Hello Reyalp, and others,
Thanks for the interest and offer to help.
I've borrowed my wife's SD850 IS to get started right away. I've downloaded CHDK for the SD850 and am wading in.
The ~15Mp images is what steers me to the SD990. I've done some simple testing, and so far am impressed to see straight and horizontal lines showig no wasted/blurry pixels. The higher the resolution the better from the air (people will zoom in when on the ground), but other cameras are an option, especially if the battery life the SD990 is not long enough.
Not yet tested, but my plan is to build a special aircraft inspecition plate (6" round) with a small hole for the lens. I'll mount the camera on the inside up against foam pointing out through clear air at 90 degrees to the air stream. Forward looking glass/lens quickly picks up bugs and ash. This special inspection plate will have quick releases so I can easily pop it on and off, before and after flight.
I also capture Hi-Def video sometimes. I use Panasonic cameras (sd100, sd9), and they work fine (OIS and all). 1920 x 1080 HD video (AVCHD) is beautiful, but more difficult to play. Either a relatively new powerful PC is needed or an HD TV. Taking snapshots out of the video for emailing is again another process. It does look great, but isn't as high resolution/quality as an SD990. KIS, keep it simple is of great value when people are either very busy, or would rather be operating a shovel.
Once things are working, tests can determine battery life and number of shots. The interveralometer can then be set to the right interval. Possibly lower conpression will also stretch out battery life. Plumbing in electricity is possible, but this complication would greatly reduce the utilization (pickup rate) by others. Continuous shooting sounds to fast if it is under a second. 3-4 seconds per shot would be ok. Depending on the plane, we go about 100 - 200 feet per second (70-140 mph) at 1000-3000 ft AGL (above ground level)
One step at a time, but if this all works well, then I hope to pursue the removal of the IR cut filter so as to see better through the smoke. Of course not as good as thermal IR, but a lot cheaper. In addition to quality/resolution, cheap & easy does count, because then everybody will implement. The company I work for has 10 planes, but we won't keep this for ourselves. Like other technology implementations we've put together (moving map topos on Tablet PCs in the cockpit with daily fire tracks), I can team up with the right people to write another whitepaper describing how to do it for the whole fire fighting industry.
Which California fires were you near last year? I worked out of Redding and Siskiyou on the Lime complex, Ukonom and Panther. I'm training on some new airplanes now, and could possibly to drop in. What airport are you near? Columbia airport is near Yosemite.
-MarkZ
mszaller@yahoo.com
