thinking about aerial photography

glowingturnip

glowingturnip

Well-Known Member
So I'm starting to think about adding a camera+gimbal to my quad. (450 frame, KK2.1.5, rest of the set-up as per my sig)

I'd be looking to take smooth good quality video with it, possibly taking stills from the video stream. There's a lot of nice scenery round where I fly in Spain so I'd be looking to take videos of that. Not really looking for action videos (although I'm sure I would be taking a few too) or fpv.

- For the gimbal, the Eachine one looks to do the job, and at only £32 in the UK from here, the price is right. Is this the right one for the job, and any alternatives I should look at ?

- for the camera - looking at the Go-Pros - the 3 and 4 are too expensive - is the GoPro Hero (About £100) good enough ? Any better alternatives ?

- what else would I need ? duck legs obviously, I have plenty of servo wires hanging round from various robotics projects, anything else ?


Cheers,
 
a question on the gimbal - ideally I'd like to be able to tilt the camera during flight, say face-on, 45 degrees, and vertically down. Is that possible do you know ?

Maybe with my spare rx channel (I have a couple of potentiometers and a 3-way switch I could configure to that channel), and maybe a little external electronics (a PIC microcontroller or something), I could do that if it's not do-able already, sounds like a project.

I presume I don't need a 3D gimbal ? third degree being yaw I presume.
 
holtneil said:
HI I have the eachine 2d gimbal works well, I am looking at the turnigy action camera its £50 is lighter then the gopro and spares batteries are cheap too take a look see what you think
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__68620__Turnigy_HD_ActionCam_1080P_Full_HD_Video_Camera_w_Waterproof_Case_UK_Warehouse_.html?strSearch=turnigy action
Click to expand...
Looks like a re-badged SJCAM SJ400 (of which threre are many knock-offs)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1072775-REG/sj4000_sj4000_action_camera.html

They also make a WiFi version.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1081153-REG/sjcam_sj4000wfb_sj4000_black_with_wi_fi.html
 
Looks like the standard BaseCam board that comes with that gimbal so you should be good to use an extra channel to control the pitch from the rx.

You could look at used gopros too. I purchased a used gopro 3 black with a broke usb (Every thing else was in perfect condition for 120.00 us) I wish I had looked at these before spending 250 on one that was like new.

The 3d gimbals are just tiny bit better imo when you are making turns and in full speed straight line sprints, but are way more difficult to configure to get dialed in and are 3 times as much as the 2ds. If you have the extra cash and time then go for a 3d otherwise I would get a 2d.

Good dampeners, balanced motors, and balanced props will go along way to reduce vibrations.

I have never used the KK before, but I started out using the Naze32 and it is just not for photography. I got a Naza and it is very nice for this type of flying. I am thinking about picking up a Tarot ZYX-M Flight Controller. (seen some good stuff on POI and PH is supposed to be in line with the wookong or A2)
 
HI if you want to control pitch from the receiver plug in the 2nd to last pins going left to right on the board
 
the gimbal arrived today - amazing piece of engineering, and for only £35 ! Assuming it works, that is...

Strictly speaking it's for my birthday next month so I'm not allowed to play with it yet, but it'll give me time to google instructions for it, of which there are of course none.
 
I just set up the gimbal on the wife Phantom OMG it nice and smooth, its not bad to set up you can tilt the pitch off your transmitter so you can adjust camera angle ,watch this I know its for a Phantom but the gimbal will set up the same
 
cheers, will watch that at home.

I like a challenge anyway - so many connectors off that board, I reckon I can probably program it to make my tea too
 
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