Nick or anybody with experience of KAP photo. Is a kite stable and easy enough to use for a IMPro project? I have been looking for a platform for aerial photography that's easy to use and cost efficient. I found the Helikite from Allsopp and compared it to a kite from KAPshop and think that the Helikite is easier to use but a lot more expensive.
The helikite pros are that it can work in no wind to quite strong winds and is very stable. The cons are that it can only carry a 200g camera and the price of the kit plus helium is very high.
I have used kites very successfully. You can purchase everything you need from www.kapshop.com - I'd recommend the Sutton Flowform Becot kites. With kites yo can put as expensive a camera as you are brave enough to fly since kites can lift many kg. A simple picavet rig with the camera looking directly down is very stable - a Canon EOS 350 / 400 / 450 can be autotriggered using a GentLED IR device.
In short, if you can be patient and wait for the wind, kites are the best solution. If your work is more mission critical then the helikite is the main option. Beware to consider the prevailing wind direction though - you may have to stand in some strange places in order to get the camera over the subject!
I'm also very interested to try out remote controlled helicopter mounted SLRs operated by people who know how to fly them - such as http://www.highspy.co.uk/
Guess what? We now have the 1.6 Skyshot Helikite lifting cameras, or rigs, up to 500g. Good for the Canon G9. Also, Panasonic Lumix, Sigma DP1 etc. Peter Bults can build a pan/tilt/zoom photo rig for it if you want. The bigger 2 cubic metre Skyshot Helikite can lift 1Kg of payload.
Our new 1 cubic metre Skyshot Helikite (£395) will lift cameras up to 300g. It will fit in a Landrover fully inflated, and you can get one in a Renault Espace plus 5 passengers!
New fast to operate, one-peice Helikite spars mean that the 1 cu metre can be filled with helium, and have a camera attached ready to go in under 3 minutes from being completly deflated.
A new, cheaper supplier of helium gets that 1 cubic metre of helium down to £10 just per fill.
We now also supply big, cloth bags to store the inflated Helikite in for ease of transport. The Helikite can also be stored uninflated, rolled up in the bag, and then filled in the bag when needed.
I recently saw some pretty good results with the www.airrobot.com They were able to use this for aerial photogrammetry quite nicely, but I still think there may be down time as you learn to fly to get the stability that would be required. I believe that quadcopters should be inherently more stable