Eye in the Sky

tonyturley

Legend
Location
Scott Depot, WV, USA
Name
Tony
For many years, I enjoyed flying model airplanes, and naturally enjoyed aerial photography. I used a variety of inexpensive still and video cameras, but eventually became comfortable enough to strap my Pentax Q to the airplane. Like many things in life, I drifted away from model aviation as I began hiking more and more. I sold the Q, and before I knew it, my R/C equipment had laid dormant for over 3 years.

Our church owns a rural farm we're developing into a community park, sanctuary, and recreation center. I've been periodically documenting the progress, and noticed this week the foliage had changed a lot after a few days of cold weather and rain. Yesterday and today were supposed to be beautiful, so I decided to dust off the AP gear and charge some batteries.

It was very windy today, and difficult to keep the plane stable. I have an electronic switch that works as an intervalometer, triggering the shutter on the Nikon L2 at preset intervals. I basically just flew around as best I could, trying to get a few good frames. I think it turned out well, considering the little Nikon is basically a junk drawer camera.

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I took the plane out for some Halloween fun as the sun was setting this evening. Tiny sensor cameras and scenes with a high dynamic range - like a setting sun and deeply shaded landscape - are a challenge, but I got a few decent images, including a selfie as I was landing the plane. The other pic shows what my setup looks like. My gear is actually rather primitive compared to what some guys on the RCGroups forums have used.

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Foliage has changed a lot in the last couple of days. Wet, chilly, and windy with some mild warmth during the day. Did I mention the wind? Here are a few more from this afternoon, complete with the obligatory selfie from 400 feet. I do have a model downstairs that is big enough to comfortably carry my Fuji X-T1, which happens to have interval shooting. Hmmmmm . . . . . :D

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Mission accomplished . . . the new S95 works just as well for aerial work as folks have claimed. It doesn't work with my remote trigger, but no biggie. I just loaded a CHDK script to the SD card that allows, among other things, RAW shooting and an intervalometer, which I set to take a pic every 5 seconds. I set the camera to Shutter Priority at 1/1000, ISO 80, MF at Infinity, and pressed the shutter button right before launch. Here's my new setup with a few samples from this afternoon:

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Coming in for landing!

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Mission accomplished . . . the new S95 works just as well for aerial work as folks have claimed. It doesn't work with my remote trigger, but no biggie. I just loaded a CHDK script to the SD card that allows, among other things, RAW shooting and an intervalometer, which I set to take a pic every 5 seconds. I set the camera to Shutter Priority at 1/1000, ISO 80, MF at Infinity, and pressed the shutter button right before launch. Here's my new setup with a few samples from this afternoon:

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Coming in for landing!

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Very, very nice!

Cheers, Jock
 
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