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.
I’ve had some good results using the new Ricoh GR with its built-in intervalometer.
The Phantom flies *okay* carrying it and the quality of the image files are excellent. Set the shutter above 1/200 to counter vibrations and movement, the rest to multi-point focus, metering, idiot settings etc. and you get very usable raw files out of it.
The battery on the drone runs out before the card gets filled.
um – thomas – why would you really want me to loose 10k? that’s pretty weak sauce on your part.
let’s be brutally clear what happened here.
1. we knew the risks.
2. we did a test flight where the troubles of wifi weren’t exhibited = had good control of the chopper. then stabilized it and
3. on the next flight – encountered the interferenece. and crashed it.
i’m sharing this shit so you can see what experimentation looks like. so reconsider talking shit perhaps next time.
You never go Chase retard. It’s blatantly obvious, and plastered all over the DJI website, and common knowledge that WiFi runs on the 2.4Ghz spectrum, that they’d interfere. This is why Americans can’t have nice(r) things. I kind of wish Chase downed a $10,000+ S1000, the equivalent to a nice L lens.
nevermind the natural hazard of the lithium polymer battery and plastic/electronics that will be really good for the environment.
Chase,
First off, the best case scenario was unstable footage flying a much heavier camera, as well as a VERY short flight time. The worst case – well, you saw it. You should never run WiFi and the Phantom remote together – both are on 2.4GHz and can interfere, causing flyaways. I’ve lost a Phantom-GP3-Gimbal combination by getting electro-magnetic interference from power lines, 30 yards away. Live and learn…. Just keep the WiFi turned off in the future and stick to the Gimbal/GoPro combo.
Gene
we were aiming to capture RAW still images Gene. regardless of published specs throughout 15 years of experimenting with gear i’ve had lots of great results… Interesting note on power line interference at that distance. thx fo the heads up
Too bad you were insured, otherwise you would have gotten everything you deserved and not just a waste of time.
not sure what you mean by that gene. are you suggesting that by experimenting we deserved to lose everything and become disappointed? that’s a pretty lame approach to life IMHO.