Large format aerial photography...anyone?

Around here the security helicopters looking for pot patches and other signs of trouble
have high magnification binoculars mounted on gyros. My brother would use a gyro on
his 4x5 Technika when on a helicopter. Pretty to difficult to get sharp images otherwise. Just wish commercial airliner flights had clear windows instead of scratched
up hazy ones; Nevada, for example, is spectacular from high altitude, and every time
I fly over it I think of Bill Garnett and what he did in that little silver single-engine prop, at lower altitude of course. I have a couple of books with his images, one with
quite a bit of explanatory content. Best known for his black-and-white work; but he
was damn gifted in color too.

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Originally Posted by Armin Seeholzer

Here I'm short before the start in Biasca in the Tessin south part of Swiss!

Cheers Armin

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Was that the company that was using the Aerotronica to shoot estates from the helicopter in Switzerland? The onmly Aerotronicas that we sold in the USA went to the Marine Corps. everyone else, including NASA and the Navy, used the Aero Technika 45 EL. Although the NASA ones led to modifications of the camera that stayed in the regular version.

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Is that your Aerotronica?

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Yes it was with the 450mm lens!

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Was that the company that was using the Aerotronica to shoot estates from the helicopter in Switzerland?

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Not only but yes we did also company buildings, privat houses, small and big towns for postcards, we have been 4 photogs and the company had 3 own Helis and every photog had 2 Aeros one as spare, we worked with 30m Aero Neg film in the begining with 200 later only with 400ASA from the big yellow father!
My high speed version had a much faster film transport stronger motor I could do 2 pics if needed in 1 second at 1/800 sec. and shorter! Shortes time was 1/1250 or 1/1500 not sure enymore which but really fast for a 6x9cm neg!

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Originally Posted by Kirk Gittings

Yes that was him Merg! He amazed me with some of his images. Did you know him at all? He worked in California too I believe.

William Garnett

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Hi Kirk, yes I knew Bill. He was certainly deserving of the three Guggenheim fellowships that he received. Terrific eye, great craftsman, with a fine sense of humor. He also taught in the Environmental Design department at UC Berkeley. There is at least one of his students who visits this forum.

Bill printed the color in his Napa studio up to 40x60 inches, from 35mm Kodachrome. Truly stunning, although I have always preferred his black and white work. He was still fliying that little silver Cessna close to his 80th birthday.

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Originally Posted by Armin Seeholzer

Here I'm short before the start in Biasca in the Tessin south part of Swiss!

Cheers Armin

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Great photo. That's some setup. It would be fun getting that thing past security to fly to my location (on a commercial jet).

Thanks for the info. From my experience you're right, the wind isn't too bad so long as you stay within the helicopter. If you put your hand (or camera) past the door opening then you feel the very heavy wind and/or downwash from the heli.

Still, it seems like a rigid camera is the way to go.

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Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

Just wish commercial airliner flights had clear windows instead of scratched
up hazy ones; Nevada, for example, is spectacular from high altitude, and every time
I fly over it I think of Bill Garnett and what he did in that little silver single-engine prop, at lower altitude of course.

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Occasionally the windows are clear. Try the newer airlines.
Not LF so I'm just posting a link, but here are a few of my photos out of commercial flight windows. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jack-d/...th/4110599121/I've done some stereo photography as well, by taking a couple of shots separated by a few seconds.

Garnett's work is sort of being followed up in a different way by Chris Benton also from Berkeley's CED.http://arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/kaptoc.html

I studied there too. I think most Architects love looking down at cities and the landscape.

I've taken pictures out the windows of commercial airliners with my Speed Graphic. If you use a middling aperture it helps to shoot through the grungy windows without affecting the picture too much.

I used a Linhof MT45 and 4X5 Crown Graphic out of light planes on many occasions and frequently at very low altitude. No problems with the bellows on 150mm lenses in a J-3 Cub with doors down. Made many sharp negatives through the plexiglass (I always carried the special cleaner) window of Cessna 172 and similar aircraft. Make sure infinity focus of the lens is exact and locked down. Use 1/500 sec. if you can. I found that Grafmatic magazines were not worth the trouble and possibility of malfunctions and I just use either 6X9 roll film or double cut 4X5 holders.

It turns out Fotoman is still in business in China, but they're no longer making the 45PS camera. They're coming out with a new 4x5 camera sometime next year.

I've been thinking of building a camera, since it would be cheaper and it would let me use my current lenses (mounted in wista/linhof boards). It would be nice not to have to carry redundant lenses when traveling. I'm thinking of a thin body with back and interchangeable spacers/cones that the lenses would mount to in their current lensboards.

If I'm shooting from a chopper at around 500', would I still be ok if I use a fixed infinity focus on 110, 150 and 210mm lenses?

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Originally Posted by Drew Wiley

Regarding the Pentax 6x7, it was also made famous by Shirakawa's aerial shots of the Himalayas and other coffee-table books of the era.

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Originally Posted by Kuzano

... and the prospect of mounting an LF camera on a powered parachute seems very interesting to me.

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I uploaded this a couple of years ago to youtube (LQ sorry!) Adriel Heisey