Wrong forum, I guess

[Jack Sheet]

I am tossing up between a copter and a helium blimp.

Instinctively I think that the blimp has one obvious advantage. None of the battery power would be needed in order to produce lift, so potentially this could dramatically increase flight time between recharges.

Downsides are
(1) limitation on load, if lifting objects is a priority. Not an issue if use is just for camera work.
(2) limitation on speed due to drag on the blimp
(3) vulnerability to external windspeed for the same reason as 2

I might go for one of each.

Strange thing is, the helium blimps are rather hard to find on the internet (including discussions of them). Maybe I have missed some of the downsides?

 

[GJH105775]

I will have to agree with you in that there are very few place that helium blimps are mentioned. I think they sound great if your shooting arial video. I think the main reason could be that they are slower than most options and aren’t nimble.

 

[Mike]

There are a lot of concerns when it comes to a blimp, especially with outdoor flying since wind is a huge concern. Since full-size blimps won't even fly in anything over 12-15mph wind, I'm guessing an RC model is going to have a hell of a time flying in any wind. And those are gas blimps. Your helium blimp is going to fly away in 1mph winds. Think about those air-swimmers. They are massive and carry really no payload. The helium in those guys barely supports the skin of the balloon. The additional fins, flight components, and batteries weigh barely anything. Once those are added, it only takes a few grams for the thing to drop to the floor. I thought in my head what it would take to add a gopro to it, and I figured at least 3x the volume of the balloon - maybe more. I got one as a gift once and adjusting the weight to create a good hover was such a precise task - and then when the temperature in the house changed, the clay used to adjust the weight had to be tinkered with again to get back to that good hover. On top of that, when the heating or AC came on, the shark would begin to drift upstairs and before I'd know it, it would be stuck up against the HVAC return. I'm not saying it wasn't super fun to sit on my couch with a beer and fly the thing, but it never once even had me considering a helium blimp would have any kind of potential as an outdoor filming platform. Maybe a gas blimp would be better, but I think even that would have to be pretty big.

I feel that a multi-rotor is a better choice for aerial filming. There are a lot of copters I've seen around that get great flight times in the 30+ minute range, although you lose a lot of that when you add the payload of better and better filming equipment (DSLR cameras, gimbals, etc.). Either way, most anything filmed is edited and not one continuous shot, so you can always just bring a lot of charged up batteries and change them out quickly in between shots like everyone else =)

Here's some helium blimp stuff if you still want to pursue that route.

See the end of this:

This one has been discountinued, but lot's of info on the development (still not an outdoor blimp though)

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blog/show?id=705844:BlogPost:44817