Aerial footage with a 7D

kingsly

kingsly

Member
Been playing with some aerial footage using my 7D (in between still shoots) Crappy EF-S 17-85, my go-go gadget arms, and some post stabilization. :)
Overall I'm very pleased with how it looks.

Now I want to make a gyro stabilizer and kill those shutter jitters! Any ideas?

http://vimeo.com/21100308
 
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Here's the trailer for their new one.


They have about $500k in cameras and equipment to do this stuff, but it gives you an idea of what is possible.

If you need help with a steady cam gimble let me know.

Cheers,
Pete
 
kingsly said:
Been playing with some aerial footage using my 7D (in between still shoots) Crappy EF-S 17-85, my go-go gadget arms, and some post stabilization. :)
Overall I'm very pleased with how it looks.

Now I want to make a gyro stabilizer and kill those shutter jitters! Any ideas?

http://vimeo.com/21100308
Click to expand...

Just once -- try shooting in 720 at 60fps. bump your shutter pretty high (1/1600-ish range) Then, go into Cinema tools and bring it to 24p. Even after that, you might be able to slow it down a bit more. I think that might be effective for some shots, unless you're bent on shooting 1080.
Personally, I liked the slower-mo stuff than the fast action.
 
Those reels are amazing. I would love a chance to work with the redbull team, their work is top notch.

The opening shot was shot in 60p, stabilized, and slowed even further in twixtor. That and the downtown L.A. shot are my favorite.

And c3hammer, yes, I'd love a hand with a gimbal!
 
Take a look at the DIY Steadicam videos on youtube and vimeo. They'll give you an idea of how to inexpensively make a steadicam that will fix almost all of your immediate issues if filming hand held inside the chopper.

From there if you want to hang it off the bottom of the chopper or worse yet on an RC blimp or RC chopper, you better be ready to get out your check book! The gyro stabilized, remote controlled gimbles are $30k and up. They automatically pitch, yaw and roll opposite the chopper to keep the cam aimed where you point it remotely from the ground regardless of what the chopper does.

Pretty incredible stuff to say the least!

Cheers,
Pete
 
A friend of mine took old electric gyros from a ship compass and attached them to the sled of his phantom for use in high winds. The thing took a good 10 minutes to power up and sounded like a jet taking off, but the shot was rock solid.

I was thinking about taking some smaller electric gyros out of old aircraft avionics (such as a directional gyro) and mounting the x and y axes directly to the bottom of my camera. My hands would be the gimbal for pitch, roll, and yaw relative to the helicopter, and, if all goes according to plan the inertia of the gyroscopes would dampen any camera shake.

The only issue would be power supply...
 
Looks great, aside the jello effect from the shaking in some shots as you said... Did you film behind the glass or was there an opening you could shoot thru without getting glass reflection..? And to get everything in focus, what was your aperture?
 
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