Upgrade my Scarlet or get a Octocopter that can support my Red?

[Neil Dearman]

What should I do, I found a company that can fly a red or 20 mins for $12 grand. I can get that or upgrade my scarlet to an epic? What should I do? I have been talking to clients/ friends and each says good points for each option. Way should I do guys? Need your advice reduser family.

 

[Daniel Pearson]

I guess that comes down yo your objectives with the camera. Is aerial work a priority? I have no experience with this, but do you have enough business in mind for octocopter work? Is this an area you'd like to focus your business/creative work/expertise?

If so, then that sounds like a great idea.

OR, do you want high frame rates and 5K?

 

[Neil Dearman]

Good point good sir

 

[Jon Shaw]

How many other people shoot aerial in your area? Can you rent if you need it.... I have never used one but I'm sure they take some practice and also consider your insurance for both.

 

[Neil Dearman]

Nobody really offers that, I have hinted to my clients and they have been very interested in the idea

 

[Radek lech]

Just curious what Octocopter flys a red for 20 minutes?

 

[Mike Garrick]

There are far more epics than 4K camera's that can fly.......do your market research.

 

[Ryan Fitzgerald]

I had a shoot back in November for a large car company. We hired an octocopter red scarlet. Well... it crashed after we got one of two planned shots.

Those things are VERY specific on their functionality. They can only fly for 2 min at a time, the motors get too hot in the desert in summertime to use at all, the batteries drain faster in the cold, they can't fly in 15-20mph wind, etc. I would only recommend you go that route if you plan to focus on this aspect full time. You won't be getting the rates of the 8k a day plus operator fees for a while. And when you crash, you won't get paid.

I'm all about encouraging people to do whatever they want and don't let anyone change your mind. However, unless you are excited and fascinated by the mini-chopter movement (which I'm positive has a huge future, albeit financially risky) then don't waist your time. Then again, going all-in has made some men very rich.

Personally, I don't think the technology is reliable enough yet to half ass invest in... just to see if you like it. It is important to take some risks but I won't be taking that one.

Good Luck!
-Ryan

 

[Radek lech]

We have logged over 250 flights with our epic copter, at 7 minute flight time not pushing the 16000mah below 40 percent discharge capacity, we pushed one set of batteries and had a 11 minute max flight time draining the batteries to the max. I have never heard of 20 minute flight time exept gasoline powerd rigs.

 

[Marc Berger]

I guess that comes down yo your objectives with the camera. Is aerial work a priority? I have no experience with this, but do you have enough business in mind for octocopter work? Is this an area you'd like to focus your business/creative work/expertise?

If so, then that sounds like a great idea.

OR, do you want high frame rates and 5K?

Yes, good point!
For ex. over here in my area, most of the "octocopter work" is in investigating big industrial buildings and sites to search and observe damages on places where it is difficult and expensive to reach otherwise (Big cheminees for ex.). Or they work for the farmland administration, short term traffic observation during rush hours.... For this kind of work they put max. a light HD camera, not a Scarlet or Epic. Cinematic aerials are rarely asked.
Finally I think the question should always be: Do I want to specialize in this and how many effort will I put in it. BTW I would not like to learn to fly a octocopter on a 12K octo with a Epic/ Scarlet onboard.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Exactly. I have a quadcopter which I fly with a Gopro Hero 3. Acceptable results, but flying that thing requires skill. One small mistake and there goes all your money down the drain. It has many possibilities of failure. It gives a unique service, no doubt, and you could charge a premium for it, but before going to the big boys, go for a smaller one first. My suggestion? Get a DJi PHANTOM quad, get some moon gel and custom mount for it, put a go pro and practice. It should cost you 700 bucks or less (without go pro). Get the Epic. After practicing and mastering that, you should get impressive, or acceptable results for many applications bar cinema and high end broadcast. THen think about an Octocopter. The technology is still improving in that camp!

 

[monty bae]

I just got 20000$ octocopter for 5min safe fly & minimum vibration. I do not think there is 20min copter for epic

 

[Michael Dalton]

Would agree with the experts here. It's best to dedicate full-time to flying, it is something you have to have a plan with and you can't expect to pull a craft out of a box and be an expert. Crashes are expensive, with an epic or scarlet on board even more. If you build your craft, you really need to know what your doing or it will not fly right. You can always start small and work your way up. Look up the DJI, they have small gopro craft that is great to learn on. Once your pulling off great things, you can move up.

Also speak with the people who have them, there is lots to learn. I recently brought my back to Toronto from Africa when I had planned to base it. I found using it as tool like a steadi cam was not practical as set up times really ate my day up. You need a solid plan with your shoots. A Skyjib 8 is a seriously big piece of kit, and tough to get around. It was too much work in the bush to pull it off the top of a land rover when it is strapped down. It ended up staying in camp most of the time.

 

[Wendell Adkins]

We have been flying the Epic and now Scarlet since they were released. We have twin cylinder gas powered rigs that fly the Reds for 30 minutes at a time and are as smooth as any octo. We have electric powered helis that fly the same for 15 minutes. Both types of rigs have enough reserve power to fly another 10 lbs. of payload, even in hot summer weather. The main reason we have been successful is due to having 25 years of top level competition experience to draw from. During that time I learned (usually painfully) every mistake that could be made and how to avoid them. You need this kind of experience before you actually need it to avoid frequent and expensive crashing. Most people have no understanding (how could they?) of the unlimited number of ways to do this type of thing badly. Every single time I go out to fly, there are literally a million different things I know not to do to make it all come together. The new technology makes octos easier to fly but also adds additonal failure points. Just because they are easier to fly than a standard single rotor heli doesn't mean they are forgiving of mistakes. It takes thousands of hours to become a competent airline pilot or aircraft mechanic. This is no different.