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SLR Robot Buggy Safely Snaps Close-Ups of African Wildlife

by Caleb Johnson on April 20, 2010 at 05:00 PM


Two brothers have discovered a way to get close-up photos of African wildlife without risking life or limb. According to Wired, Will and Matthew Burrard-Lucas rigged a Canon EOS 400D camera to a remote-control buggy, and cruised it around Tanzania. The boys have even chronicled the adventure, which saw its share of excitement, on their blog.

Will and Matthew took a basic four-wheeled robotic chassis, and reinforced it with bigger tires to cope with the rugged African terrain. With a few hacks and a tripod plate, the brothers rigged the camera to operate with the same remote controller that's used to navigate the buggy. They even managed to install different flashes on the vehicle. They used the 'BeetleCam' to get some downright amazing shots of lions, elephants, zebras, water buffalo and more. Plus, the robobuggy lets the brothers take close-ups without losing the landscape in the background, which often happens when photographers use telephoto lenses to safely shoot from afar.

The largest setback occurred when a pride of lions took offense to the Wall-E-like robotic camera, and carried it off into the bush. However, the boys recovered the memory card -- even though the camera was mauled -- and saved some photos. That sucks, sure, but a busted camera definitely beats losing your arm or getting trampled to pieces. [From: Burrard-Lucas Blog, via: Wired]

Tags: africa, animals, camera, canon, CanonEos, CanonEos400d, cars, dslr, photography, photos, rccar, robot, safari, top

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