Anyone have luck with moving lens on #16 keychain camera?

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BABAR

Builds Rockets for NASA
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The cameras work fine, but options without cracking open the case and shifting the lens are limited, basically just stick it on the outside of the rocket (I have seen some shrouds, but don’t know how helpful the are) or use a bigger body tube and mount sideways, or use a mirror. I know you can put on an extension cable lens (can then put lense anywhere in any orientation) but I am afraid I would just break the camera. Would be nice to be able to put controls in an AV bay and just have the lens either looking laterally out the side, or with a very small extension cowling out the side with lens facing tailward.

I wonder how good market would be for a camera built as a cylinder that would fit inside a BT50 (even BT20) with lenses cowling sticking out 90 degrees and lens pointed down (or up)?
 
Those look great.
I fly low power, so most of my rockets are less than 2 inch diameter.
Also, if you just go with a lateral view rather than up or down, seems like something that would just work with a window out the side would be much less draggy.
 
I’ve taken these apart but the ribbon connector for the camera module tends to be really short - too short to do any internal mounting.

You can buy the “guts” of these cheap can modules on eBay (and from some places that sell Arduino parts) as modules. They’re not super common, but you can find them. Looks like the same hardware, just without the external plastic shell. Haven’t tried one yet, but it’s on the todo list. It would be nice to wire the “record” switch so that the camera is automatically armed and disarmed by the flight computer.


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