Aerial footage in NJ
 

Could anyone make recommendations for getting aerial footage in New Jersey. I'm shooting a promotional piece for an environmental group in the Morristown area. We're looking to get aerial footage of rivers, lakes - the Upper Raritan watershed. Would you recommend planes over helicopters? Typically, how expensive is it to hire a plane or copter for a couple of hours? I have an EX1. Thanks.

Would an RC helicopter work with a Sony EX1?

http://www.vimeo.com/1292291

I don't know why not. I've seen your stuff and it's great footage. Is the occasional jerkiness because of the aircraft or is it the playback on Vimeo? It only seems to happen when you move. Is anyone doing that out east that you know of?

Vimeo rarely plays their HDV footage back smoothly. I guess it's overloaded servers?

I'm not aware of who does this out east.

I would recommend calling your local news channel that has a helicopter.
Usually the station does not own them, but leases them from a company.
Call the company and see what it costs to rent. This is what we did for our doc.

It won't be cheap, but nothing IMO gets better shots than a chopper equipped with a
gryo stabilized ball, good pilot and experience camera guy.

Thanks. I've looked into helicopters, but the only affordable option was a pilot with a harness and taking off a door. I'm guessing that won't include a gyro stabilized ball! Has anyone had experience hanging out of a copter with a harness? I'm less concerned about the danger than the unsteadiness of the shot.

I found someone in New York who, like Derek, has a helicam (www.skycamusa.com). His footage is similar to Derek's. (Derek, you should check him out - he's been doing it for a long time - you could share horror stories!). I like this option better because you can go lower. The shots I'm looking for should be low to the ground. It would be with a HC5 instead of my EX1, but the images look pretty good to me.

Yeah, the HC5 is a popular camera on the smaller heli's. That's what we use. We also fly the HVX200 and Sony EX1 for some clients.