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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

I want my Dragon to fly :-)

Hi Wendell, I agree with you wholeheartedly. Flying is definitely not without risk, and even more so with such an expensive camera. I have been flying for a number of years, from small Phantoms with GoPros, to S1000 with GH4, 5D, etc. and an Inspire. The main reason why I'm investing in the new camera and rig is because I see a real demand for better cameras such as Red and Arri on bigger shoots. The GoPros, GH4s, etc. have their place and are amazing tools. But I am seeing a lot of potential work going to others who have the ability to fly bigger cameras. The risk and greater expense is somewhat offset by the higher rates these teams with larger rigs can charge...



Wendell Adkins said:
Do you have any prior flying experience? If not, it's generally recommended starting small with a quad to learn the basics. Even though a good flight controller handles most of the real flying, there are still several thousand mistakes that can be made. Many opt for hiring an experienced pilot to reduce the odds of losing your investment. Even then, it goes badly more often than most care to admit. Flying is an activity very unforgiving of mistakes. We preordered two Altas to add to the fleet. It is a big step forward in design.

The trend now is clearly going away from flying big, complex rigs with expensive cameras and will continue that direction for many reasons like cost, ease of deployment and reduced stress.
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This is why I'm now 100% going with a X8 design! My greatest fear is having an issue with a prop or motor and losing the copter and camera.

Uros Zuraj said:
I can tell you from seeing my own Dragon being flown on a x8 and a prop broke (faulty prop) it started spinning but it was still controllable to the point the guy landed it
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A friend of mine said he saw the Tayzu Titan X8 at NAB and CineGear, and was blown away. Looks pretty awesome! It seems to offer most of what I'm looking for- long flight times, can take a Ronin or MoVi, is an X8 design and folds up! And the price is pretty darn competitive. $9,875 for what looks like everything but the batteries?? It even comes with a custom case? Do I need anything else with this setup to fly? It seems to come ready to go, minus the gimbal and camera. Has anybody heard anything about this craft?

http://www.dslrpros.com/dslrpros-products/dslr-drone-kits/dslrpros-titan-x8.html
 
Tayzu looks like it would have lot of small vibrations going down the gimbal as it doesnt have any dumping wires or rubbers
 
Has anyone seen any footage from the X8? I'm a bit worried as companies like DSLR Pros have been running big sales on pre orders before any footage has even been released.

Intelligent UAS just launched an RTF option for the RED. I will be testing that one out soon and will post some footage here.
 
Definitely be ware of the Tayzu Titan. I have never seen any actual footage from it and as others have mentioned, there doesn't seem to be any dampening system between the copter and the gimbal. This is key and it must be customizable because you'll want different levels of dampening depending on the payload. The Cinestar X8 is a good kit and will work well. It will have limited flight times and is only able to fly a Movi efficiently. The other downside(arguable) to the Cinestar is the MK flight controller. It's extremely good and offers quite a bit more than many other options, but for a beginner it's a serious challenge. DJI's FCs are quite a bit more user friendly, but they don't offer the level of customization that the MK does. Without actually flying an Alta it's hard to say how it will perform. From all the videos I've seen the synapse FC that comes with that looks to be quite good. It certainly has the best GPS hold I've seen. I have a Cinestar 8HL that I fly a Movi and Dragon on. It's a good kit, but also limited. Flight times are under 8 minutes and it's just a challenge to fly sometimes. I also own an S1000 with a Zenmuse GH4 built in and fly that way more often. The A2 FC is quite a bit simpler to maintain and setup than the MK and flight times are way better.

The biggest thing I would say is that it won't be a quick or easy task to get your Dragon to fly. It takes a lot of time to dial in any setup but especially when you're talking about flying something as heavy and expensive as a dragon. I had years of experience flying RC and it took me about 3 months working as much as I could to get my cinestar kit built up and tested to the point that I was ready to put a camera on it. After that I did about 10 more hours of flight testing before I put our scarlet under it for it's first shoot. We've used it on a few shoots now and it's rock solid, but it took a lot of tweaking and testing to get it there. Now I'm thinking about selling off the Cinestar and getting an Alta as I love how easily it travels...
 
Here are my drones that I fly my Dragon with.
Rock solid and dependable.

MineDrone1.jpg

MineDrone6.jpg

MineDrone2.jpg

MineDrone3.jpg

MineDrone4.jpg

MineDrone5.jpg
 
I found flying U8 motors with a Red was very slow to fly. It couldn't handle mild wind and would be pushed around. I spend a lot of time and money building and testing a U8 machine and concluded it was not valid for a film production environment as the slow response of the machine was not a great flyer
 
I love it. The D130 is just a flying tractor. It's not fast or pretty but lift your stuff safely for a long time. You can select either the 6s or the 12s version. The 12s is better in wind.
 
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