Nothing to see here, move along folks!
In my quest to get a balloon into the Stratosphere, I ran across a few teams using Arduino boards to operate payload functions and some that used the Digi Xtend RF modules for communication. I bought both!
The photos can be found on flicker by clicking here. There’s WAY too much to post here without going overboard!
I’ve always had a thing for space. Ever since I was a little kid I was in awe at the shuttle launches on TV and the fact that chances were good – no matter how hard I tried – I probably would never visit space in my lifetime. It’s basic odds. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. The odds are stacked against you if you want to go to space.
I want to do the next best thing. I want to send up a balloon and take photos. Well, “near space” anyway. It’s feasible to send up a balloon to 100k feet above the Earth’s surface with no special skills required. Where do I start? It would be difficult to do on my own, so if you’d like to help out it would be much appreciated!
Current goals for the balloon:
Oh, and I want it to tweet that stuff to Twitter in a readable context in real time 
The three main systems in a Near Space Balloon are:
I need to keep it under 6lbs to be clear of any FAA restrictions, but I want it to do some awesome stuff too. I need to first work on the Flight Control/Payload combination. I’m not quite sure what all I want to accomplish, but I’m going to brainstorm some ideas and get them on paper. From there – it’s BUILD TIME!
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a new Canon DSLR recently. The 20D I purchased earlier in the year was released to the wild in August 2004, and as we all know – electronics improve over time.
I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but I like to have some control over my photos and the 20D has been a wonderful tool to step into the high dynamic range only DSLRs can provide. Even my boring, random photos look more “alive” than the ones I took with my previous point and shoot – an Olympus SP-350. The Olympus was a good camera but the shots it took never “awed” me.
I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz lately about the Canon Rebel T1i (aka: Canon EOS 500D) and decided to rent one and an EF-S 18-200mm F3.5-5.6 lens for a week from LensRentals. Since I’m local, I skipped the shipping charges and picked it up for $104.00. Not bad for a week to play with $1600 worth of hardware. Seriously check them out. They’ve got a ton of stuff!
The one feature that really had me intrigued was the ability to record HD video with the T1i. The footage it takes is nothing short of amazing, but it sucks at the same time. I tried several different lenses to try and eliminate the lens being the problem, but the autofocus goes bananas in video mode. It hunts up and down trying to get a sharp focus all the while you hear nothing but the focusing ring over the video. Sure, if you’ve got a sturdy tripod and know where you need to zoom or focus you could cut a nice little clip with it, but it’s definitely not a point-and-shoot video camera where zoom or focus changes are needed. Oh, and in order for it to autofocus you need to keep a button pressed on the back of the camera. I would have left the feature out completely.
So, now that the feature I most wanted to check out is out of the way, what about the rest?
How does it compare to the ancient 20D? First off, comparing the 20D to the T1i is like comparing apples to oranges. They’re both DSLRs, but aimed at two very different end users. In order to compare apples to apples, I’d have to compare the 20D to it’s successor, the 50D.
I’ve had the T1i for about 24 hours now and have taken some nice shots, but nothing I couldn’t have duplicated with my 20D. Yes, the images are physically larger, but most of my photos hit the web and I rarely print anything out. With no appreciable difference in image quality, I decided to compare feature to feature to help me determine if it would be a good idea to make the switch to the T1i. Let’s take a look at which camera wins out. Any features not listed are either not available on either model or they are equal.
Here they are in order, and you can follow along by checking out this PDF.
Price: 20D – Since it’s been around a while, they can be had for cheap.
Release Status: T1i – The 20D is discontinued, the T1i is brand new.
Max Resolution: T1i – The 15.1M Pixels of the T1i wins out by providing a physically larger photo.
Sensor Size: 20D – Surprisingly, the 20D still has a larger sensor. Larger sensor = good!
Pixel Density: 20D – Less dense is better. (erroroneously attributed to T1i advantage in PDF)
ISO Rating: T1i – The T1i has AUTO and 6400-12800 which the 20D does not.
White Balance Override: 20D – The 20D has the advantage of manually overriding the white balance in Kelvin.
Max Shutter Speed: 20D – 1/8000 of a second. TWICE as fast as the T1i.
Flash Range: T1i – It has 1 more meter range than the 20D.
Metering: T1i – The T1i includes a spot metering function that the 20D does not.
Continuous Drive: TOSSUP – The 20D shoots faster, but can’t take as many in a row as the T1i does.
Movie Clips: T1i – The 20D turns it’s nose up at movie making.
Remote Control: T1i – The T1i uses the E3 Connector and Infrared. The 20D uses only the N3 connector.
Viewfinder: 20D – The 20D uses a pentaprism design, which is superior to the pentamirror design of the T1i.
LCD: T1i – 3″ screen
LCD Dots: T1i – 920,000 vs the 20D’s 118,000
Live View: T1i – the 20D does not have a Live View function.
HDMI: T1i – The T1i includes a mini HDMI connector
Battery: 20D – The 20D uses a 1390mAh Li-Ion vs the T1i’s 1050mAh Li-Ion.
Size and weight: T1i – The T1i is lighter and more compact than the 20D.
If you’re keeping tabs, then you’ll see that so far the T1i is in the lead as far as feature for feature goes but that’s not the deciding factor. The items that the 20D wins out on are what makes it so great. It’s a much better camera when it comes down the the nuts and bolts. It’s faster, the pixel density isn’t crowded, it has better optics and the weight of the camera feels solid in your hands.
I don’t think my 20D is going anywhere anytime soon. A new lens or two may be on the to-do list, but the T1i doesn’t have what it takes to make me give up the 20D.
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