[Leica] Re: Aerial photography

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (lrzeitlin@optonline.net)]

Dave writes:

<<A few years back a real estate developer friend of mine has some
gorgeous mural sized aerial shots of a big development project. I
assumed they were taken from an airplane. I asked if he'd been on the
fly over. He said the photographer had used balloons to elevate a camera
(to quite a height). 
This was all PDP (i.e. "pre digital photography", before WiFi enabled
cameras and remote LCDs were an option). I looked into it and as I
recall it was all cutting edge stuff with radio controls, much like
model airplanes. I'm sure it would be easier -- and even less costly --
with current technology. >>

----

A subset of dedicated kite flyers have long enjoyed aerial photography with 
feet firmly planted on the ground. In the Eastman House museum there is a 
kite photo dating back over 150 years, to very nearly the dawn of 
photography. Modern kites are very maneuverable and have enormous lifting 
capacity. Some manufacturers warn against letting children under 80 lbs. fly
 them otherwise they might be whisked off to Never Never Land. 

My neighbor's daughter owns a kite and flag making company in Australia and 
on a visit here several years ago asked me to design an expendable camera 
rig to be used for aerial photos. I had a little used but still functional 
motorized Konica AA 1/2 frame camera in my junk drawer. It was Konica's 
answer to the Kodak disc camera. The main advantages were a sharp 24 mm 
lens, auto exposure, and a 72 frame capacity with a 36 exposure roll of 
film. The camera was fastened to a small bracket and attached to the kite 
spar. A tug on a kite string took the picture. I never saw it in action but 
about a year ago she e-mailed me some pictures of scenes around her home 
town, Perambula, which showed surprising detail. They were taken at an 
altitude of about 500 feet. She said that she arranged the bracket so that 
the camera took pictures at a 45 degree angle and painted an arrow on her 
kite so she could aim the camera at the o
bject to be photographed.

I wouldn't try it with a Leica.

Larry Z