The Camera

I was really happy with the video that I got from the launch, but haven't really mentioned the camera that I used. The camera was a Canon SD200 that I got off of eBay for $52. It was a little beat up, but it came with a 512MB card, and works quite well so I've been really pleased with it. With the 512MB card it will only record a few minutes of 640 x 480 video at 30 fps, so for the launch I bought a 2GB card; it was on sale at Best Buy for only about $30. With the 2GB card the recording time is extended to nearly 17 minutes. I made a simple cradle/camera bay for the camera and that was all there was to it. The camera bay had a one inch hole for the lens and a smaller hole 90 degrees away from the lens opening that allowed me to turn on the camera, start recording, and adjust the lens just prior to launch. In the pictures above you can see the tubes used for the camera bay being squared off on the lathe, the cradle that held the camera, and the finished rocket.