5D Mk3 Road Racing

[Wendell Adkins]

I have been wanting to shoot some racing for quite a while now. Finally got the chance. 90% of the time we have to shoot slow dolly or crane type shots so this was a nice change of pace.

Aerial Video Mid Ohio Road Racing Canon 5D MK3 on Vimeo

[Jody Arnott]

Stunning work, thanks for sharing.

[Wendell Adkins]

Thanks so much! It was a blast to film.

[Noa Put]

Wow, they let you fly right over the circuit? you must have a very good insurance :) That footage looks so smooth, what was used to fly the 5dIII? Is there any reason why you would prefer a 5dIII over any other camera to shoot these type of videos?

[Wendell Adkins]

The helicopter is based on Mikado Logo mechanics with 700mm blades running 12s lipos. The camera mount uses Radian stabilization. All of our flying uses either Red cameras or the 5D because thats what we own and have Canon glass for both.

[James Manford]

Originally Posted by Wendell Adkins

The helicopter is based on Mikado Logo mechanics with 700mm blades running 12s lipos. The camera mount uses Radian stabilization. All of our flying uses either Red cameras or the 5D because thats what we own and have Canon glass for both.

I've seen many vids with people flying the FS100/FS700. Any reason you didn't opt for those?

Just want to know ..

Stunning video btw, looks like a lot of fun to shoot!

[Trevor Dennis]

Excellent work, and great control of the rig. Very well done indeed. I kept wanting the camera to fly under one of those bridges, but that would have been pushing your luck a bit too far. There was a nice demonstration of how much money goes into a sport like this in the opening moments, where the camera flies over the pits and the two huge trailers. The yellow one has three AC units on the roof! LOL I guess if you can afford to race at that level, you can afford to do it in comfort.

[Wendell Adkins]

Thanks guys!

James,

Those cameras are excellent for this type of filming. The ground shots used the C300 so it made sense to use the MK3 for the aerials.You don't see as many people using the 5D for aerial video because the sensor is very unforgiving of vibration at 24-30FPS so the rig has to be near perfect. The only thing harder than getting a rig perfect is keeping it perfect day after day.

We were told that this series costs around $350K US to drive for one season.

[Noa Put]

The ground shots used the C300 so it made sense to use the MK3 for the aerials

I would expect the footage from the 5dIII to be much softer then what the c300 can output resolutionwise, I would rather expect a c100 to fit better, would that be possible? I mean what is the wheight limit to fly a camera?

[Wendell Adkins]

Our largest rig can lift the Arri Alexa. We were able to get the camera's weight down to 22lbs.

[Craig Chartier]

Wow, thank you for posting that.