Which one's for you...
Having returned from NAB and seeing an incredible amount of aerial machines, QUADs Hex, OCTO, ie. 4, 6, 8 & 12 blade copters soaring with everything from GoPro's to Reds to SONY cams I feel inspired, no make that obligated to take a quick look at some of them. Also from a human safety perspective I'd rather have my feet planted on good ole TERRA FIRMA after losing 3 good friends to helicopter filming accidents and let these incredible RC machines go up there and do the work!!
So fasten your seat belt prepare for Takeoff and.... oh yeah... that's right they're heading into the sky not I ! So many options and configurations and should I or shouldn't I BUILD IT! So let's take a look at the RTF, yep you guessed it Ready To Fly offerings:
DJI Phantom Quadcopter $679.00
A great place to satisfy your curiousity and wet your appetite for aerial photography and film. All you need is a GoPro to snap into it's mount and your all set. You can watch the copters flight through the eyes of the GoPro as it transmits it's video to your iPhone or iPad device. After flying this you may be ready for next steps below...
Freefly Cinestar 8 $10800.00
Now Freefly is quite the innovator as they are the first to allow this type of multi-use technology between their copter and the Handheld camera gimbal the MoVI. At $10,800.00 you get pretty much everything you need. See earlier blog on MoVi.
Flightcopter FC12-950 HexaKoax-Cinema $24,900.00
At this price point rest assured that it's configured with EVERYTHING you would ever need to fly and shoot except for the camera of course.The FC12-950 HexaKoax-Cinema as well as the Octo Cinema are certainly our most high-end products. It gets cameras with a weight of 4kg (8.8 lbs) airborne and still has ample reserve power. With its 12 motors it has the sound of a Formula 1 car and also provides a high degree of redundancy.
Black Armored Drone $53000.00
Who are these guys?"We googled them and got only one hit?? We spotted it at NAB 2013 hanging from above in RED's booth!
It's truly an awesome looking machine but $49000 base price
? No camera gimbal system or video downlink included, chalk on another 4000.00 to get it fully functional. Seems a bit ridiculous to me looking at the price to functionality ratio. Their
website has no useful information not even a
spec sheet...How about some payload
discussion people...From the website:"The payload capacity is extraordinary – professional camera and lens
combos with filters and follow focus (e.g. RED Epic + Masterprime + rods
+ follow focus + filter)." How about the actual weight in LBs, KG for payload...
They're asking twice the price of their nearest competitor, flycopter.com which can support almost 10lbs, RED, SONY F55 etc...or 5 times the price of the Cinestar 8!
OK they were in the RED booth, RED=CLOUT !?!?V ery surprising that they have no marketing collateral to backup from their brief description what must be the most incredibly built copter to date. Yes I am purely basing this assumption on the price point. They're website does not have enough information about the product to explain why it would be so worthy of this kings ransom. Why is that? so in summary, well, we really need more info from your company. How about it...
SCHIEBEL CAMCOPTER S-100 ! Wow way out of my league and I'll assume yours but so worth looking at and mentioning the Schiebel Camcopter S-100. Highly versatile and reliable. Come on we can all dream BIG! Yeah that's what I'm talkin about! Rent it for 400.00/hour!
SUMMARY
OK so here's a checklist to help you with making your purchase decision.
RENT ONE
Oh yeah, that's right, you can just go out and rent any of these from Aerial film companies from $1000.00-$3500.00/day... Here's a few:
BRAIN FARM...everywhere
Mi6 Films in So Cal.
Skycam USA in NY
Having returned from NAB and seeing an incredible amount of aerial machines, QUADs Hex, OCTO, ie. 4, 6, 8 & 12 blade copters soaring with everything from GoPro's to Reds to SONY cams I feel inspired, no make that obligated to take a quick look at some of them. Also from a human safety perspective I'd rather have my feet planted on good ole TERRA FIRMA after losing 3 good friends to helicopter filming accidents and let these incredible RC machines go up there and do the work!!
So fasten your seat belt prepare for Takeoff and.... oh yeah... that's right they're heading into the sky not I ! So many options and configurations and should I or shouldn't I BUILD IT! So let's take a look at the RTF, yep you guessed it Ready To Fly offerings:
DJI Phantom Quadcopter $679.00
A great place to satisfy your curiousity and wet your appetite for aerial photography and film. All you need is a GoPro to snap into it's mount and your all set. You can watch the copters flight through the eyes of the GoPro as it transmits it's video to your iPhone or iPad device. After flying this you may be ready for next steps below...
Freefly Cinestar 8 $10800.00Now Freefly is quite the innovator as they are the first to allow this type of multi-use technology between their copter and the Handheld camera gimbal the MoVI. At $10,800.00 you get pretty much everything you need. See earlier blog on MoVi.
Flightcopter FC12-950 HexaKoax-Cinema $24,900.00
At this price point rest assured that it's configured with EVERYTHING you would ever need to fly and shoot except for the camera of course.The FC12-950 HexaKoax-Cinema as well as the Octo Cinema are certainly our most high-end products. It gets cameras with a weight of 4kg (8.8 lbs) airborne and still has ample reserve power. With its 12 motors it has the sound of a Formula 1 car and also provides a high degree of redundancy.
It icludes a 2-Axis Head (only Pitch and Roll) or for an extra 400.00 they'll add a 3-Axis Head (Pitch, Roll, Pan) and you will need a second cameraman
Black Armored Drone $53000.00
Who are these guys?"We googled them and got only one hit?? We spotted it at NAB 2013 hanging from above in RED's booth!
They're asking twice the price of their nearest competitor, flycopter.com which can support almost 10lbs, RED, SONY F55 etc...or 5 times the price of the Cinestar 8!
OK they were in the RED booth, RED=CLOUT !?!?V ery surprising that they have no marketing collateral to backup from their brief description what must be the most incredibly built copter to date. Yes I am purely basing this assumption on the price point. They're website does not have enough information about the product to explain why it would be so worthy of this kings ransom. Why is that? so in summary, well, we really need more info from your company. How about it...
SCHIEBEL CAMCOPTER S-100 ! Wow way out of my league and I'll assume yours but so worth looking at and mentioning the Schiebel Camcopter S-100. Highly versatile and reliable. Come on we can all dream BIG! Yeah that's what I'm talkin about! Rent it for 400.00/hour!SUMMARY
OK so here's a checklist to help you with making your purchase decision.
- Can I fly it? Am I qualified. Training?
- How many operators required to fly & operate camera
- Overall Ease of use, assembly, pack up and repair
- PAYLOAD-What can it safely carry like my dog or cat...oh yeah the latest greatest camera
- Motors-Wattage, more can mean higher payload
- Airframe:Larger Carbon fiber arms needed for bigger loads
- Remote video downlink included, extra?
- Flight Range Altitude (Vertical) & Distance (Horizontal)
- Flight time
- Low Battery Warning
- GPS return to liftoff point, hands free operation
- SAFETY RECORD...Hey it's got my 10,000.00 camera hanging on it. OK I don't expect a report from the FAA or NTSB but what is the MTBF, mean-time-between -failure
- Replacement parts
- Balancing, calibrating, navigating etc...
RENT ONE
Oh yeah, that's right, you can just go out and rent any of these from Aerial film companies from $1000.00-$3500.00/day... Here's a few:
BRAIN FARM...everywhere
Mi6 Films in So Cal.
Skycam USA in NY
Just go out and rent a Schiebel at 400/hour !!
I really thankful to you for this great read!! You did a very great job, keep it up.
ReplyDeletequad parts California
Hi great read, I can't access the DLI Phantom Quadcopter link?
ReplyDeleteAs has autonomy Black armored drone?
ReplyDelete