Question about GoPro type cameras.

H

harmonica44

I was thinking of getting one for shots hooking the camera up to a car or camera helicopter. I took a look at how they look on youtube, and in the store where I live, but the thing is, is that the image is way too wide.

Are their any GoPros or anything like that with a lens equivalent to 50mm at least?
 
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It'll look crap, I can guarantee it. I know I'm not answering your question and you'll possibly ignore it but I've been doing aerial videography and you're gonna need a $3k+ craft if you want it to be stable enough on a 50mm. 3k is being generous, you'll probably need something $10k+ if you want something decent.

You might be thinking about the fisheye look? Rather than the actual focal width? On the go top you can use a medium or on some settings a narrow focal length which makes it significantly narrower (naturally) and makes the fisheye less obvious. It's also not too hard to remove fisheye in post.

On top of this flying aerial video can't be just picked up and done well, it's a specialized field, requiring hundreds of hours of practice.
 
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Yeah I would have to practice a lot but I think it could be worth it, and get some great shots. If I must I could do a test and try to bend the fisheye in post. So the reason why it's a fisheye, is to avoid shakiness then? So basically if I want to mount a camera to anything, it has to be fisheye, or very wide, and cannot get a natural view at all with any camera or lens?

I saw some youtube videos of an aerial craft that costs $1000 they said, and it has stable shots, but they were fisheye though.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Yeah I would have to practice a lot but I think it could be worth it, and get some great shots. If I must I could do a test and try to bend the fisheye in post.
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Yes, hours upon hours of practice.

harmonica44 said:
So the reason why it's a fisheye, is to avoid shakiness then? So basically if I want to mount a camera to anything, it has to be fisheye, or very wide, and cannot get a natural view at all with any camera or lens?
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NO. The fisheye lens on a GoPro is to get as much of the action in the frame as possible. The "medium" and "narrow" settings on the GoPro just do an in camera crop, it does not change the focal length at all. The only effect that focal length has on shakiness is that, with a longer lens, any vibration is amplified by the longer distance between the sensor and primary objective lens element. Think of it the same way as leverage. The longer the lever on one side of the pivot point, the more movement you get.

harmonica44 said:
I saw some youtube videos of an aerial craft that costs $1000 they said, and it has stable shots, but they were fisheye though.
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An image stabilization gimbal can drastically reduce vibration but costs a fair amount of money. That does not even take into account the added weight of the gimbal which requires a higher payload capacity of the UAV - higher cost.
 
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Okay thanks. I won't get the chopper but I still would like to hook a camera on a car for driving shots. I want to have a 50mm close up shot of an actor, through a windshield. Or at least no lower than 50mm, to avoid barrel distortion.

Any way to get that without shakiness with a DSLR and 50mm lens, since it's mounted to a driving car?

Another thing I noticed about the GoPro is that videos of the footage look a little too overexposed in daylight and would need to slap an ND filter on it, if they make those for GoPros.
 
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As Lucky said the base price for anything half decent (with a million hours practice) is around $1000 (Can pick up a vehicle for ~$700 + ~$300 gimbal). Narrowing the vocal length, or zooming in on the image is going to require a much better gimbal and craft which is not seen in the cheap price range as I said earlier.

Here's why I DON'T think you should invest in this area: Aerial video is a very specialised area, an area that any who are able to produce professional looking imagery actually do the job full time or taking a significant amount of time for practice and knowledge. Unless you are having a change of thought, this isn't the area that you want to specialise in... Yes anybody can pick it up and fly it around in circle, but to actually produce good footage requires immense knowledge, massive practice and quick thinking.

There are no official ND filters for GoPros, though there are a lot of 'home made' ones.

Tonnes of people get good establishing shots without aerial video. Until really late last year only the biggest of budget productions even had aerial shots. I saw the suggestion for aerial, that was only a suggestion, I don't think they were saying that's the only way...


Mounting to a car you can probably get it without shakiness if it is well mounted
 
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Well it seems that DJI is coming out with new choppers with new camera mounts, such as that for the GH3, so maybe if I hold off for a while they will come out with something to stabalize a DSLR with a 50mm lens. I emailed the site and asked them if they will.

I know it's better to hire someone who does it, but there is no person I can find who has one anywhere near me. I figure if I had one and could use it, that would make me popular for business as well, and I could make connections on other movies, as well as getting good shots for my projects. But I don't want to have to devote all my filmmaking time to using it of course.

I will keep trying better car mounts and google some more. It seems that anything mounted to a hood though, will be shaky, but will keep trying.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Well it seems that DJI is coming out with new choppers with new camera mounts, such as that for the GH3, so maybe if I hold off for a while they will come out with something to stabalize a DSLR with a 50mm lens. I emailed the site and asked them if they will.
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And this will cost A LOT of money, money that could be spent elsewhere if this area isn't an area you want to pursue. Of course if you have plenty of money, or do want to pursue this line, go ahead
 
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Maybe. But it's not worth hiring someone as opposing to buying perhaps, cause you would have to fly them in from another city, since they probably don't want to drive 18 hours or more, and their fees on top of that would add up to just as much as a chopper to begin with. At least the current ones I saw from DJI.

Instead of spending $3500 on the new DJI chopper though, it seems you can hook a DSLR to the cheaper DJI Phantom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhaocIQounQ

However, they haven't managed to stabilize the footage though. Anyone find a way to do so?
 
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Seriously 18hours to your closest potential aerial pilot? I doubt it.

Besides as I was saying it is not essential.

Lol dude no way, I own a phantom it definitely cannot hold a DLSR. If you read the description of that video the uploader recommends against trying it and that the Phantom is clearly not designed for DSLRs (which is true! It isn't, it's designed for a gopro). Just watching the video you can see how difficult it is to control. Here's the thing. It takes skill to fly it bare. It takes more skill to fly it with a gopro. With an added gimbal (to stabalise) it takes heaps more skill because of the weight the craft becomes less agile. With another 2kg on the bottom it would be almost impossible to maneuver correctly, let alone stabalise it as well. It's a lost cause, a hopeless dream, to be thinking about a DSLR on a Phantom. You also wouldn't be able to go higher than probably 10metres, would not be able to perform anything remotely risky and would have a flight time of probably 2min not to mention risking thousands of dollars in the sky on a device NOT DESIGNED to hold that weight.

Paying somebody to come in for one or two shots would be much cheaper and actually professional if you really need that aerial. As I said if you want to look at this area then do that, but I don't think it's for you and would be a time and money waster.
 
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The dji gh3 gimbal (zenmuse) cost somewhere around $3500. Then the craft to fly it will run $4000 minimum. I have a hexacopter (bigger then a phantom) and with landing gear, gimbal, and gopro, I'm starting to get a little heavy. To the point I'm considering upgrading to larger motors.

Would love to fly my Pocket Camera, but would have to build a new copter for that one. I've learned a lot over the last year putting together my hexa. The phantoms are cool, I know milescreation flies one, and is getting great results. But I wouldn't trade the experience of having built and tuned my own. I know all the electronics inside and out. It's not as easy as buying a premade craft and flying a camera. You're going to crash, your going to break things. You'll have to fix it.
 
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Okay thanks. I thought maybe I could somehow make the DSLR lighter, like with helium balloons or something, but that will just add more complication on the Phantom.

I just really don't like the look of the GoPro since it is very fisheye, and you have no control over the shutter speed and exposure, to match your other footage. I would have to remove the fisheye in post, and add motion blur to the high shutter speed to match other footage which I plan on shooting at 1/50, and I would have to make an ND filter for it. But too bad they aren't making many more DJI options for other more ideal cameras.
 
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Thanks. I saw that tutorial too. But I don't know how I am suppose to control where the balloons go, since it's not very maneuverable. It seems they can only stay mostly in one spot, and cannot really travel.
 
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