Make sure that you camera has a flash. It lets you know that your camera is taking pictures, and it looks really cool when it flashes from "way up there".

Yep - your quite right - thats all it does!

also be carefull not have anything near the camera lens, such as a second window (plane windscreen) that can reflect the flash...

Generally speaking it is a bad idea to have your flash turned on. Most cameras will NOT let you take a second picture until the flash recharges, which limits how fast you can trigger the shutter. When your battery is low, this can extend out to 5 or 10 seconds between shots.

StarskiPZ gives the other reason to leave the flash off... light reflecting off the plane can bounce back into the lense causing lense flare, loss of contrast, etc.

A better way to be sure you got a picture is to be confident that your triggering method is reliable, and then just trust it!

C.F.

I agree that if you have a camera that is enclosed within the fuselage or other structure, it is definitely a bad idea. I prefer 35mm ,and I haven't found one that would fit within the fuselage; at least not an affordable one. Most of my "rig-ups" have had the camera outside, and facing away from the fuselage, with the flash on, and with great results.

http://www.cs.ulm.edu/~coetgen/photos/

- its important to set up your camera & trigger so that it works reliably.

Your first few flights should also establish how many times you took the picture ( pressing buttons on your Tx), and ho many frames your camera actually took!!

Once confident of this, you can concentrate on flying more - and pointing your plane / helicopter where you actually want.

Another reason to leave the flash off is that many cameras will adjust their exposure to account for the flash being on. Unfortunately, when the subject is more than 40 feet away, the flash does not light up the subject and the pictures come out under-exposed.

Many of your pictures look like they were shot on sunny days, yet the photo's are still very flat. Was the flash turned on for these? This could account for the poor exposure.

Regards,
David