Attack of the Drones
/I Gave a quick talk on Camera drones with my good friends over at the Eastern Shore Camera Club today. Material from the talk (Slide Deck PDF & Intro Video) are here!
Thanks for checking it out!
The sample video of some our epic Gulf Coast locations was based on a 3 hour project window. Filming, editing in no more than 3 hours. Plenty of opportunity for better editing but I thought it was a decent enough example to show the capabilities of the camera platforms we talked about.
I've been experimenting with various remotely controller aerial photography methods for several years. In 2011, I mounted an HD Hero Go Pro on my Stryker F-27q pusher-prop fixed-wing. The result might make you sea-sick:
That's not to say that fixed-wing flight cannot yield compelling visuals. I found these to be very inspiring:
and
Early 2013, I tried the multi-rotor route with the Parrot AR Drone 2.0. Took it to the marina where we kept our boat with hopes of amazing aerial visuals. It didn't work out, either:
The Parrot AR Drone is cool and all but controlling something from an iPad that is simulating the control sticks of an R/C controller is a bit fail. The on-board camera of the Parrot AR Drone isn't as good as the Go Pro (Jellyvision is bad) and the lack of camera stabilization (a gimbal) is the nail in the coffin to this approach (for me, anyway).
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About a year ago, I found this video and was blown away:
Santa Monica Airlines from robert mcintosh on Vimeo.
Followed a few months by this one:
Talk about awesome stuff, right?
Finally... a year ago, Chase Jarvis posted this post on his blog about overcoming barriers in your photography:
A great write-up and awe-inspiring video, which is here:
Interested yet? Space! Cmon. Space is like bacon. Put space in front of anything and it is instantly improved. (thinks of space bacon...)
errmm.. umm.. what happened.. sorry you lost me for a second.
But seriously, interested in FPV flight and camera drones and just getting started?
Here are some links to get you started and of course, you are always welcome to contact me directly at bill.dodd@graffitilogic.com to discuss!
Informative Sites
http://www.diydrones.com
http://phantompilots.com
http://www.helifreak.com
http://www.rcgroups.com
Manufacturer Links
http://www.dji.com
http://www.sky-hero.com
http://team-blacksheep.com
http://immersionrc.com
Drone & FPV Retailers
http://www.bhphotovideo.com
http://www.adorama.com
http://www.dslrpros.com
http://www.helidirect.com
http://www.profotouav.com
http://www.getfpv.com
http://www.readymaderc.com
FPV Manufacturers
http://www.fatshark.com
http://team-blacksheep.com
http://immersionrc.com
http://cinemizer.zeiss.com
http://www.lilliput.com
http://www.foxtechfpv.com
http://dragonlinkrc.com
http://www.tslrs.com
http://flytron.com
http://www.hobbyking.com
Slide Deck
(video slides won't play but there is a video links slide towards the end of the deck)
I'm not sure how much sense the slide decks will make sense on their own but they include really informative links and inspiring videos from awesome FPV camera operators that I found inspiring.