Kite Aerial Photogarphy rig for Canon 400D

Pan servo (360 degree)

5:1 gearing to slow down the pan movement making control more precise.

battery pack (4 AA)

power switch

RC receiver

tilt servo (90 degrees) from horizon to straight down

receiver aerial wire

four coloured wire contain the gentLED electronic shutter control. This little chip eliminates the need for a seperate servo to fire the shutter button.

Legs to keep the camera safe when landing

Canon 400D digital SLR (10mp)

18-55mm 'kit' lens

Picavet cross

Kite Aerial Photogarphy rig for Canon 400D by murrayneill.

A modified BBKK to carry a Canon 400D digital SLR aloft. Features 1:5 gearing on the 360 pan servo, a gentLED electronic shutter control, and carbon legs to keep the camera out of the mud and sand when landing and taking off.

This photo has notes. Move your mouse over the photo to see them.

To take full advantage of Flickr, you should use a JavaScript-enabled browser and
install the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player.

Comments

Peter Sundstrom says:

Wow, that's some serious kit. I guess you want to really look after it when it's in the air.
Posted 32 months ago. ( permalink )

murrayneill says:

It hasn't had its first flight yet (waiting for the right conditions), but when it does, counting the kite, line camera and electronics, I'll have close to $3k worth of equipment in the air! Needless to say I will be quite nervous, but he who dares....
Posted 32 months ago. ( permalink )

kyteman says:

It's fascinating to see the adaptation. Did you find that mounting the camera "backwards" (compared to the way I always do it) helped in the layout of the other stuff? Obviously, the pan servo doesn't interfere with tilt, but I would have thought there would be more clearance the other way. Does the camera balance OK on the tilt frame? It appears that you left the camera platform on the frame instead of cutting it off as I've found necessary with an SLR.

Two suggestions I would make: spend just a little more and add ball-bearing blocks to your Picavet to better support all that expensive gear; and use smaller, lighter batteries.
Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )

murrayneill says:

Brooks,
I found that mounting the camera that way around allowed me to sit it further back, therefore balancing it better. Having the camera around the 'right' way meant sitting it further forward to clear the pan servo. This meant the weight of the lens was making it 'front-heavy' adding more strain on the tilt servo (which I presumed would create more drain on the batteries holding it in its tilt position.) I have cut off camera platform (although its difficult to see that in the image).
So do I have the camera AND the tilt platform backwards, or just the camera?

ps.the little pulleys are on my list (next time I'm in the model shop) but I hadn't thought of smaller batteries. Is there a smaller/lighter size you could recomend which won't shorten the battery lifetime?
Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )

kyteman says:

I've had good luck with some 160 mAh so-called 1/3 AAA NiMH cells, which seem to drive just about any rig for as long as I want to keep it up -- say, 30-40 minutes. I get them from The Battery Station but I'm sure you can find them in your part of the world too.

If that small size gives you pause, the 2/3 AAA size is 370 mAh, or you can get 600 - 750 mAh AAA NiMH packs too.

Of course, you'll save a whopping amount of weight with Lithium Polymer cells, but that's a whole different package that I haven't gotten into, because all of my chargers would be obsolete.

Thanks for the explanation of the rig configuration. If it works, it's right!
Posted 31 months ago. ( permalink )

KAPPIX - Ramon says:

Hi Murray,

What is your experience with the R/C antenna mounted this way? I did practically the same with mine and it works OK. But Mike Jones had some problems with jitter. Just curious. The RIG looks great, by the way.

Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )

murrayneill says:

I do occasionally notice a little bit of jitter if the aerial on the controller is not fully extended. Nothing major though.
Posted 30 months ago. ( permalink )

Gustavo Muleey says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Canon EOS 400D - En Español !!!, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

sig_equinox says:

interesting.
Posted 14 months ago. ( permalink )

Rodionov Anton says:

Amazing device!
Posted 11 months ago. ( permalink )

Frankie T. says:

can i ask the price on the whole rig is? including the modifications??
Posted 7 months ago. ( permalink )

kurabinya says:

great !
Posted 5 months ago. ( permalink )

Would you like to comment?

[?]

	murrayneill's photostream
		1,944 uploads

This photo also belongs to:

	KAP (kite aerial photography) (Set)
		211 items
	Part of: Kites & kite flying

	Been on Explore (Set)
		21 items

	KAP rigs (Pool)
		0

	Canon EOS 400/450/500D - En Español !!! (Pool)
		0

31 people call this photo a favorite

Additional Information

Taken with a Fujifilm FinePix S5600.
More properties
Taken on June 30, 2007
Viewed 5,526 times

Add to your map

Yay location removed

...

(Some formats are OK.)

Or, remove it from the map.

Go to the map

You	Sign in \| Create Your Free Account
Explore	Places \| Last 7 Days \| This Month \| Popular Tags \| The Commons \| Creative Commons \| Search
Help	Community Guidelines \| The Help Forum \| FAQ \| Sitemap \| Get Help

Kite Aerial Photogarphy rig for Canon 400D

Comments

Peter Sundstrom says:

murrayneill says:

kyteman says:

murrayneill says:

kyteman says:

KAPPIX - Ramon says:

murrayneill says:

Gustavo Muleey says:

sig_equinox says:

Rodionov Anton says:

Frankie T. says:

kurabinya says:

Would you like to comment?

murrayneill's photostream

KAP (kite aerial photography) (Set)

Been on Explore (Set)

KAP rigs (Pool)

Canon EOS 400/450/500D - En Español !!! (Pool)

Tags

Additional Information