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Helium Movies

On a warm summerday, with 50 euro worth of helium in three balloons, me, Hans-Peter and Martijn went to the vondelpark to try something I had been contemplating for a while: aerial photography using digital cameras.

The setup was relatively simpel: A 3.1 megapixel camera, hanging from three balloons (50-70cm). Total weight of the setup was somewhere around 450 gram, the balloons had a pull of about double that. Two threads of 100 meters connected the ballons to us, so that we could get the camera to land again.

The trickiest thing was the timing. The camera in question had a timer, but the delay on it was maximum 10 seconds (don't you hate non programmable devices). In the end we settled on making movies of 30 seconds. In 30 seconds the camera went up 40-50 meters or so. The result is below.

great idea!
by Sergey Moskalev
We will use this method for our project - http://foto-moscow.ru any one have possibility to upload own photo on the map. Only one requirement - it is necessary to show exact direction. It will be nice to make photos from birth height :) Thank's Douwe!

Wow!
by Connie Tonsgard
I stumbled onto your site and thought the idea of the balloons and camera very cool. After I watched the first one (which made me dizzy!) I just had to see the other one! They were both great!

Good idea!
by Bob
Nice videos! It would be cool to see one with the camera mounted vertically, so it is pointed at the horizon. What precautions did you take to stop the camera dropping off? I've got a digital camera and i'd like to do this but it's way too expensive to send up on a baloon in case it fell off and was destroyed.

good
by Gustavo Guerra
Hi! I´m from Brazil and i´m 16. I´m a student of hight shool and with an other friend, i made a baloon that watch some things of the low atmosphere. We won a lot of brazilian prices and the international price "the first step to the nobel price in phisics". Our next idea is take photographys with our some baloon. I´d like to know more things about your projetc... Thanks:
Gustavo
P.S.: sory for my poor english

balloon video
by Jim
I did a video with one of those battery powered video spy cameras that transmit it's picture to the base. I hot melt glued it's camera lense to the outside of a plastic strawberry pint and ran the wire with the battery into the inside of the basket. I then tied helium balloons to it to make my gondola. I attached kite string to the basket. Pressed record on my vcr and let it go. It turned out pretty good, it was just a little too windy that day. Part of it looks like a drunken madman had been holding the camera. I intend on doing this again someday, especially with the recent removal of a big tree next to my property.. Jim, Pgh.Pa

Not Bad
by Stephen
Personally I would say the movies are not great, and dont show much in the way of scenery. But the idea is a good one, I would be interested to take photos for Real Estate to put on web sites. And figuring out the easiest and cheapest way to do this (and listing it) would probably be more beneficial. Great balloon camera combi.

Interesting but there may be other ways
by Des
I'm looking into hitching a small spycam on a helium balloon to take some pics of my golf club. But it may be easier to get some chimney sweep poles and screw them together to get a reasonable hight with more control and less problems with wind.

Right on!
by George Rogers
It was a pleasure to find your idea and the results. I teach introductory landscape design to high school and community college students, and it is difficult, time consuming, and frustrating to students (though educational)to map the residential sites prior to planning. I suspected it might be comparatively easy and fun to use helium balloons to obtain aerial photos with a cheap digital camera. An advantage is that common photo editing and landscape design software allows removal of existing elements from the image, and addition of digitized plants and other items is quick thanks to digital libraries of such images. It is common practice to do this with photos taken at ground level. I searched the internet to see if anyone is using balloons in this fashion, or if there is a commericial product for this purpose, and came upon your website. Mt leading thought was to use a radio control and servo of the sort used on model cars and airplanes to snap the pictures, and this may be feasible---a hope was to find a camera-servo linkage available for purchase. Having seen what you did, I may try to use the timer, though the disadvantages are obvious. I'd like to take several shots while the balloon is up. Local stores sell helium in metal canisters for filling party baloons, so perhaps it is possible to find a refillable balloon large enough to carry the camera aloft. Thank you for making your results availble. I'd be interested in hearing further low-budget developments or ideas. My e-mail is rogersg@pbcc.edu. Thank you, George Rogers, Jupiter, Florida

Tolle_Nummer
by ram

sieht super aus
small miniatures, lovely
keep on doin the good work

Heilum
by Chris

comment_11
by Syzmygon
I... hey, wait a moment! Come back! ;-)

Wow! I want to do that!
by Will Brown
Wow, I want to do that too! When I do that, It is much better, safer and cheaper than paying too much money, and elevating my body off the ground which will be so fun! I have a 4.0 MegaPixel Kodak CX7430 digital camera, and it also includes a videocamera mode in it too! I would have to pay between 30 to 50 dollars to purchase all this equipment, which is still better than paying more than hundreds of dollars to lift myself off the ground! Cool Huh!
See you later! Bye!

Will

Vat Happin?
by Spooky
What happen to the AVI pictures? They are not there any more. When you click on the AVI movies they are all dead links. I really like this idea as I put forth similar idea several months ago on another digital aerial photography site. I want to try this too myself.

In USA the Walmart stores sells toy helium and balloons for $20 US and digital camera with 40 second AVI timer for $20 US too. They also refill ballons for free in layaway dept. You would need about ten of thier rubber toy baloons (color: light blue or light gray is good for day time releasing aloft to reduce people spotting what you are doing and annoying you with stupid questions and other annoying misintreptation actions).

Then you will need fishing line from Sporting goods dept. A fishing reel would also be good too but now the cost gets higher. You could just rewind with your hands - where leather glove(s). Make sure to use heavy enough guage line that won't break under the upward pull or wind loading but not too heavy to wiegh down the balloons. Always release in an open field or empty parking lot without trees as trees will foul the line and balloons and you'll have stuck balloons in a nieghbor's tree. You'll need BB rifle to get them down (sort off!!!). If any nosey people asks what you are doing: "I am just flying new-style balloon kite... can't you see dummy?"

Spooky

By the way... Stable Platform?
by Spooky
IMO If you want a more stable aerial platform and more control of a very cheap digital camera you will need at least 3 or more points of tethering with a wide base (120° Y pattern). Something akin to guy wires on a large tv broadcasting antenna.

You will need 3 people holding and stablizing the lines as the balloons go aloft. Won't work in medium-to-heavy winds only windless-to-slight blustery days. If you have enough helium and balloons (Suggest: get weather balloons from Edmund Scientic - See footnote *) you could solder a small gauge speaker wire from Radio Shack * to the push button switch and a remote Radio Shack push button switch (extra wire ohms resistance is nominal) - beware: voids camera warranty!!!

This will allow you to activate in still camera mode or movie mode AFTER it is already aloft, aimed, and relatively stable. Of course this extra wire will add to the overall balloon payload wieght. A R/C control is more high-tech but somewhat heavier (due to 9v battery), more complex to wire, and costlier. Or you could use a more expensive digital camera with a self-timer which won't start clicking for a few seconds. But if the balloons get away from you...yikes!!!

OR! Try a small cheap wireless 9v battery operated video transmitter * its cheaper and simplier! You can just record as long as you want on a ground based mobile 12v vcr and tv monitor. Range is usually 300 meters LOS (line of sight) straight down.

Please send me an email on anyone's experiments that actually work. Would be interested in seeing .ram, .wma, .avi, .gif, or .jpg still photos: send to spqqk1-generic@yahoo.com

Spooky
---------------
* Footnote:
Edmund Scientific
http://www.scientificsonline.com
or
http://www.scientificsonline.com/search.asp?t=ss&ss=balloon&x=7&y=11

http://www.radioshack.com
or
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F010%5F006%5F000&product%5Fid=278%2D1385&Printer=true
100' spool of 22-guage at $9.00 US a piece. Probably a few extra ounces per spool. Will need qty of 10 for 1000' aloft. You'll need more helium!

Switch:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F002%5F015%5F002&product%5Fid=275%2D609&Printer=true

Wireless camera (EBAY):
http://stores.ebay.com/Spy-Camera-cam-Wholsale_W0QQssPageNameZVIStoreHeaderLinksQQtZkm?

Simple and great
by Marcel
I just was directed to your site to take a look at the visited countries hack. i took some time and walked about your site and found this ballon movies! what a superb idea! i will try it with my cam, too! :-) nice picture without using a plane!

Eye in Sky
by lock
Fun videos guys!
Found w/a google for "helium balloons"...

Also found this outfit, to illustrate what may be developed... They mention balloons as platforms for cameras also.
http://www.aerostar.com/

Re platform (balloon) stability for pictures?

My first thought was "form stability" (if that's the right term?), ie a balloon shaped to "steady up" in a breeze, maybe the "zeppelin" shapes do that on a tether? Don't know!

Or actually add wings to make the balloon a combo balloon/kite?

My search for balloons is about using a (bigger) balloon to lift the blades of a wind generator aloft.

I'm interested in adding lift (ie kite wings) to help the balloon (and supported turbine blades) remain higher aloft as the wind speed increases, rather than seeing the balloon blown over sideways.

Anyway...

Now you guys have me wanting to add a remote spy cam to the balloon for entertainment!

Cheers

Lock
Toronto, Canada

Another ne Helium
by

Another One Helium Vid
by RbH
just a guy who wanna smoke a blunt without gravity :D a bit psychedelic but funny way to use He
ed2k://|file|funny%20video%20%20science%20canabis%20cannabis%20ganja%20smock%20blunt%20with%20antigravity%20system.rbh.avi|1089536|209141A96267A28D34948D7DAF5EB0AB|h=7VGTIN7GI4ITZCSQSBQ5O2INMHZN452S|/

tsk tsk
by smoo
look, these guys have large plans

this was done many times in the past

http://www.jpaerospace.com/

ZZZZZZZ!!!!

innovation?? meh...
by Shane Gibson
Hello,
This project is totally awesome. I am a computer science major, but somehow I was more thrown off by your helium balloon experiement.
After thinking five minutes about a way to improve the "movie", while avoiding those ghastly high prices, a conclussion hit me in the face. Here in Longview, Texas, at the CVS/pharmacy store I found a disposable camcorder. At the time, I was like .... "eh... .... WHY???" Like I mentioned, conclussion reached.
The camcorder is $20(US) for a 20 minute recording. I would assume, of course, that the quality might not be like that 8mm or 3+mega-pixel camera you're using, and the added weight might be additional draw-backs.
Anyway, I absolutely love this, and all of your other projects. Don't work too hard!!!
-- Shane

Great projects
by Ron
Toffe projecten allemaal!
Ik heb een link geplaatst op m'n blog:
http://www.biber.nl/?itemid=402

Box Kite?
by Steve Worcester
A simple box kite made with garden bamboo stakes, string, newspaper (or other heavier paper) and glue would provide a very stable platform and needs only one string. A second string festooned to the flight string could be rigged to trip the shutter.

Large kites can lift large loads. They've been used for observation platform since the 1800's.

comment_23
by JHL
I've been thinking about something like this for a long time too. My idea was that it may be possible to trigger a picture by giving the string a jerk, that would make some lever hit the shutter. It could get complicated though, and weather might be a problem, but if you could work it you could take pictures at different heights.

CVS camcorders
by Stu
Yep, CVS (here in the states) is selling one-time use disposable camcorders. They record 20-25 minutes of DIVX video at 320x240 30 fps (equiv. to VHS quality). There are tons of hacks out there now to grab the video into your own computer, rather than returning it to CVS.
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/08/cvs_camcorder_u.html
for example.
The cost is between 20 and 30 dollars, plus approx 13 to put it onto a DVD. Then CVS wipes the memory, repackages the device, and resells it.

Swivel control
by Slese

Swivel control
by Slese
Perhaps if you used a few fishing line swivels it
would stop the camera turning.

might be of some nterest
by franky
http://www.rtpnet.org/robroy/lawrence/landscape.html

i was in awe when i saw these,
http://www.rtpnet.org/robroy/lawrence/landscape.html
nearly as much as i was when i saw yours

i might just give it a go in hyde park.

video looks cool.

:)

Pittt
by Pittt
<a href="/">Pittt</a>

omg
by omg
omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg

Free Balloon for Best Video
by Johnny
Loved the photos. I love the creativity and zaniness on the web.
Free 6' helium balloon for the best video and best still shots taken from a balloon platform.
I will have final say on the winners and have publication rights for the video or still shots.
You can look at one of our sites, www.advertisingblimps.com, to see the balloons.
Please send your video or stills to photos@advertisingblimps.com.

I'll pay for shipping also.
Great stuff!
Johnny

stable platform
by swiffer
Here's some pictures of a kite hoisting a weight stabilized tripod-like platform. A scaled down version made from thin wooden dowels would seem practical for use with large weather balloons.

http://www.rtpnet.org/robroy/lawrence/kitelines94.html

Sweet!!
by budding aerial photographer
Hehe,now that looks like a fun project! Years ago, I used a cheap disposable camera, *nothing like your set up* that was triggered using a string tied to a popsicle stick. The balloon itself was three very big 30 gallon trash bags taped carefully together *two bags left unchaged while the third had the closed end cut off, and that end then taped to create a tube once inflated.* and guided to point into the wind via vanes I made using thin dowels and covered with a triangle of plastic. it worked quite well. I tethered the balloon by its nose as the camera gave it enough weight to make the balloon fly at a near horizontial. I hope someday to repeat the experiment, but with much larger christmas tree bags and a digital video camera with movie capability. *same set up cept the fins will be slightly different.*

how cool
by kourtney
wow what good facts,what is brazil like by the way and do you guys know tthings about helium and who discovered it.i am from california.

trivia time!!!!
by kourtney
who discovered helium?
what year was helium discovered?
where was helium discovered?
what do you know,we are all made out of the things that are in our periodic table in science?
Did you know that?
write about what you know about helium and try answering the trivia.

Who discovered He?
by Spooky
You can find your answer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium

The #1 producers are US Oil companies but it can be produced in a lab. But not easy at all. Hydrogen is a better and cheaper lift gas but very very dangerous. Remember the Hindenberg in New Jersey?

Check Out Camera Features
by Ken B.
I like the idea of having multiple (>=3) handlers hanging on to spaced balloons for stability.
Also, check out your camera's features. Some of them have a "multi-shot" mode where you can set the camera to take a still shot every 5, 10, 30 seconds or so until the memory card fills up. (Very useful for time-lapse photography.) In this mode, you can get the highest-resolution photos that your camera is capable of instead of the usual low-res video.

Finally, keep a BB-gun and catcher's mitt handy in case your teathers break. ;)

Lawn Chair
by Ed
This reminds me of the one guy who attached a ton of baloons to a lawn chair, and floated into the air. He brought a BB gun to lower himself down, too.

unpredictable
by raul roa
what i like about this project is its being unpredictable. the movement of the balloon is very random and you don't know what's gonna happen next. and that makes the entire project more interesting.

cheers to exploring.

a better way
by Jeff
you might think on adapting this idea. A friend in my RC airplane club set up a camra in a plane and used one of the radio channels to move a servo arm to click the pictures. you could probably adapt the servo and reciever from a cheap RC Toy car to do the job for you

activate camera using another string
by bob
i have heard of a similar divice using a kite instead of baloons,

may be you could use another string of 200 m with a easily made mechanism to activate the camera shutter button.

the kite camera was suspended on a cradle which allowed a 3 channel remote to rotate the camera (servo motor adapted) 360 degrees, another channel for tilt, and last channel for camera activation.
great for panoramas

Fun project
by Stuart Ferguson
Putting a camera on a large helium balloon is a really fun project. I did it with an 8 mega pixel digital camera. You can check out the results at the link below.
http://kydirt.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=151

comment_40
by rob
404s :(

Aerial Photography from a balloon
by steve sole
Hi

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Due to the fact we use rechargeable batteries to power all our equipment and store the balloon between assignments to conserve helium, we are environmentally friendly too!! Unlike other methods of aerial photography.

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If you are interested in a FREE quotation please contact us.

Regards

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Contact:
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07812 581360
sales@aerialphotographyforyou.co.uk
www.aerialphotographyforyou.co.uk