From: shoppa@almach.caltech.edu (TIM SHOPPA)
Subject: Re: Astrocam
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:28:00 GMT

In article <6052@transfer.stratus.com>, cdt@sw.stratus.com (C. D. Tavares) writes...
>In article <1992Aug31.213338.4806@med.umich.edu>, Roger.Wilfong@umich.edu writes:
>> >> A couple of weeks ago a guy brought one of these cheap autowind
>> >> cameras out to our field.  He had mounted the camera on a piece of
>> >> plexiglass and then mounted a Futaba S-148 servo so that it would push
>> >> the button manually.  We mounted it on the bottom of his Sturdy Birdy
>> >> powered by a .40 FP right under the wing pointing down.  He popped the
>> >> flash up so that we would know when the camera was taking pictures.
>> >> 
>> >> The pictures were a blast to look at.  It was cool to see the field
>> >> that we've been flying on all this time but have never seen from the
>> >> air.  A couple of the pictures showed the pit from high altitutude.
>> >> It was pretty neat.  I wish we had it around when we lost planes in
>> >> the woods before.  Next time we'll use it to try to locate them.
>> >
>> >Using a Polaroid, I presume...!
>> >-- 
>> How would that work Chris?  Would you just let the camera spit them out and let
>> them flutter to the ground?  Sounds good to me. ;-)
> 
>You'd rather bring your personal one-hour film developing lab out to the
>field in your Step-Van so you can develop your photos in time to have half 
>a shot at getting your lost model back?
>-- 
> 
>cdt@pdp.sw.stratus.com      --If you believe that I speak for my company,
>OR cdt@vos.stratus.com        write today for my special Investors' Packet...

Well, you don't need to bring out a huge machine in a special van -
there are easier ways:

1.  Polaroid makes a special 35mm color slide film that is processed in
a small hand-operated machine.  I don't know all the details, but these systems
were very common at one time for producing color slides from computer
displays.  The film isn't particularly cheap, though, and the processing
machine is maybe $100-$200, I think.  A full-line photography store ought
to be able to give you info on this.

2.  A little more economical is to process the film yourself, by hand.  You
would need what is called a "dark bag" to unload the film from the 35mm
cartridge and wind the film onto a developing reel, which is then put in
a light-proof developing tank.  (Actually, winding film inside a bag onto
a reel isn't very easy unless you get one of the dark bags that has nice
lightproof gloves on it!)  Then you go through the developing process,
which consists of pouring different solutions in and out of the developing
tank.  Developing is different for b/w, color negative, and color transparency
films, but little kits for all of these processes are available at most
photography stores.  The developing tank is lightproof with a little light-
trapped funnel in the top for pouring the solutions in and out.
You can easily get negatives or slides in an hour.  Total cost of permanent
equipment is $50-$60 (most of which is for a dark bag), and the chemicals
amount to $1-$2 per roll, depending on whether you are doing b/w,
color negative, or color slides.


A neat little camera that might be very useful is the Minox subminiature
camera.  The ones I have seen are about 3-4 inches long, about 3/4 inch
thick and an inch wide.  The lens is said to be excellent, and looks
out of the "side" of the camera (i.e. perpendicular to the long direction).
It uses 16mm film in special cartridges.  There is a whole little industry
in cutting down 35mm wide film to the 16mm format and loading them in 
cartridges, and also in developing and printing this sort of film.


				Tim (Shoppa@erin.caltech.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets