aerial photography

[RobD]

Yesterday we had a drone out to take some aerial footage of motorcycle trail riding in the Marches for a short promo video for my business. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss and so I brought the Fulvia along to get some bird's eye views of the car in some dramatic scenery
Having had a quick look the footage looks pretty good. Hopefully we'll have it edited into something watchable by the end of the week and I'll post a link





The drone was so quiet it didn't even startle the horses.

[stanley sweet]

They are remarkable things these days especially for the price. A few years ago they would only have been available to the film industry at huge cost. My business partner has just bought one mainly for commercial use but also fun. In the highest winds the camera is totally stable. Look forward to the film.

[lancialulu]

What about taking a pic of a fat antiroll bar?? Guys these are now available from Omicron......amd you cam use your existing (worn out) mounts

[sparehead3]

Hi Rod

I don't suppose you're going to the AGM are you ? - It'd be lovely to have an aerial pictue of the carpark !

[smithymc]

I was at the Auto Italia Summertime show last year and watched a young man fly a drone over the event- I tried to work out how many millions of pounds worth of cars were beneath him - I doubt he or his parents had insurance.

They have been a hot topic of late in my profession of surveying for inspecting inaccessible roof areas, etc, but lots of confusion over where/who you can and cant fly them and whether you need a CAA licence. I am tempted to get one once the dust settles.

Your shots look ideal and safe, but I think there is a 50m from a building/150 from the public rule somewhere in the mix.

[RobD]

The subject of irresponsible drone use is indeed a hot topic.The guys we used are pros who do filming for the likes of Halfords and other large companies. They've got all the relevant insurances to fly a drone commercially. Out of courtesy we informed the local glider club who operate quite close by to the locations we were using.
 I found the whole exercise fascinating, they drone crew operate as a two man team, one flying the drone and the other operating the camera. It was interesting to observe how the crew planned carefully orchestrated flight trajectories and camera panning shots. Impressive stuff especially when you consider there are three complex elements to factor in- the flight path of the drone, the moving vehicle and the sweep of the camera. There's a lot more to it than meets the eye. And then of course there's the wind...not to mention keeping three motorbikes more or less in formation across rough terrain. After all that, filming the Fulvia was a doddle.

[fay66]

The drone looks quite creepy

Brian
8227

[frankxhv773t]

A friend who is a videographer working for a major charity was recently provided with a drone by his work. I believe it cost £2,500 and was operated by a tablet computer. However when he started investigating how to fly it he found he had to get the latest generation tablet to be compatible with the drone. Once that was sorted he said it was amazing and a doddle to fly even in strong winds because everything is computer controlled and giro stabilised.

As to the legal side I know there are detailed laws and regulations for flying radio controlled planes so I imagine something similar would apply to drones. Subject to how the pilot conducts himself I think the drones are probably safer than r/c planes because of the computer controlled stability programming.

[stanley sweet]

I have a feeling that thanks to irresponsible users and the landing of (mildly) radioactive material on a government building somewhere recently rules will get a lot tighter. Recently there were mysterious drones appearing over government buildings in Paris for about 5 days running. No doubt terrorists are thinking up ways to use them.

[RobD]

We only got about 30 secs of Lancia stuff and it's hardly worth showing, however for anybody who might be interested here's the bike footage.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1VbkxhJDo-NYkVVVko1MVRSM0E/view

[DavidLaver]

Was that the drone at 1:30 or a camera on a pole?  It looked really tight in between the trees.

David

[RobD]

That shot was taken from a skillfully piloted drone! Quite a tricky shot...