[kijin]

Perhaps the limiting factor was the lack of inexpensive cameras, not the lack of drones. There was only a short window of time between when remotely controllable lightweight cameras became cheap enough for people to not worry about crashing them into rocks, on the one hand, and when drones became widely available, on the other.

[chadmaughan]

Agreed. We got around this by hacking the single use CVS/Rite Aid cameras according to the below guide. Dropping one of these in the water or on some rocks didn't feel quite so devastating.

https://makezine.com/2008/02/29/how-to-cvs-video-camera-h/

[shaftway]

Not that narrow. I remember in the late 80's / early 90's Estes had a model rocket that would pop a picture (onto film) from the nosecone when the chute charge went off. I have no idea what the quality was like (my parents refused to buy me one).

[fotbr]

I spent a bunch of allowance money on one of those. It used 110 film cartridges, and had a pretty cheap plastic lens. Quality wasn't really that good (and wasn't helped by the cheap film I had to use), but it didn't matter to a 10 year old -- I had a rocket that took pictures!

[shaftway]

10 year old me is super jealous.