Photography: Near infra-red converted HD808#16D

[John Wells]

Last week we flew the above 830nm, near IR converted video camera at Blackness:
http://www.armadale.org.uk/blackness.htm

Although the camera became detached from the coat hanger wire rig, and bounced around on the safety line, still images were obtainable from the video eg:


The field to the south-west of the castle, looking eastwards. For scale, follow the kite line down to the flier.

.....even if the camera did point at the rig's pendulum ;o)
The image is not corrected for barrel distortion, but this can be done with the free GML Undistorter.

Here is the most recent version of the rig that was used.........but now with a bigger bit of velcro!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YTMqZyLm...e=youtu.be
Videos like this can be improved further by using the free deshaker filter in Virtualdub.

All our videos are wysiwyg, so you know what came out of the camera.

We now have two trainees:



Tom Wells (2½ years old) flying a Power Sled 14 in a light wind, which was capable of lifting the above rig and camera.
Sophie Wells (recently 4) flew a HQ 2 metre delta kite for a while, until she noticed the nearby swings.
One of her parents then flew the delta for the above video.
This was the kids first outing with the kites. Next time they will take aerial photos.

Their 11 year old cousin George was there too. He flew an Emma Kites, 9 foot, mylar delta.
Earlier this year, Jim Knowles, WLAG Archaeologist, used the same mylar delta to lift a 720nm, near IR converted compact camera, on a conventional Picavet suspension, to take this photo of Old Hall Knowe on Bathgate Golf Course:


http://www.armadale.org.uk/bathgatecastle.htm