HAB-2 carried three cameras: two photo and one video.

1. DSLR Camera

To shoot high-quality pictures, we launched Canon XS camera with Canon 24mm f/2.8 STM lens. Camera’s shutter release was connected to sensor board, which triggered it every five seconds.

Power: with manual focus and LCD turned off, standard LP-E5 battery pack delivered ~3,500 shots. (Canon claims only 600 shots in its specification – but I guess auto-focus and LCD are real power hogs).

Focus: Using Canon EOS utility and Remove Live View, I manually focused the lens on infinity (a tree far away). Once the lens was focused perfectly, I taped focus ring in place. To prevent front lens element from moving, I applied a few drops of hot glue between front element and lens body.

Camera settings:

Setting	Value	Comment
Review time	Off
Auto power off	Off
LCD on/off btn	Shutter/DISP
Live View	Disable
Flash firing	Disable
Focus	MF	Manual focus on infinity
Mode	Tv	Shutter priority
Shutter speed	1/500	Next time will use 1/1000
AWB	Daylight
Exposure comp	-2/3
Turn off display		Press DISP after power-on

Triggering: camera’s remote shutter release was connected with a cable to sensor board, which “pushed the button” every 5 seconds.

2. Point-and-Shoot Camera

As a backup, I used Canon A1100is camera – the same one as in previous launch. The camera was “hacked” with CHDK and ran a script to take a picture every 5 seconds. You can read more about it on this page.

Power: During previous flight, powered by 2xAA Energizer Advanced Lithium (model L91) batteries, camera took ~3,200 shots. No kidding!

Focus: Specifically on this model, CHDK had difficulty overriding focus to infinity. As a workaround, camera had to point to far-standing trees during power-up: when CHDK started, camera would focus on infinity and CHDK would lock the focus at that position.

Settings: same as on this page.

Triggering: CHDK script can be downloaded from GitHub.

3. Video camera

For video footage, I used 808 #16 Micro Camera. It’s an amazing piece of electronics, which weights half an ounce and shoots 720p video of excellent quality. (beware: there are a lot of cheap knock-offs; mine is from this eBay seller).

Power: I removed built-in 250mAh battery from the camera, and soldered an extension wire to 2,000mAh LiPo battery. With larger battery, camera could shoot over 2 hours of video before depleting the battery. Camera would get quite hot after prolonged use.

Settings:

Nr16Setup utility makes configuring 808 #16 a breeze.

Setting	Value	Comment
Timestamp	Off
Power-on delay	Delay
Auto-record	On	Start recording on power-up
Recording indicator	On
Video data rate	10 Mbps
Video frame rate	30 fps
Video frame size	1270×720
Video clip length	20min	Create new file every 20 minutes
Audio volume	Medium
Exposure	Normal
White balance	Daylight	Auto WB does not work well for shooting skies
Saturation	Normal
Color options	Normal