Product: Fireworks
Flash Photo   (0)  [vote for, against]
A fireworks camera

As the summary indicates, the idea is for a small camera (either still, video or broadcast) that can be fitted into a firework casing. Ideally it would be sturdy enough to survive impact or cheap enough that we don't have to care.

One scenario has a ballasted camera (so it always faces up). Another scenario has a downward-facing camera with a parachute lauched higher than the scenario one camera. In either case, the cameras are launched just before a batch of fireworks and fall back to Earth capturing/transmitting the subsequent explosions. A neat way to see a fireworks show from above or below.
-- phoenix, Mar 29 2003

Estes Cineroc http://www.paratech.../Estes/cineroc.html
Just rotate the lens 180 degrees [Shz, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

With Transmitter http://www.beyond-designs.com/rocket.htm
[Shz, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Kite Cameras http://www.arch.ced...edu/kap/kaptoc.html
[Don Quixote, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Ah. I like this +. An elaborate and silly alternative is to have a fireworks camera drone that lazily circles a hundred feet or so above the highest expected burst over the launch area.
-- bristolz, Mar 29 2003


Parachuting and kite-mounted cameras are pretty well baked [link], but they generally point down. A camera that could frame images with a properly centered horizontal reference would be cool -- you could launch it to capture fireworks, sunsets, and landscapes otherwise obscured by telephone wires, trees, buildings, etc.

Ensuring proper exposure and keeping a single lens pointed at your intended subject would be tough, you probably don't have payload space for a sophisticated directional gyro or light meter. Assuming a digital camera, the photo module could use multiple lenses and sensors with overlapping coverage, all feeding one recording device. I think you'd want 4 lenses for wide angle compositions, more for telephoto.

Also, you're probably not going to launch a Zeiss lens on a model rocket engine, so you've also got an image quality trade-off to make in that department, too.

Have a Kodak moment - an overhead view of a large croissant. +
-- Don Quixote, Mar 30 2003



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