Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

good points studiowise, i suppose the vision has an advantage there, however you can set the gopro t timelapse, leaving you free to fly the p2 and concentrate on framing the shots you want, the gopro is wireless so in theory you can change settings with the gopro app, about 200m range, however this isnt advised as it operates on 2.4ghz. you can even capture video and timelapse at the same time, best of both worlds. been a keen ametuer photographer myself, i know the importance of keeping the camera steady whilst shooting, (at the end of the day the phantom is an elevated tripod), a 2 axis gimbal will always produce better results than a 1. on the downside gopro does not shoot raw, it shoots protune(gopro equivalent), and im not sure if these files are recognised in photoshop, hope this helps
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Studiowise said:
You're right Shrimpfarmer. Having had a gopro3 hanging under my Vision for a while, I've created a takeoff box with a hole cut out of it. With hand catching on landing it works fine so I plan to use this when my gimbal arrives.


Studiowise, what's the GP hanging on? A standalone gimbal or just a support plate?
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Studiowise said:
FPV col said:
Shrimpfarmer said:
Blimey its all starting to get a bit exciting now :lol: Its like waiting for the oscars to be announced, who is going to be the first to post some piccys and video :ugeek:

:lol:
Ha! i'm scanning all the forums and Facebook pages wondering who's going to reinforce / decimate my purchase decision!

Reinforce/decimate ! Think positive ;) as I'm sitting here typing this with my fingers and toes crossed :lol:
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Phantasmic said:
Studiowise said:
(I have vision and a GP3B)
Changing the FOV looses you pixels,

Re: GP3B, this is not correct.

Seriously, I REALLY don't want to start a war on this and it makes no difference to my life / family / business but I read up on this before investing in the GP3B and this seemed to be a definitive guide. http://abekislevitz.com/understanding-your-new-gopro/

"Let’s talk about sensor window captures and fields of view (FOV). This is where the Medium & Narrow FOVs come from. 1080P Medium only captures a window in the very middle of the sensor, meaning we don’t see the full wide angle of the camera lens – only that middle slightly distorted part. The raw capture is still larger than 1080P, so it still scales down after the capture. 1080P Narrow is an even smaller capture window at the very very middle of the sensor so the distortion is even less. By this time, the capture size is nearly equivalent to the pixel size where we are reading nearly 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels (remember the full sensor is 4000 pixels wide by 3000 pixels tall). In this narrow mode it’ll appear fuzzier since the pixels are very small on the sensor and are accompanied by a decent amount of noise. When we are reading more pixels there are image processes that are done to clean up this noise – and scaling helps a lot. With no scaling, the narrow mode is extremely zoomed in from the original (imagine grabbing the middle 30% of a gopro photo – that’s what your full 1080P video will be). This is very different from digital zoom because the final readout is still native, we’re not digitally increasing the video capture size at all"

This is just for video, the author also has a brilliant post for photo / stills. I use video extracts for panoramics so I looked into the video setting that would work best for distortion & resolution / sharpness
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Studiowise said:
Phantasmic said:
Studiowise said:
(I have vision and a GP3B)
Changing the FOV looses you pixels,

Re: GP3B, this is not correct.

Seriously, I REALLY don't want to start a war on this and it makes no difference to my life / family / business but I read up on this before investing in the GP3B and this seemed to be a definitive guide. http://abekislevitz.com/understanding-your-new-gopro/

"Let’s talk about sensor window captures and fields of view (FOV). This is where the Medium & Narrow FOVs come from. 1080P Medium only captures a window in the very middle of the sensor, meaning we don’t see the full wide angle of the camera lens – only that middle slightly distorted part. The raw capture is still larger than 1080P, so it still scales down after the capture. 1080P Narrow is an even smaller capture window at the very very middle of the sensor so the distortion is even less. By this time, the capture size is nearly equivalent to the pixel size where we are reading nearly 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels (remember the full sensor is 4000 pixels wide by 3000 pixels tall). In this narrow mode it’ll appear fuzzier since the pixels are very small on the sensor and are accompanied by a decent amount of noise. When we are reading more pixels there are image processes that are done to clean up this noise – and scaling helps a lot. With no scaling, the narrow mode is extremely zoomed in from the original (imagine grabbing the middle 30% of a gopro photo – that’s what your full 1080P video will be). This is very different from digital zoom because the final readout is still native, we’re not digitally increasing the video capture size at all"

This is just for video, the author also has a brilliant post for photo / stills. I use video extracts for panoramics so I looked into the video setting that would work best for distortion & resolution / sharpness

Perhaps it's just usage of wrong terms.

Reading that quote, it seems to me that it certainly does not 'lose pixel' in the sense that Gopro is cropping a smaller area of the sensor than the intended image to capture.... but without the normal downsampling process, this method results in poorer image quality\detail.
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

gpauk said:
Studiowise said:
You're right Shrimpfarmer. Having had a gopro3 hanging under my Vision for a while, I've created a takeoff box with a hole cut out of it. With hand catching on landing it works fine so I plan to use this when my gimbal arrives.


Studiowise, what's the GP hanging on? A standalone gimbal or just a support plate?

Its a support plate / standalone gimbal combined!
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Studiowise said:
Its a support plate / standalone gimbal combined!

Cool.... More details please? :)
What's the gimbal - a tarot or...?
Some close up photos maybe...?
Pretty please...?
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Phantasmic said:
Yes, Abe is the authority.

Changing the FOV on the GP3B still results in a 1920 X 1080 capture. There are no lost pixels in the output resolution. The number of pixels that are scaled is different but the output resolution remains the same.

Please read what I originally put in context.
I was not talking about video, I was talking about photography in the context that all the P2 & GoPro boys seem to think video is everything (read the post I was replying to and quoted).
I was trying to explain why we might buy an expensive gimbal to attach to a Vision rather than just buy a P2 with FPV & GP3B. Its because of it' s stills capture capability via the app control.
I have used my gopro3B in all of the modes for stills and if I use a reduced FOV from wide I AM NOT UTILISING THE FULL 4000 x 3000 set of pixels. For photography, I want the full set, the more I have, the more detail I have, the more options I have for panoramics etc. 1920x1080 is no use to me, give me the most I can have please. I AM NOT PRINTING VIDEO.
So to return to my original reason for posting, I would rather not have my props in view so i don't have to use a reduced FOV and I ultimately will have more pixels to play with.
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

gpauk said:
Studiowise said:
Its a support plate / standalone gimbal combined!

Cool.... More details please? :)
What's the gimbal - a tarot or...?
Some close up photos maybe...?
Pretty please...?

Oh no gpauk, please don't get excited! I think I may have misunderstood your enquiry :(
I have been waiting for the Dronexpert gimbal to arrive, yes for smooth video but also because I want to be able to do straight down shots (framed by and controlled by the Vision app before the P2 boys jump in!).
As the gimbal is taking waaaay longer than I'd hoped, I decided to attach my GoPro3B to my Vision. I am not a huge fan of modifications that are detrimental to the original craft so I prefer to create workaround a that mean I can reinstate everything should I decide to sell it in the future etc.
With this is mind, I searched for a vibration reduction chassis (some might call it a gimbal of sorts) like the one the vision camera is attached to that I could attached behind the vision camera assembly. I didn't want to screw it into the Vision frame so the one I went for was the one I've attached below. I thin attached it by sandwiching it between the frame and the vision camera gimbal using slightly longer screws. To allow for easy battery removal, the rear is held away from the frame although you could tape this or drill it if you were a purist.
Using various gopro mounts I have, I can point the GoPro straight down (sits above the legs so can land normally) or I can point it down and forward / backward in which case I use my take off launchbox and hand catch on return.
 

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Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

ok i get it so the vision camera uses the full sensor for photos, i understand that bit, but surely you wouldnt be happy shooting from a tripod at a wedding while a a young kid is kicking the legs ?, surely the foundation for good photos, is more than sensor size. Forgive me if im wrong , just even with the app capabilites, you frame your shot, adjust w/b, press the shutter, then because of the side wind you have to straighten the horizon in photoshop degrading quality, not starting a war, just asking peoples opinion!
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

shortyuk said:
ok i get it so the vision camera uses the full sensor for photos, i understand that bit, but surely you wouldnt be happy shooting from a tripod at a wedding while a a young kid is kicking the legs ?, surely the foundation for good photos, is more than sensor size. Forgive me if im wrong , just even with the app capabilites, you frame your shot, adjust w/b, press the shutter, then because of the side wind you have to straighten the horizon in photoshop degrading quality, not starting a war, just asking peoples opinion!

Oh blimey! Now we've added wedding photography :eek: :lol:

I wasn't talking at any point about the visions sensor, just it's capability to see the shot, make any exposure adjustments needed, change the metering, sharpness etc ALL WHILST IN THE AIR - LIVE!.

Now, because I sometimes create panoramics from individual frames of video rather than from individual stills taken, it helps if I have a gimbal to stabilise the semi-stable vision footage. I can't do that (as I type this) without using a 3rd party gimbal or I could buy a P2 and carry both around. It makes more sense to me to have one device airborne that can do it all. Until my gimbal arrives, I'm actually shooting stills with my vision and then using the gopro to shoot video and 5MP stills simultaneously but I never really know what I've got from the gopro until I get back to case. With the vision I can review all my shots on the SD card whilst STILL IN THE AIR and reshoot as necessary.

edited to add: I get what you're saying about horizontal cropping but if its that windy then i'm not flying and if it's slightly windy causing the Vision to lean into the wind to hold GPS then I switch to (S1) ATTI and allow it to drift flat before switching back to GPS whilst I review the shots.
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

its ok im just yanking your chain, both have their pros and cons :)
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Studiowise said:
Oh no gpauk, please don't get excited! I think I may have misunderstood your enquiry :(
I have been waiting for the Dronexpert gimbal to arrive, yes for smooth video but also because I want to be able to do straight down shots (framed by and controlled by the Vision app before the P2 boys jump in!).
As the gimbal is taking waaaay longer than I'd hoped, I decided to attach my GoPro3B to my Vision. I am not a huge fan of modifications that are detrimental to the original craft so I prefer to create workaround a that mean I can reinstate everything should I decide to sell it in the future etc.
With this is mind, I searched for a vibration reduction chassis (some might call it a gimbal of sorts) like the one the vision camera is attached to that I could attached behind the vision camera assembly. I didn't want to screw it into the Vision frame so the one I went for was the one I've attached below. I thin attached it by sandwiching it between the frame and the vision camera gimbal using slightly longer screws. To allow for easy battery removal, the rear is held away from the frame although you could tape this or drill it if you were a purist.
Using various gopro mounts I have, I can point the GoPro straight down (sits above the legs so can land normally) or I can point it down and forward / backward in which case I use my take off launchbox and hand catch on return.

Ah -- No probs.. I see what you did now and it's still nifty. Thanks for the info! Handy to have 2 cameras running!
I'm waiting to see how the dronexpert one works in practice.. it looks very good, albeit expensive, but it's well integrated with the PV. Hope you get the gimbal soon!!
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Phantasmic said:
Wow. You really seem to be wound up. There's no need to yell.
If you weren't typing about video then why the hell did you quote Abe's explanation of FOV as it relates to video?

We still going on this? ive not typed so much in ages but i will leave caps lock off - promise :)
I can also use individual video frames for panoramics etc. I often do this retrospectively when I review a piece of footage and think, "that pan from left to right would make a good panoramic". Now its better if I am using the full 4000 x 3000 pixels so I can run them through a defish lens adjustment, save the frames as individual images and the load them into photoshop as individual files that can be stitched together for the best panorama. I'm only going to type this once more (i hope!) - 1920x1080 will only ever give me a 1080 pixel high image file to work with. I can stretch it but isn't it far better to have 2000+ pixels even if i do lose some through a crop?
The reason I referenced Abe's stuff is because it was relevant to what I was trying to explain. Shortly after i reference Abe's webpage, I edited my post to say that the relevant bit about photography & stills is there also.

If you get a chance, watch this Adobe tutorial on GoPro3 video to panoramics - http://tv.adobe.com/watch/take-flight-i ... -3-images/ it describes what ive been trying to say way better than i obviously have managed to get over
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

iDrone. said:
As soon as another company will start to make a gimbal for PV for a more reasonable price, Dronexpert will drop the price.

I hope so... The video does look pretty freaking good though... looks like 4 mins or so time loss which is completely acceptable to me for the result you achieve.

Didn't I read somewhere about DJI releasing there gimbal for the Vision in Feb 2014? I cant remember where I saw this, but i'm sure I read it... Curious to see if its to use a gopro or the built-in Vision camera...

Anyone know the status of RotorPixel's P2V gimbal?
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

It looks like they are delayed again. I wonder about those who shipped without the 7th channel, will they be able to add it later or are they screwed ? I feel bad for them if they don't have that feature.

We had some delay with an incoming shipping for the 7th channel parts. The first batch of gimbals without 7th channel already have been send. Goal is to start this week with the shipping of gimbals with 7th channel.
 
Re: New video Dronexpert gimbal for Phantom Vision

Geert said:
I am also in contact with RotorPixel.
Two days ago I asked them about the status, no answer yet.
As soon as I have news I will post here.

Geert.

Same here I think I like the Rotorpixle set up a little better. Hard to say. I am curious to see final price and how it ends up working.

J

Dronexpert Vid
https://vimeo.com/83419437

Rotorpixle vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdtE2FZc9_A
 

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