Octocopter - Flying a Red Epic Camera

[Stallion Productions]

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I went down to Devon to spend a week with the legendary Simon Nibblett, a natural history unit cameraman who’s currently developing an Octocopter that can fly cinema quality cameras such as the Red Epic. Simon has been working on this amazing piece of machinery for over a year now. He’s constantly changing and reworking it to perfection. I was fortunate enough to be there when Simon flew the Epic for the first time and it was amazing to see all of Simons hard work and perseverance pay off. Here’s a video I put together from a mornings filming with jet boats and the Octocopter:

It’s incredible to think how much potential this Octocopter has and how very soon everyone is going to want to get their hands on one. What’s most impressive about the Octocopter is that it can film close to the ground and in tight spaces which can’t be achieved with a helicopter. It’s also much cheaper to run and only needs a very small space to take off. With this amazing piece of kit, the world is really your oyster.
Simon and I went to different spots around Devon to film test shots. The weather was incredible, blue skys for the whole week. We filmed sunsets, lakes, mountains and speed boats.



Here are some more behind the scenes photos from the shoot: http://sebastiansolberg.com/2012/07/...gh-octocopter/

[kicap]

How much for a complete set would be the question from me....

[Stallion Productions]

I'm not sure of the exact price. However if you email Simon Niblett (niblett007@btinternet.com) he'll be able to send you a quote.

Thanks,

[David W. Jones]

When I was investigating putting a kit together in was around $10K for all the goodies.

[Derek Chingwell]

http://www.omcopter.de/index.html - some guys in Germany have been doing something similar.

On the Octocopter footage, there seems to be a little vibration/tilt on the camera... or maybe the gimbal balance is slightly offset?

Looks good for a prototype though

[IMNUMBERZERO]

As cool as the footage and octocopter are I really don't think i'd feel comfortable with my camera hovering around with just the remote control as its only failsafe. Better off strapping go-pros at different angles on that heli.