zane wrote:Mainly I'm trying to get that inflight vanity shot of my bird.

Come on over to Idaho and let me through a bloody Elk carcase in the back of your plane and I'll take inflight shots of your bird from mine

Jon

Mr. Ed wrote:Techno challenged here and tried to post and ended up sending Anticub a PM.

Eh, so you hit the wrong button. No different than pulling the mixture instead of the carb heat.

Phil

Blame it on the address but may I suguest Duct tape?

This may be off the wall, but if you happen to have an antenna on the belly that is not in use, why not put a glass window in its place and mount the camera under the floor boards?

I would think a "bubble mount" would be happier on the belly than interfering w/ the airflow on the wing.

Solves a lot of wiring problems and the camera is in a better environment.

TD

YELLOWMAULE wrote:Blame it on the address but may I suggest Duct tape?

Many years ago when I was a kid my Dad took me on the set of "A Bridge Too Far." He was a camera man on the aerial unit. I remember watching as he gaffer taped an Arriflex 3c to the top wing of a DC-3 wing. It held great and you can see shots of the paratroops jumping out of the door. The camera weighs about 30lbs. If you got one of the new Sony HD camera that weigh ounces, are tiny and record HDV to memory cards (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665089063) maybe a bit of tape with a suction mount would work (try it with a something that is the same size and weight first (like a Tupperware box with some sand in it). Also check a few local skydiving outfits for ideas - they often put cameras out there to record their customers. If you didn't make it a permanent mod then would you need a 337??
I want to attach a HD camera but with some sort of pan/tilt/dutch movement but I will probably attach it to the strut of my C180 as I don't want to be on camera.
Here's an early effort of ours - learnt a lot about what not to do - our next production is sooo much better. We just stuck the camera out of the window!!!
http://www.fixedwingfilms.com/privatereel.html

Nigel

Cool film, Nigel. I can only watch so much Skywagon TV though before I start to feel like a pauper.

Anything mounted to the airframe will require a field approval to be legal, and would be a reason for an insurance company to deny coverage. The other considerations are vibrations for quality video, and controlling the camera with a cable or radio from inside the cabin. For vanity shots I would suggest a bullet cam attached to a rubber mount like the Sticky pod camera mount system for cars (stickypod.com). For scenery , check out this company for strut mounted cameras:

[url]http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/data/LRP_aviation_main.html

I know a guy with a nose mounted Digital video camera in his twin engine bush plane that shoots great air to air video.

[/url]

TwinPOS wrote:Anything mounted to the airframe will require a field approval to be legal, and would be a reason for an insurance company to deny coverage.

According to my IA it is not required for something taped to the airframe but that is up to each to determine. I agree on the insurance and just pointing a camera out of the window can invalidate the insurance if you plan on selling the photo.

TwinPOS wrote:http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk/data/LRP_aviation_main.html

I looked at these mounts and I think they were about $10,000 or so and they don't pan.
These ones http://www.ultralightnews.ca/camera-mount are much less expensive ($500-$700) but would require some extra work and are still too big given the size of HDV cameras now.


Nigel

I bet I could make something that might screw into your wing tiedown for instance with a RAM mount, or If your wing tiedowns don't screw in then maybe rubber lined saddle clamp with a wingnut on one end to clamp on the strut. You know something that could be easily removed and installed so you could install it on a grass strip somewhere and remove it before you got home.
Just do it, you won't be modifying the airplane, and when was the last time you saw someone that would even care in a grass strip?

Here's a short video I took this morning from a disposable camera attached to the tail of my plane. I did a short field takeoff, then simulated engine out on takeoff, landed back, then repeated the process.

tom

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Yn2jET1dcPY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Yn2jET1dcPY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Did some more experimenting this morning. This time is was to try out a wing camera for stills. You can see the setup and a resulting picture in my album, or in the new pix.

I think the camera is shaking a little and therefore the pictures are not as sharp as they should be. I scabbed a headphone jack onto the Nikon camera to get a remote shutter control. That part works great, but the gizmo I used to attach the camera to the strut is not as stiff as I'd like it, and the strut itself twists slightly as well.

tom

Pretty damn cool, Tom. I took the liberty of embed the pics...I like it!

1SeventyZ wrote:Pretty damn cool, Tom. I took the liberty of embed the pics...I like it!

I agree, that's pretty slick. Is that a digital camera or digital movie camera?

Wonder if one could use servos from a radio controled unit to make ajustments in air?

See ya, Bub

Skylane wrote:Is that a digital camera or digital movie camera?

Wonder if one could use servos from a radio controled unit to make ajustments in air?

See ya, Bub

That's an old Nikon 990 digital camera. It can take some lame movies, but since the mount is standard 1/4-20, it can mount most any camera. The digital video camera I have has a remote control that could operate the camera from the cockpit.

I don't see anything wrong with using a radio control, except without feed back, it would be hard to know what you did. ie. did I zoom too much?

tom