Hello,
Has anyone used a radio controlled helicopter with a camera and if so, would they be any good for checking for tiles missing off the roof or moss in the gutter for people like me, who are not brave enough to climb a ladder that high? Or is it difficult to get the camera pointing at what you want to look at? Some reviews suggest that because they are so small and light, they crash when there is a gust of wind; is that true?
Thanks in advance, Stephen.
You'd be better off with a quadcopter rather than a helicopter, much easier to fly and if you get one with GPS it'll "hold station" against the wind with no input from the pilot (within the limits of GPS resolution).
Binoculars to look at the tiles.
A webcam taped to a stick to look in the gutters.
A lot cheaper.
Not as much fun as getting a quadrocopter though.
The hexcopter they were using to track bees on BBC's Hive Alive looked fun and gave broadcast quality images.
/The hexcopter they were using to track bees on BBC's Hive Alive looked fun and gave broadcast quality images.
"Nightjar
It's from the vibration and is called the 'jello effect':
Istr the jello effect is down to the processor and chip combination. It's visible with certain digital slrs recording video though the latest slrs seem to have better control of it.
Maybe ... I am aware of rolling-shutter effect and how it makes moving objects look when nearly synced to framerate, but I was thinking of the slow lift-off/fly-by shots of otherwise static objects ... might be the same effect but due to vibration of the whole 'copter rather than the object ...
Yes, but at what cost? I think you really need to chat up a local aero modeller group. Round here at the bottom of the road they fly some medium sized ones and seem pretty good at it on quite blustery days. If its just a one off a guy might use his ofor a bit of a consideration on a nice calm day.
Brian
Ah but it might well be you could hire yourself out if you had one for all sorts of uses. Not to put too fine a point on some of them of course. Brian
Its a kind of strobe effect according to a friend of mine. Depends on the lighting. Brian
OK what about a balloon or a kite then? Brian
Technically you need a pilot's licence (of some description) to use a model 'copter for any form of remuneration ...
As I understand it, it's caused by the scan method used to get the data off the image chip. If the imaging chip has a full frame buffer, then the picture doesn't show the effect, but if the buffer is only for a single line, then it does.
Guess which one costs more to do? Guess where it's easiest to save money on the design?
As a Maplin store boss found out when he put footage from one of their camera carrying quadcopters up on the Youtube.
One of the copters in question is currently sitting in my suitcase for buzzing round hotel rooms. (It's a gag about how big the rooms I usually get aren't. "Big enough to fly a helicopter", that is.)
Quite high I should think. The ones the BBC use have a gyro stabilised camera and need two people to operate - one a licensed pilot and the other the camera operator. Apparently, getting a good picture is more than the pilot alone can do on a blustery day.
Might be difficult to get the kite to swoop over the roof as you want. Mind, they are partial to bits of chicken so throwing some onto the roof might work.
LOL. Nice one!
Why not just lash a couple of bamboo sticks from your local garden centre together, secure your cam/video to one end and guide the sticks in position from the ground? You can set a video to record before you hold it up or for stills, just select the shutter delay feature.
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