Cockpit digital cameras?

Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to take in the cockpit?

Looking for:
Small, so easy storage in the cockpit. Shirt pocket compatible. I've also
got a Powershot S50, which is too thick for my purposes, although length and
width is fine
Decent resolution (5 MP or above?)
Large storage card capacity (1 GB?)

Don't need:
Professional quality (this will primarily be for snapshots)
Interchangeable lenses
Bulk

Anybody already been through the process of evaluating and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

Thanks,
Bullwinkle

I am just going through this process. A good place to start is
http://www.dpreview.com/. Go to Buying Guide - Features Search on the
left menu and select the criteria that are important to you. E.g. I
used:

Format - Ultra Compact (to keep it small)
Zoom wide (W) - 28mm (to get a wide angle lens for those nice
panorama shots out of the cockpit)

You can also add a "Sensor photo detectors" criterion but any cameras
that come up with above criteria will be 5 Mega pixels or more. I am
looking closely at the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS and the Panasonic
Lumix versions, I might go with the Canon but have not decided yet, a
friend of mine who is a professional aerial photographer has it for
daily use and seems to be pretty happy with it.

Hope this helps,

Markus

On Jun 13, 10:48 am, Bullwinkle wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to take in the cockpit?

Looking for:
Small, so easy storage in the cockpit. Shirt pocket compatible. I've also
got a Powershot S50, which is too thick for my purposes, although length and
width is fine
Decent resolution (5 MP or above?)
Large storage card capacity (1 GB?)

Don't need:
Professional quality (this will primarily be for snapshots)
Interchangeable lenses
Bulk

Anybody already been through the process of evaluating and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

Thanks,
Bullwinkle

Bullwinkle wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to take in the cockpit?

Looking for:
Small, so easy storage in the cockpit. Shirt pocket compatible. I've also
got a Powershot S50, which is too thick for my purposes, although length and
width is fine
Decent resolution (5 MP or above?)
Large storage card capacity (1 GB?)

Don't need:
Professional quality (this will primarily be for snapshots)
Interchangeable lenses
Bulk

Anybody already been through the process of evaluating and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

I'm interested in this too, but I'd suggest another couple of things
that would be nice:

- no pop-out lens. A camera without a pop-out lens can be mounted on
the canopy rail close to the canopy without fear of the lens
ramming the perspex and damaging something.

- low power consumption and without an automatic 'off timer' or with
one than can be disabled.

If you don't mind dropping to a mere 3 Mpixels, I notice that Nikon
Coolpix 775s are selling cheaply on eBay. It looks like a suitable
camera for use in a glider, though having handled one, they are almost
too small for easy one-handed operation and they do have a pop-out lens.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Markus

Have used an Olympus as a PHD (Push here dummy) camera for years. It often gets
to take the pictures my D80 can't because I can't get it in the cockpit safely...

The key to good pictures is
1] the photographer
2] the lens quality
3] pixel count
4] format (JPG, RAW TIFF etc.)

I would consider the C-5500 Sport Zoom if I was looking for a rugged, cheap and
cheerful 5Mp camera that can still take great pictures. Most of the expensive
"features" on more expensive models are just brochure clutter. The C7000 series
is an alternative if you want the features...

Quite often getting the picture is more dependant on simplicity and speed of use
of the camera. The Olympus guys are good here. Similarly, if it's going to be in
the glider it had best be able to handle some abuse.

FWIW I have taken some pics from the back seat of a K13 with my D80 and a
18-200VR zoom. Really amazing (technical)quality pictures - now if we could just
do something about the user...

Bruce wrote:

I would consider the C-5500 Sport Zoom if I was looking for a rugged,
cheap and cheerful 5Mp camera that can still take great pictures.


Probably what's needed is a camera that is still available today.


Jack

On Jun 13, 11:13 am, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
Bullwinkle wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to take in the cockpit?

Looking for:
Small, so easy storage in the cockpit. Shirt pocket compatible. I've also
got a Powershot S50, which is too thick for my purposes, although length and
width is fine
Decent resolution (5 MP or above?)
Large storage card capacity (1 GB?)

Don't need:
Professional quality (this will primarily be for snapshots)
Interchangeable lenses
Bulk

Anybody already been through the process of evaluating and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

I'm interested in this too, but I'd suggest another couple of things
that would be nice:

- no pop-out lens. A camera without a pop-out lens can be mounted on
the canopy rail close to the canopy without fear of the lens
ramming the perspex and damaging something.

- low power consumption and without an automatic 'off timer' or with
one than can be disabled.

If you don't mind dropping to a mere 3 Mpixels, I notice that Nikon
Coolpix 775s are selling cheaply on eBay. It looks like a suitable
camera for use in a glider, though having handled one, they are almost
too small for easy one-handed operation and they do have a pop-out lens.

--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

ive got a sony something or another 7 megapixel camera that i got at
Best buy a few years back. it would fit in a breat pocket on a
shirt. its always taken some nice pictures during my flights in the
cherokee, and some really amazing shots of the landouts!

Bullwinkle wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to take in the cockpit?
[snip]
Anybody already been through the process of evaluating and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

The advice given by the others in this thread is undoubtedly much better
than my own, but I have a lot of pictures posted on my web site so I
thought you might find that to be useful.

I have a Nikon E7600. I didn't purchase it for flying, it just ended up
getting used that way. I have a Canon DSLR which takes much better
pictures but it's simply too bulky to take in the cockpit, so I fully
agree with your decision to look at the smaller ones.

The Nikon is not a great camera. It tends to produce fairly grainy or
blurry shots unless the lighting is really good, and the shutter delay is
a frustrating second or so while I have to keep the camera pointed at my
target, but it does alright. I'm not really recommending this camera, but
more just demonstrating what it will get you.

Anyway, you can see some of my pictures taken with this camera he

http://tinyurl.com/yutd54

The ones from in the air were all taken with it, with the exception of a
few shots taken with my camera phone, which should be obvious because
they're the ones which look like they were painted by someone with the
wrong prescription for his glasses.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

I can't claim any expertise in this subject and I don't
often take pictures from the cockpit. It is worth
comment, however, that you should have as much optical
zoom as you can find and that you should forget the
digital zoom altogether. The digital zoom is especially
grainy.

One other comment: the optical viewfinder on my Minolta
Z-1 is so grainy and grayed out as to make it useless
in the air, even though it works fine on the ground.
There is no way to find a glider in flight either
with the view finder or the ground glass viewer on
the back.

At 17:48 13 June 2007, Michael Ash wrote:
Bullwinkle wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to
take in the cockpit?
[snip]
Anybody already been through the process of evaluating
and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

The advice given by the others in this thread is undoubtedly
much better
than my own, but I have a lot of pictures posted on
my web site so I
thought you might find that to be useful.

I have a Nikon E7600. I didn't purchase it for flying,
it just ended up
getting used that way. I have a Canon DSLR which takes
much better
pictures but it's simply too bulky to take in the cockpit,
so I fully
agree with your decision to look at the smaller ones.

The Nikon is not a great camera. It tends to produce
fairly grainy or
blurry shots unless the lighting is really good, and
the shutter delay is
a frustrating second or so while I have to keep the
camera pointed at my
target, but it does alright. I'm not really recommending
this camera, but
more just demonstrating what it will get you.

Anyway, you can see some of my pictures taken with
this camera he

http://tinyurl.com/yutd54

The ones from in the air were all taken with it, with
the exception of a
few shots taken with my camera phone, which should
be obvious because
they're the ones which look like they were painted
by someone with the
wrong prescription for his glasses.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

On Jun 13, 5:12 pm, Markus Graeber wrote:
I am looking closely at the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS

Just got one of these - I think it's rather good. The killer feature
is the 28mm wide-angle lens - no other camera the size has one, and
while it doesn't sound much wider than (say) 35mm it makes a big
difference to what you can fit in the frame. The image stabilisation
should also help with zoom shots.

Worth noting that the other new Canon SD - the 900 - has no wide angle
(37mm), and no image stabilisation, trading them for more megapixels
(which you don't need) and a titanium body (ditto).


Dan

Bullwinkle wrote:
Anybody have any suggestions for digital cameras to take in the cockpit?

Looking for:
Small, so easy storage in the cockpit. Shirt pocket compatible. I've also
got a Powershot S50, which is too thick for my purposes, although length and
width is fine
Decent resolution (5 MP or above?)
Large storage card capacity (1 GB?)

Don't need:
Professional quality (this will primarily be for snapshots)
Interchangeable lenses
Bulk

Anybody already been through the process of evaluating and selecting who
would like to share their experiences?

Thanks,
Bullwinkle


I use a Casio Exilim EX-Z60. It's a 6MP, 3x optical zoom camera that's
quite small. On the negative side, it does have a pop-out lens, but
when not in the picture mode, it fits nicely in a shirt pocket. No
viewfinder, just the fairly large screen on the back. I like it, but I
admit I haven't taken it up with me (it's really my wife's, she'd kill me.)

Ed