The use of drone cameras over heritage railways

Or you use it the drone to take stills, which I find are generally more interesting and artistic than video, but for DSLR-quality you probably need effectively a flying DSLR, with an appropriate quality lens and sensor. I'm not sure how interchangeable lenses would work with the weight distribution on a drone (probably a bad idea).

One thing I have also seen is rather than using a powered drone, people use a kite with a little compact camera attached to it. I guess you need the wind for this though and be wary of power lines and stuff like that.

 

My issue is more with their spoiling other peoples traditional shots than how safe their flying is......I hope that should be taken for granted before they trey anything serious with it.......I have had a few long distance shots effected with drones appearing in them and I know of an occasion recently of a photo-charter being operated on a US railroad and the railways volunteer local publicity officer flying up his drone to "join in" but not only got in the way but created noise nuscence for the video guys...and he wasn't a charter participant. His response to complaints was that he generated more good will for the railway than the select photographers did by flying his drone and he could fly in when and where-ever he pleased.

 

Sadly nothing new - full marks to anyone spotting the full size 'drone' in this silhouette from 6201's last main line run in 2012. ( hint - find the tadpole in tree )
@981smithy's sequence of 60103 passing Irwell Vale in the snow shows, for me, the worst behaviour of someone flying one of these things with a complete disregard for anyone else photographing or filming at the time. As a 'stills' man I can easily say 'thank god for photoshop' but a spoiled sound track on a video sequence is much harder to disregard.
Roll on the adobe 'drone filter'

 

Hmmmm........http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35519470

 

Maybe each railway should get one.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35519470

 

Don't know too many falconers who are going to try their expensively trained birds of prey on a device with rotating razor blades/

 

I want to be there when a drone crashes in to a pole mounted camera.

 

No.
With a mirrorless or compact then the shutter sound can be switched off.
With a DSLR, using the OVF, then the mirror still has to be swung out of the way for each shot and hence the noise.

 

Having once had a experience of having a sea eagle on the wrist (thankfully very brief, it scared me stiff, and it knew it did, so it started to mess with me) I think an eagle is more than a match for a puny robot helicopter.
Apparently the Dutch police have found them effective against drones.

 

You need to see last nights BBC news report then, where a falconer was extremely dismissive, pointing out the dangers of leg injuries to large birds.

 

Cuts both ways Ralph. There are some videographers who seem to think that the view from horizon to horizon is theirs alone and woe betide anyone who encroaches on it even in the slightest. Once on the GCR I received some foul mouthed abuse from a videographer for "being in the shot," even though I'd placed myself behind a large bush to ensure I was invisible to him. I certainly couldn't see him through it it and thus it's pretty certain that he couldn't see me. Unreasonable behaviour doesn't belong to any single type of photographer.

 

Although I've never had abuse, I have heard some very angry muttering at galas about people being in shot or children expressing their excitement at seeing the train go by in an audible manner. Rather pathetic really. If you want a people-free shot/film, either find somewhere no one else is using to shoot from, or pay for the exclusivity of a photo event.

 

In the same report the RSPCA offer the alternative view that it would be acceptable.
The video of the eagle catching the drone was fun! That is one kick-ads birdie.
Of course it is largely a gimmick, but a very entertaining one. As one of the main risks of drones is to aircraft near airports, I can't see how having lots of eagles around will make things much better. Bird strike just as bad as drone strike.
If not eagles, we need some sort of mini robotic X-wing to take them down with lasers...

 

My method is to get their early, and take the best spot where no-one can get in your way (or have to get round my rather considerable bulk to get in my way)

However, sometimes onlookers make the shot. Specially Kids. Kids on the platform also has the benefit that the crew will more likely give them a whistle than they will for a retired fat bloke. - I have often thought of having a cardboard cutout child in network rail hi viz to zip tie to the lamp post.

 

Not if they are using DSLR's with big flappy mirrors!
Also, I know many railway photographers use film cameras as well as/instead of digital. Which reminds me. I must dust of my Mamiya 645 and run some film through it!

 

Ah Mamiya 645s - now they are noisy

 

Whichever method you use to record your railway hobby you can't have it exactly the way you want it all the time. When video became popular, people were moaning about the space that tri-pods devoured. Videographers moan about machine gun shutters on DSLR's...now people are up in arms about drones. At the end of the day, we all take a chance when we go out to play. The chance that the weather will be kind..the chance that our favourite spot isn't overcrowded before we arrive...the chance that 'train chasers' will invade your space minutes before the train arrives...the chance that someone will sneeze, speak or have a noisy camera close to your vidcam microphone, and so it goes on. In my experience, polite requests and mutual cooperation work well most of the time. Owning a top of the range full frame DSLR does not give you any more right to be there than the guy with a £30 compact. If things go wrong, put it down to sod's law. There is always the next time.

 

Can't believe the silly low-prices these go for now!

 

Sadly it's because there is no great market for cameras that use film these days especially roll film.
Some years back I was among a group of a dozen or so photographers all of whom were using 645s, only a few years later of the same group nearly everyone had converted to digital, mostly Canon 5D mark 2s. There are pros and cons of course but it just shows how swift the change was and that is I'm afraid why Mamiyas and other big film beasts go for what do appear to be silly low prices these days.
I still have one of mine and a few lenses but it hasn't had an outing in the last 5 years and to underline why I prefer my D800 to a Mamiya these days neither my shot of 46233 at Lambrigg nor 46100 at Chester last week would have even been possible with Velvia or TMAX 400 in a Mamiya given that the conditions required high iso settings to cope with the dismally low light.

AND Just a further thought to those above :-

In my experience, polite requests and mutual cooperation work well most of the time. Owning a top of the range full frame DSLR does not give you any more right to be there than the guy with a £30 compact.

Quite so, and it's not down to what camera someone uses but what they do with it.