Canon 5D markii - aerial photograhy
- Thread starter Dixon
- Start date
I have quite a bit of experience with aerial photography using fixed wings aircraft and helicopters.
However, I am very new to aerial photography using a drone. I am picking up a hexacopter next week and my
biggest concern with the 5d markii is obtaining focus and correct exposure while I am on the ground and the
camera in the air. While shooting from an aircraft, I always used a shutter speed of 1/1000 and let the apeture fall
where it needed to. What are your suggestions while using a drone to capture images correctly?
Thanks,
****son
However, I am very new to aerial photography using a drone. I am picking up a hexacopter next week and my
biggest concern with the 5d markii is obtaining focus and correct exposure while I am on the ground and the
camera in the air. While shooting from an aircraft, I always used a shutter speed of 1/1000 and let the apeture fall
where it needed to. What are your suggestions while using a drone to capture images correctly?
Thanks,
****son
You can leave autofocus engaged but I prefer to tape down the focus (exactly where depends on focal length), take an appropriate spot reading (blue sky or grass/leaves) and set the camera to full manual, shooting raw and auto-bracketing half- or 2/3 stops both sides. That's one reason I prefer the Nikon D300, D800, etc - nine-shot bracketing built in. Auto exposure is a crap shoot - I don't favour it. If you do use it, remember to block off the viewfinder eyepiece. I find it much easier to deal with the raws back at base if they are all covering the same EV range.
Thanks for that information. The tape is an excellent idea. I will need to run some tests comparing auto-focus vs manual with the tape. The lens I will be shooting with will be a Canon 28mm so I will probably set the
focus at infinity and tape it in place. Another question I have is about FPV's involvement with Canon's live view. Does FPV feed off of the live view that Canon provides or does it bypass live view and feed from another source within the camera?
Thanks,
Dixon
focus at infinity and tape it in place. Another question I have is about FPV's involvement with Canon's live view. Does FPV feed off of the live view that Canon provides or does it bypass live view and feed from another source within the camera?
Thanks,
Dixon
kloner
Aerial DP
we typically run the shutter double the frame rate and nd filter the lens back to it's sweet spot with nd's for video....
Your last question doesn't make since, fpv video tx has nothing to do with the camera, it has an input like it was a cable sd feed. you would want a shutter trigger to snap pics with an degree of accuracy.... most aerials are done at infinity focus
Your last question doesn't make since, fpv video tx has nothing to do with the camera, it has an input like it was a cable sd feed. you would want a shutter trigger to snap pics with an degree of accuracy.... most aerials are done at infinity focus
Mojave
Member
Regarding FPV through the canon; I spoke to a canon representative two weeks ago. They said that I could use the AV or HDMI jack; but it will only stay on for 29 minutes (a 5D2 limitation). With the 5D3 this is not an issue and I understand with magic lantern (www.magiclantern.fm) this limitation goes away. You can transmit via the AV jack to a transmitter or convert the HDMI into video and transmit this. I understand that the converted HDMI is a higher quality video signal. I have not done this yet but I believe that the camera battery will be used to produce the 'live view' like signal, be prepared to swap batteries frequently.
I wouldn't try using a camera's Liveview for FTP flying - b-i-i-i-i-g delay in there. The Liveview display on most Canon/Nikon DSLRs is not actually video but a stream of JPGs. Don't know if that's changed on latest models with more video capabilities built in. Can you get Liveview through the HDMI port? I connect to the USB port on my cameras and beam the Liveview to the ground over wifi to a laptop.
Hey Kloner,
You are way over my head with your first statement, can you dumb that down a bit?
I guess I am trying to find out if the live view from the 5D markii is transmitted down to the ground station which inturn creates the FPV on the ground station monitor. If this isn't the case, do I even need to use Live View?
Thanks,
Dixon
Hey Mojave,
Thanks for the input. This all very good info. If I am not mistaken, the battery life on the hexacopter is 10 to 12 minutes so the 29 minutes for FPV wont come into play. I have heard about magic lantern but keep forgetting to look into it. Thanks for the reminder. The group thats building the copter told me about the need to convert the HDMI signal into SD so apparently they are leaning towards the higher quality signal. I am still a bit confused about "live view" and its need in aerial photography. I am coming to the conclusion that it may not be needed at all.
Thanks,
****son
Thanks for the input. This all very good info. If I am not mistaken, the battery life on the hexacopter is 10 to 12 minutes so the 29 minutes for FPV wont come into play. I have heard about magic lantern but keep forgetting to look into it. Thanks for the reminder. The group thats building the copter told me about the need to convert the HDMI signal into SD so apparently they are leaning towards the higher quality signal. I am still a bit confused about "live view" and its need in aerial photography. I am coming to the conclusion that it may not be needed at all.
Thanks,
****son
EastCoastJib
Member
Your best approach is to use two cameras .. 5D to compose your shots... and another FPV camera, so you can see where your flying (orientation). There are some video tx that will let you switch between cams. Depending on which OSD or VTX you use.
Edit to add... You don't have to have the 2nd cam for FPV.. But it sure is nice for confidence. Regardless, I wouldn't use the 5D for orientation unless you always know where the gimbal is relative to the core.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Edit to add... You don't have to have the 2nd cam for FPV.. But it sure is nice for confidence. Regardless, I wouldn't use the 5D for orientation unless you always know where the gimbal is relative to the core.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Kloner's talking about video - the principles are a little different: take your desired frame rate, say 25fps - set the shutter for double that, i.e. 1/50th (gives the right "look" to the video) - for a given amount of light, set your aperture to give correct exposure - on a sunny day that may not be possible, so add ND filter(s) to bring the light down so that f/8-ish (the lens' sweet spot) gives the correct exposure.
FPV stands for First Person View - i.e. actually flying the aircraft based on the view of a small video camera in the nose - often beyond line of sight. I don't think you'll want to do that for stills work. Generally you'll be close to the subject you're photographing, so a wifi link can bring the camera's Liveview down to a laptop or tablet. But this would really need a two-person crew - one to fly the aircraft (visually, within line of sight) and one to concentrate on the camera work. You don't need the Liveview - a common technique (particularly for single operator) is to set the camera to take pictures at regular intervals, say every 10 seconds - or to have a switch rigged to the camera so you can fire the shutter on command. There's no out-of-the-box solution for this - and many different ways of doing it. The wifi link is not easy to achieve - most RC radios operate on 2.4GHz as does "standard" wifi - so you need to use 5GHz wifi and some fancy antennas. Did someone tell you all this would be easy?
Hey Jes1111,
What is the purpose of Live View? I am not sure I understand its relevance concerning still photography other that the obvious. It would be something else if you could manipulate exposure with it (ground station to copter) but I am not sure you can do that yet. I can test the 5D tomorrow with a USB cable and see if the it will send live view to my laptop via the cable. I will let you know what happens.
Thanks for your input,
Dixon
What is the purpose of Live View? I am not sure I understand its relevance concerning still photography other that the obvious. It would be something else if you could manipulate exposure with it (ground station to copter) but I am not sure you can do that yet. I can test the 5D tomorrow with a USB cable and see if the it will send live view to my laptop via the cable. I will let you know what happens.
Thanks for your input,
Dixon
Hey jes1111,
Thanks for clearing up Kloner's message, I thought it might have something to do with video. The group building the copter for me have installed a switch to fire the camera on command. I requested this so that I would be able to work as a single operator. The radio/transmitter operates on 5.8ghz so I think I am ok in that department. Thank you very much for clearing up the live view issue I was having.
When you get a minute can you take a look at this site (link below) I recently found concerning exposure. This outfit in Turkey has created a device that remotely controls exposure and focus - Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Dixon
http://www.flytron.com/rc-shutters/226-eos-control-focusexp-video-rec.html
Thanks for clearing up Kloner's message, I thought it might have something to do with video. The group building the copter for me have installed a switch to fire the camera on command. I requested this so that I would be able to work as a single operator. The radio/transmitter operates on 5.8ghz so I think I am ok in that department. Thank you very much for clearing up the live view issue I was having.
When you get a minute can you take a look at this site (link below) I recently found concerning exposure. This outfit in Turkey has created a device that remotely controls exposure and focus - Let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Dixon
http://www.flytron.com/rc-shutters/226-eos-control-focusexp-video-rec.html
Hey EastCoastJib,
These are some very good points. I realized this today as I was reading online about a pilot who pancaked his copter via FPV. Everything looked stable until he plowed. This made me wonder if there is a locking mechanism that might lock the gimbal in place so your FPV is accurate, then release the gimbal when you are ready to shoot?
Thanks,
Dixon
These are some very good points. I realized this today as I was reading online about a pilot who pancaked his copter via FPV. Everything looked stable until he plowed. This made me wonder if there is a locking mechanism that might lock the gimbal in place so your FPV is accurate, then release the gimbal when you are ready to shoot?
Thanks,
Dixon
You can control the camera remotely using Canon EOS Utility - just hook a USB cable from a computer to the camera and run the software - you get full control of ISO, shutter speed, aperture, focussing, etc and a "liveview" screen. Optionally, each time you take a picture it is downloaded to the computer so you can check what you got. The tricky part is substituting a wifi link for that cable so you've got that two-way link to the camera from the ground. If the camera has wifi built in then you could do it with a wifi repeater. If not you have to get a USB-to-ethernet converter and hook that to a wifi link. This is the ultimate solution for stills work - but two caveats: 1) dangerous territory, because you don't want to compromise your 2.4GHz RC control over the aircraft! and 2) really needs two people on the grounbd to be safe. Consult a wifi expert.
Looks like an interesting device but for that money you could generate the solution outlined above. This Flytron thing also looks like it needs two people on the ground - with two RC radios, one controlling the aircraft and one for the camera.
On FPV, I think you're still labouring - it's completely separate from your DSLR. An FPV camera is a tiny little thing bolted to the frame, not to a gimbal (otherwise you'll get disoriented like the example you gave above). http://www.getfpv.com/fat-shark-600tvl-cmos-cam.html
By the way - have you flown a multirotor before? And what Flight Controller do you have on your new machine?
Hey Jes1111,
I have been shooting remotely with the Canon 1ds markii for quite some time. If the 1ds has a live view I never used it simply because the EOS Utility lays down the image on my laptop via a firewire and does exactly what you said. My biggest concern with FPV is not that I want to navigate with it, although that would be nice, but I need to be able to frame my shot effectively. So in essence, I need to have FPV running through the camera (5d markii). I checked out the link to fat shark and that is definitely an option that I am open to. As far as flying multirotors, I have been practicing with the Phantom 1 and working with Real Flight simulator on the computer for about 2 months. The flight controller for the hexacopter is a DJI Wookong-M-FlightControl.
Thanks,
Dixon
I have been shooting remotely with the Canon 1ds markii for quite some time. If the 1ds has a live view I never used it simply because the EOS Utility lays down the image on my laptop via a firewire and does exactly what you said. My biggest concern with FPV is not that I want to navigate with it, although that would be nice, but I need to be able to frame my shot effectively. So in essence, I need to have FPV running through the camera (5d markii). I checked out the link to fat shark and that is definitely an option that I am open to. As far as flying multirotors, I have been practicing with the Phantom 1 and working with Real Flight simulator on the computer for about 2 months. The flight controller for the hexacopter is a DJI Wookong-M-FlightControl.
Thanks,
Dixon
Mojave
Member
I am off about the live view as noted above - my bad. I am very interested in aerial stills; and in the process of building a UAV to lift my 5D. Others here have more experience. I do agree that the 29 minute barrier does not come into play until we get micro fuel cells to power our UAVs!
Mojave
Member
I don't want to stray to far...but I am going to build a HexaCrafter 1100L with U7s. I want it to lift my 5D2; thus my interest in this topic. I would like to get a different perspective in my in my still photography.
I am keenly interested in your thread and have been thinking about FPV via the main camera on the gimbal or adding another transmitter and a camera like a go pro for perspective while flying or something else.