What camera for pictures from a glider cockpit?

Shawn wrote:


Make sure what ever you get can accept a polarizing filter to get rid of
canopy reflections.


Or fly a 1-26 with a sports canopy, so you shoot through air, not
plexi! ;-P

I settled on the Canon G-6 last year. I wanted fast shutter speed, and
features like programmable infinity focus...I've had other cameras that
had efficient infra red auto focus mechanisms: they focused perfectly
on the INSIDE of the plexiglass!

Soon I'll make a "sock" to put around the darned marketing department
silver plastic body.

Overall, I like the camera a great deal. I think they're $400 on
Costco.com I opted to get a 1G Lexar Pro CF flash card (much faster
than other digital memory...at least when I bought it).

Another good thing to get is a memory to PC-Card adapter. It can make
downloading todays pix to your laptop much easier than getting SeeYou
to suck a trace from a VolksLogger.

Good Luck!

309 wrote:
Shawn wrote:


Make sure what ever you get can accept a polarizing filter to get rid of
canopy reflections.



Or fly a 1-26 with a sports canopy, so you shoot through air, not
plexi! ;-P

I settled on the Canon G-6 last year. I wanted fast shutter speed, and
features like programmable infinity focus...I've had other cameras that
had efficient infra red auto focus mechanisms: they focused perfectly
on the INSIDE of the plexiglass!

How well does the infrared remote control work, or haven't you tried it
out on a wing tip?

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Eric Greenwell wrote:
309 wrote:
I've had other cameras that
had efficient infra red auto focus mechanisms: they focused perfectly
on the INSIDE of the plexiglass!

How well does the infrared remote control work, or haven't you tried it
out on a wing tip?

The remote works well on the ground...I haven't tried it in the air.
I'm told other folks have had reasonable success with tip mounted
cameras & remotes. There was an article in Soaring 5 or 6 years ago on
building a camera mount and remote, solenoid operated trigger; it was
mounted on a 1-36.

I was referrring to the focusing mechanism, nowadays it's usually an
infrared beam that the camera uses to measure distance. If you fail to
disable this "feature," the camera will detect the INSIDE of your
canopy, and focus on that, rather than the other glider 75 feet away
(effectively infinity).

By setting the focus on "infinity," (or sometimes referred to as
"landscape mode"), you tell the camera to look through the
(plexi)glass. Practice this by taking pictures through a window or
screen door. You'll notice the difference (not that I have a screen
door on my 1-26 Sports Canopy...).

A camera with programmable custom modes (like the Canon G6, which C1
and C2 modes that be programmed virtually any way you want), you can
set speed, aperture, focus, etc., in advance so you don't need to mess
with that while trying to remember how to fly. FWIW, I set the C1 mode
to wide angle, infinity focus (I forget the other settings), and C2 to
maximum zoom with infinity focus. This way, I can turn it on and it
quickly will be at the settings I need for a close up formation shot,
or a far off one.

A bunch of my air-to-air photograhpy is visible on the 1-26 Association
Photo Gallery
http://www.126association.org/images.htm
There are many pix there from other photoraphers, too.

Be careful when doing this...flying formation can get
dangerous...especially when one (or both) of you is looking through a
viewfinder...nevermind flying left handed. Talking to one another is
very wise.

-Pete
#309

309 wrote:


I was referrring to the focusing mechanism, nowadays it's usually an
infrared beam that the camera uses to measure distance. If you fail to
disable this "feature," the camera will detect the INSIDE of your
canopy, and focus on that, rather than the other glider 75 feet away
(effectively infinity).

You'll be pleased to know that most cameras now look at scene features,
rather than use infrared, so they no longer focus on transparent
objects. Big improvement!

By setting the focus on "infinity," (or sometimes referred to as
"landscape mode"), you tell the camera to look through the
(plexi)glass. Practice this by taking pictures through a window or
screen door. You'll notice the difference (not that I have a screen
door on my 1-26 Sports Canopy...).

For example, my 4 year old Minolta Dimage X has no trouble with canopies
and windows (haven't tried screen doors - not good for the image
either). It can still mis-focus if something nearby is in the focus
field, so being able to manually set the focus can occasionally be useful.


A camera with programmable custom modes (like the Canon G6, which C1
and C2 modes that be programmed virtually any way you want), you can
set speed, aperture, focus, etc., in advance so you don't need to mess
with that while trying to remember how to fly.

This feature was on several of the cameras I looked, including the Canon
S80 that seems the best match for my criteria (so far). Sounds useful.

snip

Be careful when doing this...flying formation can get
dangerous...especially when one (or both) of you is looking through a
viewfinder

This is why I want a large LCD monitor, visible in sunlight, that I can
use instead of a viewfinder. Don't know how well it will work, but I
really hope it does.

...nevermind flying left handed.

No problem here - I'm left-handed and fly almost as well with it.

Talking to one another is
very wise.

That's what prompted my mostly unsuccessful posting about a wireless,
ear mounted microphone. I'll probably go back to my sunglasses mounted
Plantronics mike, wired though it is, until I come up with something better.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA