Camera for aerial photography

[Razor_Racer]

Hi, I want a fairly compact camera for aerial photography use. The camera will be mounted onto a model helicopter, so a camera that can handle vibration (auto stabilization function?) would be great, and it must be less than 10oz for weight issues. Also, the price should be around $150 or less. Basically I'm looking for the best camera around that price range... and as in best, I'm mainly looking for the color of outdoor shots. I've been looking at the Pentax Optio M40, but I dont know if there might be better ones out there.

Thanks!

[SmartWombat]

The vibration from a model helicopter is likely to be far faster than the image stabilisation was was designed for. Remember that the aim of stabilisation is to remove the human twitches and so it's going to be designed for that kind of speed and distance of movement.
You many need to put some vibration absorption in the camera mount as well as using the in-camera IS.

I haven't used any of the latest cameras, but found the FZ28 with its optical stabilisation to be great for normal use.
I'm just not sure if it'll cope with a high revving 2-stroke engine and the vibration from the rotor - I assume it's two-blade rotor.

I've given up trying to fly helicopters, the best description I had was a friend teaching me "if you can balance a ball bearing on the point of a knitting needle in each hand, you can fly a r/c helicopter" ... he was right, I kept dropping the ball and went through a fortune in broken rotor blades
Gave up and went back to fixed wing.

[Razor_Racer]

The helicopter I'm using is electric, so no engine vibrations. The heli doesnt vibrate noticably, but I know there will always be just a slight vibration that might make the video a little fuzzy. I'm hoping to use some kind of gimbal to mount the camera, so that should also keep the vibration down.

[SmartWombat]

Ah sorry, you said aerial photography, not video.
I'd not worry about it then in that case.
You'll get more problems from the flying and rough air than from the electric engine.
From what I've seen of in flight video the biggest problem is flying the helicopter smoothly enough to prevent the resulting video inducing motion sickness

I'd say almost any optical IS camera will do the job.
Though if you're shooting video, why not use a video camera?
Stabilisation on video cameras seems better than still cameras.

If you're putting in a gimbal mount, you could go the whole hog and gyro-stabilise it, a gimbal won't stop the vibration without gyro.
You could use it in pan/tilt control for the camera on a pair of spare servos if you've got payload weight to spare.

[citcop]

What heli are you flying? R/C flying is another hobby of mine and I'm currently flying a Walkera heli. Your options are really limited due to weight concerns. You may want to check out www.rcuniverse.com They have a pretty good aerial photography section with lots of folks experienced on the subject.

-Jeff-