Aerial Photography

I've been thinking for a while about buying a quadcopter to film from the air, and am wondering if any of you have tried it for trains.... This video from the SVR shows the huge advantages of aerial videography:

So, have any of you got any experience with this, or are thinking about it too? And is there any information I need if I am to take this route?

 

You'll need quite a powerful quadcopter to lift a decent camera (still or video). I've only got a very basic quad and it can't lift anything. Not sure if you can get a rotating camera mount to point the camera, instead of having to turn the quad in exactly the right direction.

 

Nah you won't, GoPros can record in 4k now.... So the weight should (hopefully) be fine.

 

Very much looking forward to debate on NatPres after the first members' mid-air collision…

;-)

Simon

 

Or the first Train / Copter smash.

 

Unless you have a liscence, one is not allowed to fly within 50m of something not under one's control... So a collision with a train is pretty unlikely...

 

Or what livery they should be.

 

GWR Green. End of.

 

Is it meant to be a silent clip?

 

Not silent on my phone…

Simon

 

Some of it is silent, due to the noise of the rotors... But some of it has audio... Not sure how...

 

Possibly dubbed on afterwards but whilst seeing aerial footage is interesting, having silent footage is a bit of a disadvantage IMO.

 

Yeah, but it's possible to use an external mike on the ground... Though I don't really know how well that'd work...

 

Getting complicated if the sound track is recorded separate to the video. Now if it was a radio mic recording to the camcorder wirelessly then that would make things somewhat easier apart from the fact that the further away the video cam is from the mic then the more out of sync the sound could be. I'me sure the pros have got it sussed though.