WARNING: CONTENTS OF THIS VIDEO MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME, ESPECIALLY PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO HAVE FELT THE PAIN OF GEAR LOSS.
In the days before my trip to Iceland, I had the chance to play with the DJI Phantom, an affordable, out-of-the-box quadcopter for budding aerial videographers. As I establish in that test flight post, the footage you yield from the DJI Phantom + GoPro combo may not be pro quality, but it’s perfectly serviceable for BTS material, AND it gives a person the opportunity to cut their teeth on a rig that comes in under a grand (or just slightly over, if you include the camera).
Ever the hacks, we tried to circumvent the GoPro limitation and mount a Sony RX 100 II, for three reasons:
1. The RX 100 II has image stabilizations (many commented on the shakiness of the GoPro footage on our first test flight).
2. It has a nice sensor and shoots RAW images.
3. Built-in Wifi. Our plan was to use the iPad Mini with the Sony app and control the camera shutter from the ground.
Seem pretty reasonable, right?
When you watch the video, know this: It brings us no joy to lose expensive gear, ever. I don’t encourage people to go out and perform needless hacks and unsanctioned upgrades, especially if you’re not insured, like we were. In our case we had a legit interest in yielding some higher end footage with a DJI Phantom we had invested in.
Couple UPDATE points… any assumption that i was just goofing around at tourist site just plyaing with my camera couldn’t be further from the truth. we had chartered the entire site for the shoot, been out on boats there at the site earlier – were working with the management there, paying high fees to be there with permits for very specific objectives. We also sought to potentially recover the unit out of concern for the environment but were discouraged from pursuing that option because of danger to divers due to swift current, big tides and huge floating chunks of dangerous ice.
Thanks again for going on this journey – and others – with me. And I hope you don’t mind my sharing all the stuff – even things like this that suck.
Thanks for the video. I’m guessing the WiFi of the Sony interfered with the DJI and caused your crash. I know they advise a person to not use the GoPro WiFi as it interfers with the DJI control system. Again Thanks for the Video I’ve been a fan of your for many years. I always appreciate the educational information your site provides!
I would agree Adam. I would have upgraded the motors, balanced them as well as the blades and hooked up something other than the Sony for this kind of effort. I have watched quite a number of videos on Youtube where the DJI has crashed because of WIFI interference. Its all a learning curve but maybe a little more research before ditching a sweet little camera like that as well as DJI.. Thanks for the infotainment. 🙂
yep. we experimented first at low altitude and got good results so we decided to push it… too far 😉
No risk, no reward. As a retired pro who is new to the Phantom, two thought occurred: First, probably tough to get lock on six satellites that far North and second, Even if the compass had been re-calibrated before the flight, the Phantom would likely have had trouble with a declination correction of as much as 50 degrees West depending on your location. When you are that far from Adorama, you either work with what you have or you choose to go home without the shot. Thanks for the continuing inspiration, Chase!
I’m curious if you guys made any sort of recovery attempt because the card might still be salvageable?
good question. the footage we had in the can wasn’t worth the effort. the crash location is not overly deep but very very cold water and a swiftly moving current filled with multi thousand pound chunks of ice – so we ruled it out 😉
How about some fishing lines? Wonder if that would be too heavy to fly with. :/
At least you’d get the wreck back 😛
Hey Chase, thanks a lot! For reawakening my memories of losing a $1500 Sony early digital videocam (and almost losing my humble self) to a rogue wave on a cliff south of Carmel… Looking forward to my next rebirth when I won’t have that humbling memory.
The Gimble would not have mattered Raien… Chase was looking to obtain Hi-resolution still images… you can’t get that with the gopro.
I’m glad to have seen this video as I was looking at ways to switch out a better camera. I think I’ll stop looking for now.
Chase,
Its too late now but for the price of the Sony Rx100 camera, you guys should’ve just bought a $300 gimble and still grab amazing, stabilized footage with the GoPro. The only downside to what you guys were doing, the phantom is not recommended. LOL! Looks fun though.
oh we were very clear that the payload wasn’t recommended. said it in the video as well as did a several minute test flight where everything worked reasonably well. also aware of the conflicting frequencies of the various wifi … but that’s why we experimented with it.
So basically you’re just a moron with too much cash and no brain.
Noted.
What’s great about guys like you, Timmy, is that you can say things on the internet you’d never say in person. Are you really such a small human that you must post such a negative comment about a cool video/product test?