Choose a way to make your camera take pictures continuously

Reposted from https://publiclab.org/wiki/balloon-mapping-materials

Easiest:

• Choose a camera) with Continuous mode shooting (where you can just hold down the button and it takes repeated pictures), and use something to hold down the button: pebble or fish bone, or knot of string and rubber band

Most complex -- difficult to set up, but perhaps more stable:

• Use a Canon camera and the CHDK hacked firmware to trigger the camera at longer intervals (check compatibility on the CHDK website). This can save battery and memory for longer flights.

Browse all ways to trigger a camera remotely:

• https://publiclab.org/wiki/camera-trigger

Adjust camera settings

• Set everything on AUTO.
  • Why? Some grassroots mappers finesse manual settings based on how cloudy it is, etc, but I've had a few flights where the sun broke free of the cloud cover and overexposed my photos, so I tend to leave everything on auto -- full resolution, S quality (super, or minimal compression).
• Take a first picture of the horizon to set the contrast and focal length.
• OPTIONAL: Consider turning off the LCD to save battery, weighing the fact that it will then become hard to confirm that the camera is actually continuously shooting. It's unclear if leaving the "click" sound on saves battery vs. using the LCD, but with AA batteries it really hasn't been a problem... you run out of memory first.