The adventure this far has taken me from first flights with a webcam, through a fully steerable 2Mpixel camera to a fully-featured 5Mpixel rig. 

One of the features considered when buying a 5Mpixel camera was whether it could take a fisheye lens to make Pano-bubbles. Nikon are the leaders with this accessory, but I felt that their cameras were poorly specified for KAP, mainly in the lack of IR shutter release, which I consider to be a great advantage. So I decided to go a different route for the fisheye.

With hindsight maybe this didn't work out as inexpensive as I thought...

After some weeks of looking and waiting, ebay turned up a PELENG 8mm fisheye lens with a M42 screw, this was to fit my existing Olympus OM1 and Motor Drive, heavy but at $180 I thought the cheapest entry solution. 

Once delivered the lens wouldn't fit the Olympus due to the Peleng's non standard screw-to-Canon adaptor arrangement, the image was always out of focus. The purchase of a second-hand Canon EoS didn't help either as Canon have different types of bayonet fitting - it still wouldn't fit. A trip to my very helpful local Camera Repair shop left me another $120 down but the proud owner of a Canon T50, which fitted the lens, and was at least lighter than the OM-1.
I now had all the components I needed, a 8mm lens, and a reasonably light 35mm Motor Drive camera with electronic shutter release. 

I added a simple Picavet, and a servo receiver to trigger the shutter. The rig / picavet attaches to the eyepiece on the rear of the camera, and the tripod mount on the far side. The batteries and receiver are on the top of the picavet, with the aerial clipped to the line above. All up weight 1.1Kg, 50/50 between the body and the camera, all the rest weighs only a few ounces.

Waiting on a sunny day to fly the rig...

The rig was never flown in anger...
Lets put that down to experience! 

James Gentles July 2004 HOME PAGE KAP HOME PAGE