Eric,

7 months ago I got that same Phantom package from B&H. You’ll love the GPS mode of flying. An R/C hobbyist in my private life, I’ve flown mostly aircraft (sailplanes and electrics). As you’ll find from flying helicopters/quadcopter in simulators like RealFlight, they are a handful!! Orientation is critical and getting mixed up on the controls will put you on the ground in pieces super fast.  GPS mode adds a LOT of stability to your flying and makes it so you can’t get disoriented and slip the Phantom into the ground. Home Lock/Course Lock modes offer their advantages too.

 

OK, now for the disappointing stuff. You will not be happy with your videos (except in absolutely calm air flying) if you attach the GoPro directly to the Phantom. Every little course correction/attitude adjustment shows up in your footage. The “jello” that everyone talks about can be compensated for by shooting at 60fps rather than 24fps. It has a lot to do with automatic shutter speed in certain brightness levels in your shot. That said, I did get some good shots doing vertical lift-offs (resembling a camera boom lift.)

 

I highly recommend having the Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal package added to your Quadcopter!! The stability is a quantum leap better! I live in the Salt Lake City area and am lucky to have a vendor, TV Specialists, who has tooled up and gotten in to selling/supporting aerial videography.  I bought the original Phantom package (plus and extra battery and prop guards) from B&H for $572, then just recently had TV Specialist retrofit my Phantom to add the Zenmuse gimbal package with FPV. They have a solution that only cost me (my employer) just under $1300 for gimbal, taking the quad apart to add the additional circuit boards needed to run the gimbal, RC Logger FPV components (5.8GHZ video transmitter, receiver and monitor). The also add a rear slider switch that allows you to tilt the camera from pointing straight down, to level (90° movement.) So I’m telling you, you can upgrade to Zenmuse gimbal and FPV for $1300 or less! Right now, with DJI Phantom, GoPRo Hero 3+ (you need the Hero 3+ because the port that powers the removable viewfinder plugs into the gimbal and powers your FPV components), Zenmuse h3-2d gimbal and labor to install it, I’m into my quad only $2300! That’s a pretty cheap flying video camera! Well, obviously your footage is only as good as GoPro can provide, but it’s a bunch of more money to move up to  the next level of octocopter and DSLR cameras…..like $8000 and up.

 

The Zenmuse gimbal package include rubber mounts for the gimbal base. Balancing the props or changing to carbon fiber props is just not necessary.

 

One last caveat:  the Zenmuse gimbal corrects for pitch and roll (hence the “2D”), but not for yaw. You still have to fly the craft very carefully to compensate for yaw (left/right) movements.

 

There is a new Phantom 2 that’s hitting the markets now. Supposedly it’s all prewired for Zenmuse gimbal. TV Specialists have not tested it yet. Seems there’s a few challenges with it. My vendor felt that retrofitting the original Phantom is still the better way to go rather than getting the DJI Phantom 2.

 

Hope this offers you some encouragement as you get into aerial videography. Happy to answer any other questions, or connect you to my local vendor. There’s probably other vendors popping up all over the place that can do the same…..but maybe not for the same price. Send me your private email and I’ll embed a pic of my system with Zenmuse onboard.

 

http://www.tvspecialists.com/

Dan Austin (dana@tvspec.com)

 

John

 

 

 

From: After Effects Mail List [mailto:AE-List@media-motion.tv] On Behalf Of Mr. Eric D. Kirk
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 6:07 AM
To: After Effects Mail List
Subject: Re: [AE] Motion tracking