Taken from camera pod at 70,000ft.
Camera[]
The camera pod houses an older model Canon camera which has been modified with the CHDK Firmware to allow it to take pictures every every few seconds (with us being able to set the exact interval). The camera is snuggle fit inside of its pod with the lens pointing out the side. To aim the camera down slightly (to get better pictures of the ground but still getting the horizon) the strings on the side of the pod with the lens were slightly longer so the pod tilts in that direction.
The camara was used for the May 28 launch. We initially meant to set the camara to take 5 MP resolution pictures, but somehow it got changed before launch without us knowing and it took pictures with a resolution of 640x480 instead. This turned out to be somewhat of an advantage though. Had the camara taken 5 MP pictures, the memory card would have filled before the balloon even burst. Instead, we got pictures of the entire flight from launch to landing.
With the balloon on May 16 we did not send up any camera's because we were having trouble with the about of helium needed to get the balloon off the ground. We decided to cut weight and this was the first thing to remove because it was in its own pod and was not required for tracking. On the launch we made on Sat May 28th we are sent the camera up to take a picture every 10-20secs.