kitecam usage

[Erwin Swart]

Passed the linked movie at youtube and looks interesting.
Does anybody have experience, how to focus at your boat?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKGupz_9mGc&feature=related

ideas and experience are welcome

grtz,
Erwin

 

[rob2]

I guess to aim the camera it needs to have a mount with a tail fin so that it will weathercock toward its point of origin - you holding the string. From there on it will be a question of trial and error, setting the inclination of the camera to suit the wind conditions.

I must say the guy is pretty brave to sail single handed and lauch a kite with his camera on it! I wonder if the insurance company needs to know just how the camera came to be dropped in the drink?

It looks like he's using a paravane type of kite which will have good lift and stability, a tail for the kite will also tend to make it more stable - less likely to veer about. Cody used his own design of box kites for lifing observers in a basket, with an array of kites to support a wire and a lifting kite and load which was flown on that wire, so that it could be hauled dwon without the main kites coming down. Too complex on a boat, though.

Rob.

 

[Scillypete]

See this link for the kind of set up (picavet system) needed to keep the camera stable http://www.gentles.info/KAP/PICAVET/experiment.htm

below that the camera frame would be fixed and can be aligned before sending it up. as yet I have failed/been to worried about sending my camera up from the boat, tried a couple of times from a friends large cat but the kite ditched before the camera got off the deck. The trick (I believe) is to fly the kite nice and high before hoisting sail to avoid the turbulence that the sails will cause, set sail and after that attach the camera and then let the line out further, lots of line required obviously.

Might be inspired to have aanother crack at it next year.

The kite I was using was a flowform 16 very stable and flies well but when you are on a moving boat it can quickly become a very good para-anchor.

 

[Scillypete]

This was on experimental bit of filming that I did achieve

 

[vyv_cox]

I have got as far as buying several kites and launching them from the boat, no problem flying them on a beam reach or upwind and have yet to drop one in the water. Unfortunately the ones I have are clearly not stable enough for a video camera, so the plan is to make a more stable type, maybe this winter.

I now have two Flip video cameras, bought fairly cheaply on Ebay from USA. They have been used for a variety of topics and work OK. No problem with focus from a few metres but the resolution suffers considerably with zoom in.

 

[SHUG]

Pardon my total ignorance but I am interested in the topic but mystified regarding the shutter actuation. Please explain. Thanks.

 

[northwind]

Pardon my total ignorance but I am interested in the topic but mystified regarding the shutter actuation. Please explain. Thanks.

I'd suggest having a look at this site:
http://scotthaefner.com/kap/equipment/rig/

And also at Make's Tutorials

http://makezine.com/01/KAP/