Author Topic: Second try at selfie filming with the drone  (Read 2678 times)

obxDave

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Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« on: October 05, 2020, 07:31:58 PM »
Ok, so this was pretty much the opposite of Ponobill adventures in 3m conditions in the Gorge, ......just a very wimpy 10-15 at the Canadian Hole in Hatteras.  Actually nice and tame for a second round of selfie filming with my Staaker drone. Worked pretty well even though it was challenging to stay on foil all the time in this light wind.  I wasn’t quite as intimidated by the drone as the first time. I ran it right to the auto return home limit and managed not to fall :P.  It doesn’t follow perfectly but it does a decent job . I’ll have to try some different orientations on the next droney session.

I didn’t edit out clips, just did one continuous clip with some fast forwarding in the boring straights. It’ll be interesting to compare this to the Skydio 2 when it finally shows up

(After this selfie run I switched from the Veloce XL to the Veloce XXL for the first time. The XXL was amazing. I could pretty much do everything on it right away without coming off the foil at all. I thought it would be a total dog in the turns but it would carve almost as well as the XL)

https://youtu.be/hz-J9XcR-yE
« Last Edit: October 05, 2020, 07:40:32 PM by obxDave »

Phils

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2020, 01:16:25 AM »
Video looks great.  Good riding too.  Lower camera angle would be interesting to see.

Dwight (DW)

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2020, 04:24:07 AM »
Nice video.

What do you drone experts think about the waterproof drove? You’d have to strap the controller to your chest, to make it follow you, but even that is waterproof.

https://www.swellpro.com/spry.html

I watch and look at drones, but never owned one. Would like to someday.
« Last Edit: October 06, 2020, 04:29:40 AM by Dwight (DW) »

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2020, 04:59:56 AM »
That looks terrific, Dave.  What are you figuring you have for actual time on the water?  Does the Staaker let you lower or position the drone?

burchas

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2020, 06:29:14 AM »
Video looks great.  Good riding too.  Lower camera angle would be interesting to see.

^+1

Pretty good results. would be interesting to see how it handles blasting wind speeds.
in progress...

surfcowboy

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2020, 07:29:17 AM »
Dave, really smooth winging. This is a model for me as far as where I want to get to. Drone did great as well.

That XL is pretty nice at filling in during transitions (I’m sure technique and experience helps too.)

surfcowboy

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #6 on: October 06, 2020, 07:54:29 AM »
What do you drone experts think about the waterproof drove? You’d have to strap the controller to your chest, to make it follow you, but even that is waterproof

Dwight, you could 100% make yourself a board with a drone compartment in it in the nose for after the battery ran down or between shots.

obxDave

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2020, 10:47:21 AM »
Video looks great.  Good riding too.  Lower camera angle would be interesting to see.
Low angles are great but always a bit risky on the water. The barometric altimeters in these drones only have so much accuracy. I also have to maintain a greater lateral distance. You can see when I ride towards it, it was right on top of me. When I road away from it, it maintained a greater lateral distance. If it’s low, there’s always the chance it could clip the wing. But,...nothing ventured nothing gained

Nice video.

What do you drone experts think about the waterproof drove? You’d have to strap the controller to your chest, to make it follow you, but even that is waterproof.

https://www.swellpro.com/spry.html

I watch and look at drones, but never owned one. Would like to someday.

Swellpro isn’t a kickstarter operation. I’ve been following them from the get go. Not nearly enough reliability and it is not a GPS beacon following drone. The Skydio 2 is the only “self follow” alternative to the (now out of production) Staaker

Video looks great.  Good riding too.  Lower camera angle would be interesting to see.

^+1

Pretty good results. would be interesting to see how it handles blasting wind speeds.

Top speed is 50 mph. I’m sure I could run it in gusts to 25 mph, but everything gets more challenging at those speeds

obxDave

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2020, 10:51:34 AM »
That looks terrific, Dave.  What are you figuring you have for actual time on the water?  Does the Staaker let you lower or position the drone?

Probably around 15-18 min usable time. The waterproof beacon has buttons to set altitude, lateral distance and compass orientation. You can change them while riding. I have to memorize the buttons. You can lower it for sure, that will be my next goal. Gets riskier

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2020, 01:05:57 PM »
Nice.  The Skydio 2 is supposed to have 23 minute per battery but I am guessing maybe 18 to 20 minutes in wind?  It is taking me about 4 minutes to launch and get to a knee start location and about the same 4 to get out for a landing.  So I am figuring 10-12 minutes of riding time.  Not bad if I stay right by shore but that is flatwater.  A little dicey if I go over to the swell.  That adds 2-3 minutes each way.  Not much time.  Hmmmm.

Beasho

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2020, 01:22:56 PM »
Great perspective. 

I have found with GoPro's and all the new camera angles they are GREAT!  World shattering.  Then everyone else catches on and you need the next extreme perspective to make it even cooler!

But this is pretty impressive technology.  Maybe throw a GoPro 360 on there and you can pan and zoom around in post production.

surfcowboy

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2020, 06:31:52 PM »
Beasho you’ve got it. A little bit of drone footage to punch up the GoPro.

One note on the 360 thing, especially for winging which is hard to get a good single mount point. The new Hero 9 has a Max Mod lens which lets it to horizon lock up even if the camera flips. So this means with a non-360 GoPro you can finally mount a camera on a wind wing and it will keep the horizon stable when you flip the wing. A boom mount in front or back will finally yield good footage the whole time.

Also there are no additional processing steps needed for the footage. It’s more limited, but also simpler, which I’ll take.

I think this may have helped me make my decision between the Hero and Max.

obxDave

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Re: Second try at selfie filming with the drone
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2020, 06:38:06 PM »
Nice.  The Skydio 2 is supposed to have 23 minute per battery but I am guessing maybe 18 to 20 minutes in wind?  It is taking me about 4 minutes to launch and get to a knee start location and about the same 4 to get out for a landing.  So I am figuring 10-12 minutes of riding time.  Not bad if I stay right by shore but that is flatwater.  A little dicey if I go over to the swell.  That adds 2-3 minutes each way.  Not much time.  Hmmmm.

You’re exactly right, wind reduces usable flight time, launching/landing eats up a chunk. Add in just one or two wipeouts and the whole filming session could be a bust. No doubt that over-water self filming can be challenging. On my particular drone there is no redundancy for the drone GPS, if it fails in flight, the drone is programmed to land straight down since it has no GPS signal to “return to home”.  Gone in an instant. And that’s just one possible failure mode

On my next try I will go for a lower altitude (10 ft), about 25 ft lateral distance, and a direct upwind compass orientation. That is a pretty decent location for fast launching and riding close enough to shore

Great perspective. 

I have found with GoPro's and all the new camera angles they are GREAT!  World shattering.  Then everyone else catches on and you need the next extreme perspective to make it even cooler!

But this is pretty impressive technology.  Maybe throw a GoPro 360 on there and you can pan and zoom around in post production.
There is a lot of talk about putting a 360 cam on a drone rather than using a 3 axis gimble. The biggest drawback is that even with something like a massive 8k Resolution, a 360 cam has to distribute it over the entire sphere.  By the time you crop and zoom in on the subject from any typical drone distance your final resolution goes to hell. For now 3-axis gimbles are the solution for drones, but that could change. Maybe they compromise and develop a half sphere cam. Technology is progressing at warp speed!
« Last Edit: October 06, 2020, 06:47:04 PM by obxDave »

 


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