Attack of the Drones

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I Gave a quick talk on Camera drones with my good friends over at the Eastern Shore Camera Club today.  Material from the talk (Slide Deck PDF & Intro Video) are here!

Thanks for checking it out!


The sample video of some our epic Gulf Coast locations was based on a 3 hour project window.   Filming, editing in no more than 3 hours.  Plenty of opportunity for better editing but I thought it was a decent enough example to show the capabilities of the camera platforms we talked about.

 

 

I've been experimenting with various remotely controller aerial photography methods for several years.  In 2011, I mounted an HD Hero Go Pro on my Stryker F-27q pusher-prop fixed-wing.   The result might make you sea-sick:

 

That's not to say that fixed-wing flight cannot yield compelling visuals.  I found these to be very inspiring:

and

Early 2013, I tried the multi-rotor route with the Parrot AR Drone 2.0.  Took it to the marina where we kept our boat with hopes of amazing aerial visuals.    It didn't work out, either:

The Parrot AR Drone is cool and all but controlling something from an iPad that is simulating the control sticks of an R/C controller is a bit fail.   The on-board camera of the Parrot AR Drone isn't as good as the Go Pro (Jellyvision is bad) and the lack of camera stabilization (a gimbal) is the nail in the coffin to this approach (for me, anyway).

__

 

About a year ago, I found this video and was blown away: 

Santa Monica Airlines from robert mcintosh on Vimeo.

 

Followed a few months by this one:

Talk about awesome stuff, right?

Finally... a year ago, Chase Jarvis posted this post on his blog about overcoming barriers in your photography:

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2013/04/stop-creating-false-barriers-between-you-the-photos-you-want-to-take-aka-going-to-the-end-of-the-earth-to-get-the-shot/

A great write-up and awe-inspiring video, which is here:

Interested yet?  Space!  Cmon.  Space is like bacon.   Put space in front of anything and it is instantly improved. (thinks of space bacon...)

errmm.. umm.. what happened.. sorry you lost me for a second.

But seriously, interested in FPV flight and camera drones and just getting started?

Here are some links to get you started and of course, you are always welcome to contact me directly at bill.dodd@graffitilogic.com to discuss! 

Informative Sites
http://www.diydrones.com
http://phantompilots.com
http://www.helifreak.com
http://www.rcgroups.com

Manufacturer Links
http://www.dji.com
http://www.sky-hero.com
http://team-blacksheep.com
http://immersionrc.com

Drone & FPV Retailers
http://www.bhphotovideo.com
http://www.adorama.com
http://www.dslrpros.com
http://www.helidirect.com
http://www.profotouav.com
http://www.getfpv.com
http://www.readymaderc.com

 

FPV Manufacturers
http://www.fatshark.com
http://team-blacksheep.com
http://immersionrc.com
http://cinemizer.zeiss.com
http://www.lilliput.com
http://www.foxtechfpv.com

LRS Manufacturers

http://dragonlinkrc.com
http://www.tslrs.com
http://flytron.com
http://www.hobbyking.com

Slide Deck

(video slides won't play but there is a video links slide towards the end of the deck)

I'm not sure how much sense the slide decks will make sense on their own but they include really informative links and inspiring videos from awesome FPV camera operators that I found inspiring.

Star Wars Trilogy Pinball Resurrection

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"Hey I found this pinball machine on Craigslist.  It looks like a great deal! Should I buy it?"

Here's a cautionary tale. :)

About 9 months ago, I talked to this guy about 100 miles away that had a Star Wars Trilogy Pinball.   I never saw the machine but had his description and a third party account of the condition.
 We couldn't get together on price, so I walked away.

Last month, perusing Craigslist, I found the machine available for sale. The price listed was considerably less than my last offer, it was for sale by the same guy. I called and he didn't recognize me at first.   His situation had changed, and he was hard up for the cash to pay some unexpected bills.  Hey, we've all been there.  
I told him I was interested and pressed for details about the condition of the machine.

"Man, this machine is wrapped up in plastic, that's how it has been for 2 years but let me tell you it is Not Junk!   All it needs is a $2 part and you are off to the races."
I agreed to buy it, arranged to have it brought to me and wrote down on a post-it note $600 in repairs.   :)
Fast forward to today.    
The CPU board was in need of extensive repair,
As was the Power IO Driver board
ROMS were mis-matched
Playfield toys where broken.  
Two bad coils
6 playfield wiring snafus
A broken reed switch
1 Broken Drop Target
Dirt.. Oh My God.. The Dirt and Grime ..
Missing a Starter (Fluorescent)
Bad Ballast (Fluorescent)
The Coin Door Was wrong / Didn't Engage the Interlock 
The Coin Door Had a Huge Hole from some card-based validator
1 Pop Bumper was out
2/3 of the Playfield GI bulbs were out
Stupid Hacks on the Playfield, like Wood Screws used as Stand-Offs
..Needless to say his estimate of a $2 dollar part was off by a multiplier of 500 :)

So the moral of the story is..   Be sure to be able to test drive a pinball before buying it.   B/c that $2 part the guy mentions it needs, may  just be a load o' crap.
Am I sorry?   Nah.  I have the Star Wars Trilogy Arcade machine and wanted to make the matching pair.   At some point I had to weigh location / proximity into the "should I buy" decision matrix.   The odds of finding another one within driving distance here in Southern Alabama, isn't real great. :)

 

The USS Alabama

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I feel a bit of a kinship with the U.S.S. Alabama.   We spent this one crazy summer together.. :)

When we first moved down to Alabama, we lived in this hotel on the causeway, the Ramada Inn, which was recently finally demolished.   (Behind R&R Seafood, for the locals)   Kind of a long story but we were homeless, in a sense.    Not, like.. under the overpass in a cardboard box homeless, more like, "oh, well maybe burning the house down for insurance money wasn't a great idea", homeless.

At any rate.   As a stir-crazy teen stuck in a hotel room with my parents for a million big dogs (dobermans), I often found ways to entertain myself along the causeway.   One such way was to go loaf around the Battleship Park.  I walked down there (alot) and they were really kind to me, letting me come in for free all the time.

So, I'm happy we live close to the USS Alabama. Makes for an easy jaunt of nostalgia. 

This day, that nostalgia involved flying cameras and I behaved.  I really-really wanted to fly across the deck but I did not.    Where this shot was taken, I was controlling the craft from down the causeway a bit, beside the base of a bridge near Tacky Jacks.   The video signal on the headset was starting to tweak a bit and this was about as close as I felt comfortable getting.     I may fly it from the pier one day soon, stay tuned :)

The Lumia 1020 as a Landscape Camera

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I've had this Lumia 1020 sitting on my desk since a summer development project. I needed a Windows Phone for the Development bid and the Lumia 1020 advertised itself as a camera-first sort of phone.

As a camera, I quickly found the Lumia 1020 to be largely a disappointment.   The commercials show people shooting their kid's plays from the back row, touting the digital zoom afforded by the 40+ megapixel sensor.   
But, in practicality, the shutter was laggy, the metering was slow and inaccurate.  Of people, you were left with huge jpegs of often blurry or noisy faces.    My son won't sit still enough for this camera, except for when he sleeps.

I did find a use for it, however, on the telescope.   Bolting the Lumia 1020 onto the eyepiece of a telescope, I could get good results using the very nice features of the Nokia Camera app's timer and bracketing modes. 
At the end of the year, Nokia gave it's followers a late Christmas present with the release of the Nokia Black, Windows Phone 8 update.    Along with a ton of strong features to the OS and usability, the update added support for Camera RAW with the Lumia 1020 and others.

With this addition of RAW support, I'm finding new uses for the Nokia 1020 as a nice little pocket landscape camera.    The shutter's still a bit slow for shooting kids, the shadows are still a little noisy and getting the RAW files out of the camera/phone isn't seamless but all said, I think the addition of RAW redeems the Nokia 1020 as a camera, for me.

But for the average user I'm willing to bet the 40+ mb files that are hidden on the filesystem will pose more of a problem than a solution.

Still, I applaud Nokia and the Windows Phone team for adding camera RAW to a smartphone.   

 

 

Flying Fisheye

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DCIM\100GOPRO
Photo still from Camera Drone 3 (Theodore) at Daphne Beach.    We were looking for the washed ashore remains of Camara Drone 1 (Alvin) who splashed down at the end of this pier 4 days ago in an autopilot mishap.
Probably a lost cause but if you hear of a Phantom Quadcopter washing ashore on Mobile Bay around the Eastern Shore, there is a reward for having the parts returned.   Most won't be salvageable but the telemetry on the SD card could be helpful in finding out what happened!

Happy Week Ahead!

Curious Angles & Curious People

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DCIM\100GOPRO

So, I haven't written about this much, before but I've been working on the arena of aerial photography (and videography) again.    Every few years I get the notion that getting off of eye-level will solve my "be different" dilemma.

I have an hour or so of video on the cutting room floor, so to speak that hopefully I can do something with one of these days, after I fill in the holes.   But, right now, being winter -- the crowds being low -- it is definitely "filming season" for me.

One of my crafts, a pretty heavily modified DJI Phantom has been giving me fits.   The GPS features that are supposed to make it easier to fly (film)  (or at least provide a safety net of sorts) -- haven't been behaving.
Today, I miscalculated that the Fairhope / Magnolia Beach area of Fairhope Pier might not be so crowded and might provide an adequate unpopulated space to fly and capture video / stills.

Even though it wasn't crowded, oh boy were there lots of people inquisitive types out today.   Some with the normal level of questions /interest but some with some genuine, unfounded - fear.   

One such guy, referred to the camera as a 'turret'  which might have been the funniest thing I've heard all week.
At any rate, it wasn't a meaningful outage for capturing the Pelican's eye view flights over the water I had storyboarded for this section but I definitely met some interesting people, so there's that. :)

A Seat at the End of the Water at the End of the Day at the End of the Year

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I took a seat at the end of the water, at the end of a day on the end of the year and thought back to 2013.

I don’t do resolutions, so much.  My attention span is too short for those.   But, I do like to take inventory and learn from the year that has passed.

If I judge the year in hours playing video games with my kids, I think that number comes in around 50 hours. Less than some, more than others.   If I judge the year in shutter clicks, this was a 25,000 shutter sort of year.   Less than some, more than others.  If I judge the year in software projects, I think the number is around 8, at least 2 being pretty big.    If I judge the year in income, well — I’ll leave that to the accountant dude.

Then I think back to 2013, it looks like I worked on a bunch of different projects for a bunch of very different people in a bunch of different industries.    I missed some deadlines, I beat some deadlines, I missed some estimates, I beat some estimates.

I spent less time barefoot on the beach than I would have liked but I’m happy that I seldom found the need to wear socks in lieu of comfy boat shoes.   I spent more time fighting crazy computer problems caused by ‘upgrades’ than I’d care to admit.

I lost out on some professional opportunities and got pulled into a lawsuit (that I tried to prevent) as a witness trying to arbitrate a deal that was good for all parties, even at my own expense.    At work, some days I got railroaded, other days appreciated but I think I tried to have fun at both.

I told a few white lies, a bunch of harshly worded truths, a couple dirty jokes and a story or two.    I called, The President, a democrat, names, out loud - towards my television on more than one occassion.    I called, The Speaker of the House, a republican, names - out loud - towards my television on an equal number of occasions.

I was kind to strangers most of the time, even when they annoyed me.  I tipped well, even when the service was fail and I opted for fake smiles instead of real frowns.   More importantly, I enjoyed plenty of real smiles, along the way.

Yep, that was 2013.   A pretty good year.  

I’ll have another please.