cinematography Using RC Hellicopter for Filming

I have been thinking using a RC Helicopter is a good idea for some shots. Here is one I saw. I seen some others that look good. Look on Youtube.

This one used a 7d with the RC Heli.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vIkxXUixdE

here is another rc heli shots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0QJ063A04w

here is another good one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2u2RnGUHSI

I seen this video that shows one helicopter for filming. It looks cool but it is like 14,000 dollars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TsMSIUXtik
 
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For quad rotors there's always the AR Parrot, which is very stable, has a built in camera and can be flown with an iPhone. I have seen footage flown by a friend's neighbor with a lipstick camera on it that came out really nice for a test. It can also be navigated indoors without much practice. The larger heli's though take a lot of work to fly without crashing. And when they crash they break stuff that you have to repair before you can fly it again and crash it again. I have a friend going through a very expensive learning phase at the moment. I will be a long while before he trusts a camera on it. I think it was a several hundred dollar copter. Don't know model or price. I'm told though that RC heli's are a lot harder to fly than RC planes.
 
Holy Crap, check this stunt video out! As I was searching for random stuff on RC helicopters I came across this and was just blown away by what this guy was able to do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kv67V63ZEo
 
For quad rotors there's always the AR Parrot, which is very stable, has a built in camera and can be flown with an iPhone. I have seen footage flown by a friend's neighbor with a lipstick camera on it that came out really nice for a test. It can also be navigated indoors without much practice. The larger heli's though take a lot of work to fly without crashing. And when they crash they break stuff that you have to repair before you can fly it again and crash it again. I have a friend going through a very expensive learning phase at the moment. I will be a long while before he trusts a camera on it. I think it was a several hundred dollar copter. Don't know model or price. I'm told though that RC heli's are a lot harder to fly than RC planes.

You can get larger quads and even 6 and 8 rotor platforms that are even easier to fly than the parrot but with enough power to lift a DSLR in a gyro stabilised pan and tilt mount. Have yet to come across one with rails and an RC follow focus tho :D

The most impressive thing I've seen are video goggles with head tracking that control an onboard camera to give you a true pilot's eye view from the ground.
 
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Ok, that video really is awesome David! Haha. Maybe for that you could get HD video flying around with something else, then just record from the cockpit on the ground with a greeen screen around it. and past it over the video haha.
 
So I got my RC helicopter and went to go fire it up this morning for the first time...and nothing. First I tried a set of fully charged brand new Eneloop batteries in the controller and light did not come on. So I went out and bought new regular batteries thinking it was picky about needing true 1.5v batteries...still nothing. So that sucks, already have to send it back. I guess I will keep looking at helicopters and see about another model. Pooo
 
Are you sure you had it turned on? On some of those smaller helicopters they have a small switch you have to turn on. I am just guessing that could be it. I have no idea what your Helicopter is like.
 
Are you sure you had it turned on? On some of those smaller helicopters they have a small switch you have to turn on. I am just guessing that could be it. I have no idea what your Helicopter is like.

Yup, controller and helicopter switches were on. But the controller is the part that didn't seem to turn on. It has a LED light that never lit up once switched. I got this heli all boxed up, just need to send it back so I can get my replacement. I haven't even tried my GoPro yet, haha.
 
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