Tom Hirschmann
Nice review!
I really enjoy my phantom and it is my first flying machine. I'm just an amateur but with the Hero3, some DIY, and a little work in post, it is very capable. Here is a link to my most recent video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsMgoZFWp3w
You can also solve your jello problems with Sorbothane, that stuff is amazing! I have a tutorial for an isolation mount if you poke around my youtube channel, don't want to keep linking to my stuff here.
Synchro
The "Jell-O effect" is known as "rolling shutter", and is a side effect of the type of CMOS image sensor used in cameras like the GoPro. The frame is not recorded instantaneously (as it is in a CCD sensor), but scans top to bottom over the duration of the frame. If the camera or the subject is moving, the image can be distorted, usually skewed. Vibration produces a nauseating wobble. Fortunately this can be compensated for in software - it's built-in to Apple's iMovie, and is available in a very effective VirtualDub plugin called Deshaker.
James P Pratt
Tom: That was a great video! Well done.
Fred Raimondi
Tom: For your first flying machine, I'm impressed. The flying is awesome and your cinematography is top notch.....
Keep up the terrific work!
Gregg DesElms
@Tom Hirschmann,
That was, hands-down, the best video of its type that I've ever seen. As an overall production, it could have, frankly, been better; but there were several truly inspired moments -- some of them even prolonged -- of camera work of which any vidographer would have been proud.
Very nice, indeed!
And kudos to you for the Sorbothane recommendation. I'm quite familiar with it from using it on gimbal-based "steady cam" type devices. It can take that very last bit of shakiness which even a "steady cam" can still have -- especially if the camera operator is traversing rough terrain -- and sufficiently eliminate it such that between the "steady cam" device, and that tiny bit of camera shake absorption provided by the Sorbothane, the result can be as if the camera operator were wearing a full-body-mounted, Steadicam-branded pro rig with a big pro camera.
So, then, you really know what you're doing. It shows.
Tom Hirschmann
Thank James and Fred! I appreciate it!
And thank you Gregg, that is very nice of you! I'm doing the best I can with the skills I have right now. I am working on my editing and post but trying my best and starting to catch on. I'm self taught so the learned curve has been pretty steep!
Sorbothane was a great find! I'm very happy to have stumbled on it. Happy to hear I'm on the right track!
@Synchro.. Unfortunately the Jello effect can't really be removed, it distorts the original image. Programs like Deshaker and Warp Stabilizer can't do much to fix distortion but are great for removing unwanted shake in a video by cropping the edges.
Soltron
Nice enough review... Unfortunately the only thing these quads do for aerial photography is give it a bad name along with the noobs that fly them.
Steven Varga
Tom I'm very disappointed in the video! You had this amazing technology at your finger tips and you didn't at any stage fly it near naked women. Shame on you!
ukatama
Your comment on the coloured lights gains a lot of weight when you consider the millions of people that are colour blind like me. Plus males in the community that argue with ladies about colours, when really they are colour blind in that portion of the spectrum and don't know it. So I get frustrated by the amount of manufacturers that colour code their product functions. How they overcome this problem is maybe as you suggest, however at a distance the message would be hard to read.
Mark Robinson
Tom - astounding video! I admire your humility in including the crash at the end of the otherwise spectacular footage. Questions: were you the guy on the dock? If so, I assume you were using a video transmitter to pilot from the cam's pov? From the footage it seems almost impossible for you to have flown by simply observing the phantom from the ground. Also, how much noise do these things make? If it were being used to spy covertly, how close could it get without being heard? Anyone with info please feel free to respond...