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RED on a RC helicam

T

Tabb Firchau

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Hey guys, I did a search on here looking for anyone that had flown a RED on a RC heli and saw a couple static photos of a heli with a RED mounted onboard but does anyone here know if a RC heli has actually flown one?

I ask because I have a client that requires we fly one and I was curious to see if others had done this yet and to see if they had any setup advice etc. So far I have trial fitted the camera and we are flying similar sized cameras right now so I am not worried about the size or mass but there are a few things I am not sure how to handle.

1. How to downlink view to our monitors for the camera operator. As I understand RED only outputs a HD signal and does not down convert internally so we would need an external downconverter.

I am actually thinking about mounting a small CCD right next to the lens to approximate the view of the camera but this would be less then ideal.

Any other tips on keeping this thing as light as possible. For power I will be running it off of the helicopters flight batteries so I can save the weight of the RED brick.

If you would like to see a shot of the setup and some in flight video checkout

http://aerialpan.blogspot.com

I am excited to get this thing up in the air and see how it does. From what I have seen I think it will do great.


Thanks for any help

Tabb
 
Why don't you just hire one of the companies that specialize in this?

Trying to do this one-off is probably a recipe for an expensive mistake. There would be a ton of issues to solve to get it to work right.
 
RED ONE and heli...

Jim

1228482582.jpg
 
Dude get that 5D footage up at vimeo, so we can see how smooth or shaky it is...

I would be worried about the weight of Red if I were you. You might need a beefier chopper?
 
Tom, we are currently flying with similarly sized cameras without a problem so I am thinking the RED will be OK, only testing will tell for sure.

I have had really bad luck with vimeo as fas as playing aerial footage smoothly.

Here is a higher res QT clip if that helps

http://www.aerialpan.com/temp/clips/5dmk2_test_gg_640.mov

here is the other clip

http://www.aerialpan.com/temp/clips/Beach_640.mov

So far the 5D is working well but I can tell already the CMOS does not deal with vibes well so you have to make sure the ship is running perfectly and vibration free.
 
Yeah, plus with the 5D you have no room at all for stabilizing the footage in After Effects. With Red One, you have plenty of resolution for that.

Hey, BTW, what do you think of the draganfly 6 chopper?
 
Tabb,

The Red is pretty heavy, it also draws a LOT of watts at 12v so powering from your flight batteries might not be a great idea.

And yes you will need to fly some kind of downconverter in order to get a SD out for transmitting.

I can't tell from the footage exactly where your at, but contact me if you need a Red body to do a fitting with.

**** never mind I just saw your blog.
 
Tabb Firchau said:
This is what my company does, Aerial filming from RC helis. I was hoping to get some RED specific setup help.
Click to expand...

My bad, so sorry. You were so unassuming with your post you sounded almost naive, but I understand that is certainly not the case.

I'd just get a Blackmagic or AJA downconverter and maybe rehouse it in a lighter package. The BM unit powers off of 12V.
 
Tom, I have seen similar setups fly and they are fun but certainly cannot carry any kind of pro gear. If you wanted to get one to play around with I am sure it would be fun though! I like anything that flies!

No worries Nate, I went back and read my post and see how you read it that way. I was not very clear

How many watts does a RED require?

Mike-thanks for the offer on the fitting. That is a very kind offer. I am up in Greenwood and wll let you know if I need to mount one up again.

Looks like the downconverter will be farily simple to setup.

Thanks for the input everyone.
 
I worked on a project somewhat related to the Dragon Fly quad rotor. Last I checked it didn't have anywhere near the lift capacity to fly a RED.

But it's unbelievably stable. If they made a large enough one it would be awesome.
 
Now think of the possibilities you'll have with a lightweight Scarlet setup combined with a Helicam or Draganfly. And WiFi, baby! Maybe something to think about for Redmote 2.0 (bigger range, proxy image feed). :)
Tabb, those shots look awesome! Especially the flight along the shoreline.
 
Gavin Greenwalt said:
I worked on a project somewhat related to the Dragon Fly quad rotor. Last I checked it didn't have anywhere near the lift capacity to fly a RED.

But it's unbelievably stable. If they made a large enough one it would be awesome.
Click to expand...


my brother and I are building a large version, and with enclosed fans so it's safe around people, computer programming is almost finished and test parts are in..when we get a little more free time buuilding and testing will begin...it should be the ultimate RED ship when finished...muuch safer then a standard 2 rotor heli.
 
about to buy one so we can start shooting while we build the large scale quad machine....what brand do you guys have the red on Jim? looks like it's got 4 blade head...


Jannard said:
Jarred has the rest of the pics and the footage... it is an awesome machine.

Jim
Click to expand...
 
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