Today has to be a nice day for an article about something that you can’t possibly do with an iPhone. Simply because it totally lacks one feature. Namely, high quality video recording.
Disclaimer:
I take absolutely no responsibility for the damage you might cause as a result of trying to do something similar to what we have done in this article.
I just spent a week on the western coast of Denmark. To be precise, in Klitmøller. A very nice place. Known for wind and great surfing in addition to nice family friendly summer homes and a fresh west coast nature.
I’ve been pretty offline and spent the days with my family relaxing. But there’s always time for some important experiments. My experiments usually include images or gadgets. This time I had an idea about some spectacular aerial video shooting. The combination of my brother-in-law, Dr. Jacob Torgersen with a PhD in genetics and an extended interest for windsurfing, a Nokia 6630 test unit, a Nokia N95 main unit, a kite, some wind, my degree in media engineering and a big roll of duct tape should be enough to manage some interesting tests.
The Nokia N95 has excellent video recording capabilities, so in addition to all of the other stuff it can do it is a very light weight video camera. Of course it is a bit risky to send a $500,- phone up in a $30,- kite but we have a lot of duct tape. And everything can be solved with a lot of duct tape.
First, we measured the balance of the kite and found the best place to mount the phone to avoid instabilities during flight. Then we mounted my old Nokia 6630 as a test unit and sent it up.
Everything flying smooth until the first serious vibrations sent my 6630 down into the gravel from about 20 m. The first result of our tests is a fact: a nokia 6630 survives a 20 meter drop with minor scratches. Amazing. And our first conclusion: not enough duct tape.
We’re not very patient when it comes to experiments like this and Dr. Torgersen seems very confident in his kiting skills. Time to mount the Nokia N95 and get some better quality video.
More duct tape this time.
The kite goes into the air. Dr. Torgersen puts his years of experience with windsurfing and probably a bit of genetic science behind the navigation and we end up with a pretty cool video.
http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf
He even manages to land the thing quite smooth and I am still a happy user of my undamaged Nokia N95.
Yes. It flies. And you can download the original MP4-file as it looked directly from the Nokia N95 here.
Update:
And when you watch the video on your Nokia N95 maybe you would want to connect a big screen. Bigger than the iPhone.
eirikso 
Nuts!
but fantastic really 😀
Been wondering where have you been so long 🙂
Really a great experiment. Next time go in mountains or something to capture more interesting scenario 🙂
Maybe you should make a pocket made for nokia on kite, so it would be completely protected because at strong winds u can hear the duct tape being unduct 🙂
great. I did that too once. 😀
Hello!
I have been doing this for about a year ago. But I was using radi controlled airplane. You can see here: http://www.zgoraj.si
Nice video.
Off topic: John Smith sends his regards.
[…] eirikso.com TV – presentations – media centers – HTPC – mobile var sc_project=721638; var sc_partition=6; var sc_security=”82c84bd4″; « A flying Nokia N95 […]
[…] Eirikso swears you get a pretty cool video if you dare to duct tape your Nokia N95 to a kite and send it 70 feet into the air while it is filming – Original Link. […]
Does the N95 have a lanyard lug? I have a Samsung SCH-u740 which has a lanyard attachment point which I’ll definitely use as a backup to the duct tape if I try this. If the duct tape fails, the phone will hopefully just dangle instead of falling.
[…] Eirikso swears you get a pretty cool video if you dare to duct tape your Nokia N95 to a kite and send it 70 feet into the air while it is filming – Link. […]
[…] Eirikso swears you get a pretty cool video if you dare to duct tape your Nokia N95 to a kite and send it 70 feet into the air while it is filming – Link. […]
Sean:
Yes it has a lanyard lug. That’s a very good idea. Use it to secure the phone in case the duct tape lets it go.
[…] fliegendes telefon via makezine […]
[…] A flying Nokia N95 [eirikso] tr { border: 0px } td { cellborder: 10px} table { border: 1px solid black } […]
um…it’s kinda cooler than the other guy did. He put N95 on a model airplane and did air survey. I might try my very own N95 too.
Google KAP or Kite Aerial Photography. It’s been around a long time but nice to see mobile video being added!
KAP portal at http://www.bults.net/kapnet/index.php
KAPwiki at http://www.vogelblik.nl/index.php?title=Main_Page
And the first guy I saw doing this stuff way back in the day 🙂 http://www.vogelblik.nl/index.php?title=Main_Page
There’s some very advanced rigs out there but you’re right about the duct tape. Keeping the great candle wax and thread approach going strong.
Get your videos into the Flickr pool Eirik http://www.flickr.com/groups/kiteaerialphotography/pool/
Pearse
Fantastic. Truly fantastic. I knew I wasn’t the first one doing this but the fact that Kite Aerial Photography is such a big thing was new for me. Thanks.
I just had a look at the Flickr Set. OMG. There are people sending their Canon 400D up in a kite:
And Peter Ha of Crunchgear thinks we’re on drugs because we send a $500 phone up in a Kite:
http://crunchgear.com/2007/07/03/kite-nokia-n95-wtf/
We’re not insane. A 400D with lens in a Kite. Now that’s insane.
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Really cool, but I would never have the nerve to do that with my N95
Could be fun to try it with the camera’s timelapse function to get some nice 5mpix aerial shots.
If you are really into this, you wanna help us test our software. We have a python program which will trigger the camera, capture the gps loc and create KML for Google Earth.
If you want really good imagery, get an RC Airplane
http://pictearthusa.com/
How about using a Canon 20D as a camera suspended from a kite line. Add a lens, some kind of remote system to control the cam…..
Jeff: can I buy your software somewhere? Didn’t find a link on your page.
Wicherd: Now that’s very cool. The 20D can stand some beating, but I wouldn’t send a $1000,- camera into a kite anytime soon. Still, a very nice image!
Man I feel disy! But here you have done something thats mixes three ideas at once!
I have earlier seen some videos on “will it blend?” and due to the large wind it feels like you have duct-taped a blender with your N95 inside and installed it on your kite!!
– Can’t stop my sight from spinning after watching that video!
Denmark is without a doubt a nice place to be in the summer! Just been there for a week, but the weather was not that good! Very nice coast nature as you mention! Saw kite for sale everywhere!
Have a nice summer!
If I lived in windy Denmark I could have started a new series: “Will it fly?”
…sending whatever up in a kite. LOL.
[…] the “I wish I thought of that” department, this video is amazing! That’s a $500-750 phone and approximately a $30 kite, so half the fun is seeing […]
Peter: Yes, I could have started the sequence mode and let the camera take a 5 mpix still every 10th second. Could have been very nice as well. But I have to admit that I wasn’t too keen on sending the phone back up when it survived the video recording…
[…] you are interested in finding out about the video capabilities of Nokia N95, you should visit Eirik Solheim’s blog to find this out. He conducts a nice experiment to check N95’s video capabilities by […]
That’s not an N95. I have one and it looks different from the one in the pics for sure.
The first pictures are of a Nokia 6630, the later ones is an N95.
Exactly. If you read the story you’ll see that I did a test fligt with my old Nokia 6630 before I sent up my N95.
flying Nokia…
Riprese aeree a basso prezzo (se si accetta l’eventualità di fracassare il telefono all’atterraggio)….
how very strange. yet mesmerizing
[…] Ever wondered what your neighbourhood looked like from up above? Ricky from Symbian-Guru did too, so he attempted to send his Nokia N95 onto a maiden flight aboard a Wal-Mart $3 kite. The results weren’t as glowing as one may have hoped, but Eirik, who attempted the same experiment, succeeded in getting some great aerial shots of the area. […]
[…] talks about cameras attached to kites, the Nokia with duct tape and a chap from Boston shooting with a Canon and a more sophisticated […]
[…] the last year or so I have been using my Nokia N95 as my primary video recording device. As you understand, I am currently more serious about stills […]
And use Wavelog to post text, photos, videos and sound to your WordPress blog!
http://www.telewaving.com
Again…I`m just amazed!!!
You have to come to Brazil in some point…pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! 🙂
Don`t think twice!
I don’t think i’d risk putting my HTC windows-powered device up there in a kite, nevermind my n95! But I do have to say, the video looked pretty sweet, I could only imagine doing this over water (omg what if the camera fell out??) or over a canyon.
[…] kan helt enkelt inte vara fel. Vill du inte använda en kamera så går det lika bra, eller bättre, med en Nokia N95 och eltejp.- Och slutligen, om du är trött på att sitta stilla eller bara är trött […]
[…] like Pict’Earth are achieving with their low-cost, almost do-it-yourself drones. (Or see this guy’s post if you that’s too sophisticated for your […]
Yes. It flies.
But does it blend? 🙂
Hehe. An iPhone blends, so I guess the N95 blends as well. At least if your blender is a Blendtec…
[…] A flying Nokia N95 – Boat at the beach. Today has to be a nice day for an article about something that you can’t possibly do with an iPhone. Simply because it totally lacks one feature. Namely, high quality video recording. Disclaimer: … […]
[…] results are not that wonderful, and certainly not a patch on this guy’s attempt. But he had a much fancier cameraphone than mine, and gaffer tape, whilst we had to make […]
wow, this is really a cool action and great idea. haha. nice one guys
wow, how long did it take you? pretty impressive.. never saw it like this
[…] You can see the video here. (Source) […]