Matt Walker's Tech and Hobby Blog » photography

Hike @ Loch Raven Reservoir w/ iPhone 3G GPS

Matt — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:45:51 +0000

This was the first time I used the GPS on my iPhone for tracking and marking waypoints. I stuffed it in a pocket on the top of my backpack and I must say it worked quite well. I used the iPhone app Trails to record the hike. The battery life was great, it only used about a third of the battery for the 3 hours it was tracking. One nice feature was the use of the light sensor (near the ear piece). When it was covered, the screen automatically shut off to help save the battery. The accuracy seemed quite good as well, there are even posts saying the phone/app bests a $200 Garmin.

Here are some pictures from our hike on the Merryman Trail at the Loch Raven Reservoir in Timonium, Maryland. We parked on Warren Rd. and had easy access to the trail. We got side tracked at the feeder stream waterfalls and took the fire road up to a neighborhood and decided to turn back (as you can see from the maps). Overall it was a nice hike and beautiful spring day. You can view more details on our Hike In and Hike Out @ EveryTrail.com.

More information about the trail can be found here.

Terminal Velocity Pentax Optio S6

Matt — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 23:24:20 +0000

I learned two very valuable lesson today…

1.) Don’t rush sending electronics airborne
2.) When attaching anything to a RC Plane, make sure it’s on there good.

I had so much fun the other day taking the video with my soarstar, I rushed out there today and look what I did…

The last time, I attached the camera on top of the wing, in the center facing forward. It worked well, but I noticed after the flight, I was blocking the air flow to the motor and it got pretty hot. So… I figured I would try attaching it under the wing, facing down to hopefully get better footage and not overheat the motor. Everything worked great. I took it waaayyy up there almost so I could tell the orientation of the plane. As I was descending I got impatient and did a dive. I have done this before, but not with a camera strapped to the plane. When I pulled back, it took longer than usual to level out. As it leveled out I noticed a little black dot falling from the plane… crap, it was the camera. I followed it to the ground and watched it bounce about 20 feet back into the air. It ran to were it fell, about 50 yards for some reason hoping it would be ok, lol. It was destroyed, and I didn’t even capture the fall, because it shorted out and didn’t save anything to the memory card. I guess that is the end of the my aerial video for awhile. So if you ever find the urge to strap a camera to an airplane, take your time and make sure it on there good.

Soarstar RC Video (First Attempt)

Matt — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:14:41 +0000

I had been flying my Soarstar for a couple of months and finally decided to attach my Pentax Optio S6 camera too it. The easiest setup what to just strap it down and record video. Eventually I would like to setup a servo to take pictures. These cameras are not great a shooting video, but here it is: