Best set up for sony FS700 + other questions

Nugget

Member
hi everyone,

I want to start an aerial video drone business based on Sony FS700 image quality. But... I am total newbie in multi rotor flying machines. So I have a few questions. First : is it realistic to start a business when you don't know **** about flying a drone? My idea is to buy a ready to fly kit and learn from scratch. I am also a professional videographer, so making good images is my job (this might help in the case of aerial video, but I can be wrong?) But I live in a country where I might not find any experimented drone operator, so I will probably learn all alone and work with someone like me to do the daily operations...

Well, in any case, I know flying a heavy cam like FS700 will cost me a leg or an arm or both. Is it OK to learn flying alone with a let's say 20k set up in the sky? Or is it absolutely stupid and risky?

How hard and long is the learning curve?

Apart from that, if I decide myself to buy the drone, what would be the ideal set up for a 3kg camera? I'd like to spend max 20k for a complete ready to fly drone. Again, is it realistic?

Thanks for your time, and if you have any suggestion I'd be very glad to hear from you guys.

Cheers
 

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Hi Nugget,

one could write an essay about this and than again it wouldnt answer anything. The best way is that you answer the questions yourself by experiencing what this is all about. What i mean by that is buy yourself a kit for a small quad and build it. Once finished and during the build you will get an answer what you need (skill wise) to fly it what the time wise investment is to build them and maintain them ! And than double triple that for a copter that can carry a 3kg cam. What ever way your experience went you didn't waste that much money. Buying a setup for a 3 kg cam and crashing it or figuring that the maintenance just take to much time will cost you more.

There will probably be dealer that will happily sell you a ready to fly copter for a 3kg cam, but with no experience you will be lost !

Boris
 

Nugget

Member
Thanks,

That's what I thought, I'll start then with a cheap set up i will assemble my self to figure it out! Thanks for your good advice.
 

Hi nugget,

I know this is a little off topic but how much experience do you have with the Sony FS700? Reason I'm asking, I was involved with a shot not to long ago where they were using one of these cameras and one thing nobody could figure out is why the camera could not shoot for longer than 20 second at 1080p 240fps. The file sizes were not massive but the camera did it every time after 20 seconds it would stop to buffer the filmed material.

And with regards to your other questions, I agree with Kloner start small as even the best pilots still get it wrong every now and then and you don't want to start by crashing a very big expensive MultiRotor.

Regards,

Andre
 

Nugget

Member
FS700 is limited to 8 sec clip at 240 fps, it then convert it to 80 sec of 24p footage in the final clip. There are no ways to do differently. But i guess it's exactly the same for RED epic. Impossible to shoot continuous super slow motion.

As for the advices... Thanks I am sure you are right. But I'd like to explain my situation a little bit more, it might help. I have a serie of 4 x52min documentaries to come where I have a lot of aerial shots, I budgeted around 30k of 1:1 helicopter. My deal is either to invest in this kind of aerial work or to invest in a good drone that would be mine and with which I can do a supplementary business. Of course that would be stupid to crash a 20k machine within the first days... Or not be able to shoot quality pictures with it... But here is what I found :
http://www.aericam.com/shop/aericam-x6-ready-to-fly/
this looks like a good copter, but i might then again be wrong as I am not experimented at all. The thing i find intersting in their kit is : the price, and their simulator + their mini test drone to practice before you fly the big one. What do you guys think of this machine?
 

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Cant say anything about it ! Its not that known. You have to be careful their are resellers out there that will just sell you crap ! Best is to find a reseller in your area that has a reputation in the forums and who really has experience with big cameras. With this investment I would also go there and check out how the reseller works etc.

have you ever flown a heli or do you have any experience with RC stuff ?

And it not just the copter. Its the camera gimbal the vibration isolation the IMU that drives the camera gimbal etc, your ground station setup, two man op setup and that not even touching the copter yet !
 
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Nugget

Member
No experience at all with RC flying...

I live in a country where there are no reseller and no RC community.

The closest reseller I can find is Droidworx in New Zealand. They seems a little bit more known than Aericam.
 

BorisS

Drone Enthusiast
Droidworx is like the mercedes when it come to copters. Write them a mail or given them a ring. They are very nice and certainly now what they are talking about. They make one of the most commonly used frames for taking up REDs and bigger sony, called the Skyjib.
 

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
My friend owns Aericam and thats what we used on Gymkhana 5. It is a beast and has many great features. I know I wrote this already in the PM but in order of things to buy/do:

1.read up as much as you can on the forum. Good part is you found the best place/people on earth to help you out with this.
2. simulator, anything just to get you the basic controls down, and if you are one of those people that are good with video games, then you probably wont even need it.
3. get a ladybird or a blade mqx, something small and durable. My fold-n-fly would work but you need to add components so it would cost more.
4. fly the crap out of that thing until left,right, nose in orientations are all comfortable. trust me, when you have that much money in the air you fly differently than you will the small quad. Notice the guys showing off their epic helis never fly more than 10' away?
5. investigate controllers. Many go the DJI toute. I say if you are doing fs700 shots or LOS mostly, definitely use Hoverfly. Rosk solid and buttery smooth, less features=less to go wrong(sorta).
6. choose your weapon. based on location and upgradability, the droidworx skyjib may be your best bet. Large in the sky is great for orientation, sucks for travelling. Coax will do the job, expect 15% loss in lift/efficiency.
7. if all goes well, order everything you need and get it all in front of you. Study everything. Learn about lipos, chargin, discharging, storage, capacities, how to use ecalc.
8. Biggest and most common solution for flying issues. Learn how gains effect your heli and different flying weights. Learn about disc loading. In general flying a smaller prop faster will rid of jello and do better in wind. but when you are lifting 6-12 camera/lenses I think thngs change. You need to balance the crap out of everything. You will be spinning large props slower to get that efficiency and lift you need. Some guys do it on 4s but most use 6s.
9. freak out! because you just spent $15-20k on a heli minus the $10k camera, still dont have a back up heli, need that GH3 and lenses, LANCs, gyros, remotes, monitors, fpv gear,extra motors,esc's, props, lots of lipos, and cases for all that stuff.

:)

we're here to help, even if that means scaring you a little bit first.

Yuri
 

Nugget

Member
Thanks so much for your insight,

I think I am a freak when it comes to learning, i would never buy an expensive piece of gear without a good understanding of at least the theorical part. As for the practical part, I am more than willing to do at least a week of training somewhere with a professional RC operator, even in the US if needed.
Now, I am very seduced by Aericam X6 as it seems to be a very stable and reliable machine ( plus the price in which I can add a week of training instaed of buying a 20k Droidworx) My concern would now be : maintenance and spare parts. Is it a safer choice for me to work with a NZ based company like Droidworx, knowing the fact that anyway shpping costs are still high...
I will probably work with a GH3 first before flying FS700. And maybe one more question regarding the weight of X6. It sounds better to have a heavier machine for stability and transmissions reasons, and safety in general. Or is it a simple subjective point of view?
 


DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
Weight is relative. Thats disc loading. As i always make the same analogy, give a pigeon the wings of a condor and it will glide well but when it gets hit by a small gust of wind it gets carried away. A fly can somehow fly through 20mph winds, right? I wouldnt base your purchase off of location only. the G10 rfi issues are really only going to show if you are flying very far away. if you are flying anything of value I doubt your gonna be fpv'ing it.

Your realistic options are:

1. Droidworx skyjib
2. Cinestar
3. USDrones XY8
4. Aericam.

I personally think you want 8 motors minimum. Not so much for lifting but for redundancy.
 

Nugget

Member
So Droidwrox as number one choice? Or your order is random?
Anyway, Im going to investigate...
thanks also to Jim for your thread...


 

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