| Rain gods take note ... |
| Monday, 23 July 2007 00:00 |
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I’m sure there were many ceremonies worshipping Chac the Mayan god of Rain last week, and what a success they were. The heavens opened dumping months of rain down in a matter of hours. The Wakestock music festival was cancelled, many people were ousted from their homes as the flood waters rose and traffic on the UK’s motorways was ground to a halt as record traffic hit the roads as the start of the school summer holidays kicks in. In this well coordinated attack from the heavens that occurred with all the intensity of any shamanistic ritual you’ll be pleased to know that it didn’t stop me from making a test flight with the new camera installation on board the Cularis electric glider. The Nokia N95 camera phone strapped to the underside of the starboard wing had gone, and been replaced with a Pentax Optio camera nestled within the radio compartment of the aircraft. A cunning hold had been excavated underneath the fuselage so that the camera could telescope it’s lens down vertically on to the unsuspecting planet.  While the Optio has the same pixel resolution as the Nokia N95, the differences are amazing. It just goes to show what a proper lens and decent sensor make, though despite lacking the GPS coordinates the improved image quality makes it all worthwhile.A few issues still remain, like shooting with too high an ISO setting, increasing the image noise levels, or acquiring a dedicated memory card for the camera, instead of borrowing the memory from my phone. This was a triumph for aerial photography over rain god worshipping. Just a slight let up in the downpour, and there we go, snapping the planet for all to enjoy. Go ahead and click the picture, see how well we did on the first run. … and for the bureaucratic morons out there, anyone up for a hosepipe ban? Add your comment |