More Drone Footage

[WEBellSystemChristian]

My Dad and I finally got around to shooting video with his drone this summer, while the green leaves last. We 'explored' the neighbor's pond, and it lost connection with the remote for a second, so it abruptly tried returning 'home'. After clearing that up, we flew around the house a couple times.

The gimbal that the camera is mounted to is more incredible than it seems. At one point, you can see a prop guard flash in front of the camera, but the camera stayed perfectly still. It's all digitally stabilized, and even stays level in strong wind or while turning.

This video was more of a test than anything, so it wasn't the best quality.

The contrast between winter and summer is more amazing above ground!

(For the full effect, use the highest resolution possible)

https://youtu.be/GIrt7G3aLu8

[TelePlay]

Very nice, and interesting. Cars are easily picked out moving and that pond near you has cleaner water than the Rio diving well . . . 

Yes, very stable indeed. I did see the rotor guard but the picture stayed steady. Heck, I could even see the pilot and co-pilot!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Yep, there's me...wearing a Menards shirt...as usual...

[Dan/Panther]

Incredibly stable picture.
You would think wind currents would make it shake.
Now, How much does one of that quality cost ?

D/P

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Incredibly stable picture.
You would think wind currents would make it shake.
Now, How much does one of that quality cost ?

D/P

That drone is really tossed around by winds, but the camera is completely stable. Everything is digitally-stabilized, and counteracts any wind or drone movements to stay level. The camera is also mounted to the belly of the drone with rubber spacers, so vibration from the propellers is eliminated from the video.

The drone is also tracked via GPS, so it can't wander away from a certain point; it individually controls its motors to stay locked in that spot. With the GPS feature, you can also tell it to travel a specific flight path (and at what speed, how high off the ground, etc) before the flight, so you can focus on controlling the camera while it's flying. Pretty cool.

The drone my dad has is the DJI Phantom 3 Standard. It was a Christmas present from the family. The funny part of today's technology is that this model was released in October last year, but was already discontinued and replaced by the Phantom 4 in Spring.

I believe it originally cost around $700 new, but is now 'old' tech, and is now going for about $500 retail. They have other models, such as 'Advanced' and 'Professional', but those were at least double the price. The others had many more features, such as extended flight range (could travel about 4 times farther than this one), higher resolution camera, and could hover in place far more precisely by tracking the ground below it plus using GPS (nice feature if you want to fly indoors).

There are other drones out there that are cheaper, but this one is very high quality compared to other manufacturers.

http://www.dji.com/mobile/product/phantom-3-standard

[WEBellSystemChristian]

We didn't do anything with the drone during the Summer, but we got some footage tonight. Again, it wasn't really well done, but we were just testing it out a bit. It was getting late, but it looked great nonetheless. My Dad was piloting, but I was just watching.

The drone was mainly flown over Downtown Waukesha and the Fox River, for anyone familiar with the area (probably just me and Teleplay! )

There were a few places where the signal between the remote and drone was lost because it traveled too far, but it's automatically supposed to return back to where it landed when that happens. For some reason, it never fully disconnected, yet my Dad couldn't control it or give it any commands, so it hovered in one place for a few minutes in the last video, but it eventually "got the message" and returned home safely.

https://youtu.be/vfn4PkBxUQo

https://youtu.be/mN-q3esRBoc

https://youtu.be/4gWImlWDTok

[TelePlay]

Yes, recognized many of the building near and far. Even saw a red truck with two people standing next to it in the parking lot across from Fire Station #1, well, maybe the dialysis center. That was great video. I've never seen downtown from than angle and it shows how tightly packed in the downtown area is including its narrow streets.

I never  knew People's Park had an outdoor seating area on their roof, my wife did and now I do too.

Now, how many raccoons can you stuff into one carrier? They were cute. Were they all trapped and relocated?

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Yep, that was us by the fire station! Wow, how high is the resolution on your monitor? I could barely see my truck, let alone us, on my 1080P smartphone screen!

I've been to dinner on the People's Park roof many times, probably a dozen or so over the years. That's where I took those pictures of the adjacent buildings in the "Downtown at Night" topic.

I was trying to figure out what you meant by the racoon comment. Then it hit me--the first video on that channel! That was the second time the Wildlife in Need Center came to our property to release racoons. I believe those racoons were raised at Wildlife in Need from birth, and they released them on our property when they were old enough. For a few months afterwards, my Dad, sister and I went down to clearing where they were released and poured a pile of dog food for them every night (they were still learning how to scavenge for food).

Wildlife in Need brought them over in a truck, and we drove them out to the clearing in that 8x8. The volunteers followed us and watched as they were released.

I have no clue how they managed to stuff them in the cages like that, but the racoons weren't exactly anxious to get out...