First decent quadcopter aerial photograph
This aerial photo shows San Pablo Park in the foreground, with Southwest Berkeley, Emeryville, San Francisco Bay, and the Bay Bridge in the background. Yep, that's me on the grass below.
San Pablo Park is one block from my house, and is my local testing ground for aerial photography gear.
This process of using a quadcopter for aerial photography started in the summer, when I bought two inexpensive, lightweight (dare I say "toyish") quadcopters to learn how to fly such craft. It was not easy, and there were many dramatic crashes and retrievals from tall trees! Luckily the spare parts from the second quad did not run out until I could fly the thing respectably.
Earlier this month, I ordered a "real" quadcopter. It is made of aircraft grade aluminum, and is a thing of beauty! It weighs just under 2 lbs, has about 8 lbs of thrust, and it was tuned to fly like an absolute rocket ship when it arrived. I felt that if I gave it any significant amount of throttle, it would go so high as to be invisible in just a few short seconds. Scarey!! I must admit that I had a couple of hellacious crashes in a very large, wide open space. And that aircraft aluminum can be bent back into shape fairly easily ;-)
Luckily I was able to tune the copter so that it now flies very level, less like a rocket ship and more like the barge that I want it to fly like. I have decent control when flying it now, and it seems like it can be an excellent platform for aerial photography. The frame of the Armattan quadcopter I own is not designed for lifting a camera, but I chose it for the beauty of its design, the fact that it was shipped completely built and ready to fly, that it included the flight controller that I wanted to be using, and that it was very affordable.
This photograph was taken with a Fuji F20 camera, which I haven't used in years. It uses the old xD memory cards, and I only could only manage to find a 512 MB card in my drawer! I had no way of triggering it, other than to put it into continuous shooting mode and to use a powerful rubber band to hold a shirt button down on the shutter button. The high-frequency vibrations of the quadcopter don't work well with optical image stabilization, and this is the only camera I had around without OIS. I have a new Canon point and shoot on its way which will be better suited to the job.
I'm not sure how much I will ultimately use this technology for my aerial photography, but I love to fly these machines and it has been fun and challenging getting to this point.
Taken by a camera lofted by a quadcopter.
© All rights reserved
First decent quadcopter aerial photograph
This aerial photo shows San Pablo Park in the foreground, with Southwest Berkeley, Emeryville, San Francisco Bay, and the Bay Bridge in the background. Yep, that's me on the grass below.
San Pablo Park is one block from my house, and is my local testing ground for aerial photography gear.
This process of using a quadcopter for aerial photography started in the summer, when I bought two inexpensive, lightweight (dare I say "toyish") quadcopters to learn how to fly such craft. It was not easy, and there were many dramatic crashes and retrievals from tall trees! Luckily the spare parts from the second quad did not run out until I could fly the thing respectably.
Earlier this month, I ordered a "real" quadcopter. It is made of aircraft grade aluminum, and is a thing of beauty! It weighs just under 2 lbs, has about 8 lbs of thrust, and it was tuned to fly like an absolute rocket ship when it arrived. I felt that if I gave it any significant amount of throttle, it would go so high as to be invisible in just a few short seconds. Scarey!! I must admit that I had a couple of hellacious crashes in a very large, wide open space. And that aircraft aluminum can be bent back into shape fairly easily ;-)
Luckily I was able to tune the copter so that it now flies very level, less like a rocket ship and more like the barge that I want it to fly like. I have decent control when flying it now, and it seems like it can be an excellent platform for aerial photography. The frame of the Armattan quadcopter I own is not designed for lifting a camera, but I chose it for the beauty of its design, the fact that it was shipped completely built and ready to fly, that it included the flight controller that I wanted to be using, and that it was very affordable.
This photograph was taken with a Fuji F20 camera, which I haven't used in years. It uses the old xD memory cards, and I only could only manage to find a 512 MB card in my drawer! I had no way of triggering it, other than to put it into continuous shooting mode and to use a powerful rubber band to hold a shirt button down on the shutter button. The high-frequency vibrations of the quadcopter don't work well with optical image stabilization, and this is the only camera I had around without OIS. I have a new Canon point and shoot on its way which will be better suited to the job.
I'm not sure how much I will ultimately use this technology for my aerial photography, but I love to fly these machines and it has been fun and challenging getting to this point.
Taken by a camera lofted by a quadcopter.
© All rights reserved