AutoKAP Adventures

The twisted skewer-based AutoKAP rig had a couple of issues associated with it.

The first problem is hand-baggage security in airports, one of the key areas I was concerned about. The twisted metal skewer, at 7 or so inches long, is likely to be confiscated. So this means that the AutoKAP in this form has to go in the hold baggage. No great problem, but I often travel hand-baggage only on short foreign trips, so this would impede me doing that.

The second issue is that, as the rig extends and turns, the mechanism is quite "loose" with a lot of play at the guide hole through which the twisted skewer passes. This guide plate acts as a pivot point creating increased movement in the camera in gusty conditions.

Thirdly, my aim with the AutoKAP project was always to create a tiny rig. Whilst the skewer based AutoKAP rig is lightweight, its length is determined by the length of the twisted skewer. This again is determined by the number of turns required in a flight and the optimum pitch of the spiral turns. If the turns are too tight, the skewer doesn't easily pass through the guide plate and can get "locked". Typically the AutoKAP rig with this design is coming in at about 7 inches, which when fully extended at the end of a flight, is about 13 ½ inches total.

All the issues with the rig therefore centre around the twisted skewer. Was there another way to impart the turn to the rig in a slow controlled fashion, whilst resolving the other issues?

I didn't want to go to clockwork or geared designs, the whole idea of AutoKAP for me is simplicity. The use of Silly Putty I felt was central to the design, whether in a viscous pulley or some sort of bearing. The viscosity of the silly putty is ideal to slow down the rig axis movements and I see it as a fundamental aspect of any AutoKAP rig I might build. It was while contemplating these factors that I thought of the use of rubber band power.

A couple of prototypes and mental gymnastics (at one point turning the design upside down) and I have quickly built a compact AutoKAP rig powered simply by a twisted rubber band restrained and slowed by a silly putty bearing. Tilt can also be controlled by a "standard" silly putty viscous pulley. Using the rubber band brings in some extra benefits, the number of turns that the camera will make is determined simply by the number of turns put onto the band. I've found that the band needs a lot of turns to simply overcome the friction in the bearing, but once those excess turns are on, the rig will turn for a long time. A bit of trial and error helps here. The bearing doesn't need much silly putty to slow it right down.

Movement is very smooth and steady. With the band wound tight it executes about 360 degrees in 3 minutes and will turn for over half an hour at this speed.

This rate works out well with my Gentled Type 9 timer set at 10 seconds giving an angular sweep of 20 degrees between shots.

The widest focal length setting on the Optio S4i is 14mm equivalent to 35mm on a standard 35mm film camera. This gives an effective angle of coverage of 63 degrees. With the AutoKAP turning at 120 degrees per minute it should give 43 degrees overlap between shots, enough to ensure a reasonable chance of getting specific subjects fairly well centred, and the possibility of panoramic stiching .

I had to consider a couple of issues - What if the rubber band breaks? Nothing - other than that the camera will stop turning. It makes sense to carry a spare. The rig has safety pins at the top and bottom of the viscous bearing which will hold the camera in place if the band breaks.

The rig weight, including line clip, is 1 ounce, with camera it totals 6 ounces.

The total field kit is shown below, I've included my big parafoil, 500 feet of line and some line handling gear in this picture.

With the smaller kite all the kit required tops the scales at 14 oz. Kite, tail, reel, glove, rig and camera. All that is needed in the right conditions to get over 300 4MP pictures. And the whole lot will fit in the pockets of a coat.

So how does it perform?

As this project was about creating a system that is compact, convenient, and delivers good results, I need to be critical in my assesment of it.

The first flight of the rubber band rig was a disaster, and nearly put me off using it again. It was in Tunisia on hoilday. I'd had a week of zero wind at wonderful locations and was feeling very frustrated at getting no flights, eventually late in the week we awoke to a grey day with black clouds scudding across the sky. I had to give it a go.

With the little parafoil dashing around the sky in the gusts I attached the tiny rig to the line, and with fumbling hands attempted to switch on the camera and Gentled. First lesson, switch on the camera and select the USER function before attaching to the line in these conditions. Using the line clip is so quick that only one or at most two shots will be taken before the camera goes up. So much easier to do than trying to press buttons on a tiny camera attached to a line that is constantly moving.

On launching it was clear that the kite and line were totally unaffected by the presence of 6 ounces on the line. There was absolutely no stability at all, the rig thrashed about on the line, bouncing, spinning and even looping over the line. With the camera about thirty feet up and the parafoil seriously misbehaving I decided enough was enough. I brought the camera down, with strong misgivings - had I created a rig that was simply too light to be of any use at all?

On reflection I realised that the conditions had been such that I would have almost certainly not flown my heavier rigs under a bigger kite, so expectations that I would achieve anything with a light rig and small kite were unrealistic.

Since this flight I've flown the rig on many occasions. In a steady wind with lots of subject matter in all directions the system is a real winner. Several trips to Aberdeen harbour, some shots down the coast and a few other flights have given me a lot of nice shots.

I'd never use the AutoKAP for a planned shoot, but to have it available for spontaneous use is just brilliant.

There are a couple of niggling design issues with the current AutoKAP rig. For example - the centre of gravity does not run through the vertical axis making it unbalanced so that in the "horizontal" position it tilts down about 30 degrees. This, whilst frustrating is easily sorted and compensated for.

Now for a set of photos, nearly all of these are taken with the AutoKAP system recently and I've put them all together in a theme of the coast and the sea.

The Coast and the Sea

Aberdeen Harbour - The mouth of the River Dee the old fishing village of Footdee still nestles on the north side of the river.

The Northlink ferry from Orkney turns slowly into the harbour.

In the East Neuk of Fife in Scotland are a group of fishing villages which retain much of their charm.

On the coast, there are always recreational boats to shoot over, their shapes always make for interesting combinations.

Where land meets water, nature often creates interesting patterns, the AutoKAP gave me loads of pictures like this, when we had a long weekend down on the Solway coast in January, three days of driving rain, one day of sunshine..

On the coast, old boats get used for all sorts. Here's a self portrait.

Here at the mouth of Aberdeen harbour, an old pillar used to aid ships aligning with the dredged channel, provides a nice subject for low level work, I love the shadows in this one.

About half a mile from the Solway coast , Caerlaverock Castle was a great spot. I got loads of pictures of the whole castle and details. This was one of several verticals over one of the towers, though this off-centre one, compositionally ended up catching my eye.

The old West pier in Brighton in the south of England, my only full picture of it from AutoKAP. AutoKAP is at its best when there are subjects all around, not one subject in one direction. When faced with a particular subject, the AutoKAP system can be frustrating. As the camera slowly turns, it may or may not get the subject. I stood for several minutes down on the shoreline close to the derelict structure hoping to get good shots. I ended up with several of the remains of the walkway, but few good shots of the whole structure. The wind was blowing onshore so any hopes of getting the camera over the structure were in vain anyway. BUT - due to the circumstances of the trip, I would not have had any KAP gear with me without the AutoKAP so at least I got something of the pier. I also got dozens of other great shots. Here is a website documenting the gradual demise of Brighton's incredible old west pier in pictures.

A picture taken at ground level:

Some of the harbour houses in a fishing village down on the coast of Fife in Scotland. I love the colours of houses in coastal communities.

The approach to Brighton west pier.

A small sailing boat sits on the mud awaiting the tide.

Another boat sits awaiting a tide that will never come. Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire England.

Small fishing boats in a harbour in Fife.

Even at 1/2000 sec the bright light in Tunisia almost washed out this shot. Port El Kantaoui. AutoKAP got me dozens of shots of the harbour and the boats, all sharp.

We British love our little beach huts. When I was small, my parents would rent one of these for the day and the family would decamp to the beach.

On the South side of Aberdeen harbour, an old pier with bollard capstan juts out into the water. This must have been used for aiding the temporary mooring of vessels prior to them moving into the harbour.

A north sea oil rig supply boat leaves on the evening tide, the pilot boat nestling alongside. For a long time I had wanted to get photos of ships coming and going from the harbour. A few consecutive days of bright breezy weather got me all the photos I wanted. I used both the conventional and the AutoKAP rig.

East Neuk harbour houses.

Another view of the strange channels on the Solway coast. Camera height about 30 feet.

A crowd watch some break dancing on the seafront unaware of the AutoKAP rig above.

Stonehaven harbour/marina. KAPiSco participants will remember Stonehaven harbour where we sat for a pub lunch in the sunshine.

An East Neuk Harbour scene.

One of the first of the rubber band AutoKAP shots, with the kite thrashing around and cloudy weather, it was crazy to expect decent shots....

Above are a series of shots taken during an AutoKAP walk along Brighton seafront. The basketball shot is interesting as the opposition effect caused the guy challenging the player with the ball to have no visible shadow.Here is a clip from the picture.

Not an AutoKAP shot, but included with the marine theme, the reason I included it was that this was the smallest launch area I've ever flown from. Not the boat deck, I launched from the tiny space at the stern, so narrow, I could hardly fit in !

I've acquired an "old" Epson Stylus colour 1520 printer for very little money. It will print to A2 size 420 by 594mm. Ink is incredibly cheap for it. On the web I can get 3 colour cartridges for 12 UKP. I've been running watercolour and cartridge paper through it, as it is much cheaper than inkjet paper and, once the ink settings are right, just as bright and clear.

The prints I get from this are fantastic, and the 4MP shots are sharp. Purists always will say this is impossible, I defy anyone to say these shots are inferior. Such is the price of modern printer ink cartridges, I'm paying much less for a full colour A2 print than I am for a single A4 colour sheet from my fancy HP printer!

With the results I'm getting from the Optio S4i, I'm wondering what the point is going to be getting an 8MP digital SLR, I know it is all about total control of the photography. But something in AutoKAP has moved me away from total contol and into the realm of serendipity.

It all goes down to what pictures are used for. How many of us make full use even of shots at 4MP? After we come back from our holidays we go through all our photos on the PC. At the screen resolution of the PC, Lyn's 1.3MP pictures look as good as my 4MP ones. When we print them at A4 mine have a slight, but barely discernable edge on hers. When I start with the Epson the 4MP then shows its clear advantage.

Over my years of KAP, whether with 35mm or digital, I hardly ever printed my shots up above 12 x 8 inches. Very occasionally I'd get prints done to 20 inches. Now I can print any shot this size and bigger. I've a pile of them. Even framed one or two and given a couple away.

But in reality, how many digital photographers are printing many of their shots at A2 ? I suspect a lot of prosumer photographers never see their shots printed at sizes that take advantage of the resolution of their fancy digital SLR cameras.

Here I am holding a couple of AutoKAP shots.

KAP has always been a "percentage game" and the compromises associated with taking pictures unseen from a camera an indeterminate height approximately above a subject, while the camera swings in the sky have all been about minimising movement, maximising control, and doing everything to stabilise and point the camera, optimise sharpness of the shots, and get the best possible results. Good KAPpers typically utilise systems which have a lot of complexity to achieve a boost in this percentage game.

Suddenly digital photography has come along and made the percentage game potentially irrelevant. With high effective shutter speeds, a set of programmable USER functions, and most importantly, vast space on cheap memory cards, we have the ability to roll back on compromises, utilise less control, not worry so much about absolute stability. When my camera is shooting at 1/2000 second, the camera can be swinging and still give sharp results.

As I said on Cris's discussion group:

"I have to say the (AutoKAP) system has changed and skewed many of my perceptions about KAP, and made me really think hard about which steps in the process the creativity lies. For this type of KAP it is in site selection, positioning the rig, selecting the shots and publishing the selection. When you think about it, not that different to conventional KAP. It is really only in video assisted KAP do we try to impose creativity on the actual picture taking moment. For me that is a discipline I've never enjoyed. For me its always been in the serendipity of "discovered" shots. AutoKAP gives that in abundance. "

As Brooks rightly pointed out, KAP masters seem to have control of all parts of the picture taking process. But for me, a mere KAP mortal, I'm happy that this part of the process is now back firmly in the lap of the gods!

Shown below, another AutoKAP sequence of shots taken during a walk along Brighton beach. Traditional rig positioning, reeling in and out of line, getting the camera in the right place, it is all just as relevent for AutoKAP.

One last point : The RC rigs won't be gathering dust, there are far too many subjects that simply cry out for controlled KAP.

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Simon Harbord