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.
Good effort, and well done pushing it to its limits! If I ever get one I’ll be sure not to try this, haha. One more thing what is the high tech material you spoke of, gaffa something? sounds amazing! haha
Chase thanks so much for sharing this. Not sure where all the negativity is coming from (and why) in the comments, I think they missed the point of the video. Anyway It’s nice to know I’m not the only one crashing my phantom. Please continue to share videos like this where everything does NOT work out. They remind us you’re human and that’s a good thing.
What a bunch of wallies !! Eating a roll, cute little outfits – and you guys are how old ? You deserved to lose your gear. Less me, me and more tested technique thank you.
Great video, valuable lesson and more importantly, a great bit of philosophy. Risk and reward, in the end it’s just stuff and by taking a risk, you open the door for great things to happen.
Epic testing from and EPIC photographer!! Way to push the limits and take the risks that push things to that next level! Love it!! Chase, thank you for sharing those true to real life risk taking! You are the MAN!! Without the risk there is no reward! This is an inspirational video that shows me that one needs to constantly push things and think outside the box! Although costly, look at what you have taken with you….. An incredible piece of footage and the hunger to do it better!!