Shooting from a Helicopter - frame rate?

[Noel Evans]

On Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be shooting cave explorers as they repel down a cliff into some caves. I'll be shooting from a helicopter with the doors off. Will also be getting scenic shots.

Trying to decide a Frame rate. 30p or 60p? Shooting on an HMC 150. Probably on a counterbalanced shoulder mount.

Would like to shoot 1080 30P but am worried about stutters from quick movement. Haven't shot from a helicopter before.

Any suggestions and tips?

Shoot whatever frame rate is required for the end product and dont go too telephoto. Shooting 1080 for 720 works well for stabilisation in post.

Its an R44, Im assuming the door will be off - you probably wont be able to use a shoulder type set up. Few reasons. R44 isnt big enough to allow you to do that and have the camera secure. The camera must be strapped to something.

Its a compromise. If you dont have a Gyro, position yourself comfortably so you arent getting any leg shake and hold the camera down on it. Gaff something to your leg to help keep it flat and even - a small cine saddle or the like. In a R44 with no gyro and doing it the way I prescribed - expect mixed results. But I havent come across a better way to do it in such a small unit. Gyro is your best bet if you can get your hands on one.

http://www.ken-lab.com/

[NBside]

I agree with the aforementioned post. I recently did my first two heli shoots a couple of months back, on an aircraft similar to the one you will be using. Unfortunately in my case, the aerials were added last minute, so I didnt have time or budget left to rent a rig, so I had to shoot with my 7D, T2i, and a few GoPro's mounted to the exterior of the chopper. I opted to shoot for what I needed my end product to be (1080p/24).
I used a small weighted DSLR shoulder rig on my 7D for all of my B-Roll and principal footage. I initially brought the T2i to use for stills, but ended up throwing it on a monopod to play around with, and ended up with some great footage.

I agree, definitely shoot wide. My only regret was using a CMOS camera, but was able to clean up the rolling shutter in post. I also agree that without the use of a gyro, you're more than likely going to have to stabilize in post. Have you ever used the Merecalli ProDAD plugins before? I cleaned up all of my aerials in Premiere with ProDAD and was more than satisfied with the results. It stabilized my footage incredibly well, and it also has a rolling shutter fix (which you wont need to worry about). The only advice I can give is figure out the best way to keep your arms and your shots as steady as possible, and the wider you can shoot, the better.

Good luck!

[I_am_metolius]

On Saturday, weather permitting, I'll be shooting cave explorers as they repel down a cliff into some caves. I'll be shooting from a helicopter with the doors off. Will also be getting scenic shots.

Trying to decide a Frame rate. 30p or 60p? Shooting on an HMC 150. Probably on a counterbalanced shoulder mount.

Would like to shoot 1080 30P but am worried about stutters from quick movement. Haven't shot from a helicopter before.

Any suggestions and tips?

Quick question. I'm shooting in a MD500 or a Hughes 500 tomorrow morning. I'm just trying to get scenic stuff. How would this affect me?