Economic Research: Canon Powershot

Friday 28 December 2012

Canon Powershot

After months of reading, there are only a few options for launching a high quality light-weight camera onto a balloon that can take photos every few seconds. I went with hacking a Canon PowerShot camera with CHDK. Haven’t floated it up yet, but on the ground it is allowing full manual control of everything and it shoots RAW images. Perfect for the quality that is needed. Next step is to use it in the air. If you want a bit more information on CHDK, continue reading… Many light-weight point-and-shoot cameras have a “Time Lapse” feature, but they usually automatically turn the result into a ready-made movie. I need more control and access to the high quality still images. Surprisingly smart phones can do this, but (call me old-fashioned) I can easily send a $400 camera up on a balloon, however I just can’t send my cel phone up into the heavens with only a string… Additionally, popular balloon aerial mapping sites recommend putting your camera into continuous mode and just jamming the shutter on. Not for me. I need to send the balloon up for hours and don’t want to sort through 10,000s of images – let alone running the battery down or over-heating the camera.