EX1 + Helicopter = Not so Bad :-)

[Dennis Wood]

We did a helicopter (Bell 206) shoot on Saturday with an EX1 and XH-A1. The EX1 shooter was out the open side of the cockpit on a harness and I was in the cockpit (XH-A1) with the pilot.

Long story short, the camera held up quite well, and despite being a two rotor bird that was not terribly smooth, the dreaded rolling shutter jello was not an issue, and the OIS actually worked. Looking at footage from both camera's I'd say the largest single problem was the helipcopter. Flying sideways the vibration was pretty bad. Sitting in WiskAir's hangar was the answer, a much smoother Bell 407 with a four blade rotor (and leather seats for six) that will definitely be spec'd for the next shoot. Rather than a single door, that version has two that can be removed so two shooters can hang out on harnesses. At $1900/hour it's not terribly cheap though.

I'll see what I can do for a few grabs/clips.

 

[DC EX1]

Here's my ad hoc attempt at a heli shoot in Girdwood alaska ... glare from the cockpit was bad, and the two rotor was choppy, but the expansive location was great... first time up in a heli, came out okay, not great, but I tried...

http://web.mac.com/stansfieldb/Pacific_Rim_Tour_Blog/Alpine_Air_Alaska_Video.html

I tried another shoot in Hawaii a week later, much better results with the doors off, although still choppy in a 2 rotor... video isn't posted yet, and the alaska video is a rough no cc grading or any sound correction...

B

 

[basilisk]

I can report that my colleague has just been in a helicopter in Lapland, and says his footage looked stunning, so long as the lens is on wide angle. He was shooting with the El-Cheapo shoulder mount. Sounds like the rolling shutter didn't cause a problem, but if I can see anything when I see the footage, I will report back. I guess it may be dependent on your setup, and I imagine bolting your camera down is going to going to transmit all the helcopter vibration through to the camera. If quality is critical, gyros are probably the way to go.

 

[Dennis Wood]

How did you guys feel about the EX1 OIS under the 2 blader's vibration? It's hard to evaluate, but we had introduced slight vignetting (at full wide zoom) by using a 72mm polarizer. Looking at the vignette signature, I could see some sharp movements every now and then which translated of course to the footage. This is probably old news, but I'd likely turn OIS off next time and use our steadicam rig. According to the pilot who flew us, the Bell 407/507 4 blade aircraft is much smoother during lateral movements..about 50% of our shoot. I've also discovered this week that the EX1 MP4 files that imported direclty into Premiere Pro CS3 apparently aren't as seemless as they at first appeared. Black frames show up in the EX1 footage randomly (other users report same) so it's looking like either Cineform, or Mainconcept are a must-have for the Adobe apps. Reading all the issues that Mac users are not having, I'm closer than ever to a switch to FCP.

The Canon XH-A1 which I was using in the cockpit seemed to fare a bit better in the OIS department...but more analysis is required.

B, that footaget looked pretty smooth given that you were hand-holding. We were shooting with light challenges similar to your work with a mixture of sun and snow combined with urban surfaces so the latitude challenges were significant. The Alaskan mountain/glacier images are stunning

 

[Justyn]

Here's a little heli shoot I did last summer. Was a lot of fun and the pilot was awesome. Pretty soon I'll have footage from my own helicopter. We built an RC helicopter with gyro stabilized video mount and downlink. Like states, a lot cheaper per hour and we can do stuff that you can't do with a chopper.... Like get within 5 feet of a person.. We are shooting with an HV20 and have almost figured out the vibration dampening. I would recommend silicone dampeners if you are getting vibration... works like a charm.



http://www.electriccowtheater.com/CCVIDEO/CC/demo.mov


cheers and footie would be cool to see too...

 

[David Lee]

Justyn, great footage of the boat and wakeboarders! The quality of the footage you and others are getting out of the HV 20 just floors me.

I've got a few questions for you if you don't mind giving out some trade secrets...

1. Are you using any kind of filters in front of the lens?

2. Can you over (or under) crank the HV 20, or, is the slo-mo produced in post?

3. Are the wide angle shots made with an Aux WA lens, if so, which brand and model?

4. What settings do you have the HV 20 at?

5. Did you let the camera select exposure or did you lock a manual setting in?

6. What are "Silicone Dampeners?"

7. Lastly, what did you post with?

Oh yeah, the wakeboarders are a bit more than outstanding!

Thanks!

David Lee

 

[photolion]

Justyn, was that shot on a full size heli or an R/C. If its R/C, Props on getting it up to the speed of the power boat. Sweet footage none the less.

-Travis