Fesfly

Ok we can see the shadow of a box hanging under the battery... but that's it. In one segment it looks like you pivot the camera down? Can you? or was that the wind?

SAVS

I have pics of my first shot at a camera mount here [link=http://www.nextnethosting.net/DF/]SAVS Website[/link]. It got tested today with a 50' power outage drop and the camera was fine.

vi360

Thank you SAVS for your sharing your stills and video. Some of your stills seem to be blurry, probably from vibrations. And I noticed alot of vibration in your videos as well. Blackdragan seems to have reduced the vibration in his setup. I wonder what the differences are in the camera mounts?

SAVS

The difference is easy, he is a pilot! I am still a hack who just happens to have a DF and needs to take video and stills before he becomes a real pilot! A good example is the 50' power loss drop I did yesterday. I just sent the DF, transmitter, and batteries to DFI for repair and testing. Snapped a carbon rod (where the wire was visible), and other stuff. Sent it in just like it looked in the picture along with my CC #. I figure it has bounced enough to need it's 10,000 mile check up anyway.

Also I did not run the video through any shake filters, I did a direct grab and convert to smaller flv. Given some time to edit I should be able to clean them up. As for the stills I can see where just being a more stable pilot will help a lot. I am not even to the point of being able to have it come back to me, I always go to it. The power outage has stopped any real return flying as it goes about 3-4 minutes and flickers then drops.

Hopefully when I get it back I will be able to fly longer times and get better at being a pilot/hack...Denny

vi360

I did not want to hear that. I am struggling at piloting the DF and was hoping for magic. I will need to continue practicing flying till I try photos then. You are way ahead of me.

cre8web

Blackdragan
thanx for posting the info, you give some of us mere mortals a wee bit of faith.
Tell me one thing, do you use video glasses to frame these shots

Cheers

Marty

SAVS

vi360, I ran the editing software on the videos I shot (you know the shake and twirl till you puke ones) and they look a lot better now. The size is web-able now too. One went from 445MB to 16MB after audio, converting, de-shaking, and editing. I feel that once I can control the DF better the content will improve immensely!

As for the stills, the sun was just coming up over the mountains and it made a fierce shadow. I should have waited for more sun but then the wind kicks up. Oh that mountain flying, only the beach could be worse.

See my results here [link=http://www.nextnethosting.net/DF/]SAVS[/link]

Blackdragan

Marty,

No video glasses, just aim the Draganflyer towards the area or object you want to take a picture of and hope for the best. The results are usually pretty accurate.

http://draganflyer.smugmug.com/gallery/2240132

http://www.netline.ws/draganflyer/Movie_0003.wmv

cre8web

Thanks again mate, I think i need the glasses because to me i struggle to distinguish which way the round the df is, I know when your flying you can tell from the controlls, but the moment you attempt to hover (this is my unit) it slowly turns on its own axis (forget the flash term it) but it is not enough to trim out some i loose that perspective

I'm sure that doesnt make sense but i iknow what i mean.
the glasses will make it easier im sure

TheHindmost

cre8web, everything I've read says that if you try to fly using those glasses as your only reference, you're doomed.

Anyway, that would be the vertical axis, or the yaw axis...You need to adjust your yaw trim and then position the DF back where you want it...

Will

cre8web

Cheers Will
on realflight you can change the view to cockpit ( I know I know its a game) then on theat i can fly a real heli anywhere....

just an angle

Blackdragan

The weather has not allowed me to take any new pictures, so I posted a few new pictures from my previous flights.

http://draganflyer.smugmug.com/gallery/2240132

SAVS

Truly amazing! Great shots!

Blackdragan

I was able to take a few new pictures today. The wind kept me from getting very high.

http://draganflyer.smugmug.com/gallery/2240132

vi360

Amazing photos..... will you tell us how you do it please? At least what camera you use?

Blackdragan

I posted two new pictures which are located towards the end of the current pictures. Again, the wind was quite strong so I was not able to fly as high or for as long as I would have liked. If I ever get a sunny day with calm winds, I plan to post a lot of new pictures.

http://draganflyer.smugmug.com/gallery/2240132

Clement7

Hey Blackdragan! By any chance does your camera mount looks something similar to this mount I posted a few months back?


Clement7

flyingdutchie

[sm=lol.gif] LOL

Blackdragan

Clement7,

Nice Photoshop work. Hopefully, someday the Draganflyer will be capable of carry the extra weight shown in your pictures. Until that day, my camera mount remains a whole lot lighter.

Clement7

LOL

Thanks for the compliment!

Common' Blackdragan, a little clue on the camera you are using.. My problem with the Pentax Optio 7 is that it does not have manual shutter speed settings.. therefore sometimes or most of the time, shots taken are blurry and not that nice(especially during not so bright sunny days when shutter speed on the camera drops).. Reviewing this thread reveals that you are using Gentled to activate your camera's shutter, same as what I do with my Pentax and Canon EOS 300D.. I therefore conclude that your camera is not a SONY, since Gentled does not produce any LED triggering device for Sony Digital Cameras (and Sony Digital Cameras does not have infrared.. weird!).. and I don't think the DF can take the added ounces of a Sony electronic triggering device and figuring how to hook it up to your DF's board may prove to be dangerous.. It must be a Pentax.. a newer model.. with manual shutter speed controls.. or, hey, it's possible that you're using the same camera that I am using!.. and you just found a way to tweak the Optio 7 for you to get great results.. reviewing your video, it does look like it was shot using an Optio since with Optio cameras, focus is locked to infinity keeping everything, well, in focus.. but checking the quality of your images, it's far superior to the quality of shots I took with my Optio.. but then again..

Common' out with it! LOL

If you want to share your secrets privately (since I'm from halfway around the Globe, Manila, Philippines) here's my email address: [email protected]

Fesfly

Clement7,

That was a photoshop job? Great...now I have to remove the broom handles I have taped to my DF, glad I read this before I hooked up the camera.

I think we just need to sit back and enjoy BDs work (nice job!) and the fact that he is able to take nice smooth pics with a DF.

RE S7: Maybe you've tried this - I found that by adjusting your iso setting using program (adjust sensitivity) to anything between 50-400. If you enable antishake it will adjust to iso1600 I think *read it somewhere. In anitshake mode you can set the iso anywhere from 50-1600. I play with the ISO and ev comp to give nicer daylight pics but they are a little grainy in the shadows sometimes.

vi360

That was a fake photo? But i already built a steel mount just like it for my HD video camera to fly on the DF !!! About 15 pounds total weight. Oh well... back to mounting a Nikon 70 to the DF and hiring a real copter to take the DF and I up to take the photos. Kind of expensive but I save on battery time.

Clement7

Hi Fesfly! Yup, done that.. results are not as good as Blackdragan's pix.. that's why I'm flying a nitro-powered heli nowadays just to get my heavy AP equipment up in the air. I should be flying a gasser but my LHS has great support for Hirobo Freya with lots and lots of parts and I have mastered the art of nitro engine tuning (lean.. rich or mean-hellova-flying-machine).. plus, I was able to find a workaround to avoid nitro sprays getting to my camera..

Hmmm, vi360's suggestion got me thinking.. I might try strapping my SAVS to my Freya.. What a great idea!!

LOL

But hey, don't get me wrong guys.. I still love my SAVS.. I still use it when doing aerial shots near people, inside buildings or when safety is our main concern. Quality used to be questionable since most of my clients demand Hi-Res Still shots (7megapixels up), not screen captures, until Blackdragan found a great camera (which he doesnt want to reveal) and came-up with a great mount (which he doesnt want to show). []

Blackdragan

Cold fingers, new photos were taken when it was -3 degrees. http://draganflyer.smugmug.com/gallery/2240132

SAVS

Here is my new custom camera mount...OOPS it's not on my SAVS...It's on a $179 EZ...Am I sounding a little bitter?...Yea!