I can imagine dropping a point-and-shoot into a bag after I’m done with it. Point-and-shoot cameras seem to be designed to be knocked around a bit. I couldn’t find a quantitative measure to rate the protection from fall damage, so I can only provide an simple engineering assessment. Mechanical damageĬameras are fragile, that’s just something we have to live with. During flight I generally try to keep out of the 4x to 16x range to maintain image quality. My PowerShot has an optical zoom of 4x, but it can go to 16x with an additional digital zoom. Most point-and-shoot cameras use a combination of optical and digital zoom.
In this way the full resolution of the camera sensor can be used. A physical lens moves back and forth to increase the zoom by bending the light waves before they get to the sensor. Optical zoom is better if you can find it. This means a loss of sharpness, however, as there are fewer pixels from the camera sensor used in the final image.
Smartphones often use digital zoom, where software crops down the image that the sensor captures, to create an apparent zoom. Most cameras can zoom in an out to make the subject bigger or smaller in the image. Image stabilisation can also be done by the camera software, if the servo method is not used. This means that whilst the camera may be moving during the shutter opening, the sensor is not, helping you get a better shot. These move the sensor in the opposite direction of the overall camera during the split second the camera shutter is open. Mechanical image stabilisation is done by commecting small servos to the camera sensor. It works just as a well to dampen out some of the movement effects whilst tethered to a kite! IS was designed to remove the blur caused by shaky hands. My camera also has image stabilisation (IS), which is very handy for KAP. I found that 8 MP is plenty for my use, but newer cameras have more, so grab one if you can – it can’t hurt. This is close to a 4K image, which is 3840 x 2,160 pixels. Well, it actually has three, but it’s also close to AUD$2000.ġ MP is a million pixels, so 8 MP usually equates to a photo with the dimensions 3264 x 2448 pixels. By comparison, the iPhone 11 has a 12 MP camera. My decade-old PowerShot has an 8 MP camera. The maximum possible number of pixels captured by a digital camera sensor is often measured in megapixels, abbreviated to MP. Here are some of the features to look out for when purchasing a camera. You can get a similar one on ebay for less than AUD$50. The camera I use for KAP is a Canon PowerShot A590 IS, from back in 2008. Check out Part 1 here, which covers the basics.
This is Part 2 of a series on Kite Aerial Photography. There are a few things that we need to get right to get a good image hanging 100-metres up.īut improving your camera and settings knowledge for KAP will also lift your day to day photography. Selecting a camera and settings for Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) can be tricky. At least I was able to get the grass out of it. I’ve dropped my point-and-shoot a number of times. Cameras and Settings – Nailed to the Sky – Part 2