KAP rig

Gaffer · 19 Jul 2008 at 23:37

I have been trying to build a KAP (Kite Aerial Photography) since April. Today, it got hoisted under a kite for the first time.

The rig:

Andrew

^^Gord^^ · 19 Jul 2008 at 23:42

Good effort!

I use to work with a guy who did the same thing but he was using compact cameras rather than DSLR.

How big is the kite to lift that?

H@mmer · 19 Jul 2008 at 23:43

OMG you put a 5D under a kite. How do you get a safe landing everytime?

Amoeba · 19 Jul 2008 at 23:44

Maybe I am missing something important here but..... how the hell do you land it?!?!?

Looks a pretty amazing setup though

I love aerial photography, I have just had a shot come back from the printers on 15"x10" paper of Lancaster city centre taken from the top of the Priory church tower

Win^ · 19 Jul 2008 at 23:58

omg, that is awesome and very brave. good work!

Gaffer · 20 Jul 2008 at 07:24

^^Gord^^ said:
How big is the kite to lift that?

We used an 8m^2 Pilot. The plan is available here:
http://www.kites.tug.com/pilot/

I'm not sure it is the right choice of kite. I would have liked a lot more stability. But then, it was a blustery wind yesterday. Might be better with a 16m^2 in less wind. I would have liked a lot more altitude to play with to get into cleaner air, but we were limited to the standard 60m ceiling.

H@mmer said:
OMG you put a 5D under a kite. How do you get a safe landing everytime?

It was "only" the 5D and "only" the nifty fifty. The 1DsIII stayed safely on the floor :-)

There are sockets for four legs (slightly angled out, slightly higher on the left to avoid the servo). Fitting four carbon rods in there is pretty high on the list of things to do next. We havn't dropped it yet.

Before lifting the camera, we lifted a 2 litre drink bottle just to check that the kite would comfortably lift it. You need *much* more than 2kg line tension to lift a 2kg weight. The kitchen scales are broken so I havn't weighed the rig, but the 5D weighs 810g. so I would guess that the total rig would be 1.5kg.

Amoeba said:
Maybe I am missing something important here but..... how the hell do you land it?!?!?

We "walk" the kite down. Start at the anchor (the tree in this case) and walk towards the kite. One person walks, the other is ready to catch the rig as soon as it gets within reach.

Amoeba said:
Looks a pretty amazing setup though I love aerial photography, I have just had a shot come back from the printers on 15"x10" paper of Lancaster city centre taken from the top of the Priory church tower

It has attracted me for a long time too. Charles C. Benton is pretty inspiring. His website has been around since the dark ages:
http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/

Many years ago, I created this little gallery:
http://kap.tug.com/

Which is a spoof - each image was taken from a tall building, in the style of KAP.

Andrew