Really good video, straight to the point, no waffle, very practical, clear explanations and some handy tips on line reeling (I didn't know that trick about how to reel it in to prevent twisting) and you've answered my question 100%, thank you!
Its probably good to have a bigger kite for flexibility in lighter wind, so hopefully you will have fun with it. I only prefer the foil to sled for packing/size when folded, but am sure it will work great with Hero8.
What a top video! Brilliant explanation and masses of relevant info in the Description. I've been mucking about with KAP for ages, and this is just the kind of video I'd have found helpful when I was starting out. Of course there was no RUclips back then. And no internet. And no digital photography. And no action cameras. And no - Well, you get the idea. I was using a clunky old Russian Zenit(h) SLR film camera on a horribly crude rig (Picavet/sling mounted). Weighed a ton. Only 36 exposures... Hit and hope... Reload. Repeat. Bracket exposures... Send off umpteen rolls of film for processing... Pay an absolute FORTUNE... Wait a week... Get the pictures back... Sort through 288 useless negatives, cursing. If you got 3 (three) acceptable shots you felt you'd done well! Only 285 failures... I love KAP as it is now, and KAV (video) is a positive thrill. I use homemade Peter Lynn Pilot kites (9m²) sewn from his free online plans. My camera is a Firefly 8S with a 90° (no distortion) lens. Cheap but very good. I like really big kites for KAP because they're far more stable than smaller ones and - most importantly - will float about in the merest breath of wind (1 or 2 mph at ground level) but still provide loads of lift, so you can make the most of almost flat-calm conditions. Great for smooth video footage. The best thing about KAP over camera drones is you're not hassled by the CAA for money or to register or obey any rules or restrictions. You're not viewed as a criminal if you're flying a kite. It's a fascinating, challenging, rewarding hobby. And these days it's CHEAP, too! :-)
Thanks for comments, yes we don't know how lucky we are with cheap action camera's with wifi so you can view/take pics from your smartphone while Kite is flying and pretty much guarantee 1 in 10 pics will be good. Would be a great video to show your original setup and show some of the pics you took with film camera!
Thanks for the great video. I’ve been using a 360 camera and this looks like great hobby to add to the fun. I have a Insta360 ONE R. I’ve tried it under a drone but I’d rather use a kite like you’re doing here. Again thanks for sharing your experiences. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
5 лет назад+5
Thumbs up ere' James, very informative into aerial photography with a kit. Great demo and many thanks for sharing the info :)
Absolutely brilliant vid mate, clear, informative and entertaining. Was at Lytham kite festival yesterday and just branched off whilst reading about kites as I have an action cam. Really really good vid, deserves more hits than it's had. Nice work!
Glad it was useful, I only make videos for fun and to be useful, so anything over 100 views I'm delighted with ! I flew this 1.5M foil/picavet/Hero7 to get some sunset pics on/holiday last week and it worked really well, I do like the flexifoil reel/bag, and just bought a second one as they have them on sale for £97 with a free kids kite, so I can ebay the gimbal and makes it a great deal for a lovely reel, bag and accessories.
Yes, if you add kids kite to basket it comes in free when I bought mine - the kids kite is tiny, so only worth maybe £10 at most, but for free its fine. I ebay'd the gimbal for £39 so this is a great price for the lovely bag, reel and accessories, even if you never use the kite. Hanging gopro from the line with a 3D printed picavet or home made cross works really well, and it super easy to DIY so well worth trying if you already have an action camera. I use a Hero7 with wifi so I can check view/take photo from my phone on the ground, but you could just set it to timelapse photo to take a still every 5 seconds and then flick through the pics to find best ones.
Don't launch a Kite without a stout pair of leather gloves on. much heat can be generated. Kite lines can cut through your hands like butter. Looking at the thickness of those reels I'd see them buckling under some of the loads involved. That holding in the middle looks dodgy. A fatter reel gives you more to grip and your more directly connected. There are many versions out there for body attachment and plans are plentiful. Some use an electric drill motor and some are made of wood. The Indians and the USA have huge ones. Back in the day in the Army we used 8ft Rokkaku kites, sparred with Ash, straight grained like a Pitchfork handle, off the winch on the land rover. To lift a wire so I could tap out some morse code about our new position. They would sit painted in the sky at 2am. Back in 2007 I bought the Canon G9 at a show in Holland along with it's waterproof case. Previously I'd only lifted full frame Dslrs. A Sewing Machine has been a usefull addition to the houses tool set. A deep throated one would have been appreciated for the big Doperos and the Foil. A Rokkaku is only on one plane so is easy to sew, or if your using tyvek, packing tape. I have three different sizes all spared with Carbon, and the sails where the slippierist stuff you could buy and sew. Woven Carbon Arrow shafts are ace and super light but costly. Bamboo is much cheaper but heavier, but Tyvek isn't. On the right day Rokkaku and Doperos will be painted on the sky without a tail in sight, and they will fly out of your gloved hand. The foils can be used for trolling with tails on and even trigonometry can be attempted. (building 3d objects from photos) Shadows are still a problem though. A Fled kite can nigh on lift vertically making a picavet useless so a rod must be used. I'm unsure if I'd trust it if it wasn't sewn because of the design and stresses. A 2.3 mtr wide one will lift most shop bought cameras in a ten mph wind and a light one in 5mph. At 15 mph it's lifting capabilities become a challenge for any arm. Having a waterproof case means lakes can be trolled and Ponds and even rivers but watch out for power lines. 50 mph on the ground as a storm raged overhead. Gusts up to 65 mph. The kite was above the 175 ft high object by some distance and the line was singing a high distress note. The kite a Pauls Fishing Kite from New Zealand, Delta version, tested and impressed.It's the only kite I fly without a camera on as it loves thermals on a sunny afternoon walk across green fields. It's Red as well so looks good up there. On the day your stood there all these bits of weight add up, the thickness of the air and the water content all play a part. You've got the kite up at least 30ft if your urban as turbulence from the ground can make attaching the picavet a challenge. If your lucky all your plans work out, if not it can be a full body workout as you learn to fly it. Do not launch without an anchor point being installed. There are such things as emergencies that require you to let go as soon as possible.
thanks for sharing all that experience! I'm new to this kind of kite flying, with the intention of taking some video for a project that requires me to get some aerial footage/stills in some of the Scottish hills... all on a near zero budget.. Your knowledge is appreciated!
@@chris-terrell-liveactive The floform style kites above are ideal for trolling and can lift a full frame over 5mph. But on a budget the Rokkaku made out of tyzak with bamboo sticks and sticky packing tape is probably the cheapest.
Do the clips that you put on the line at 6:25 slide back and forth? You really made a great video. We are going to the UAE soon and it isn't possible for non-citizens to use a drone so we are thinking of another way of getting some video from the air. This is brilliant!
The longline fishing clips will slide if you pull on them, but they grip line well enough the camera stays still and are quick and easy to clip on/off. I tried a few things and these worked best, alternative is loop line round carabina's, but that is a lot more fiddly.
Thanks mate, very nice video - great information. You might get more stable footage from a quadcopter but you can't/shouldn't fly one near an airport so I think this is one of the major advantages of these types of rigs.
Thank you very much for this video. I am about to embark on a world cycling tour and would like to have a go at filming some aerial footage with my Gopro Hero 7 black. I did consider a drone, but it's just too much of a pain to keep charged and am also concerned about the increasing number of laws that countries have regarding drones. Plus a drone is something else to carry / get broken / get stolen. So with this in mind, I will try my hand with KAP! I have not flown a kite since a child, so know nothing about kites! With this in mind I have ordered every item that you suggested - even spending hours looking for the exact sime 175CM x 85CM 'galaxy' kite! I found the kite in the end in China for about £13. I did think about using a gimbal, but again that is extra stuff to carry, and as long as I can get a few seconds of good quality footage to splice into my edits, I will be happy. So I hope everything goes to plan!
I hope it works out for you, I would definitely practice with the kite first, but it packs down small, so should get great pics in the right conditions, the main issue is smooth wind I've found, so open spaces work best.
@@jamesb72 The kite came yesterday, but I am afraid to say I am very disappointed with it. Don't know if I have a bad one, but it just lists to the right and crashes to the ground. I have not been able to get it flying once. It simply won't fly, and conditions are absolutely perfect. My experience is very similar to the reviews on an amazon listing for this exact model of kite. I got mine from Ebay, but they all use all the same stock photos and description as the amazon listing. You can read the problems some people are having: www.amazon.com/Control-Parachute-Parafoil-Outdoor-L-W/dp/B00K3DSCMW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 I think I will have to ask for my money back and look for another kite. I really wanted it to work, but it's just hopeless. Remembering how easy it was to fly a kite as a child, I don't think it's anything I am doing wrong - it's just a problem with the aerodynamics of my particular kite. As I say, I don't know if I have a bad one?
@@VeganDog Its so annoying when stuff doesn't work - I do wonder how accurately they string bridles on the cheap kites. I bought a 8M octopus kite and it was badly strung/tangled so I redid it, which is a bit fiddly but not impossible, there are high quality foil kites around for more money, so maybe worth looking at the HQ Kap Foil or Ultrafoil kites as they are well regarded
Hi James, thanks for the very informative and quick response. I agree with you about the choice from Flexifoil to go with the DC kite. I tried to price up the separate components of the Camera Kite bundle and unless the kite is made of exotic and expensive materials, I can't see how the price is justified. The point you make about the tail is very important, nobody wants it in picture frame. And having a tail would presumably limit the usable angle of view to just the right or left side of the main line to the tail, unless it is mounted so low down the main line it does not get in the camera frame. In doing that, does that introduce an unwanted pendulum affect? Lots of physics, motion dynamics, points of rotation and other variables to get a headache over. Lol. As this is a little winter projet, I'm still at the very beginning of the planning stages so don't expect any clips soon. Thanks again for your knowledge and help. Timo
The tail is no issue, I have mine looped up/tied to half the length but still gives the drag without hanging down too far, and clip my picavet rig about 5M/15ft below kite and the tail doesn't show in any pictures - as you can see from the rotation shots which are full 360 rotation. The flexifoil DC kite can ONLY mount camera facing forward left or forward right so wouldn't ever see tail anyway (the body of the kite is behind the camera anyway).
Yes the Hobby was/is a gateway. You can miss parts of it out at will. You can make a kite from Tyvek and packing tape on bamboo rods. You can easily make a picavet. And you can just as easily order some woven carbon spars and spigots and source the slippiest kite cloth on that day. Cameras are now so small and cheap their weight can be minimal. A deep throated sewing machine will help especially with the foils. Or you can buy a kite, which kite. Back in the day in the Army Rokkaku kites would be used to lift a wire so I could tap out some morse code. i have three sizes. In the right wind with the right size they sit in the sky at 2am like they are painted. They have served well as radio and Kap kites and are an easy shape to sew or tape being on one plane. In the UK a 60 mtr limit from the ground will mean stable air is only at dawn in urban areas. If you launching in your local park you will be amazed somedays at what speed things are moving along at above, but you'll soon feel the effects. How do you gauge wind speed. Don't launch anything without stout leather gloves.
Hi James. Very useful clip. I'm about to head to Egypt, Jordan, India and Nepal and thought about taking a drone with me, but the restrictions in each country are such that I'd have the thing confiscated in short order, and I don't fancy tossing away $600 - $800 like that. Then I started thinking about KAP photography and the fact I could easily take a kite with me that would sail through customs without a hitch - the idea of being able to launch it on high in places like Wadi Rum, the Nile, or during my trek in Nepal is mouthwatering, even if it obviously has limitations over a drone. I've had the Ultrafoil 15 recommended by a few people, which is a tad larger than yours and runs to around $150.I guess the biggest question for me is the stability of the thing for video. I was going to mount a GoPro 7 on the Picovet and hope that the inbuilt image stabilization would do the job, but I haven't been able to find any KAP footage of the camera being used for this purpose to see how well it works. I wondered whether using a gimbal together with the GoPro 7 would make it work even better. Are those clips from on high in your video taken using the Hero 7 with the stabilization on?
Hi Timbo, Glad it was useful. I've put up some of the raw footage so you can have a look, this was on a blustery day with hero7 in 1080/30 with stabilisation on, I also just added default Vegas stabilisation for comparison. Kite footage is never going to be as smooth as a DJI quad, but I think would be usable especially on a less blustery day. Adding a gimbal would definitely help (something like the WG2 with smart remote I'd suggest would work well, and have seen some youtube kite videos using this which look good), but the weight is much greater, so would be more restrictive in terms of wind conditions and complexity/hassle. The Ultrafoil 15 gets great reviews so I think would be perfect (with a fuzzy tail), I was just aiming for cheapest possible setup to try this. I think the Osmo pocket would be an ideal Hero7 alternative though as its smaller/lighter and fully stabilised, on a picavet mount, you'd ideally want the wifi base so you can view/control from smartphone so would need to come up with a secure way to mount to picavet (probably with some tape round the wifi base so it can't fall off), and would definitely need a helper (so they could hold reel while you used a clip/strap to walk down line to 'catch' the camera without it hitting the ground) but that wouldn't be too difficult and I think that would give you much smoother footage - probably not quite quadcopter smooth - as I would expect some rocking/kite movement, but am sure with careful editing you could get some very usable shots, and great still pics. My raw shots are here: ruclips.net/video/7ZrYiwyEboA/видео.html
@@jamesb72 Hi James. Yes, I had thought about the Osmo, but I get the chills thinking of that delicate little head getting even a slight bump on the ground! :) I'll take a look at the other footage. Thanks for the prompt feedback and good luck.
I do appreciate the concern, I'm sure you could protect the Osmo pocket either with a stick which dropped below the head so it would bounce first or by using the tripod clamp so osmo pocket is the right way up (with head at top), but would restrict view to 270deg's to avoid the mount/stick, with a helper and a carabina/strap recovery should be straightforward. Also a lot of retailers you can pay a bit extra for 'accident cover' which I'm sure would be peace of mind for this ;)
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Hi James, thank you for your no-nonsense reviews and builds. I have a question about a kap/kav set up. In your opinion, is the Delta Conyne Flexifoil Camera kite a more stable platform than the Galaxy 8 Hole sled? I am planning to build your handheld gopro mount and attach it to a picavet. Would either kite struggle to lift this and which would be the more stable platform? From what I have picked up from the Web and your flexifoil review, I would attach the picavet away from the kite and further down the line. Obviously you have been flying for a long time and have lots of kit, so you would not need a similar setup. I hope that this arrives to find you well. Kind regards. Timo
Hi Timo, Thanks for feedback and question. Honestly I don't know enough about kites to give a proper answer, I've flown kites on and off since childhood but mainly 2 and 4 line stunt/power kites, so have little experience with single line kites until last month or two. Flexifoil must have gone with the Delta Conyne for a good reason, as they're expertise is all soft parafoils, so if that was better you'd think they would have made a parafoil camera kite UNLESS they just wanted a cheap bought in kite design (the Flexifoil kite looks remarkably similar to cheap chinese Delta Conyne kites on ebay which makes me wonder). My hunch is that a Delta Conyne is stable enough without a tail and is easier to launch/fly single handed (hence flexifoil mounting camera on kite if single handed use was a selling point). Personally I prefer the tiny folded size and better portabillity and convenience of a soft foil with fuzzy tail, and I feel foil pulls harder for same size, so for lighter wind and providing you have a helper to launch/manage the kite and camera rig I prefer soft foil kites like the galaxy 8 hole I used (not sleds which have poles on either end so are less portable than foils which are completely soft), but am sure either would be usable. Certainly a 1.6M Delta Conyne or a 1.5M foil would both be fine to lift a gopro rig in even fairly light breeze, and if you mount the camera below the kite on the line either would be stable enough too I think, so for me the decision would be on folded size and if you have a helper. Best of luck with your KAP/KAV project, I will subscribe to see what you come up with.
Great video! very informative, Thanks. Could you tell me how do you use wifi on your Gopro hero 7? Do you use smart remote or the Gopro app and your phone?
Thanks, glad it was useful. I always use gopro app on my smartphone with Hero7, I do have a Gopro remote (from my original Hero3 black), but never really find it useful, unless you are trying to sync several gopro's or don't have hands free. Wifi Range was perfect for the kite, and I could start/stop video and change to photos with camera in the air which was ideal.
Glad it was useful, links go out of date immediately so I'd suggest you search ebay/amazon etc for 'single line foil kite' - just checking and that kite is on amazon but not ebay right now, but will change daily
Its a 17Metre CIM Fuzzy Tail, but I've looped the middle up and tied it where the tail joins at bottom of Y, so it probably only hangs around 4-5Metres below kite - I did this as I wanted to be able to take photos in all directions without tail showing, but still have the drag.
I really want do get into this... but for some reason the cheap single line 1.5m foil kites are just not available at the moment. The only ones that you can buy online start from around £100.
Its an electronic panoramic head - I bought it ages ago for around $20/£15, but if you search ebay for "electronic panoramic head" there are very similar ones for around $30, I have another one branded 'puluz' which is almost identical, they have a tripod socket on bottom so I use a gopro tripod screw adapter to hang it from a standard gopro mount, and then put gopro on top, it has a remote control but it only works at very close range, so you can't stop/start in the air, but it does allow you to take rotating stills or video to edit/stitch together later
Thanks for sharing video. I like very much. Would you kindly help me a link to buy kite lines (US) I don't know what kind of lines and weight? Thank you
I'm no expert but I'm using 200Lbs Braided Dacron line - I got mine on amazon, arguably you could use lower strength line but when I looked around most people suggesting doubling the strength you think you will need to allow for gusts etc.
The fuzzy tail I used purely for stability to minimise kite wandering, which they still do in blustery wind. The fuzzy tail has loops at both ends, so I attached each end to either side of kite, then pulled them together and tied in a Y, as I didn't want it to hang down too far, and also felt it would pull kite straight better if tied halfway down as opposed to just a loop - but I didn't try it that way to be honest. I then folded the hanging part up to tie again, to reduce the length of the tail while keeping decent amount of drag, as I wanted to be able to point camera 'downwind' and not get tail in shot as best as I could.
@@VeganDog You can get a rough idea from video at 4m13s if you pause while kite is climbing, you can see where I've tied it into the Y - I actually cut the extra looped up part off before video (you can see the loose ends hanging), but have since tied it back on as I think the extra drag is helpful in blustery conditions when Kite can wander, especially when launching/landing.
Really good video, straight to the point, no waffle, very practical, clear explanations and some handy tips on line reeling (I didn't know that trick about how to reel it in to prevent twisting) and you've answered my question 100%, thank you!
Love the set-up. I have a home built picavet for my GoPro on a 7' 9" Delta Conyne, which is dead stable. Nice to see someone else still enjoying KAP.
Just bought a spirit of air mega sled for my hero 8. Think it's overkill. If I'd watched this first I could have saved some money!
Great info!
Its probably good to have a bigger kite for flexibility in lighter wind, so hopefully you will have fun with it. I only prefer the foil to sled for packing/size when folded, but am sure it will work great with Hero8.
Thank you for this video. Just started my KAP journey and you've mentioned a couple of things that I haven't considered :D
What a top video! Brilliant explanation and masses of relevant info in the Description. I've been mucking about with KAP for ages, and this is just the kind of video I'd have found helpful when I was starting out. Of course there was no RUclips back then. And no internet. And no digital photography. And no action cameras. And no -
Well, you get the idea. I was using a clunky old Russian Zenit(h) SLR film camera on a horribly crude rig (Picavet/sling mounted). Weighed a ton. Only 36 exposures... Hit and hope... Reload. Repeat. Bracket exposures... Send off umpteen rolls of film for processing... Pay an absolute FORTUNE... Wait a week... Get the pictures back... Sort through 288 useless negatives, cursing. If you got 3 (three) acceptable shots you felt you'd done well!
Only 285 failures...
I love KAP as it is now, and KAV (video) is a positive thrill. I use homemade Peter Lynn Pilot kites (9m²) sewn from his free online plans. My camera is a Firefly 8S with a 90° (no distortion) lens. Cheap but very good. I like really big kites for KAP because they're far more stable than smaller ones and - most importantly - will float about in the merest breath of wind (1 or 2 mph at ground level) but still provide loads of lift, so you can make the most of almost flat-calm conditions. Great for smooth video footage.
The best thing about KAP over camera drones is you're not hassled by the CAA for money or to register or obey any rules or restrictions. You're not viewed as a criminal if you're flying a kite.
It's a fascinating, challenging, rewarding hobby. And these days it's CHEAP, too! :-)
Thanks for comments, yes we don't know how lucky we are with cheap action camera's with wifi so you can view/take pics from your smartphone while Kite is flying and pretty much guarantee 1 in 10 pics will be good. Would be a great video to show your original setup and show some of the pics you took with film camera!
Great results with a clever design that you explained clearly, thank you for posting this!
Glad it was helpful.
Awesome video! Thanks for being so specific!
Very good setup indeed Sir & it appears that you took some decent shots too!
Thanks for the great video. I’ve been using a 360 camera and this looks like great hobby to add to the fun. I have a Insta360 ONE R. I’ve tried it under a drone but I’d rather use a kite like you’re doing here. Again thanks for sharing your experiences. I look forward to watching more of your videos.
Thumbs up ere' James, very informative into aerial photography with a kit. Great demo and many thanks for sharing the info :)
Absolutely brilliant vid mate, clear, informative and entertaining. Was at Lytham kite festival yesterday and just branched off whilst reading about kites as I have an action cam. Really really good vid, deserves more hits than it's had. Nice work!
Glad it was useful, I only make videos for fun and to be useful, so anything over 100 views I'm delighted with ! I flew this 1.5M foil/picavet/Hero7 to get some sunset pics on/holiday last week and it worked really well, I do like the flexifoil reel/bag, and just bought a second one as they have them on sale for £97 with a free kids kite, so I can ebay the gimbal and makes it a great deal for a lovely reel, bag and accessories.
@@jamesb72 Is that this one? flexifoil.com/products/camera-kite-package
Yes, if you add kids kite to basket it comes in free when I bought mine - the kids kite is tiny, so only worth maybe £10 at most, but for free its fine. I ebay'd the gimbal for £39 so this is a great price for the lovely bag, reel and accessories, even if you never use the kite. Hanging gopro from the line with a 3D printed picavet or home made cross works really well, and it super easy to DIY so well worth trying if you already have an action camera. I use a Hero7 with wifi so I can check view/take photo from my phone on the ground, but you could just set it to timelapse photo to take a still every 5 seconds and then flick through the pics to find best ones.
Great and useful explanations. Thanks for your valuable input. Have fun!!
Thank you man that was a proper information dump and all of it useful👍
Thank you for sharing James :-) ice for a newbie to see how the pros are doing it :-)
Thanks Lars, but I am a complete amateur just trying things out for fun, but hopefully sharing some useful info for others.
@@jamesb72 But yet you make the topic approachable by not emphasizing that only expensive equipment will get good results :-)
Nice fuzzy tail, good one. I prefer deltas myself. Especially tunnel keel deltas are very stable
Brilliant video. This will be great for filming my yacht
Hello James, thank you for this video.
Thanks so much for a very informative video! I won a Go Pro the other day and this looks like a cheap and fun activity to do with it!
Very cool!! I've been trying to figure out a way to do this 🍻
Don't launch a Kite without a stout pair of leather gloves on. much heat can be generated. Kite lines can cut through your hands like butter.
Looking at the thickness of those reels I'd see them buckling under some of the loads involved. That holding in the middle looks dodgy. A fatter reel gives you more to grip and your more directly connected. There are many versions out there for body attachment and plans are plentiful. Some use an electric drill motor and some are made of wood. The Indians and the USA have huge ones.
Back in the day in the Army we used 8ft Rokkaku kites, sparred with Ash, straight grained like a Pitchfork handle, off the winch on the land rover. To lift a wire so I could tap out some morse code about our new position. They would sit painted in the sky at 2am.
Back in 2007 I bought the Canon G9 at a show in Holland along with it's waterproof case. Previously I'd only lifted full frame Dslrs. A Sewing Machine has been a usefull addition to the houses tool set. A deep throated one would have been appreciated for the big Doperos and the Foil. A Rokkaku is only on one plane so is easy to sew, or if your using tyvek, packing tape. I have three different sizes all spared with Carbon, and the sails where the slippierist stuff you could buy and sew.
Woven Carbon Arrow shafts are ace and super light but costly. Bamboo is much cheaper but heavier, but Tyvek isn't.
On the right day Rokkaku and Doperos will be painted on the sky without a tail in sight, and they will fly out of your gloved hand.
The foils can be used for trolling with tails on and even trigonometry can be attempted. (building 3d objects from photos) Shadows are still a problem though.
A Fled kite can nigh on lift vertically making a picavet useless so a rod must be used. I'm unsure if I'd trust it if it wasn't sewn because of the design and stresses. A 2.3 mtr wide one will lift most shop bought cameras in a ten mph wind and a light one in 5mph. At 15 mph it's lifting capabilities become a challenge for any arm.
Having a waterproof case means lakes can be trolled and Ponds and even rivers but watch out for power lines.
50 mph on the ground as a storm raged overhead. Gusts up to 65 mph. The kite was above the 175 ft high object by some distance and the line was singing a high distress note. The kite a Pauls Fishing Kite from New Zealand, Delta version, tested and impressed.It's the only kite I fly without a camera on as it loves thermals on a sunny afternoon walk across green fields. It's Red as well so looks good up there.
On the day your stood there all these bits of weight add up, the thickness of the air and the water content all play a part. You've got the kite up at least 30ft if your urban as turbulence from the ground can make attaching the picavet a challenge. If your lucky all your plans work out, if not it can be a full body workout as you learn to fly it.
Do not launch without an anchor point being installed. There are such things as emergencies that require you to let go as soon as possible.
thanks for sharing all that experience! I'm new to this kind of kite flying, with the intention of taking some video for a project that requires me to get some aerial footage/stills in some of the Scottish hills... all on a near zero budget.. Your knowledge is appreciated!
@@chris-terrell-liveactive The floform style kites above are ideal for trolling and can lift a full frame over 5mph. But on a budget the Rokkaku made out of tyzak with bamboo sticks and sticky packing tape is probably the cheapest.
Really great video and advice. Thanks
Great no nonsense video
Nice, thanks for sharing.
Do the clips that you put on the line at 6:25 slide back and forth? You really made a great video. We are going to the UAE soon and it isn't possible for non-citizens to use a drone so we are thinking of another way of getting some video from the air. This is brilliant!
The longline fishing clips will slide if you pull on them, but they grip line well enough the camera stays still and are quick and easy to clip on/off. I tried a few things and these worked best, alternative is loop line round carabina's, but that is a lot more fiddly.
@@jamesb72 we printed our thing that we need! That was a big step! Maybe this weekend we can test it out. Thank you for your help!
Thanks mate, very nice video - great information. You might get more stable footage from a quadcopter but you can't/shouldn't fly one near an airport so I think this is one of the major advantages of these types of rigs.
Thank you very much for this video. I am about to embark on a world cycling tour and would like to have a go at filming some aerial footage with my Gopro Hero 7 black. I did consider a drone, but it's just too much of a pain to keep charged and am also concerned about the increasing number of laws that countries have regarding drones. Plus a drone is something else to carry / get broken / get stolen. So with this in mind, I will try my hand with KAP! I have not flown a kite since a child, so know nothing about kites! With this in mind I have ordered every item that you suggested - even spending hours looking for the exact sime 175CM x 85CM 'galaxy' kite! I found the kite in the end in China for about £13. I did think about using a gimbal, but again that is extra stuff to carry, and as long as I can get a few seconds of good quality footage to splice into my edits, I will be happy. So I hope everything goes to plan!
I hope it works out for you, I would definitely practice with the kite first, but it packs down small, so should get great pics in the right conditions, the main issue is smooth wind I've found, so open spaces work best.
@@jamesb72 The kite came yesterday, but I am afraid to say I am very disappointed with it. Don't know if I have a bad one, but it just lists to the right and crashes to the ground. I have not been able to get it flying once. It simply won't fly, and conditions are absolutely perfect. My experience is very similar to the reviews on an amazon listing for this exact model of kite. I got mine from Ebay, but they all use all the same stock photos and description as the amazon listing. You can read the problems some people are having:
www.amazon.com/Control-Parachute-Parafoil-Outdoor-L-W/dp/B00K3DSCMW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
I think I will have to ask for my money back and look for another kite. I really wanted it to work, but it's just hopeless. Remembering how easy it was to fly a kite as a child, I don't think it's anything I am doing wrong - it's just a problem with the aerodynamics of my particular kite. As I say, I don't know if I have a bad one?
@@VeganDog Its so annoying when stuff doesn't work - I do wonder how accurately they string bridles on the cheap kites. I bought a 8M octopus kite and it was badly strung/tangled so I redid it, which is a bit fiddly but not impossible, there are high quality foil kites around for more money, so maybe worth looking at the HQ Kap Foil or Ultrafoil kites as they are well regarded
Hi James, thanks for the very informative and quick response. I agree with you about the choice from Flexifoil to go with the DC kite. I tried to price up the separate components of the Camera Kite bundle and unless the kite is made of exotic and expensive materials, I can't see how the price is justified. The point you make about the tail is very important, nobody wants it in picture frame. And having a tail would presumably limit the usable angle of view to just the right or left side of the main line to the tail, unless it is mounted so low down the main line it does not get in the camera frame. In doing that, does that introduce an unwanted pendulum affect? Lots of physics, motion dynamics, points of rotation and other variables to get a headache over. Lol. As this is a little winter projet, I'm still at the very beginning of the planning stages so don't expect any clips soon. Thanks again for your knowledge and help. Timo
The tail is no issue, I have mine looped up/tied to half the length but still gives the drag without hanging down too far, and clip my picavet rig about 5M/15ft below kite and the tail doesn't show in any pictures - as you can see from the rotation shots which are full 360 rotation. The flexifoil DC kite can ONLY mount camera facing forward left or forward right so wouldn't ever see tail anyway (the body of the kite is behind the camera anyway).
Yes the Hobby was/is a gateway. You can miss parts of it out at will. You can make a kite from Tyvek and packing tape on bamboo rods. You can easily make a picavet. And you can just as easily order some woven carbon spars and spigots and source the slippiest kite cloth on that day. Cameras are now so small and cheap their weight can be minimal. A deep throated sewing machine will help especially with the foils. Or you can buy a kite, which kite.
Back in the day in the Army Rokkaku kites would be used to lift a wire so I could tap out some morse code. i have three sizes. In the right wind with the right size they sit in the sky at 2am like they are painted. They have served well as radio and Kap kites and are an easy shape to sew or tape being on one plane. In the UK a 60 mtr limit from the ground will mean stable air is only at dawn in urban areas. If you launching in your local park you will be amazed somedays at what speed things are moving along at above, but you'll soon feel the effects.
How do you gauge wind speed. Don't launch anything without stout leather gloves.
Hi James. Very useful clip. I'm about to head to Egypt, Jordan, India and Nepal and thought about taking a drone with me, but the restrictions in each country are such that I'd have the thing confiscated in short order, and I don't fancy tossing away $600 - $800 like that. Then I started thinking about KAP photography and the fact I could easily take a kite with me that would sail through customs without a hitch - the idea of being able to launch it on high in places like Wadi Rum, the Nile, or during my trek in Nepal is mouthwatering, even if it obviously has limitations over a drone. I've had the Ultrafoil 15 recommended by a few people, which is a tad larger than yours and runs to around $150.I guess the biggest question for me is the stability of the thing for video. I was going to mount a GoPro 7 on the Picovet and hope that the inbuilt image stabilization would do the job, but I haven't been able to find any KAP footage of the camera being used for this purpose to see how well it works. I wondered whether using a gimbal together with the GoPro 7 would make it work even better. Are those clips from on high in your video taken using the Hero 7 with the stabilization on?
Hi Timbo, Glad it was useful. I've put up some of the raw footage so you can have a look, this was on a blustery day with hero7 in 1080/30 with stabilisation on, I also just added default Vegas stabilisation for comparison. Kite footage is never going to be as smooth as a DJI quad, but I think would be usable especially on a less blustery day. Adding a gimbal would definitely help (something like the WG2 with smart remote I'd suggest would work well, and have seen some youtube kite videos using this which look good), but the weight is much greater, so would be more restrictive in terms of wind conditions and complexity/hassle. The Ultrafoil 15 gets great reviews so I think would be perfect (with a fuzzy tail), I was just aiming for cheapest possible setup to try this. I think the Osmo pocket would be an ideal Hero7 alternative though as its smaller/lighter and fully stabilised, on a picavet mount, you'd ideally want the wifi base so you can view/control from smartphone so would need to come up with a secure way to mount to picavet (probably with some tape round the wifi base so it can't fall off), and would definitely need a helper (so they could hold reel while you used a clip/strap to walk down line to 'catch' the camera without it hitting the ground) but that wouldn't be too difficult and I think that would give you much smoother footage - probably not quite quadcopter smooth - as I would expect some rocking/kite movement, but am sure with careful editing you could get some very usable shots, and great still pics. My raw shots are here: ruclips.net/video/7ZrYiwyEboA/видео.html
@@jamesb72 Hi James. Yes, I had thought about the Osmo, but I get the chills thinking of that delicate little head getting even a slight bump on the ground! :) I'll take a look at the other footage. Thanks for the prompt feedback and good luck.
I do appreciate the concern, I'm sure you could protect the Osmo pocket either with a stick which dropped below the head so it would bounce first or by using the tripod clamp so osmo pocket is the right way up (with head at top), but would restrict view to 270deg's to avoid the mount/stick, with a helper and a carabina/strap recovery should be straightforward. Also a lot of retailers you can pay a bit extra for 'accident cover' which I'm sure would be peace of mind for this ;)
I hope your trip and kite photography went well. It's a huge shame that kite flying is now prohibited in Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt.
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📖 { “Say, He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.”} (Quran 112:1-4) 📚
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You are the best . Thanks
Great helper video, thanks for making it.
Good tutorial video
Good job!
thanks for a good ideas
Hi James, thank you for your no-nonsense reviews and builds. I have a question about a kap/kav set up. In your opinion, is the Delta Conyne Flexifoil Camera kite a more stable platform than the Galaxy 8 Hole sled? I am planning to build your handheld gopro mount and attach it to a picavet. Would either kite struggle to lift this and which would be the more stable platform? From what I have picked up from the Web and your flexifoil review, I would attach the picavet away from the kite and further down the line. Obviously you have been flying for a long time and have lots of kit, so you would not need a similar setup. I hope that this arrives to find you well. Kind regards. Timo
Hi Timo, Thanks for feedback and question. Honestly I don't know enough about kites to give a proper answer, I've flown kites on and off since childhood but mainly 2 and 4 line stunt/power kites, so have little experience with single line kites until last month or two. Flexifoil must have gone with the Delta Conyne for a good reason, as they're expertise is all soft parafoils, so if that was better you'd think they would have made a parafoil camera kite UNLESS they just wanted a cheap bought in kite design (the Flexifoil kite looks remarkably similar to cheap chinese Delta Conyne kites on ebay which makes me wonder). My hunch is that a Delta Conyne is stable enough without a tail and is easier to launch/fly single handed (hence flexifoil mounting camera on kite if single handed use was a selling point). Personally I prefer the tiny folded size and better portabillity and convenience of a soft foil with fuzzy tail, and I feel foil pulls harder for same size, so for lighter wind and providing you have a helper to launch/manage the kite and camera rig I prefer soft foil kites like the galaxy 8 hole I used (not sleds which have poles on either end so are less portable than foils which are completely soft), but am sure either would be usable. Certainly a 1.6M Delta Conyne or a 1.5M foil would both be fine to lift a gopro rig in even fairly light breeze, and if you mount the camera below the kite on the line either would be stable enough too I think, so for me the decision would be on folded size and if you have a helper. Best of luck with your KAP/KAV project, I will subscribe to see what you come up with.
Great video! very informative, Thanks. Could you tell me how do you use wifi on your Gopro hero 7? Do you use smart remote or the Gopro app and your phone?
Thanks, glad it was useful. I always use gopro app on my smartphone with Hero7, I do have a Gopro remote (from my original Hero3 black), but never really find it useful, unless you are trying to sync several gopro's or don't have hands free. Wifi Range was perfect for the kite, and I could start/stop video and change to photos with camera in the air which was ideal.
jamesb72 thanks a lot.
Thank you!
Hi there,I love this video and your presentation,do you have a recent link to where I can buy a similar kite please ?
Glad it was useful, links go out of date immediately so I'd suggest you search ebay/amazon etc for 'single line foil kite' - just checking and that kite is on amazon but not ebay right now, but will change daily
How long is the fuzzy tail on the 1.5 sq meter foil 14 pds kite?
Its a 17Metre CIM Fuzzy Tail, but I've looped the middle up and tied it where the tail joins at bottom of Y, so it probably only hangs around 4-5Metres below kite - I did this as I wanted to be able to take photos in all directions without tail showing, but still have the drag.
U r so clever ant knots!!
I really want do get into this... but for some reason the cheap single line 1.5m foil kites are just not available at the moment. The only ones that you can buy online start from around £100.
👍👍
nice. thaks
Hi James, can you please tell what is that for a rotating device?? thanks
Its an electronic panoramic head - I bought it ages ago for around $20/£15, but if you search ebay for "electronic panoramic head" there are very similar ones for around $30, I have another one branded 'puluz' which is almost identical, they have a tripod socket on bottom so I use a gopro tripod screw adapter to hang it from a standard gopro mount, and then put gopro on top, it has a remote control but it only works at very close range, so you can't stop/start in the air, but it does allow you to take rotating stills or video to edit/stitch together later
Wheres the link for the 1.5 mtre kite please
This is from chinnese shops online?
Thanks for sharing video. I like very much. Would you kindly help me a link to buy kite lines (US) I don't know what kind of lines and weight? Thank you
I'm no expert but I'm using 200Lbs Braided Dacron line - I got mine on amazon, arguably you could use lower strength line but when I looked around most people suggesting doubling the strength you think you will need to allow for gusts etc.
Do you not need 2 of those CIM Fuzzy tail? Otherwise the tail would just be attached in a loop?? Most kites I see have 2 separate tails
The fuzzy tail I used purely for stability to minimise kite wandering, which they still do in blustery wind. The fuzzy tail has loops at both ends, so I attached each end to either side of kite, then pulled them together and tied in a Y, as I didn't want it to hang down too far, and also felt it would pull kite straight better if tied halfway down as opposed to just a loop - but I didn't try it that way to be honest. I then folded the hanging part up to tie again, to reduce the length of the tail while keeping decent amount of drag, as I wanted to be able to point camera 'downwind' and not get tail in shot as best as I could.
@@jamesb72 Thanks for your explanation. Do you have a photo showing how you prepared the tail?
@@VeganDog You can get a rough idea from video at 4m13s if you pause while kite is climbing, you can see where I've tied it into the Y - I actually cut the extra looped up part off before video (you can see the loose ends hanging), but have since tied it back on as I think the extra drag is helpful in blustery conditions when Kite can wander, especially when launching/landing.
@@jamesb72 okay thanks
Could you provide details for the 3D printing of your bracket please?
Link is in description - its this one www.thingiverse.com/thing:2367626