ONBOARD STILLS CAMERAS

ONBOARD STILLS CAMERAS

Stills cameras produce far and away the best quality images from onboard rockets, compared with video cameras. There are 2 commercially available model rockets with an onboard camera available:

• 1. The Estes Astrocam, for about 20 to 30 pounds, the quality is not great (it uses 110 size film), and it only returns one shot per flight.
• 2. The Estes Astrovision, with a built in digital camera taking either stills images or video at 640 x 480 resolution.

The obvious progression here, is to move to digital cameras or APS or 35mm film cameras whilst keeping the size of the camera down, and to try and take multiple shots during flight. This has previously been achieved by numerous members of the UK rocketry community, possibly most successfully by Arthur Harrington, a Yorkshire based rocketeer.

As mentioned above, there are 3 technical requirements for rocketry photography:

• The camera should either be digital or use film.
• The camera should be small.
  - This almost certainly dictates that the camera should be a compact camera as opposed to an SLR, since the size constraints of most small rockets is such that anything larger cannot be accomodated.
• The camera should be able to take multiple shots during flight
  - This is enabled by either using a camera with an electronic shutter, or by mechanical servo actuation.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

My current camera for onboard rocketry photography, is a Fuji M603 6 Megapixel Digital Camera. This camera fits within a 75mm diameter (3") airframe, and provides good quality stills photos as well as an option to record digital video at 640 x 480 AVI (M-JPEG). Storage is onto either CompactFlash or xD card.

See Also

Hybrid Rocket Science, Hybrid Rocket Help Clinic, Amateur Hybrid Motors, Amateur Liquid Rockets, Guidance, Gimballed Motors, Launch Controller, UK Rocketry Vendors, UK Rocket Groups, UK Space Organisations