Cameras that fly under a Phantom at DVinfo.net

Bruce Dempsey · May 14th, 2013, 12:38 PM

I'm getting a DJI Phantom in the next week or so
What tough little camcorders with half decent still capabilities have been flown?
The RX100 seemed a likely choice but probably too fragile.
What about a GW77?
Is the TX20 sufficient?
I like Sony if for no other reason than my existing workflow and other gear.
Perhaps hold on until DJI Phantom with it's own integrated camera is released? Doubt it will produce m2ts, more likely some flavour of mov which is cumbersome for me at least.
The DJI app which permits iDevice live viewing, is that camera specific?
Thanks for the forum
Bruce

Giroud Francois · May 14th, 2013, 03:20 PM

the dji is made to fly a gopro, so you can fly anything that is close to this weight.
the payload for the DJI is 200g , so you stay under 1Kg (1000g) for copter + payload.
you can go up to 1200g (400g payload) but the flight time will be very short (5min or less) and
manoeuvrability will heavily decrease.

Chuck Spaulding · May 16th, 2013, 04:24 PM

Weight is certainly a consideration in choosing a camera to fly. As was already mentioned you can trade weight for flight time, the heavier the camera the shorter the flight.

If your goal is to obtain quality aerial video then you also need to consider how well a particular camera deals with vibration. Vibration with multi-rotors is a fact of life, you can balance the props and motors, fly in the morning, not change anything and fly again in the afternoon and have more vibration. There are a lot of reasons for this, but suffice it to say that not all camera's deal well with vibration.

GoPro's are not bad on wide FOV but I can't stand the fisheye, on Medium FOV the fishey is much better but the camera is a lot more sensitive to vibration. I flew a Sony 9XV because it could shoot 1080P60 but it is very sensitive to vibration so I only fly that camera in very still conditions. The Sony NEX5n is much less effected by vibration but substantially heavier.

If your planning to shoot AP with Multirotors then I think what you'll find is that you have a few different multirotors and cameras that you can pair up to meet the environmental conditions, but provided you can live with the image quality probably the best all around setup would be the Phantom and Hero3.

The iDevice viewing is a function of the Hero3 Black addition, with built in bluetooth.

Bruce Dempsey · May 18th, 2013, 02:18 PM

Found an RX100 which has been used along side a DSLR since Christmas in mint condition for about 300 less that I could have purchased a new one online from that big store in NYC
So the camera question is moot
I had a goPro hero and a contour as well last year and while the video images were ok and for home use helmet cam maybe good enough but I really like the video from the cx, rx, and hx sony cams and don.t think I'll be disappointed with the rx100's video when shot from a Phantom and besides the files will be compatble with my usual workflow.
Would have been nice to shoot stills during the video flight but that might not work, so if need bee 1 flyover while shooting continous stills then a second fly over using video mode

Chuck Spaulding · May 18th, 2013, 05:54 PM

There's certainly a lot of hype about the Phantom but there are also quite a few alternatives.

Shooting aerial video is not the same as shooting video on the ground and it generally requires a different workflow regardless of the format of the camera. You will probably get to know the Warp Stabilizer in AE pretty well..

I don't know if their still available but the Sony CX760 is a good camcorder for AP, shoot 1080P60 and has a very good optical stabilizer. The problem with cameras like the Sony HX9V and probably the RX100 is they use software stabilization which introduces a lot of "jello."

So the problem with the Phantom is that if the RX100 doesn't work as well as you'd hoped then the only alternative would be a GoPro.. If you purchased a larger alternative to the Phantom then at least if it doesn't go as planned you would have some alternative for which camera to use.

May 14th, 2013, 12:38 PM	#1
Bruce Dempsey Major Player Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Atlantic Coast Canada Posts: 599	Cameras that fly under a Phantom I'm getting a DJI Phantom in the next week or so What tough little camcorders with half decent still capabilities have been flown? The RX100 seemed a likely choice but probably too fragile. What about a GW77? Is the TX20 sufficient? I like Sony if for no other reason than my existing workflow and other gear. Perhaps hold on until DJI Phantom with it's own integrated camera is released? Doubt it will produce m2ts, more likely some flavour of mov which is cumbersome for me at least. The DJI app which permits iDevice live viewing, is that camera specific? Thanks for the forum Bruce

May 14th, 2013, 03:20 PM	#2
Giroud Francois Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: switzerland Posts: 2,133	Re: Cameras that fly under a Phantom the dji is made to fly a gopro, so you can fly anything that is close to this weight. the payload for the DJI is 200g , so you stay under 1Kg (1000g) for copter + payload. you can go up to 1200g (400g payload) but the flight time will be very short (5min or less) and manoeuvrability will heavily decrease.

May 16th, 2013, 04:24 PM	#3
Chuck Spaulding Trustee Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Thousand Oaks Posts: 1,104	Re: Cameras that fly under a Phantom Weight is certainly a consideration in choosing a camera to fly. As was already mentioned you can trade weight for flight time, the heavier the camera the shorter the flight. If your goal is to obtain quality aerial video then you also need to consider how well a particular camera deals with vibration. Vibration with multi-rotors is a fact of life, you can balance the props and motors, fly in the morning, not change anything and fly again in the afternoon and have more vibration. There are a lot of reasons for this, but suffice it to say that not all camera's deal well with vibration. GoPro's are not bad on wide FOV but I can't stand the fisheye, on Medium FOV the fishey is much better but the camera is a lot more sensitive to vibration. I flew a Sony 9XV because it could shoot 1080P60 but it is very sensitive to vibration so I only fly that camera in very still conditions. The Sony NEX5n is much less effected by vibration but substantially heavier. If your planning to shoot AP with Multirotors then I think what you'll find is that you have a few different multirotors and cameras that you can pair up to meet the environmental conditions, but provided you can live with the image quality probably the best all around setup would be the Phantom and Hero3. The iDevice viewing is a function of the Hero3 Black addition, with built in bluetooth.

May 18th, 2013, 02:18 PM	#4
Bruce Dempsey Major Player Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Atlantic Coast Canada Posts: 599	Re: Cameras that fly under a Phantom Found an RX100 which has been used along side a DSLR since Christmas in mint condition for about 300 less that I could have purchased a new one online from that big store in NYC So the camera question is moot I had a goPro hero and a contour as well last year and while the video images were ok and for home use helmet cam maybe good enough but I really like the video from the cx, rx, and hx sony cams and don.t think I'll be disappointed with the rx100's video when shot from a Phantom and besides the files will be compatble with my usual workflow. Would have been nice to shoot stills during the video flight but that might not work, so if need bee 1 flyover while shooting continous stills then a second fly over using video mode

May 18th, 2013, 05:54 PM	#5
Chuck Spaulding Trustee Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Thousand Oaks Posts: 1,104	Re: Cameras that fly under a Phantom There's certainly a lot of hype about the Phantom but there are also quite a few alternatives. Shooting aerial video is not the same as shooting video on the ground and it generally requires a different workflow regardless of the format of the camera. You will probably get to know the Warp Stabilizer in AE pretty well.. I don't know if their still available but the Sony CX760 is a good camcorder for AP, shoot 1080P60 and has a very good optical stabilizer. The problem with cameras like the Sony HX9V and probably the RX100 is they use software stabilization which introduces a lot of "jello." So the problem with the Phantom is that if the RX100 doesn't work as well as you'd hoped then the only alternative would be a GoPro.. If you purchased a larger alternative to the Phantom then at least if it doesn't go as planned you would have some alternative for which camera to use.