Any Suggestions for taking your G-1 (or G-2) Hang Gliding?

[Mike K]

The G-1/2 is one of the few digicams that is useful for wing mounted hang gliding pictures:
1. it is modest in size and weight (to maintain reasonable handling of weight shift gliders and minimize air resistance)
2. supplied IR remote (more on this later)
3. defeatable auto power down; this is essential otherwise the camera goes to sleep and requires a shutter press to wake it up.
4. long lasting battery

http://www.fototime.com/E201EF7CDFF7B8F/standard.jpg

Here are a few hang gliding albums taken with my G-1:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/03D2252857A75C4

http://www.fototime.com/inv/68E53754CCA78F4

For the images above I have tried many different combinations of settings (1 set per flight) and currently use:
The F8 trick (shutter priority at 1/500 sec with flash on yields 1/250 sec at F8 ), RAW, flash compensation at +2, exposure compensation at –2/3 Ev, timer/remote on, lens at full wide angle, manual focus to infinity, and circular polarizer with Lensmate.

I am soliciting suggestions on improving my hang gliding photography:
1. The fast synch speed is marginal. If I use 1/500 or faster, I give up the fill flash and already I still require significant lightening of the pilot with PS. I have a 420ex, but that would be far too bulky, heavy and fragile for this application. The setup needs to withstand less than perfect landings! I fear some background sharpness is lost with the slower shutter speed as the glider is always moving around, sometimes turning rapidly.
2. The remote can be frustrating. Probably the distance (about 3 M), plus competition with the bright sun, combined with the difficulty of aiming the IR remote while being bounced around all combine to make the reliability of the remote poor. Only a minority of the remote presses result in a shot. A wired remote would be much more reliable but much more hassle to set up. Any suggestions?
2a. The Canon IR remote is cheaply made and after several hundred pictures hardly functions at all (not a low battery issue). This is my second Canon remote. I have tried a programmable TV remote, which is much more reliable in the press/shot ratio but way too big except for dedicated use by my passengers! For example, see the first album image #10 my brother, who is the passenger, is holding it behind his back.
2.b. The 2 second delay makes framing a shot really difficult. Most of the time we spend turning circles trying to gain altitude in somewhat turbulent air, and combined with the unreliable remote-camera connection, the framing of the shot can be a real crap shoot. I’m going to get an even larger (256 mb) CF as the percentage of good shots is very low. I'm fearful of taking my microdrive flying at high altitudes. I wish I could disable this 2 sec. delay in software. I have thought of using a pneumatic actuator for instant shutter response, but this will add more weight and lots of complexity to the setup. I what I fear most is flying to 18,000 ft and having the shutter release mechanism fail as there would be no way to repair it in flight.
3. Any comments about the framing of pilot/wing? Obviously many of these earlier flights the angle of the camera to the wing was too steep. I had to slow down the glider to almost stall speed to get the camera parallel to the horizon. Is the WA lens setting far too narrow? Many years ago I used to fly with a Nikon SLR with a 18mm lens (great view!), but it is far too heavy and bulky for the flight characteristics of today’s more efficient gliders. The weight of the existing setup does make flying more difficult but is light enough to not require counter balancing the camera.
4. Exposure: In the Owens Valley in particular, I found the expanse of granite rock was far too bright resulting in severe over exposure. Since the CP filter was all I had, I used it to add about 2 stops of density. I think I should add 1 stop more of ND for that location? In general I am fighting with a big differences in contrast between the pilot (too dark) and the sky/scenery (too bright). Any other suggestions?
5. The battery performance was commendable. The LCD is closed and the flash on, of course. Flights last from 30 min (if my passenger quickly gets airsick) to 6-8 hours in the Owens Valley. Temperatures can be below freezing at very high altitudes, and I have not run out of battery yet.
Regards, Mike K

[denisb]

Regarding your problem with remote reliabitiy, I would like to suggest a possible solution I came up with ( based on my limited experience as a self-taught electronic hobbyist!) First: if you still have the original remote, you may be able to use it to at least try my suggestion. Those remote are usually very simply made, consisting mainly of a circuit board with only one chip which does everything needed for the remote's operation. It is connected to another board made of a contact layout covered with a casted piece of rubber-like material that as small conductive dots embedded in it at the appropriate locations so that when pressed, a contact happen between two point on the board and cause the chip to react accordingly. When failure occur, it is usually cause by dirt or moisture getting in between these last two component. This either cause short circuits or prevents proper contact from happening. I have, in the past, revived remotes by taking them apart and carefully clean the inside( making sure to separate the rubber from the contact board), rinse and throughly dry before reassembly. If the rubber or the button sheet that covers it, is cracked, then it's game over, as it is now exposed to the elements. On the other end, if it works, then here comes my suggestion: Desolder the infrared L.E.D at the front of the unit and attach a lenght of wire between it and the remote(something like a small headphone extension cord or similar because they normally contain a coax-like wire wrapped around one or two small leads. They are less proned to break and have good conductivity.) Assuming that there would be minimal signal loss because of the distance the signal needs to travel, you can then attach the L.E.D. directly in front of the I.R. sensor on the camera. I have seen similar set-up between satellite receiver and vcr for automatic recording control from the receiver.If this set-up works, then a proper set of reliable momentary switches could be assembled and connected to the existing set of contacts and installed directly on the "yoke" in a more practical way so that you have better access to them and can operate them with gloved hands. Let me know if you need more explanations. Denis Berger

[Kariyas Lee]

Hello Mike...
Your pics...very beatiful...

G1's color is very fantastic....