What's the use of POI flying in aerial photography.....???

[ChrisViperM]

Hello

Since a lot of FlightControls are capable of POI flying, I was wondering who in serious aerial filming is using it. So far I have played around with it and think it's a funny feature, but i don't have the fantasy to find out what it can do for me while shooting pic's or films....Cycling around an object is a feature which I think is useful, but POI....?

Maybe some pro's out there can shed a light on me....

 

[DennyR]

The rotational is one of my specialities and it hard to do properly. You focus on say a light house and zoom in a little, then as you rotate the background whizzes past in the opposite direction. It usually takes two people to get it right. Looks better if you are the same height as the subject and the background is nice.

Shooting towards the inside of a turn is always better than straight sideways tracking unless you are following something In-close.

 

[ChrisViperM]

yeah...that I understand....but I don't get the point in setting 5 different POI's, let's say 500m apart, like they do on a lot of promo videos for their products like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rTTJoZUXgo&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL05C472294A953CE5 ....so far I did not see any videos taking advantage of POI flying for filming....everyone is showing that POI flying works, but I didn't see any footage saying: We did this great aerial shoot by using POI....maybe my brain is just getting old.

Chris

 

[DennyR]

Chris
It still quite new technology so I guess the old pros are still doing it the old way with two operators. It will come soon enough. My Zen is back at the factory but it was on the list of things to do next.

 

[skivvie]

Chris
It still quite new technology so I guess the old pros are still doing it the old way with two operators. It will come soon enough. My Zen is back at the factory but it was on the list of things to do next.

Why's it back at the factory if ya don't mind me askin'?

 

[DennyR]

It fell into the sea. the reason is not yet clear why the motors stopped.

 

[skivvie]

It fell into the sea. the reason is not yet clear why the motors stopped.

Bummer. Just had mine drop as well, but luckily from a foot above grass, not because of motor stop... Will post in another thread details.

 

[jes1111]

Not sure what that particular feature does exactly but, in general, I agree with you that the geeks who design this stuff are not photographers. I see little evidence that they've even talked to a photographer before finalising their products. "This is the greatest gimbal ever made (but it only works with one particular camera with one particular lens)!" Oh, really? How great! Where's my cheque book?

 

[ChrisViperM]

...and I thought already I am stupid. So they want you to lay out about € 1.200,- for 50 waypoints, and the only thing you could do with it is watching your bird going from waypoint to waypoint ??? I just wonder how many people payed for it (the net is full with testimonial how well this feature works) just to find out it's not good for anything....strange world

Chris

 

[AerialVue]

One good use is repeating the same flight for a Director that wants re take after retake.. the birds flight is perfect but the target does not do what the director wants! If its programmed in then the bird flys the same speed height and heading. The subject can be filmed again again and again.


Photography. For say sand dune migration recording the bird can go the same place in a set sequence time and time again over a period of months and the migration rate can be calculated..


Crop fertiliser dosing can be checked and programmed in to the dispenser depending on growth patterns that can only be seen from the air. The bird flies the same field same flight time after time week after week. The data is programmed in to the sprayer and only certain areas of the field are re applied and others are ignored..


I could go on for ages.. Its a VERY valuable tool for companies like ours.

 

[ChrisViperM]

One good use is repeating the same flight for a Director that wants re take after retake.. the birds flight is perfect but the target does not do what the director wants! If its programmed in then the bird flys the same speed height and heading. The subject can be filmed again again and again.

I guess there is a lot more experienced directors than me to comment on this one.....

Photography. For say sand dune migration recording the bird can go the same place in a set sequence time and time again over a period of months and the migration rate can be calculated..

So far I did not see too many sand dune expert on this forum....

Crop fertiliser dosing can be checked and programmed in to the dispenser depending on growth patterns that can only be seen from the air. The bird flies the same field same flight time after time week after week. The data is programmed in to the sprayer and only certain areas of the field are re applied and others are ignored...

This makes some sense to me, but is rather highly specialized....I can't imagine that all the folks who laid out the money and post how great their waypoint feature works are fertiliser expert.

I could go on for ages.. Its a VERY valuable tool for companies like ours.

One of my points is: The advert text from one of companies who supply hardware capable of doing waypoints reads like this:

Aceone/WKM can be upgraded to Waypoint ground station providing a powerful UAV platform satisfying the demanding customer in meeting the real world challenge in AP.

I am a demanding customer, but how the heck do I meet the real world challenges with it...???

So please don't be offendet by my post and I am not saying it's useless, but I am just looking for people who can say: Thank god I got waypoints, otherwise I would not have been able to take this movie or photo...but in "normal" filming conditions....just looking for someone who can convince me that it is a wise investment and not a I-have-to-have-this-cause-its-a-cool gadget.


BTW: Your web page says: ERROR 404 - Not found

 

[AerialVue]

BTW: Your web page says: ERROR 404 - Not found

Thanks for the heads up.. Ill go check it out. Been having some server issues.

I guess there is a lot more experienced directors than me to comment on this one.....

Probably... ;-)

So far I did not see too many sand dune expert on this forum....

When you have invested as much time, effort and money as we have on this technology then you have to explore every income stream. So yes sand dunes, marsh flooding, estuary monitoring, stone circles, sheep movements, incident scene mapping.. you name it well do it.

This makes some sense to me, but is rather highly specialized.

Not really. it is regular practice to target fertilise. It saves thousands on fertiliser and saves over doing it and killing our waterways.

I aint offended in any way. Its just some people just seem to think of high end video cameras on a pole is the only use for these amazing craft. If you want to earn from them you need to exploit every aspect of their potential.

Aceone/WKM can be upgraded to Waypoint ground station providing a powerful UAV platform satisfying the demanding customer in meeting the real world challenge in AP.

I totally agree. it does. It depends on what AP you are talking about.

AV

 

[jes1111]

Ah - I understand now - it's just regular waypoint flying - I got bored in the first minute of that video so cut it

Re: aerial filming (as suggested) - I can see this would be useful if it had some particular capabilities:
- the ability to record a manual track (in all three dimensions) and repeat it (including manual camera movements)
- the ability to edit a track, for example shift it 10 meters left, alter the approach direction to a waypoint or increase a rate of climb
- the ability to mathematically smooth the track connecting any arbitrary number of waypoints, including a controllable smoothing factor
- the ability to program a rotational shot around a waypoint, allowing specification of start radius, growth factor, angular velocity, etc.
- the ability to mark no-fly zones and obstacles on the map whilst still allowing manual flight constrained by those markings

Need I go on? Not trying to be smug - but without such features I'd still call it a "toy feature" for this application.

For stills photography, my own field, I don't see any obvious use for it. What I do need is a single waypoint that can be moved on the map using a joystick or touch interface. The no-fly zones/hazards marking would be good for me too.