Stedi-cam mount?

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I'm thinking that I'd like some kind of steadi-cam under my Phantom to hang my GoPro.

I know that most stedi-cams are designed to smooth out transitions when walking, etc., for hand-held work.

I took some video today and it was breezier than I'd like, so even though I was simply hovering at the angle I wanted to capture the footage, the footage turned out very shaky. Yes, I had GPS enabled, and I know that makes lots of micro-corrections. But without it, I'd have been sliding all over the place anyway.

So I was wondering if anyone has tried something hanging down below the Phantom that stabilizes the camera. I know most steadi-cams rely on some weight to counter-balance the camera, so that could be problematic.

Has anyone tackled this one?

Thanks!
 
So...

Maybe I'm wrong, but the Zenmuse doesn't really act like a steadi-cam. That just allows pivoting of the cam on two different axes, controlled by a remote, right? Am I missing something about the Zenmuse? True, it's got dampeners which will remove some of the vibration (gelling), but I'm talking more about shakes than vibrations, if that makes sense.

I'm thinking more like these, but smaller and lighter, mounted under the phantom:

http://www.diygopro.com/category/steadicams/

Is the Zenmuse 'reactive' in that it auto corrects, or does it only move based on what you tell it to do?
 
The Zenmuse as well as other "gimbal mounts" for the Phantom are all active dampeners that use sensors and motors to keep the camera level regardless of aircraft movement...up to the limits of the gimbal's range of motion of course...and smooth out the effects of motion. Most will also allow manual control input on one or more of the axis.

A steadicam is just a tradename for the kind of gimbal mount used on traditional video/movie cameras. Some gimbals have counterweights, some use motors, but they're all trying to achieve the same effects (level camera and smooth even motion)
 
TheMattSanner said:
So...

Maybe I'm wrong, but the Zenmuse doesn't really act like a steadi-cam. That just allows pivoting of the cam on two different axes, controlled by a remote, right? Am I missing something about the Zenmuse? True, it's got dampeners which will remove some of the vibration (gelling), but I'm talking more about shakes than vibrations, if that makes sense.

I'm thinking more like these, but smaller and lighter, mounted under the phantom:

http://www.diygopro.com/category/steadicams/

Is the Zenmuse 'reactive' in that it auto corrects, or does it only move based on what you tell it to do?

There is a whole slew of options (called gimbals) that will do exactly what you want - all of them are reactive to the horizon line such that they all keep the camera steady regardless of what the heli is doing. They also let you pitch them downward from the remote.

Zenmuse is the more expensive option, tarot and feiyu tech each make one for about $170, and there are a bunch of Chinese gimbals (often referred to as Goodluckbuy gimbals) for around $90.
 
I did, indeed, check Google, but alas, I was searching for the wrong thing. Looking for 'steadi cam' and 'steady cam' and 'stabilizer', etc., turned up many things, none of which were the things I was looking for. I didn't realize that a 'Gimbal' was the right term. Like I said, I thought that just provided the ability to change the camera angle via RC.

Now, thanks to the folks in this post, the scales have fallen from my eyes. This is totally helpful and will radically change my videos!!

Thanks!!
 
Traditional steadicam works by having a gimbal (pivot mount) with a counterbalance weight, to increase the camera's inertia against undesired movements. This won't do for (the relatively small) quadcopters, since we're very sensitive to any payload increase.

(Rough estimate = 1 second reduced flight time for every 1 gram additional payload)

So we use electronic gimbal which are wired to (electronic) gyroscopes.. which I think actually work better than their analog counterpart, in a much smaller and lighter package.
 

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