Blackdragan

From time to time I will be posting some videos shot with my SAVS.

www.netline.ws/dragon/spellburgparkthin.wmv

www.netline.ws/dragon/parkridge6.wmv

www.netline.ws/dragon/fallspark7.wmv

TheHindmost

Cool video, keep 'em coming!

Will

Blackdragan

I shot this video at Falls Park. Falls Park is a popular water fall attraction located on the north edge of our downtown area. The park has a foundation of quartz rock, which you can see in the video. www.netline.ws/dragon/fallspark7.wmv

This previously posted video was shot at a local park by my house. www.netline.ws/dragon/parkridge6.wmv

Sky High

Why do you not show the climbouts and landings? You either have very short trees or you live in a miniature city because that looked like you were really high up there!! I'm thinking the flat terrain makes it look higher than it really is. I noticed the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4259932]RF hits[/link] you asked about earlier in both flights. I wonder why you're getting those in your video. There must be some WIFI floating around nearby because I rarely get any hits even when downtown.

Blackdragan

Sky,

This video was edit from about a 10 minute video. I edited it to show the general flight and not bore you with long scenes of the same thing. During the climb out I was doing some triming, so the climb out was not very steady. The reason why the trees look small is because I normally fly fairly high. It seems like the anttenias need to aimed perfectly at the SAVS all the time or I will receive some type of video interference. Again, I am not sure what is causing it.

Clement7

Hi Blackdragan! I guess we should model after the Golf video of DFI where they have someone carrying the receiver case following the SAVS around for a clear line of sight.. The receiver is always located to my left when I fly the SAVS with an angle of sight between 85 to 90 degrees for higher altitudes. When I placed the receiver on top of my trailer or anywhere near my car, that's when I get RF hits. I also make sure that my notebook computer is switched-off.. It has WiFi and has a Wide Area network card (AirCard) installed as well. This may add to the chances of getting RF hits when near my transmitter. You can also try stepping back if you're blocking the receiver's line of sight to the SAVS.

I hope these suggestions would be of help.

Oh, btw, amazing video! It takes a lot of guts to fly that high. It's kindda windy here in the Philippines lately so I haven't dared and tried flying that high yet with my SAVS.. I usually fly very early in the morning to avoid windy conditions.

Orientation problems at that altitude is also a major issue for me when flying. What's your angle of sight when you flew your DF that high? Almost directly above you?

I'm still a newbie at this so any tips in flying the SAVS at higher altitudes would be appreciated.

Sky High

Try placing your antennas as close to the ground as possible with one facing straight up and the other slightly pitched from horizontal. Try to stand at least 5-10 feet from the antennas too. See what that does to get rid of the hits. I think the flat terrain where you are makes it look even higher because the horizon unfolds quicker than when there's hills and mountains. I have flown at least that high but it just doesn't seem as high as yours because I live in a hilly area that seems to break up the horizon more.

Clement7

Speaking of SAVS videos.. I use my video camera's built-in frame grabber whenever I need to get stills from video. I use the playback feature of my Sony VX2000 or Panasonic GS-200. During playback, when I finally see what I want to capture I just press the PHOTO button and it saves the frame to the memory card, ready for transferring to my PBook... is there a better way to capture stills and lessen the jagged lines associated with frame grabs? I tried capturing stills using my iMovie video editor, same results.. I'll try comparing grabs by iMovie, Adobe Premiere and the built-in feature of my video cameras. Will post my findings here..

Any suggestions on what to do using Photoshop to minimize the jaggedness of the images?

Sky High

I usually fly near dark when the wind tends to calm down. You can also see the DF a little better because the sun is hitting one side of it and it contrasts with that deep blue twilight sky. Nav lights help alot at this time of day too.

Clement7

Re angle, I adjusted my SAVS' camera angle to point straight instead of looking downwards. I noticed that I seem to be flying a lot higher compared to having the camera angle pointed to the ground.

Clement7

Thanks Sky! Will check out your Nav lights posting and see how I can modify my SAVS following the specs you posted.

Sky High

That's a good point. I think that's called an oblique angle in AP terms. I have always had my camera tilted downward to get more of what was immediately below. Having the camera horizontal would definitely show more of the horizon and tend to look higher. Blackdragon, is your camera horizontal or angled down in the ball?

Sky High

Those jagged edges are called aliasing and it usually occurs on anything with straight edges in a shot. They are inherent in low resolution images or images that were taken from moving video. Unfortunately, even though DV is high quality, it is susceptible to this because of the way that it renders video images. Just look at the straight edges in the stands at the stadium at the begining of the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4141123]unprocessed demo[/link]. YUK! Video is composed of scan lines instead of megapixels and thats what you are seeing when you pull an image from video. All of my still images were carefully pulled when the ball seemed to be in perfect neutrality, that is not moving up, down or side to side. Scanning frame by frame in a scene means more time to find clean images but that's what you have to do to get usable images from video. That's why when it's windy, you can pretty much forget about getting any decent stills because that ball is going to be all over the place smearing the image. The only way to reduce aliasing is to soften the image and that just degrades it even further.

Clement7

Got it, thanks Sky!

Blackdragan

Sky,

I would say my camera angle is set to show about 65% of the ground and 35% of the sky. Naturally, more of the horizion tends to show the higher I go.

Blackdragan

Clement,

Here is photo which is taken directly from my SAVS video. Again, not perfect, but it does not have large jaggies.

Sky High

Is that a different lens than before? It seems wider and there is a noticeable arc on the horizon.

Blackdragan

Sky,

It is the same lens. This picture was taken from a video which was shot in the 4/3 format instead of 16/9 format, which my current 2 videos are posted at. The 4/3 format creates a more squrare format which compresses the horizon casuing it to look acred. I think the 16/9 format looks more natural.

Sky High

Your helo camera's chip is 4:3 so you that's all it will record. You can crop it in post for 16:9 but it's still native 4:3. My helo camera is 4:3 so all of my video and stills are 4:3 and mine don't have that sperical look. Your other videos didn't have it either. I wonder why it only showed up in that image? 4:3 doesn't actually compress the image it just doesn't show as much as 16:9. Now if you shoot native 16:9 and and want it to play on a 4:3 screen, that will definitely be physically compressed or squeezed. That's why some older films that aren't letterboxed (cropped) for broadcast and are shown on regular TV have very slim actors.

Blackdragan

I have my Archos AV500 set to record in the 16:9 format. I have always had the acr horizon show up in my movies and stills when I use the 4:3 format. I had the same problem with my previous Ti Pro camera before I got my SAVS. I am going to go back and redo this picture in a 16:9 format and see if helps the horizon problem.

Clement7

Hi Sky and Blackdragan!

Monday morning, I tried printing some of the aerial grabs I took in the last few weeks and soften the shots a bit to minimize the rough edges before printing on photo paper.. the quality of our grabs and the contrast of the SAVS camera reminds me of a classic "film-look" especially when you add a dab of sepia-- you get that sense of nostalgia..

Since most of my clients are spoiled with sharp and crisp shots with the advent of digital cameras, selling them aerial still grabs from the SAVS is proving to be a bit difficult.

With Blackdragan's posting, recording straight to a digital recorder does help minimize the jaggy lines, but nothing compares to a real digital camera shooting at 2megapixels up..

I invested on my SAVS to venture further into aerial photography in addition the the 6' helium balloon which can lift my Canon 300D up to a height of 300 feet (though my tether line can extend up to 500 feet). My only problem with the Helium setup is that it costs me $100 worth of Helium per flight and it's not as easy as the SAVS to travel around with, especially when I have to do an out of town shoot, like on another island where you have to take a plane.

I also have problems with the wind here living in a tropical island though sometimes I do get lucky..

Have you guys experimented on using a digital camera with the SAVS? Maybe you can share some notes of your previous experiments and what digital camera you used, the lightest possible, and how you trigger the shutter. With my balloon setup, I used Gentled's Autoshutter to send infrared triggers every 10 secounds to my 300D. The nice thing with the 300D is that it has a video out and displays a preview after every shot is taken. I connected this to a wireless video downlink for monitoring the angle and direction of the balloon.

Scott has shown in slcity.com perfectly how to blend the SAVS shots to his real-estate videos. But how about for stills? Any suggestions how I can go about with producing hi-res stills using a very light digital camera with the SAVS?

Can you guys share how you conduct business selling your SAVS services to your clients? What works for them and in what application do they use your aerial shots? How much can we charge clients for that kind of service? In one of the previous postings, $100 per edited minute is not bad.. Maybe I can get some more ideas on other applications the SAVS is perfect for.

Sky High

Blackdragon, I think I've figured out what's going on here. Your PVR/DVR is electronically stretching the 4:3 image to record in 16:9 format as you have set it to do. Then when you pull the images and export them as 4:3 it squeezes that image and therefore straight edges become curved to fit. This happens in reverse when you shoot 4:3 video with an external anamorphic lens adapter on a typical full size camera. It optically squeezes the image as it's recorded retaining the native quality of using the entire 4:3 chip but it can be stretched out in post without any side effects. If a video camera has native 4:3 CCDs and it has a 16:9, movie, cinema, or whatever mode, it is electronically masking the chip to produce that letterbox look. Electronically masking also degrades the image. That's why the newer native 16:9 DV and HDV cameras are so much clearer because the entire chip is being used providing more resolution.

scottslc

Hey Blackdragon, would love to see your vids but i need a username and password. Can yo pass one along? Thanks, Scott

Blackdragan

Scott,

Sorry about the problem with the links. The below links should now work. Thanks.

www.netline.ws/dragon/spellburgparkthin.wmv

www.netline.ws/dragon/fallspark7.wmv

www.netline.ws/dragon/parkridge6.wmv

scottslc

Hey gang, been getting a lot of inquiries about the equipment I'm using. I put this video together while filming a piece for a local park. Have you guys modified anything on the flyer that helps in your video? Love to hear about it.

http://www.slcity.com/df/garden/360

Best, Scott