My dad got a cheap digital video camera that was billed as a “spy cam” a while back. The intent for it was to use the small size of it to capture interesting videos, and the fact that it cost under $20 meant that we weren’t too concerned with destroying it in the process. Over the summer we hung it from a kite and got some interesting footage, but the plan from the start was to launch it on a rocket in the backyard. Unfortunately, it was windy the entire time I was visiting my parents in the summer, so it took us till now to try it.
This was our third launch of the rocket with the camera attached and the first time we got video from it. Thanks to the battery in the launcher being low and not having any replacements it took a while to get it to launch the first time, so by the time it finally launched the battery in the spy cam was dead (did I mention the camera was cheap?). This engine wasn’t expected to be too impressive (the instructions with the rocket suggested the next size up for the first launch), especially with the added weight of the camera on the side, but the video didn’t turn out too poorly.
The sound is consistently out of sync with the video in all of the launches we’ve gotten so far, I’ve never been able to set the time, and the rocket isn’t overly steady (it spins a lot in the higher shots), but the fact that we’re able to do this is awesome. Thankfully, we haven’t hit a cow yet (haven’t decided how I’m going to edit that video, will probably leave the part with the herd of cows in), so we can keep trying it.
For reference:
rocket: Code Red
engine: A8-3
camera: Lighter cam