Poster Presentation

Using 360-degree Cameras on Stratospheric Balloon Flights

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Abstract

The growing availability and increasing functionality of 360-degree (AKA omnidirectional) cameras is expanding photography options for many applications, including stratospheric ballooning. Our ballooning team flew Garmin VIRB cameras during eclipse flights in 2017, and more recently we have gained experience using Insta360 ONE RS, X2, and X3 omnidirectional cameras as well. (We have not bought an Insta360 X4 yet, but that looks interesting too.) This poster/demonstration will discuss our experiences flying these 360 cameras on balloon flights and give recommendations for (A) camera handling – they are more prone to overheating than to getting too cold, so we fly them fully-exposed, (B) mounting – we like “invisible” selfie sticks, (C) memory and battery options, so you do not “run out” of either during balloon flights – we plug our cameras into an external, low-temperature-tolerant battery back, (D) orientation – it does make a difference which direction you point which lens, even if the camera captures 360 views, and (E) software/hardware for viewing footage (ranging from viewing footage on phone screens to computer screens to using VR goggles). We will also discuss the utility of certain camera features, such as horizon lock, image stabilization, and gps-on-screen, for stratospheric ballooning photography applications.

Keywords: stratospheric ballooning, 360 camera, omnidirectional camera

How to Cite:

Mekbeb, Y., Thayer, J. & Flaten, J., (2024) “Using 360-degree Cameras on Stratospheric Balloon Flights”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2024(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.17988