motorwind 35mm camera. Principle was a success but execution not at all good. I am not going to show what the monstrosity looked like or tell you the club pilot's comments.
Some time later I changed tactics and purchased a helicopter - a Shuttle. This I had to learn to fly.( or at least hover).
Progress is slow. Enter INDOOR FLYING. After a period of time I have progressed to a TWISTER. I can hover this.
Have now managed to attach a key ring camera to this and in the gallery you should be able to see the results of the first attempt (just 3 ft from the ground, together with an example from the original Moonraker attempt.
Try it for yourself it can be good fun.
see gallery for pictures.

[Derek Small]

Hi Brian

If you rally want a bit of inspiration re model planes and cameras, take a look at the web site of West Wales Models. Mike is a real progressive and has some great stuff.

Derek

[penty]

Nice one Brian. I've been a keen modeller for a while and a professional photographer for longer, but never combined the two.Ever done any on board video?

[Dickie Emmerson]

As a computer illiterate octogenarian, can anyone tell me how to reduce a perfectly good 300KB picture down to 12KB to put alongside anything I might contribute here ? It could be a freshly scanned pic or an existing one from "My Pictures" Thanks.

[penty]

Well Dickie, this is quite a thorny topic.
If you don't have any photo software, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements and your operating system is Windows XP, try this.
Double click on your photo in My Pictures.It will open in a window like your Internet Explorer window.Go to File/send/a page by email.
A window pops up and asks"Make all my pictures smaller" and click okay.This will bring up your Outlook Express box with your photo showing as an attachment Double click on the attachment, which will bring up your photo in it's reduced form. Then save it in the normal way.
There are many types of photo imaging software, but if they have a "save for web" option this will reduce the picture for you.You can help things along by reducing the physical picture size when you scan it and if you have a choice, selecting a low picture quality at a resolution of 72dpi.
Sorry this all sounds a bit long winded, but it's difficult without knowing your computer setup.

[penty]

Dickie, I've made this sound a bit long winded.Within My Pictures you can highlight your photo and under Picture Tasks on the left hand side, second box down, click "email this file" and proceed as above.This will reduce your photo considerably, but as far as getting it to 12kb exactly, without additional software,I'm afraid I don't know how.

[Brian Clamp]

Hi Simon,
funny you should ask about video, two of us have just done it. A fellow club member pipped me to the post by attaching a small camera to his Extra and filming (video)our flying field. I purchased a camera 3mpx from PC World for £32-00. It weighs approx 75grammes, does both stills and video. It works well under my Twister indoors. No need for a servo with video, just set the camera to video mode place heli on floor push start button and fly.You can edit film and extract stills from the video later.Having proved the system (I can just about hover)I strapped the unit to a colleague's Twister and he flew it around the room. I transfered the film to disc and showed it the following week on a portable DVD player. Everyone was impressed.Glad I was not a passenger.Quality of picture could have been better but what can you expect for just £32 qiud? will try and add a still to the gallery.

[Dickie Emmerson]

Hi Simon, Many thanks for the prompt reply. It all makes sense to me. But I've yet to actually do it, so will let you know how I get on!!.

[penty]

Good luck Dickie.
Brian: Great, I must try that in the Summer.
Love to see anyone's field from the air. I know they sometimes pop up in the mag., but it would be good to see some in the Gallery.

[Brian Clamp]

Simon,
have a look in the gallery, I have posted one taken with the cardboard camera attached to my (now demised ) Moonraker. Good luck happy spapping.

[penty]

Brian,
yes it worked well, the cardboard camera. I would have expected a more shakey result.
The camera on the heli will perform a lot better with more light. I think it'll suprise you if you get a good sunny day(not sure whether the Twister will perform so well outside tho'!

[Brian Clamp]

Simon, Have a Shuttle for outside, just practicing on a cheaper model indoors. Intend to try attaching camera to my Wot4 and my "YT International" fun fly later in the year. Still have a couple of other projects to finish off. will show results.Watch this space when I have finished my "major project". It may be of interest so someone.

[Bob Sims]

Hi Dickie
have only just come across this thread. If you have windows XP then go to this site http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
and look down the right hand side until you come to image resize.
download and install when you have done this all you need to do is right click on the photo you want to resize and you will see a new tab "resize pictures" just click on this and pick which option you want.
Bob

[Essjay]

Hi Dickie,
Another way to resize is to use a free programme called "Irfanview" (very popular), which will let you resize and also save you pictures in a variety of different formats.

[Derek Small]

Sorry not to be part of the discussions but bt cut me out of loop by blowing up the broad band equipment at the exchange or something, then the guy in the Indian call centre said it was really my fault.! Anyway I'm back in the loop. Nikon 3700 is great for clagging into things like Multipley Easystars - with a little bit more power, and a couple of protective pieces of Carbon fibre to guard against less than level landings! I;m working through the process of cutting down the detail to get the balance between good video and acceptable memory usage.

[Dickie Emmerson]

Hi Bob and Steve
Have only just picked up your contributions to my problem. Thanks, I will give them both a go and see what happens

[sam james 2]

hi ive allways liked photography but i dont think i would put my camera on a plane cos its a single reflex lens so i dont think thats a great idea but as soon as i get flying ill be sure 2 get some pics up

[Lee Morgan]

Well hi all, Just jumping in here with 2 things to offer.

With regards to the picture size, Post it on the gallery and I will down size it for you.

With regards to the Vid's and air pic's (there is a thread already discussing this) take a look at some of my efforts

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cJeCOIS5L6U

or http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=P22aHskRbEk

Both edited through windows movie maker. Cam used on video 2 was a Flycamone.(also a thread for the Flycamone on here somewhere.

Best Regards

Lee

[Ken Brown]

Hi all you people contributing to this forum.Im a glider guider in the Sheffield area and I also have a strong interest in photography.Can anybody out there  suggest a  method of printing black and white that actually looks like B/W did before digital arrived.Ive used grayscale and various other attempts but the prints always look"coloury".Do you think this is as good as it gets using an epson inkjet coulor printer? Any ideas?

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Are you digital Ken ?

Will say, Jessops do something like that for you?

David.

[Guest]

Quite a few years back, a chap turned up at our site with a small tv camera which transmitted back to ground. He wanted to test the feasability of using model planes for survey work.

The camera/tx gear at that time was not as miniature as it is now, but it was small enough to strap (with foam and rubber bands !!) onto the top of the wing of my 9ft Mamselle, looking down over the nose.

The system worked Ok and occasionally the revs on my OS 90 4 stroke just about matched camera speed and you could see the prop strobing slightly - looked absolutely like the real thing.

I always regretted he didn't have facility for tape copying to let me have a copy. 

More recently, some holiday makers wanted some aerial video using a modern low cost digital camera and again, rubberbanding to wing proved successful.

With modern miniature cameras etc, cost can be kept down and risk is fairly low if mounted on a proven model

 John

[Brian Clamp]

KEN,

regarding b/w printing. my suggestion is use Adobe photo elements software to convert colour to b/w via greyscale and/or other available adjustments within the software. then print. I think you will get the b/w effects you are looking for. The software is very versatile and you are able to create any effect you want.

just tried it for you and it works for me.

good luck