RE: Drone attacks

[crmcatee]

If you are going to mess about with them - make sure it's clear of obvious obstructions - like a out hanging branches from a bloody big oak tree in your garden.

Here's one I crashed earlier

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWtQ36k_-AU

[herebebeasties]

ukaskew said:

The Copter Kids stuff is amazing, you need confidence in your equipment to suspend very very expensive Canon gear under one of those as I believe they can fly upwards of 70mph.

Watching this one: http://vimeo.com/45762381 helped me appreciate the skill of the operator, some serious talent required to pilot the thing, control the camera and keep it out of the way of the subject.

It does appear to go wrong sometimes, though: http://vimeo.com/15443887

[MikeJR]

>> Can a drone be set to chase a car?

>> I suppose a bit like a missile, chasing the car to get some awesome camera shots....anyone know if that's possible?

Here is some info about how vehicle tracking is carried out in defence...likely to be way over the top for this type of use but interesting technology: http://www.unmannedsystemstechnology.com/2012/11/n...

Also, check out the showreel from these guys...impressive imagery! http://outfilming.com/helicam.php

[Super Slo Mo]

jon- said:

I've noticed a few Go Pro shots even appearing in top gear from time to time, which as you say is insane.

The new Hero 3 Black has Wifi, which allows you to frame the shot from your phone over huge distances - it's such a useful feature! The other draw back of the new black (other than those you've mentioned) is the battery life, which is sub 1h it seems. God knows what it is if you try and shoot 4K (which is next to useless thanks to the slow FPS)

You can actually get live HD footage straight out of the go-pro, which can be fed straight into some of the miniature (about iPhone sized) wireless transmitters.
It means that body-worn cameras are less complicated to set up than the current crop of alternatives, although there's not all that much interest, as far as I can tell, in fitting cameras to people like Referees, Umpires etc (sportspeople are very unlikely to wear them), although we've had some success with getting snowboarders & Skiers wearing them during the last olympics (they weren't Go-Pro's though, they were tiny lipstick sized SD cameras with poor image quality).

[wst]

Stew2000 said:

The hardest part will be finding a radio setup that ignores all unwanted communication signals.

Luckily the needs of radio controlled fiends have pushed technology rapidly.

If you've got a decent budget you could got for a Spektrum DX10t which has more features than you could shake a stick at.

If you're a bit skint though you can get something that will experience the same amount of interference as a $1k system, but you get fewer features!

[mybrainhurts]

So, we can now see what our neighbours are up to in the bedroom, eh...?

Serious blackmail opportunity here...

[patrickgovier]

I have been looking into this a bit. How about a Parrot AR Drone with this mount http://etfett.net/product_info.php?products_id=55

Takes some pretty good video, but beware if it goes out of range!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y-qk03vpeY

[ukaskew]

jon- said:

Would the majority of traditional broadcast stuff be too heavy to remote chopper mount?

Ignoring broadcast, the things you can do for youtube with the likes of cheap SLRs and the new Go Pro is getting insane. 120fps at 720p on the hero 3 and the lighting control is just about OK for youtube. Isn't most of drive shot with SLRs and go pros?

I was under the impression that the Panasonic GH3 is just about the pinnacle of video from a DSLR type body, that with any of the high-end Micro 4/3 lens would be a fairly light (and relatively cheap) set-up, heavier than a GoPro obviously, but signicantly lighter than a Canon with some L glass attached.

[tallandy]

I love this one at the ring -? http://vimeo.com/34279069

[soad]

mybrainhurts said:

So, we can now see what our neighbours are up to in the bedroom, eh...?

Serious blackmail opportunity here...

[sagarich]

tallandy said:

I love this one at the ring -? http://vimeo.com/34279069

Very cool video, makes me want to go the ring even more now.

[williecrail]

What about MSA rules ,insurance etc at events and these foreign flying objects over tracks with no licence and a chance of failure could lead to a nasty accident ?

[andrewrob]

jon- said:

Super Slo Mo said:

Go-pro's are almost good enough to compared with mini-cameras costing ££££, although there's no preview screen, so framing can be tricky. The lens quality isn't so good, but they are still capable of being integrated into a TV show which, for a cheap camera, is something that would have been unthinkable even 5 years ago.

I've noticed a few Go Pro shots even appearing in top gear from time to time, which as you say is insane.

The new Hero 3 Black has Wifi, which allows you to frame the shot from your phone over huge distances - it's such a useful feature! The other draw back of the new black (other than those you've mentioned) is the battery life, which is sub 1h it seems. God knows what it is if you try and shoot 4K (which is next to useless thanks to the slow FPS)

One thing worth noting with the Go Pros wifi is that it can play havoc with the radio control systems. My business partner and I have been setting a company up for the last year testing various different bits of kit. We found that the go pro wifi pack would cause 3-4 second delays when I try moving the camera gimbal around (both systems on 2.4ghz)

We used a Canon SLR for our photo and video and have complete control over aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and video mode all from the ground.

Here's a video we did back in the early days last summer, we've had a lot of problems with the camera gimbal not coping with the weight of the Canon (when it was supposed to) but are waiting for the new heavy lift unit back from the manufacturer next week so will be shooting a lot more after that!
http://youtu.be/e4MkUUcGQVQ?t=1m34s

The CAA rules are quite tight but you can apply for individual permissions if you wanted to fly higher than 400ft for a particular job or fly over crowds etc.

Edited by andrewrob on Friday 25th January 16:04

[andrewrob]

williecrail said:

What about MSA rules ,insurance etc at events and these foreign flying objects over tracks with no licence and a chance of failure could lead to a nasty accident ?

If flying commercially you have to have CAA permission (yearly thing) and to get that you would usually require a BNUC-S UAV licence and obviously insurance too.
Land owner permission is also required, if you're flying within a certain distance of people/vehicles outside of your control you have to apply for individual permissions for that job via the CAA.

[Super Slo Mo]

andrewrob said:

One thing worth noting with the Go Pros wifi is that it can play havoc with the radio control systems. My business partner and I have been setting a company up for the last year testing various different bits of kit. We found that the go pro wifi pack would cause 3-4 second delays when I try moving the camera gimbal around (both systems on 2.4ghz)


The CAA rules are quite tight but you can apply for individual permissions if you wanted to fly higher than 400ft for a particular job or fly over crowds etc.

Edited by andrewrob on Friday 25th January 16:04

You'd do better to get the control system onto a licenced band. Admittedly, it's fairly expensive to get the daily licence for it, but at least you've less chance of interference. The 2.4 GHz wifi band is massively congested as it is, and 3G mobile phones aren't far away.

Alternatively, if you know what your exact frequency for the control is (and assuming it's different to the go-pro wifi), then some tight channel filters would make a big difference.

[andrewrob]

Super Slo Mo said:

andrewrob said:

One thing worth noting with the Go Pros wifi is that it can play havoc with the radio control systems. My business partner and I have been setting a company up for the last year testing various different bits of kit. We found that the go pro wifi pack would cause 3-4 second delays when I try moving the camera gimbal around (both systems on 2.4ghz)


The CAA rules are quite tight but you can apply for individual permissions if you wanted to fly higher than 400ft for a particular job or fly over crowds etc.

Edited by andrewrob on Friday 25th January 16:04

You'd do better to get the control system onto a licenced band. Admittedly, it's fairly expensive to get the daily licence for it, but at least you've less chance of interference. The 2.4 GHz wifi band is massively congested as it is, and 3G mobile phones aren't far away.

Alternatively, if you know what your exact frequency for the control is (and assuming it's different to the go-pro wifi), then some tight channel filters would make a big difference.

To be honest the only time we've ever had an issue was with that go pro and we're not using cameras of that size anyway now.
Both the control and gimbal systems run on 2.4ghz and we've never had any other problems.

[MiniMan64]

Anyone of these fancy bits of kit I-phone controlled?

[andrewrob]

MiniMan64 said:

Anyone of these fancy bits of kit I-phone controlled?

The AR Drone range are. Video to your phone screen too.

[Super Slo Mo]

andrewrob said:

To be honest the only time we've ever had an issue was with that go pro and we're not using cameras of that size anyway now.
Both the control and gimbal systems run on 2.4ghz and we've never had any other problems.

Ok.

Looks an interesting setup you have. I'm quite interested in getting hold of something along those lines.

[andrewrob]

Super Slo Mo said:

andrewrob said:

To be honest the only time we've ever had an issue was with that go pro and we're not using cameras of that size anyway now.
Both the control and gimbal systems run on 2.4ghz and we've never had any other problems.

Ok.

Looks an interesting setup you have. I'm quite interested in getting hold of something along those lines.

Thanks, that one is a Droidworx AD6, I think there's a newer revision out now but one bonus with Droidworx is you can buy the upgrad parts to bring it in line with the newer models.
The camera frame is made by Photohigher and we use their stabilisation system with it. We found that the camera frame in that picture couldn't cope with moving that size camera around quickly without juddering which was rubbish for video.

The new one we have coming in can take the Canon 5D III and Red Epic size so should be a vast improvement.