Author Topic: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging  (Read 19926 times)

Mark Sheehan

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Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« on: November 18, 2018, 11:05:55 PM »
Hi everyone, my name is Mark Sheehan. I run the blog My Drone Authority.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience getting high speed aerial imaging using drones? I've done some research and found this project: https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/what-happens-when-you-rig-a-drone-with-a-100000-4k-camera-slow-motion-beauty/

Needless to say, it's way out of the budget of most pilots.

I know certain ready-to-fly out of the box models can take videos at 60fps, but wondering if anyone has possibly built their own custom setup to reach a faster rate.

Thank you in advance.

P.S. If any of you are interested in getting into drone photography/videography, the Kron Tech team invited me to share my guide here: http://mydroneauthority.com/reviews/best-drones-with-cameras-buying-guide/

Michael M.

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2018, 02:18:59 PM »
Thats really cool. I think the main challenge of flying something like a Chronos would be the fact that there arent any available gimbals for something like this as far as im aware of. Chronos is also probably a little too heavy for something like the Inspire so not only would you need a custom gimbal but most likley also something more like an octocopter.

Max

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #2 on: January 02, 2019, 08:11:58 PM »
I'm sure a cinematic gimbal would have no trouble handling a Chronos but I dont know very many products that are made for the mid-range size of the Chronos.
Maybe a DSLR gimble would do it but I do not have very much experience in the field.

Cheers,
Max

Nikon1

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2019, 01:00:02 PM »
I think about any Gimbal that is able to hold an average DSLR or bigger DSLM Camera including an Lens should have no trouble at all handling something like the Chronos since the Weight and size is very similar.
Also depends what lens you are Planing to use and what kind of accesorys you plan to use.
If you are not planing to use an crazy heavy /big lens or lots of other stuff attached to the Camera, most mid-Size DSLR-Gimbals should work fine for you. Lot of those are quite Affordable and you could sometimes also rent one, if you only need it once. I kind of Doubt that an High-End Cinematic Gimbal is Actualy NEEDED for an Camera of the Size Like the Chronos. You sure Could use on, if you wanted... But its just more expensive.
To be Save, just check the Specs of the Gimbal you want to buy and compare the maximal load which the gimal is rated for with the Weight of the Chronos + Lens + other stuff (Like HDMI-Transmitter and so on...) / and also Size of the Camera the Gimbal could hold.
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For Drones its quite a bit of an different story here.
As mentioned in the Video you linked, it is a very expensive Drone and hasnt been done bevore, cause its extremely challenging to lift all that stuff up in the air.
The Phantom 4K is an heavy Monster of an Camera compared to the "tiny" Chronos and i think it also needs tons of energy. For such an big Camera you will need an pretty beefy Gimbal and Battery-System which also will add a lot of weight to your already heavy Camera.
your advantage with the Chronos is, that it has an internal Battery, which will propably last long enough for everything you would want to do with it while in the Air.
For Lenses you would propably choose some Wide Prime-Lens or your Kit-Zoom, so weight for camera, lens and Gimbal should be "reasonable"
But while still way less heavy then the Camera-Rig with the Phantom 4K, this Chronos + Gimbal is no Lightweight either.
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So, if you realy want to do something like this, the main Problem would be to find an Gimbal that could hold multiple Kilogramms of Weight while still flying pretty Stable, and to find a Way to mount an Gimbal to it in a way, that it wont fall /break off with all the Vibrations and so on...
If you want, just take any gimbal and do the math, how heavy all the stuff would get, which you would need to mount on your Drone. Weight of all single Components is usualy given somewhere in the Specs of the product.
I am not aware of any "cheap" drone that could do that. I think with drones you would actually need to get something more Professional.
As far as i Know, you will need some kind of Licence in most countrys for a Drone Of that size and Weight (at least after you added the Weight of your camera-Rig).
You will (unless you buy some kind of Complete Solution) also most likely need two (or even three) persons to control that Drone/ Gimbal-Rig you just built.
And since most of the Stuff i just listed is quite expensive and also given that this will propably be used rather rarely (seriously, how much Interresing Stuff coud you film with an High-Speed-Camera-Drone? Even in an Action-Movie...), i think that is about the Reason something like this has only be done once by those Guys with that Phantom 4K. Huge and Heavy cameras (including all kinds of High-Speed-Cameras) on Gimbals and Glide-Cams and Robot-Arms /Cranes on the other Hand has been done since ages, even with those Old, huge Film-Cameras and big Cinema-Cameras, where the Cameras-Rigs on the Glide-Cams or Gimbals would sometimes be as heavy as 20Kg or even more.
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So if you only want more than 60fps from a drone, try something like a drone for a Gopro or even Phone or even think about something like an RX0 from Sony.
I am Not quite up to date with the new GoPros and Phones, but those should do at least 120 / 240 fps in good Quality and even more with the RX0 in Less good Quality. Drones for Cameras of such size are Cheap, small and easy to find. Also mostly easier to control.
If you need more fps/ Resolution, you will most likely need to go with an pretty Serious Drone

Nikon1

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2019, 12:00:15 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_5Ce7JgBPM
Minute 3:55
Big Highspeed-Cameras and small Drones...

MarcinS

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2019, 04:07:20 PM »
I think they should regret, that they missed showing the Phantom lift by the Phantom.  ;)

Nikon1

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2019, 12:07:08 PM »
I think they should regret, that they missed showing the Phantom lift by the Phantom.  ;)
:) Sure!
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I think you would be able to Lift someting like a Chronos, including your Sketchy Router-Setup :), with some Way smaller and way more affordable Drohne.
What they had there was some serious Drohne for all that weight.
Those Big Phantom-Flex-Camera are Huge and should be quite painfully heavy for someting that should Fly. (too Lazy to look up the exact weight of the Cameras they used for that). Chronos is much lighter and Smaller
But i still heavily doubt, that you could lift / savely operate in the air, a Chronos (including an Gimbal and all the other crazy Stuff you might want to put on / around it) with Standard DJI-Phantom.

lysagrey

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Re: Drones and High Speed Aerial Imaging
« Reply #7 on: December 21, 2020, 01:19:04 PM »
okay honestly it freaks me out how well they have developed the technology already. I still think of the tapes and floppy discs we grew up with and am stunned by the new smartphones and little kids want drones for their birthdays. I honestly thing that drones should not be used as a piece of military equipment but honestly pretty much everything that we invent gets militarized. I have been noticing more and more drones flying across the city though. The other day I was talking with my brother in law and he told me that he was actually looking at different drone models to buy fro both himself and for his son. I was surprised but agreed to help since I wanted to make sure he did not overspend (I am the smart one when it comes to money in the family). I asked him if he had the list narrowed down and he told me that he was using this blog called https://buyersimpact.co.uk/ as reference. I was a little skeptical but the information there was actually useful and we managed to find a model that worked for both him and his son. I can only imagine what they are going to do to it come February and my nephews birthday, haha. Honestly wish us luck
« Last Edit: January 05, 2021, 03:32:36 PM by lysagrey »