Automated aerial photography

Hi,

I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

Do cameras with this functionality even exist? I'm sure there are
industrial cameras which can do this, but they're usually too big and
draw too much power to be mounted on RC airplanes/helicopters. An
alternative is to rig a servo to depress the shutter button, but I
only look to that as a last resort.

Thanks for your help!

Best regards,

Flavio

Flavio Ribeiro wrote:
Hi,

I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

Do cameras with this functionality even exist? I'm sure there are
industrial cameras which can do this, but they're usually too big and
draw too much power to be mounted on RC airplanes/helicopters. An
alternative is to rig a servo to depress the shutter button, but I
only look to that as a last resort.

Thanks for your help!

Best regards,

Flavio

Hi Flavio...

I can't speak for the other makers, but all of the
Oly's do - at least up to the C-7xx series.
Virtually everything, including zoom, btw.

If I might respectfully suggest it, though, I'd
urge you to try to pick up one of the older
ones that communicated via the serial port, as
opposed to usb or fire.

Much, much simpler, at least for this old guy, anyway

And, dropping or crash landing a used d-460z
won't hurt nearly as much as dropping a newer one

Take care.

Ken

2 Options. One a radio slave such as Pocket Wizard, Two use a camera
with an intervalometer

On 19 Nov 2004 17:31:47 -0800, (Flavio Ribeiro) wrote:

Hi,

I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

Do cameras with this functionality even exist? I'm sure there are
industrial cameras which can do this, but they're usually too big and
draw too much power to be mounted on RC airplanes/helicopters. An
alternative is to rig a servo to depress the shutter button, but I
only look to that as a last resort.

Thanks for your help!

Best regards,

Flavio

I think you should avoid the R/C helicopters and planes and use a blimp.
This can carry a couple cameras if you wish and provides a much more stable
shooting platform. The blimp relays the picture to your laptop and you can
direct the camera using that.

Flavio Ribeiro wrote:
Hi,

I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

..snip

Canon does this with their RemoteCapture software. Also they have a SDK
available with the necessary drivers for writing custom software
(Windows only). A company I recently worked for developed a product for
automatic slide analysis which used a Canon G5.

Ideally you'd want to use a microcontroller to issue the USB commands.
Unfortunately info about their lower level protocols doesn't seem to be
readily available.

Angus

Flavio Ribeiro wrote:
Hi,

I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

..snip

Canon does this with their RemoteCapture software. Also they have a SDK
available with the necessary drivers for writing custom software
(Windows only). A company I recently worked for developed a product for
automatic slide analysis which used a Canon G5.

Ideally you'd want to use a microcontroller to issue the USB commands.
Unfortunately info about their lower level protocols doesn't seem to be
readily available.

Angus

"Flavio Ribeiro" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

Do cameras with this functionality even exist? I'm sure there are
industrial cameras which can do this, but they're usually too big and
draw too much power to be mounted on RC airplanes/helicopters. An
alternative is to rig a servo to depress the shutter button, but I
only look to that as a last resort.

i know you can trigger the d70 vie usb port - so i assume that it should be
suitable for your application too.

sid

angus writes:

Flavio Ribeiro wrote:
Hi,
I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

.snip

Canon does this with their RemoteCapture software. Also they have a SDK
available with the necessary drivers for writing custom software (Windows
only). A company I recently worked for developed a product for automatic slide
analysis which used a Canon G5.

Ideally you'd want to use a microcontroller to issue the USB
commands. Unfortunately info about their lower level protocols doesn't seem to
be readily available.

Check out the California Coastline Project:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/

Also in terms of USB support, I believe Canon uses PTP (as does Olympus and
other vendors). You might want to download the sources to gphoto2, which can
control various cameras via USB and serial ports:
http://www.gphoto.org

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

"Michael Meissner" posted:
"...
Check out the California Coastline Project:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/

Neat site ... but OFF POINT for this thread.

The pictures are made by a human photographer ... riding in the co-pilot's
seat of a rather large and rather expensive helicopter. See
http://www.californiacoastline.org/project.html











"Michael Meissner" wrote in message
...
angus writes:

Flavio Ribeiro wrote:
Hi,
I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras
which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

.snip

Canon does this with their RemoteCapture software. Also they have a
SDK
available with the necessary drivers for writing custom software
(Windows
only). A company I recently worked for developed a product for
automatic slide
analysis which used a Canon G5.

Ideally you'd want to use a microcontroller to issue the USB
commands. Unfortunately info about their lower level protocols doesn't
seem to
be readily available.

Check out the California Coastline Project:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/

Also in terms of USB support, I believe Canon uses PTP (as does Olympus
and
other vendors). You might want to download the sources to gphoto2, which
can
control various cameras via USB and serial ports:
http://www.gphoto.org

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

"Michael Meissner" posted:
"...
Check out the California Coastline Project:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/

Neat site ... but OFF POINT for this thread.

The pictures are made by a human photographer ... riding in the co-pilot's
seat of a rather large and rather expensive helicopter. See
http://www.californiacoastline.org/project.html











"Michael Meissner" wrote in message
...
angus writes:

Flavio Ribeiro wrote:
Hi,
I'm interested in performing automated aerial photography with UAVs
(unmanned aerial vehicles) using a camera's USB or Firewire port.
Writing drivers isn't an issue, but the trick is finding cameras
which
shoot pictures upon receiving commands through the port. Keeping the
photo in the camera's solid state storage is fine.

.snip

Canon does this with their RemoteCapture software. Also they have a
SDK
available with the necessary drivers for writing custom software
(Windows
only). A company I recently worked for developed a product for
automatic slide
analysis which used a Canon G5.

Ideally you'd want to use a microcontroller to issue the USB
commands. Unfortunately info about their lower level protocols doesn't
seem to
be readily available.

Check out the California Coastline Project:
http://www.californiacoastline.org/

Also in terms of USB support, I believe Canon uses PTP (as does Olympus
and
other vendors). You might want to download the sources to gphoto2, which
can
control various cameras via USB and serial ports:
http://www.gphoto.org

--
Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org