Flying a camera - with Duct Tape!

I was visiting friends, and I had the Sony ActionCam, the HDR-AS15 with me (currently $178 but now replaced by the HDR-AS30V, which is $298), and it was suggested that we try and fly it. The only problem was that the kite we had available was a dual line parafoil stunt kite, which is a fun kite to fly, but not really the kind of thing you want to fly for cinematic shots - it does best moving back and forth in the sky, especially when there's not a whole lot of wind.



And secondly, we didn't have any sort of rig to attach the camera to the kite's rig.

So we duct tapped it to the surface of the kite! I made a simple cardboard "stand" to help keep it vertical, and I also put some bubble wrap over the top of it to provide some added protection. And tapped it all down.



And then we went and flew it. On the first attempt there wasn't enough wind and the kite spent most of the time hitting the ground. Also, we had the camera pointing forward; which meant it was mostly catching sky! For the second attempt, I turned it around. In retrospect, it should have been much further to the back of the kite so that less of the kite was in the shot. Then again, it's whipping back and forth so much, it would probably make you sea sick!



Anyway, it was fun, and the camera survived the trip quite happily - fortunately, we were always landing in grass!

Thanks to Peter for loaning, and flying the kite.

Duct tape. Don't leave home without it.

Ohh...YouTube detected that the video might be shaky!


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