Let's think about this for a minute.


Let's say you have a fifty-foot pole with your camera on top. Your camera sits on a mount that can be adjusted for tilt, and you use your mast to pan. Also consider that your tilt has measurements that correspond to angle: straight to the horizon is 90 degrees. 180 is straight up. Follow me here.

And let's assume that you spent an afternoon with a tape measure, a notebook, a calculator, and a protractor measuring different houses and using that information to adjust your camera and take pictures.

In other words, you measure a few different scenarios, adjust your camera's height, tilt, etc, check the pictures, and then finalize the results using math and notation.


Couldn't we then conclude that if you went to a house to photograph it, that you would know, depending on the height and width of the house or property, that you could just know exactly where to place your mast, how high to raise it, and at what angle your camera should be before it leaves the ground?

It would eliminate the need for monitoring. You simply measure 100 feet (arbitrary number for the purpose of this post) from the house, set the angle of your camera, press button on camera for continuous shot, raise mast, turn mast side to side occasionally, bring it down, load up the pics. I'm thinking you could really save time that way AND money, because you wouldn't have to buy any equipment other than your camera, pole, mount, and a measuring wheel (much faster than a tape measure).

OF course you would have to already have your computer.

But no pan and tilt, no usb cable, no wireless system with batteries, etc.

Just pole, mount, camera, tape measure.

What do you think?

I am going to run some math using a protractor and graph paper to set it to scale.

Is this smart thinking or just plain dumb?

Let me have it. You won't hurt my feelings.

Sounds complex to me but anything can work that you believe in and apply yourself to.

I put together some Pan and Tilt units for masts with a mini camera looking through the viewfinder of SLR camera's and used a low power, (50 mw) 2.4 Ghz AV down link to view what the camera sees. It did cost more money to put it all together though so what I'm throwing out here moves away from simplicity.

Dan

I like your setup.

I almost wrote that I like your package. But that wouldn't sound right now, would it?

I also wondered if anyone has ever tried a manual tilt and pan system (using a rope or something.

My whole point is to limit the amount of electronics as much as possible.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

None of those are mine. I don't use a mast. Those are examples, (Maybe the same one) of units I built for photographers that used the large fiberglass compressed air driven masts. It takes about $1,000.00 in off the shelf parts to put it together so it's not for everybody.

There are some great P&T units by some of the guys on this forum. Askman sells one ready to go and you can add what you like to get it running. Good stuff.

Dan

I'll stick with the laptop and live view Too much thinking involved for me

You dont need to get that fancy to see what the camera sees. Most digital cams have AV out. I just use a 13" tv that plugs into the cigarette lighter to connect to the camera using hard wire, no downlink. Simple and cheap.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...40&postcount=1

Using a strictly non-electronic method of aiming your camera will really never take the place of being able to view directly from either the camera itself, or from a satellite video camera mounted near and looking at the same view as the still camera. It is amazing what a single inch will do when magnified from 30 or more feet in the air as far as knocking off your aim point. In most all cases you can use one of those very cheap video systems for the viewing and downlink from a mast as you really do not need to have anywhere near the range or "perfect" signal that you would for an aircraft platform. 40 or 50 feet of range is quite adequate in virtually all instances, and a complete (minus monitor) system can even be had from Walmart or off of Ebay for well under $100 or less....

Joe

Originally Posted by Fairmont

My whole point is to limit the amount of electronics as much as possible.

Check out how a HiPod works. Pan and Tilt are manual. I've had some aluminum machined for my wonderpole base so I can manually pan, now I'm working on the manual tilt.

When complete, the only electronic equipment will be the downlink.

Troy

Originally Posted by Envision

Check out how a HiPod works. Pan and Tilt are manual. I've had some aluminum machined for my wonderpole base so I can manually pan, now I'm working on the manual tilt.

When complete, the only electronic equipment will be the downlink.

Troy

Wow, I wish more AP'ers looked like that !

What pole? I didnt see no pole -

Originally Posted by aviatordave

Wow, I wish more AP'ers looked like that !

What pole? I didnt see no pole -

Easy Dave,

I clicked on that link first.

Dan

I fly AP and use a mast a lot.
Some may find this strange but I feel no need to use a vid link while flying and almost always get "the shot" in less than 8 min of flying. I just has become very intuitive.
On the flip side I don't think I could make good use of my mast without a vid link.
This is pretty much the opposite of what most who do nether would think.

Ira

I like my downlink for framing the shot, but just as important to me is the OSD that shows my exposure and other data on a shutter half press. I would not do a mast job without the downlink.

I found it very helpful to find the camera angle that places the bottom of the frame congruent with the line of flight directly under the plane, projected on the ground. For my Optio S4 this comes to about 30 degrees down from the horizontal. Then the idea is to fly past the target keeping the desired frame bottom at the plane's position. I go to 400 feet, drop prop to idle and spirally descend cranking out pictures while passing the target at successively lower altitudes to the ground. Using flattened circles to get more target views on the passes. I consistantly get many excellent views in a single 10 minute flight.
Bill

Originally Posted by aviatordave

You dont need to get that fancy to see what the camera sees. Most digital cams have AV out. I just use a 13" tv that plugs into the cigarette lighter to connect to the camera using hard wire, no downlink. Simple and cheap.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...40&postcount=1

BUT the laptop allow me to alter the exposure alter the zoom, do an instant backup to harddrive on any shots taken and allows me to control the pan and tilt head on screen