Photo Coupler Navigation and Triggering Component

Airborne Scientifics’ Photo FMS enables precise automatic camera triggering over preprogrammed GPS waypoints. You no longer need to manually trigger your camera over photo sites, let the GPS Photo FMS automatically trigger the camera at precise locations more accurately than you can by hand. Also permits easy triggering of the camera over repeating geographic intervals, such as grid flight lines, as a geographic intervalometer.

Photo Coupler Hardware

  • Connect to any GPS with NMEA-0183 data out capability, such as Garmin portables.
  • “Enable” button to turn on the photo coupler to trigger the camera upon each passing waypoint, turn off ‘enable’ to keep photo coupler from triggering on passing waypoints.
  • Manual Trigger Button, for exposing a photo manually, works in both ‘auto’ mode and manual mode.
  • Programmable for any shutter delay that your specific camera may have.
  • Very easy to use, simple operation.
  • Accurate, if the waypoints are flown tightly, the photo coupler will be more accurate along track than the pilot is laterally.
  • Works with most cameras that use remote electronic trigger. (Canon, Nikon, Hasselblad, Contax, Mamiya, Phase One)
  • Use for aerial photography or for road guidance and camera triggering.

AccuracyPhotoCoupler Camera Controller

The photo coupler’s accuracy depends upon the precision that the pilot flies to the waypoints and the update rate of your GPS. If the pilot flies laterally right on the route line to the waypoints (such as within 100 ft laterally) the photo coupler will trigger the camera very precisely over the waypoint, typically within 20 feet along track of the waypoint, moving at 100 knots. This accuracy is configurable to the 1/10th second for your specific GPS and camera combination. If the pilot is not on course laterally precisely, the photo coupler will not be as precise along track as well, but it will still fire the camera unless the pilot is significantly off course.

Waypoint capacity

The Photo Coupler relies on the connected GPS for its waypoint inventory and route guidance. So if your GPS can hold 50 routes each with 300 waypoints and a total of 3000 waypoints (like many Garmin aviation GPS receivers) then you can trigger up to 3000 camera exposures along 50 different routes.