OK, I think that I got it. There are MANY way of achieving Aerial Photography.
There is Still Photos, Video, (Digital and Tape), and Live Video Feed.

I will just cover the basic digital camera since most modern digital cameras can do it all, and some with sound.

Choose a digital camera that you are not afraid of losing, or can afford to replace. After all, I do not think that you planned on crashing your last plane, did you? Maybe an old camera that you have had lying around after buying the new 8 mega pixel camera would do the trick. Also, remember that the plane you are going to use needs to be capable of lifting the new payload that you have in mind.
I have been using an old Intel Pocket PC camera that I won at a seminar in Manhattan. This camera was light, but did not really take good quality photos. It also took video, but due to limitations of the camera, the videos were very short, and I needed to take a lot of short movies and piece them together to make something that lasted more than a minute.
Last weekend, I took up my “good” digital camera for the first time. It is an Olympus C-740. With 3.2 Mega Pixels, and a 10X optical zoom, it takes pictures that are OK. At 10.4 ounces without batteries, it is more than what you want to take up in an out of the box .40 size trainer.

For the transport of the camera, I first chose a trainer that I had laying around. It was the Cessna 40 by Hangar-9. This plane flew well with the Pocket PC camera, but I do not think it would be capable of flight with the Olympus hanging from it.

Here’s how I rigged the camera for operation:
Firstly, I had to decide what kind of pictures I was looking for. I wanted it to look like the pictures were taken out the front of the plane, but because the camera had a large frontal area, and the plane had just enough power to get itself out of a bad situation, I chose to mount the camera under the left side wing, near the fuselage, pointing straight down so that it would have the least effect on aerodynamics and center of gravity. Since the wing was held on by rubber bands, I made a mount out of thin aircraft ply, (10”x4”x1/8”), that would hold the camera off to one side. This would allow the ply to be placed on top of the fuselage and under the wing, held in place by being sandwiched in between the wing and fuselage. I used 1/4”x1/4”x4” balsa strips super glued to the ply so that it would saddle both sides of one wall of the fuselage where the mount contacted the fuselage. This would keep the camera mount from slipping out and plunging to an untimely death.

OK, now for the shutter trigger. I have read some hacks for digital cameras where you take them apart, and modify the circuitry, and connect a pigtail from your camera directly into your receiver. I prefer to use the old fashioned servo. I cut three tabs off of a servo horn leaving just one left. I then position the arm and the servo so that when channel 6 switch is thrown one way it depresses the shutter, and the other way the shutter is released. I then use double sided foam tape, (sometimes called servo tape), to adhere the servo to the top of the camera in the same position as previously tested.
MAKE SURE THAT THE SERVO IS NOT STALLED WHILE PRESSING THE SHUTTER BUTTON. THIS CAN DRAIN YOUR FLIGHT BATTERY QUICKLY.
Now use the same type of rubber bands that hold the wing on to secure the servo to the camera. This is done to actually hold the servo to the camera. The servo tape is just to prevent the servo from sliding around on the top of the camera and keep alignment of the horn and shutter button. Mount the camera to the plane, connect the servo to channel 6, and have fun!
Pictures taken with this setup
A movie taken with this setup

A note about vibration: When you use higher-end cameras, make sure that you use an anti vibration mount of some type. I used the dense foam rubber that you would wrap your reciever in behind my Olympus camera. The camera was held to the plane with several rubber bands using the foam between the camera and the plane. I still had excessive vibration, as you can see by some of the stills.
PLEASE NOTE:
I still used the servo directly attaced to camera as described in the setup for the Pocket PC Camera.
Pictures from the Olympus
Movie from the Olympus

 

Robert MacFarland