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Brace yourselves

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2015 2:30 pm
by captnkirk
here's a first attempt at a video, remember don't try this at home.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DkkgnZ6p58&feature

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:35 pm
by andy
Cool, Kirk! How'd you do the speed, altitude, heading thing in the lower left corner and the distance, flight path in the lower right?

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:16 pm
by Rezrider
Not bad captain, I looked seriously at the Virb 'cos I like the GPS data inputs on the video. It looks like a sweet camera.

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 7:30 pm
by captnkirk
Andy the Virb elite records that and the software gives you the ability to format it a couple of ways. I'm still very new at this and learning the software is going to take some time. I think it maybe a neat tool for improving skills as you can review in detail. any way more film at 11 as they say on tv ;-)

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:42 pm
by VA Maule
captainkirk that's pretty damn good for a first time, you've got it going on :lol:

Whereas I'm at 101% just to make a post :roll:

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 10:20 am
by andy
I got a new GoPro Hero 4 Silver for Christmas and by now I have every accessory that you can think of for it. I thought about the VIRB but ultimately settled on the GoPro because of the wi-fi preview and control capability with my iPhone when the camera is mounted on the tie down bolt. I get too many reflections off the Plexiglas when shooting from inside the cockpit. The GoPro's weakness is battery life - about 2 hours for the Hero 4 Silver. I used it yesterday to take 7Mpx still pictures from the 185 at work with the camera clamped below the foot peg. We're trying to determine if we can use the photos for land area measurement when taken at a known altitude. I was skeptical about the fisheye distortion present in all action cameras because of the small, highly curved lens. There was some fisheye in the still photo although I set it at medium field of view; however, the GoPro Studio software on my Mac completely removed the distortion. This photo was taken at 3730 feet AGL over KMRN airport and covers 709.9 acres: http://www.maulepilot.com/kmrn1.jpg
The GoPro software doesn't have the cool flight-related features the you showed in the VIRB video, Kirk. That's a plus for aviation videos, although it wouldn't help me with aerial firefighting. When I use the camera on fires, I mount it under the pilot side foot peg with the GoPro Sportsman Mount, which clamps nicely to the foot peg and is very strong. That gives me a HD video of the fire out the left side of the aircraft when I circle the fire. In 1080p HD mode at 30 or 60 fps with narrow field of view the clarity is amazing. Now if I can find an affordable way to transmit the video in real-time to a ground team, maybe they won't try to replace us with drones.

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:42 pm
by captnkirk
Yeah some of those drones can transmit real time just look at what they are using. Just remember they are made out of plastic and one low pass over the fire should melt the props enough to keep you working ;-)