aerial videography from RC Helicopter - Panny SD9 cam and HVX

I think that the cameras cut together perfectly. I didn't even know what the CCD9 camera was. One question though: Isn't the smaller camera interlaced? If it is, than why does it look like 24p? On-line I can't see any difference in quality or in the frame rate. They both look progressive to me.
Great stuff.
Seamus+
 
Thanks semus. The camera original I believe is interlaced 60i, but it does shoot 24p as well. Also, I ended up capturing the footage through the intensity card and converted real time to DVCPRO HD. Overall, I'm really happy with the quality of the image, the price of the camera, and that it handles motion and vibrations so well. CMOS was a big letdown in that dept.

cheers
 
anymore feedback. We are kind of doing something unique and different here so wanted to share it with ya'll.. cheers
 
Okay I'll bite.

This is the first footage I've seen where there's noticeable artifacting from the sd9. It's really evident over the palm trees where there are several diagonal lines intersecting the screen. The lines are pixelated where the HVX footage remains smooth.

It's hard to say with something like this if it's the compression or something you're inherently going to have to address. It's quite literally the ONLY thing that stands out to me that could be an obstacle in mixing footage with the HVX. I'm not experienced enough to even know what to suggest but if it appears that way in the uncompressed clips, I'd personally try to find a way to compress footage from each camera separately to achieve a better match. Maybe there's some smoothing/blurring correction you could apply?

As far as the behavior of the helicopter: REALLY nice work. It's much smoother than some of the other remote heli footage I've seen. You guys have done a great job in creating a consistent 'eye in the sky' effect without generating something that makes it obvious what you're using.
 
Thanks kid. The artifacting is decidely more evident and ultimately probably caused by the compression. It's in a medium quality 264 quicktime codec. On the full res version it looks pretty darn good and close to the HVX without the artifacting. The one thing I have to is dial back the saturation a bit to match. More saturated than HVX stuff so far.


Here's another way to check. this is compressed through flash:

http://www.pangeaadventureracing.com/race_archive.php?r=6


View the race day video on the top left. cheers
 
Any chance you will ever take the HVX up on that rig ? Yes the heli will be over 20 lbs but if your pilot is good he should be able to handle it. Flying-Cam heli is over 30 lbs......
 
Yes. We plan on taking up the HVX. We have an option to use a bigger mounting plate but I'm more excited about the 170 since it will be a whole pound and a half lighter with a wider angle lens.


Flying-cam heli is basically our role mode in a very large sense. Their demo reel and production capabilities are awesome. We believe that we have the pilot and the fabrication resources needed.
 
We have been flying the HVX200 on a 35 lb. helicam for over 2 1/2 years now with great success. Even with 25 years of experience flying RC helicopters, getting it all to work consistently in all conditions needed (cold, hot, windy, high altitudes, etc.) was a much bigger challenge than I ever imagined.
 

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boomstrikevideo said:
We have been flying the HVX200 on a 35 lb. helicam for over 2 1/2 years now with great success. Even with 25 years of experience flying RC helicopters, getting it all to work consistently in all conditions needed (cold, hot, windy, high altitudes, etc.) was a much bigger challenge than I ever imagined.
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How about posting some videos?

regards
JohnG
 
Would be great to see and get some inspiration. We have held off on going ready for primetime as my video business is slamming but we are hoping to do more stuff soon. We have had a couple of jobs and have our chopper pretty dialed in. We went with an SD9 cam and a large predator gasser to have a mobile yet steady platform. We've done quite a few mobile shoots and will be doing more of that kind of thing. I'm hoping to incorporate this into a martial arts fighting sequence and some stock footage we are planning on shooting.

We do have a couple of vids at www.skycamchoppers.com . The website was one I threw up quickly. Will have more soon as I get back from Scotland.


cheers all
 
Patrick... sorry I didn't see this before. We can cruise at 40mph without the camera rig on it, and about 30 with the rig so we don't get too much pendulum effect. We will have some new video soon... cheers all!
 
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