KAP Gear.

Here is some of the gear I use for KAP (Kite Aerial Photography)

I am not a photographer, but I do enjoy taking photos from my kite line, not only does it make for a more interesting day out flying kites, but it gives a completely different perspective not usually seen whilst out in the country side.

Why do I not just buy a drone? for me the fun is in building a kite, also building the camera lifting equipment, and the challenge of flying the kite is changing conditions whilst trying to get the camera airborne, and the anticipation of one or two possibly good photos from hundreds taken whilst in the air.

Pictured is a picavet platform with a 360 degree rotating servo for taking photos in every direction, or several pictures to stitch together as a panorama.

The picavet system, invented by French inventor, Pierre Picavet uses in its basic form; a cross platform with eyes or pulley blocks at each corner, and a line  threaded in such a way to two points on the kite line that no matter the angle of the line; the platform that the camera is attached to will remain level.

I built the above rig after a design by Wolfgang Bieck, an excellent KAP'er

The camera can be mounted vertically as shown, and rotated from 0-90 degrees looking vertically down.

attached on the left of the camera is a small FPV unit (first person view) which is linked via a radio transmitter to a small video screen which gives me an idea of what I am taking photos of and helps to better position the kite for a better photo; hopefully.

The picture below of Lytham Windmill was taken with the above camera rig.

Pictured here is a small picavet platform with a DJI pocket 2 camera, the camera has a gimbal which levels the camera automatically even without the self levelling picavet system.

Using a Wi-Fi link to my phone I can pan and tilt the camera and take photos of exactly what I am looking at.

The downside of this camera is the 100 meter Wi-Fi connection limit, and not being able to set it to take photos automatically when out range. 

The picture below of Dorney Rowing Lake was taken with the above rig, and is a composition of four photos stitched together using a computer program called Hugin.

Above is another small picavet platform of 60mm x 30mm with a small budget action camera.

The camera can be mounted in portrait, landscape, or looking vertically down. The camera can be manually rotated to point in the direction you want to shoot.

This camera can be controlled by a Wi-Fi link to my phone over a short range, or set to take photos every few seconds.

Here is my newest version of a motorised picavet platform, Taking the idea of using the actual circuit board as the platform from Wolfgang Bieck, and using my own ideas to keep the system very compact in plan form, only 87mm x 50mm.

I have yet to test this rig, but I hope to soon, also being modular I can attach several different cameras either using the simple rubber band and orange metal mount, or attach a compact camera using the mount from my first picavet platform in the first picture.