• Since you want to get the platform up into the air, fly it to some point in the air (called a station or way point), probably have it hover while you do some photography, then return to you - landing gently. So, do you want to manually have to "fly" it - take off, fly to where you want it to go, and then have to "fly" to hover, and then to fly it back and land. Think of the R/C craft (either planes or helos) - that is a lot of work and its going to take a lot to both fly it and take images at the same time. The bottom line is that there are two types of systems - the R/C where you actually fly it, or the ones (via autonomous flight) where you load up a flight plan with some way points - point 1 where you currently are, point 2, 200 yards out and 500 feet up - hover there until commanded to proceed, and then return to point 1. Also, I'm thinking that you are thinking of a copter 4, 6 or 8 motors, etc. with an autonomous flight controls with GPS.

• This is going to require some sort of gimble arrangement, especially for the elevation - so as to point down in a controlled manner. Azimuth may be able to be taken care of by having the platform rotate on station - or better yet taken care of by the pointing system, so the "target" is lined up and framed for the camera. This will probably be a WiFi control also that will down link to a laptop/netbook that you will probably be controlling the camera from.

• As much as I like Pentax for a lot of reasons, I don't think that this is going to be the most appropriate camera for this application. I could be wrong, but here is my thinking. The ability to view cameras in real time, I would not consider this as minor. This ability, along with size and weight are some principal requirements. In order to view (control) the camera's image, you are going to need a camera with some wireless capability. Viewing the image is one thing - a WiFi SD card will do that for you. However, to zoom in and command it to take an image, you are going to need a card similar to the Pentax FluCard - i.e. tethering ability. Right now that is only available on the K3. The K cameras are fairly large and heavy. The larger and heavier the payload the larger and heavier and more expensive the platform - the copter. Other than size and weight the K3 has everything - via the FluCard - and I don't know about the FluCard's range, which draws from the K3's battery. You will have all the controls available other than zoom, so you are going to have to pick your focal length prior to take off. Metering, shutter, ISO and aperture should be controllable via the FluCard. But the pointing system would need to support it, and that would be a problem, in terms of stabilizing the platform with a large camera and lens slung under it, moving around a lot (a moving center of gravity is not good here). A slightly smaller camera will probably work better. A smaller sensor will give you better depth of field - and that would bring up tethering / WiFi capabilities again. Built in body stabilization would certainly help. I don't think that having inter-changeable lenses body is really an option at this point. Smaller and more specialized is where the industry currently is at.

• Chris Anderson?s Expanding Drone Empire - IEEE Spectrum


• https://droneconference.org/2013/08/how-i-got-into-aerial-photography-and-lessons-ive-learned/


• Helicopter Aerial Photography & Video | Remote Controlled RC Aerial Photography | Drone UAV Future Aerial 360 Elevation Views New York New Jersey


• Yellow Jacket Drones


• Phantom 2 Vision - Your Flying Camera, Quadcopter Drone for Aerial Photography and Videography | DJI


• Best Camera Drone - Innovative Technology


• Test Flying A Drone That Makes Anyone An Aerial Photographer | Fast Company | Business + Innovation


• Advice for Aerial Photography UAV - DIY Drones


• $999 will get you a hexacopter drone designed for aerial photography | ExtremeTech

Control Ports:

- Shutter Release

- Front dial (function varies based upon camera custom set-up.)

- Rear dial (function varies based upon camera custom set-up.)

- Shooting mode dial (but non-functional due to K7’s locking pin on this dial).

Two optional ports support:

- Port for external flash system (SPL sells one separately, other options might exist but I’m unaware. To date, I haven’t used this port.)

- A pistol grip with shutter release control (via a shuttle release cable built into the grip.) This comes standard with the housing.

- No access to zoom ring and focus rings on the lens.

- For Auto-focus, the housing requires use of the shutter button halfway setting. This means I miss a lot of shots while the camera is hunting.

- The housing uses 7 wing-nuts to secure front port watertight. It’s a little time-consuming to get in and out of the housing, especially with tired fingers after being pounded in a heavy surf.

- Can’t change shooting mode easily. As I mentioned, the housing provides a control to change the setting which is probably left over from the K10 days. But the K7 now uses a locking pin on top of the mode dial so the housing’s control can’t engage it. I haven’t found a way around this.

- The basic design and function seems to be carry-over from film camera days. I would think for the price that someone could come up with an option that gives access to menus, ISO, WB, shutter control (hi-speed/lo-speed) settings, etc.

• Where to purchase the filter?


• Is 720nm the right choice?


• Any thoughts about this project?


• They don't know if the AF will work proparly after the rebuild, but know that there are no options for re-adjusting the AF-system. So anyone knows if the filter is part of the CDAF system or that I can expect that it works proparly?


• Will the liveview work normal with such a system? A filter infront off the lens makes it black, but how different is this with a liveview only camera and the filter built into the camera infront off the sensor?