Because there are few establishing shots that can compete with the one you get above 250 feet, I frequently take my shoots airborne. Whether it’s yanking the doors off a Bell Ranger traditional style or the…ahem…new school way of sending an 8-bladed octo-copter to do the dirty work, if it’s outdoors these days, aerial footage is, well, the new black.
Neither option mentioned above is cheap, however. I’ve been paying thru the mega-schnoz to rent A-Stars ($2000 + per hour) and such for years. And then was superduper excited in 2010 to go remote aerial at about half the cost of a real heli for this project launching the Nikon D7000 (here’s some more BTS with the same flight crew from a commercial i shot in Telluride…). But it’s still pricey. $2k – $5,000 per DAY or more. And although going the R/C route is the lesser of two budget busters, it’s still a rough lump to swallow, particularly if you’re just getting in the game.
ENTER the DJI Phantom, (picked mine up at Dronefly.com) the out-of-the-box R/C quadcopter.
Now before y’all jump into a tizzy that this thing isn’t close to the same quality – doesn’t do X and Y…I know those things. It’s ok that it can’t fly an Arri Alexa or do this or that other thing. BUT damn this is a great entry product that A) allows budget conscious folks the ability to fly a camera; B) makes some pretty solid footy for web videos and such; and C) is a helluva lot of fun to fly. All at fraction of the cost of any previously mentioned option.
Designed to fly the GoPro (you know I love ’em in this video), this little rig comes in at under $700. Nothing to sneeze at, but chump change compared to what was available just 5 years ago. My crew has two of these little buggers now — and within 5 minutes I had achieved a comfort level great enough to try the stunt at 0:45, terrorize the other people at the GasWorks park in Seattle, and even chase a seaplane.
Although it’s not suitable for high end work (yet?), this is a nice budget breakthru. And truth be told it’s a fricking blast — I’ll be doing more soon. Perhaps…ahem… even on my next photo shoot in Iceland…
see my note above. that said, i have not put anyone in jeopardy in my flying to speak of … usually quite a distance from any / all onlookers.
i understand your point, but i’m also a good citizen who is prudent in my flying of toys and such.
maybe i’ll crash it into myself as a test ? (preserving my right eye and right index finger of course)
its not that bad it gives you a welt but doesnt break skin if on stock props. I had an incident on my first flight. 🙂 The owner of the company stuck his hand in the props during nab when people asked if it hurt. lol
This is pretty sweet… but is there any reason you wouldn’t go with a hexacopter with the same gps system if it cost the same money?
http://www.helipal.com/storm-drone-6-gps-flying-platform.html
Does anyone have an answer to Greg’s question? I can’t find much info out there on the Storm Drone 6, but it looks pretty awesome. Any experienced flyers out there want to chime in on this?
I imagine cause it’s smaller, easy to travel with and he may have ordered it with a case like an all in one deal. I never heard of this “storm drone” although it’s from the same company the phantom is it’s all dji parts from the flamewheel (550) just rebranded w/ optional tarrot gimble same flight control system from dji as well etc. Those gimbles requires tons of tuning to get right not the dji zenmuse hero for the phantom though. Once set up power wise no tuning is needed perfect stable go pro footy from the get go 2axis only though.
Thanks for the tip. I guess that I will go with a Phantom or wait for the next version to come out.
On a serious note, do you have an explanation for the shake/weird stuff happening on the edges? Or is it just me..
PBR for the win. 😀
How much prior RC experience do you have? I want one but I’m only an expert at crashing RC planes right now. Haven’t quite mastered the non-crash flight mode. 😉
i have next to zero RC experience except for those little $50 helicopters. This is literally my experience straight outta the box, first charge, no practice.
it’s damn easy.