Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

UAVs for Raven

Ryan Sauve

Ryan Sauve

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 21, 2011
Messages
896
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Calgary, AB
Website
www.t2iforum.com
So looks like this thing weighs about 4 lbs with the jetpack. What UAVs out there are people looking at to fly these suckers?
 
main reason we are buying a raven is for UAV work, Alta is were we are investing our money, I'm done done with DJI, worse customer support in the world.
 
Do you guys think there's room for a single purpose RAVEN gimbal taking a specific lens? Think of something like the DJI Z15 in principal.
I mean, RAVEN is pretty light and could be cost effective - lets say you could get a very light, UAV/vehicle mounted gimbal for a reasonable price, with an uncompromising performance, no balancing, no tuning, more reliability - just fire up and go shooting; but, you're bound to one lens, and minimal rigging (probably just Mini-Mags and maybe the Jetpack; external power and WiFi control).

I wonder what the market would be for such a thing - and what the ideal lens would be. Maybe a Sigma 18-35mm, although that from the gimbal design perspective, a prime lens is obviously preferable. What if this package (RAVEN + lens + gimbal) would cost $10k, and be lightweight enough for a DJI S1000 with reasonable flight time (so you're looking at $15k all up, with the aircraft).
 
Last edited:
Roee Tuval said:
Do you guys think there's a room for a single purpose RAVEN gimbal taking a specific lens? Think of something like the DJI Z15 in principal.
I mean, RAVEN is pretty light and could be cost effective - lets say you could get a very light, UAV/vehicle mounted gimbal for a reasonable price, with an uncompromising performance, no balancing, no tuning, more reliability - just fire up and go shooting; but, you're bound to one lens.

I wonder what the market would be for such a thing - and what the ideal lens would be. Maybe a Sigma 18-35mm, although that from the gimbal design perspective, a prime lens is obviously preferable.
Click to expand...

I would be all over it, althogh being tied to one lens sucks. If it could be something like the Sigma, yeah...i think there would be a market for it.
 
one lens doesnt make sense to me. the good thing about small weight and bigger drones like Alta or Kopterworx Hammer X-8 is that you get much more flying time, more speed and better control as there is less momentum...
 
True, you lose flexibility with a single lens. What you gain is a stiffer and lighter gimbal frame, bulletproof reliability on set, and it'll be cheaper. Now, the camera is locked to EF mount anyway, so its not like you can use any lens out there. Lets say there's even support for 2-3 EF mount lenses with similar weight and shape - that could be accommodated, probably.

I'm living in the gimbal market (owner of Phobotic) and I see the problems users are facing with gimbals every day (ALL gimbals suffer from problems, I assure you; doubly so in aerial use which is much more demanding).
I suspect that there's room for a high performance, dedicated solution around the RAVEN. It might be light and cheap enough for people to rig permanently in a gimbal and intercut it with their WEAPONs/EPICs etc for more traditional use. That was just my feeling when I saw it.
 
in my opinion drone market is devided in to three sectors. Hobby flyers (DJI phantom,...), indie flyers (inspire, gh4,...) and professionals (doing commercial work). So we are talking about the last ones here I guess. For international/big tv commercials they always want best of the best - so they will want weapon or dragon. for smaller stuff people look at the budget and say inspire is enough. thats my experience so far. So i dont really see a lot of potential in mid range camera being strapped to a drone. its like putting FS7 up there or C300. havent seen a lot of those flying around. So a gimbal like this is in my opinion not gona sell in big numbers. Easier to just put Movi M5/10 on it and fly it.
 
Absolute performance aside, lets say you put a MoVI M5 - are you 100% confident in the results you'll get?
Unless its a setup you fly day in, day out, you're still going to need to balance, tune and check and possibly troubleshoot.
 
worked alot with movi 15 and didnt have any major problems from a tv commercials for Toyota, Marcedes,... Owning your own camera makes it much easier as you can set it up before but even normal setting up takes as long as setting up a camera on a crane,... so thats not a big problem. Who says that specialised gimbals dont have problems?
 
Uros Zuraj said:
in my opinion drone market is devided in to three sectors. Hobby flyers (DJI phantom,...), indie flyers (inspire, gh4,...) and professionals (doing commercial work). So we are talking about the last ones here I guess. For international/big tv commercials they always want best of the best - so they will want weapon or dragon. for smaller stuff people look at the budget and say inspire is enough. thats my experience so far. So i dont really see a lot of potential in mid range camera being strapped to a drone. its like putting FS7 up there or C300. havent seen a lot of those flying around. So a gimbal like this is in my opinion not gona sell in big numbers. Easier to just put Movi M5/10 on it and fly it.
Click to expand...

I disagree somewhat. This Raven camera would be the exception. I bet it would get a ton of mid-budget play in the action sports world.
 
we've destroyed more then one Scarlet on a UAV. When it comes to camera and lens choice for a UAV you really need to assume it will be destroyed within 15 hours of operation and plan/charge accordingly. The longest time a DJI S1000 can fly commercially is 70 hours and we've never had one make it that long before they go haywire.

The Canon pancake 40mm is a nice super lightweight choice for a UAV and painless when it's in pieces on the ground.
 
Aaron McLane said:
we've destroyed more then one Scarlet on a UAV. When it comes to camera and lens choice for a UAV you really need to assume it will be destroyed within 15 hours of operation and plan/charge accordingly. The longest time a DJI S1000 can fly commercially is 70 hours and we've never had one make it that long before they go haywire.

The Canon pancake 40mm is a nice super lightweight choice for a UAV and painless when it's in pieces on the ground.
Click to expand...

Have you found insurance that will cover them in any capacity? Ours SAY it's covered but I haven't (luckily) had to take out any claim and test it yet...
 
Aaron McLane said:
we've destroyed more then one Scarlet on a UAV. When it comes to camera and lens choice for a UAV you really need to assume it will be destroyed within 15 hours of operation and plan/charge accordingly. The longest time a DJI S1000 can fly commercially is 70 hours and we've never had one make it that long before they go haywire.

The Canon pancake 40mm is a nice super lightweight choice for a UAV and painless when it's in pieces on the ground.
Click to expand...

I agree with you, which is why I think the RAVEN is an opportunity to innovate in this space. 40mm though sounds like an issue with the RAVEN crop factor (1.87x?), that's 75mm effective. Wouldn't that be a problem for many aerial users?
 
Aaron you need to talk to me on PMs if this is really how the DJIs behave on you. I dont think its normal to crash so many drones :D we havent crashed any yet... and flew alot
 
Aaron McLane said:
we've destroyed more then one Scarlet on a UAV. When it comes to camera and lens choice for a UAV you really need to assume it will be destroyed within 15 hours of operation and plan/charge accordingly. The longest time a DJI S1000 can fly commercially is 70 hours and we've never had one make it that long before they go haywire.
Click to expand...
Than you should really stop flying if you crash every 15 hours ;)
 
Will raven fit Ronin M. thats the big quesetion for me. Because if it does, that opens a lot of possibilities for drone, and lens varions.
I currently have a S1000 with Gh4 which im very happy with, but have pre ordred a raven as B cam / Ronin and UAV jobs.
 
Ken Butti said:
Will raven fit Ronin M. thats the big quesetion for me. Because if it does, that opens a lot of possibilities for drone, and lens varions.
I currently have a S1000 with Gh4 which im very happy with, but have pre ordred a raven as B cam / Ronin and UAV jobs.
Click to expand...
It will. I use an Epic Dragon on a Ronin-M and its dialed.
 
Jeffrey Loewe said:
It will. I use an Epic Dragon on a Ronin-M and its dialed.
Click to expand...

really! do you have pics? What lenses?
Looking at getting a set of Zeiss ZF's to keep the weight down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top