DIY camera mount on skids of S800...

[schwett]

i plan to use my S800 for aerial stills which will be used (among other things) in architectural visualizations. there is typically heavy editing involved and the opportunity to use very fast shutter speeds so i'm not too worried about vibration and i'm not at all worried about having servo/gimbal control from a fpv setup. this is new to me so i'm keeping it simple - a camera mounted on the copter taking a picture every second for the duration of the flight. next i'll wire a remote trigger to channel 7 or 8 of the receiver using one of those little turnigy switches, but not yet.
eventually i'll be lifting a heavy camera and lens combo, but for now i'm starting with a smaller camera - 450-600 grams depending on the lens.
this is the mount i made:

it's a combination of tube stock and a couple 3d printed (fdm of abs nylon, very strong and resilient) fittings. there's a cork covered mounting plate for the camera with a captive 1/4-20 standard tripod mount screw that's accessed through holes in the fitting and tube. it can be slid forward and back on the legs to balance the copter and rotated around the camera's long axis if desired, but it's really designed to be used straight ahead. as shown here the camera has to be pretty far forward to balance the battery:

so...... is this a terrible idea? i know most video mounts are directly in the center of the platform and a gimbal setup to keep rotations around the axis of the camera. but if vibration isn't really an issue (i am assuming the thing won't vibrate/move enough to blur a shot with a wide angle lens at 1/2000s or so), why not keep it simple and away from the legs and props?
i haven't flown with this attached yet. any reason not to?

 

[AboveAllAP]

Looks ok still think vibration could be a real issue also being almost at lowest point it will be easily damaged in rough landings or a crash... I also assume it not being perfectly level for every shot is not going to be an issue

 

[Benjamin Kenobi]

I also think vibration will be an issue. But give it a go and see what happens. Maybe you'll be lucky. It's not just vibration but as AboveAllAP mentioned the movement of the aircraft as it will be making constant corrections to stay in one place, unless there is no wind.

Good luck.

 

[CrashMaster]

An AV downlink would be a great advantage to a screen so you can frame shots from the ground and a remote shutter release.

Without the AV downlink the shots will be guess work and more flights to get the shots.
A remote shutter release would allow you to take the shots you want/need without setting it off on time lapse and ploughing through a whole card of shots for the 4 you need.

A lot of this is suck and see. If it does what you want as it is then go with it.

 

[schwett]

thanks for the feedback everyone. i suppose I'll give it a go. is anyone using camranger for remote camera control (vs the radio downlinks from the camera's video port?)

as soon as i'm comfortable that I can lift a bigger camera, I'll give that a try if the "spray and pray" approach isn't working.

first I need to get the thing flying correctly. :/

 

[ddikie]

thanks for the feedback everyone. i suppose I'll give it a go. is anyone using camranger for remote camera control (vs the radio downlinks from the camera's video port?)

as soon as i'm comfortable that I can lift a bigger camera, I'll give that a try if the "spray and pray" approach isn't working.

first I need to get the thing flying correctly. :/

I do a lot of similar photography ( for property companies) and i have found some control and stabilisation does help quite a bit, we have been experimenting with NEX7 / Zenmuse to do panos and the stitch really well..upgraded the lens to 12mm Tuit Ziess and we are getting very good results..I know its a lot more money in the investment initially but you have a lot more framing options and accuracy and the images are plenty big enough for the clients once stitched.

Take care