next up previous
Next: Calendar of Events Up: Aerial Photography (Part 1) Previous: Film or Digital?

How do I activate the camera?

The simplest solution for nearly all cameras is to mount a servo to the camera and let the servo arm engage the shutter control. The servo can be allotted to an unused receiver channel - typically the retract switch on a 6 channel radio. If a 3-channel plane is being flown, the spare 4th channel can be used for camera control instead.

An elegant alternative for certain digital/video cameras is to build or buy a remote controller for your camera - this plugs into the receiver and will allow you to control the camera without moving parts or additional servos. A sample photo of what a setup might look like is included below. A table of which cameras have such controllers available will be in next month's newsletter.

  figure57
Figure 2: A servo-less digital camera controller setup.



Craig Kulesa
Sat Jul 1 01:49:26 MST 2000