On Saturday we had perfect conditions here in Ballarat, Australia, to give the P3P its first night time test. Our local rail station is quite an impressive building and once they turn the lights on around dusk it looks great, so I thought it would make a great test location for the P3P's improved low light capabilities. So I send Ralf (I had to name it something for the initial set up!) up nice and high, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible (which is pretty hard with people walking by you constantly!) when half way through the flight I see a couple of policemen making there way over to me. Getting ready to being it straight down, they came over and we spent a few minutes talking about the whole thing...they were really interested and had no concerns at all! One of them commented on the fact that there are now pretty strict rules for filming around rail stations in general, more so down in Melbourne than where I was, though Ballarat is a 100,000 people city, but they couldn't see anything wrong with what I was doing. And once I showed them the live view they were blown away by the whole thing, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking at getting one themselves! I was actually parked in a no parking zone and one of them joked about ticketing me for that!
I've had the P3P up every day for 4 days so far (I had to wait 6 days for the wind to drop after I first got it). The main aim for me is as a stills camera and initially I have been quite disappointed with the quality as I have been flying a P2V+ for 6 months, however the quality of the images I got in these conditions is starting to sway me and maybe I just need to work on the settings a bit more.
I've had the P3P up every day for 4 days so far (I had to wait 6 days for the wind to drop after I first got it). The main aim for me is as a stills camera and initially I have been quite disappointed with the quality as I have been flying a P2V+ for 6 months, however the quality of the images I got in these conditions is starting to sway me and maybe I just need to work on the settings a bit more.