New Caledonia Anchorage Aerial Panorama

This New Caledonia Anchorage sphere image was taken from a kite flying about 200 metres above the Ilot Mato anchorage. We launched the kite from the stern of the Moira, let it up about 20 meters, and then attached the camera rig. I thought it prudent to use a little waterproof GoPro Hero 3 camera just in case the kite decided to go for a swim. The kite behaved perfectly and easily lifted the camera and it's servo-operated mount. I let out about 450 meters of kite line from an Alvey trolling fishing reel bolted onto the stern rail. Then I used a wireless controller to rotate the camera, tilt it from up to down, and used the GoPro WiFi trigger the shutter. I waited until the camera looked vertical and not swinging very much and then fired the Hero 3 - Burst-shooting 30 frames in 3 seconds. Then I triggered the servo-tilt to get the down shot.

The camera didn't go swimming, the kite behaved itself very well, and the results from this little camera are excellent. Autopano Giga stitched the image in seconds with only a few glitches in the horizon to fix in Photoshop.