center of the universe

I just got a new camera phone and I was thinking if I could use it for aerial photography. But I was thinking since it is a phone and therefor a radio device if it would interfere with my plane as it would be only inches from the reciever and the last thing I would want to do is to comprimise on safety.

Maybe this has been brought up before on this forum but I did not find anything.

(almost) any feedback would be well appreciated.

Sky High

Have you read the manual for your phone yet? If your phone is like most others it only has a short timer, 10 seconds for stills, and no timer for delayed video recording with recording times up to 15 seconds. Cell phones do emit radio signals while powered up in standby for the network to be able to communicate with it for calls, and data delivery. My Motorola RZR has still and video capabilities and ironically has an option called airplane mode. That option allows you to turn off the potentially harmful signals that it emits while in standby so you can still use it for data services like communicatiing with your laptop or another PDA. In other words, in that mode it won't interfere with sensitive electronics on a commerial jet.

center of the universe

it can record video for up to 3 minutes but there is not a profile listed such as 'airplane mode.' What would happen if I would recieve a call in mid-flight with the phone so close to the reciever? Or without getting a call at all?

Sky High

3 minutes!? What kind of phone do you have? It must be as big as a TV/VCR remote control. [sm=lol.gif]

center of the universe

nope, just a normal sized phone

it's a Nokia 5140i

Dimensions: 106.5 mm x 46.8 mm x 23.8 mm, 86 cc


it's also supposed to be shock 'resistant' (not shock proof ) which means I'd have less to worry about if I... fail

Sky High

My phone can record up to 3 minutes of audio for notes, ringtones or whatever. Are you sure yours records 3 minutes of video and not audio? The reason I ask is that a 3 minute video file even at 15 fps and 166x120 would exceed most networks' bandwidth limit of 200K per file max, for now at least, not to mention take up more space on your probable 30 mb internal memory.

twinturbostang

FYI, I just got a new phone (LG8100) and you can plug a miniSD memory card into it. I got a 512MB card mostly for use playing MP3 files and such. I know the phone will take video too, and it's possible it can do this to the memory card. Meaning, it could possibly take quite a bit of video. They also make 1GB miniSD cards also.

That would be funny though, if you got a call 200ft in the air.

Sky High

Yep, I'm aware of SD cards but admittedly wasn't clear that I was only speaking of internal memory. SD cards would definitely make a huge difference. However, it doesn't matter how much a card will hold if a wireless network won't allow any files over 200K to be transmitted at one time.

bruce_lee

But it records the file straight to the sd memory card..

Sky High

Okay, we did get off topic a little bit talking about cell phone technology and transmitting video over cell phone wireless networks like Verizon, Cingular, T Mobile, Sprint, Nextel, etc.. The destination drive, card or whatever could be a TB and it wouldn't matter. I cell phone carrier's wireless network currently will not allow for any video files over 200K to be transmitted from phone to phone, phone to PC, period. This is totally irrelevant to the application that center of the universe is trying to do. He just wants to record video using the phone, not transmit it from the phone. I just didn't see what use it is to be able to record huge video files if you can't send any of them that are over 200K. You could always just watch them again and again on your phone or just copy them from the SD card to a PC or other media but for right now with bandwidth limitations not send them wirelessly.

center of the universe

Well actually I intend to record it with into my phones memory and then download it to my computer via a data cable, then I could erase the phones memory and have the video on my computer.
My biggest concern is if the phone will cause interferance. Should I try to do a range check with my phone in the plane and then I could call the phone, there is no danger in that as long as it is on the ground, right?

center of the universe

If anybody is interested I put the phone into the plane while on the ground and it did not interfere unless I recieve a call to the phone, and since there is no way (that I know of) to have the camera running while blocking incoming calls I am leaving this whole idea behind. Atleast I know now that this can not be done without unacceptable risks.