Longer (6mm & 8mm) PixAero Lenses Now Available!

[B Scott]

Rubik,
If you go to eBay and click on the "Pixaero [85*]" and then on your review. they have added the following answer...


Wrong lens mount with lens. Contacted pixAero right away, no response. Buyer:

e *** i (34

)
Last month

• Reply pixaero (12:03:18 15:02):
  Now we are completing our lenses with new elongated lens holders. Contact us.

If nothing else they now recognise that there was a problem and are doing their best to rectify it. I know that comes a bit late for you but it is good to know that things have taken a turn for the better. I must say that though initial contact with them was a little slow but changed very quickly and all the other replies I got from them were very swift indeed. I do have the impression that they are now aware of the importance of customer satisfaction and are doing their best to make inroads into another prospective branch of the market.

 

[B Scott]

Well, I just dismantled my 2nd hand CGO3+ and put on the PixAero 6mm lens. A couple of things I did notice... The dreaded 4 tiny wires that easily break that I had been worried about in fact, still there. I was under the impression that they had been replaced by the thick ribbon cable. Not the case. They are attached to a chip on the side of the camera cover. Once you remove the four screws on the back of the cover, they are no longer a problem. The second thing I noticed is the glue holding the sensor cover is VERY firm. There was not much in the way of anything on the outside of the cover to scrape away. At the end of the day, it came down to pushing an exacto blade under the corner of the lip where the screws attach and breaking it open. It was not for the faint of heart. There was a good chance of me either jamming the blade into the sensor OR into my fingers/hand. Is blood damaging to the sensor chip if it gets submerged?

The new extended mount supplied by PixAero is a slightly different shape and falls inside the old glue lines on two sides. I also noticed that the old mount has an extra protective glass plate on the inside just above sensor chip that sadly cannot be transferred. The new mount is quite tight and I ended up needing to remove most of the tape as I could no longer screw it deep enough.

Come focusing time I turned on the transmitter and camera now attached to the drone. Waiting, waiting, waiting, no connection to the camera. Gimbal is fine but no picture. I'm pretty sure I screwed the pooch at this point. But I remembered the post Rubik did about his gimbal not working and decided to take it apart and put it back together again... Bingo! Camera and gimbal working fine now. I have done a preliminary focusing of the lens using the ST16 screen and will do a bit of a better job once I get a Micro USB / HDMI cable. Though I suppose I could just mark the settings and do a series of still shots at each setting and look at the sd card to see which was best. Then just a matter of returning to that setting. But at any hoot, It's working and not broken. How's a happy bunny now?

 

[oliver]

Here's the link to a video from my last flight with the pixAero 6mm lens:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Be sure to read the description. Best viewed in 4k.
Any comments?

Hi,
indeed, there are some vibrations. To validate and confirm, it is necessary to take a video with the maximum speed of the drone in front and on the side, this to have the maximum wind on the camera.
Thanks for the video

 

[Rubik]

B Scott, I'm glad to hear it's working out for you. Bear in mind that proper focus requires the tinyist rotation of the lens. Look for focus on the sides and corners and vignetting in the corners.
oliver, will do. I flew again yesterday with the 6mm lens camera. The jitter didn't seem as bad, even at high speed. I'm still interested in possibly changing the rubber dampers.

For some reason the camera stopped working for about a minute near the end of the last flight yesterday. No video was recorded during that time either. It restarted working again just as I was landing. Hmmm...

 

[oliver]

oliver, will do. I flew again yesterday with the 6mm lens camera. The jitter didn't seem as bad, even at high speed. I'm still interested in possibly changing the rubber dampers.

Ok, but it's hard to find different dampers

 

[PatR]

I think you’ll find the glue used to hold things in place is hot melt glue. You can use a fine soldering iron tip or hot Exacto blade to remove or shape it.

 

[Rubik]

I think you’ll find the glue used to hold things in place is hot melt glue. You can use a fine soldering iron tip or hot Exacto blade to remove or shape it.

Shucks. I had to pick away at mine with a cold Exacto knife for what seemed like hours.

 

[Eagle's Eye Video]

Wanted to do a quick post... due to the technician at Carolina Dronz not following instructions that were given, I have no usable comparison footage to upload. I may be able to get my own comparisons done, once the correctly repaired cameras have been returned to me.

I started a new thread here, to not completely disrupt this existing discussion:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

 

[PatR]

Sorry to read things went south for you.

 

[Mark Davini]

Thank you for this comparison. I just got my 2nd CGO3+ and a PixAreo 6mm is ordered. The 6mm lens should arrive in the next two weeks.
I do Have a question about using multiple cameras on the H. Once the CGO3+ has been bound to the ST16 can you simply swap out the one camera for the other or do I need to rebind the camera every time I change lenses?

Hi, everyone, and thanks for keeping this alive!
So I just want to be clear - once you bind the controller with the camera, no other adjustments should be needed, right?
I'm thinking of the calibration settings; accelerometer and compass are both the aircraft, not the camera. Is that correct?

 

[PatR]

Aircraft calibrations are not affected by a camera swap. Gimbal calibration should be performed after a camera swap as the results of a gimbal cal are specific to the gimbal.

Make sure the firmware in each camera is the same.

I’m not sure about binding the camera when swapping one CGO-3+ to another on an H as I don’t change cameras on my H’s. Only did that once and IIRC it needed to be bound. However, I do swap cameras on my 920 between a CGO-4 and a CGO-3+, which does require bonding the camera after a change even though each camera is associated with its own model profile in “model select”.

 

[Mark Davini]

Aircraft calibrations are bot affected by a camera swap. Gimbal calibration should be performed after a camera swap as the results of a gimbal cal are specific to the gimbal.

Make sure the firmware in each camera is the same.

I’m not sure about binding the camera when swapping one CGO-3+ to another on an H as I don’t change cameras on my H’s. Only did that once and IIRC it needed to be bound. However, I do swap cameras on my 920 between a CGO-4 and a CGO-3+, which does require bonding the camera after a change even though each camera is associated with its own model profile in “model select”.

Awesome. As I expected. Thanks, Pat.

 

[Gelderdrone]

For having changed several lenses on gopro, I focus with an indoor test chart iso 12233, 2 meters away and directly on the 4K screen. For the H, use the HDMI output while recording, then confirm by reading the micro SD card. Then block the whole with transparent bathroom silicone. it takes 24 hours, but it does not move and can be removed.

Sorry for the reply on an answer well over a year old, but I guess my question needs an answer from you.
I am trying to refocus a lens in a CGo3+ and I was wondering what distance you use to calibrate the focus on an H. Is it also 2 meters? and why so close by? is it focussed properly for infinity then?

 

[oliver]

Sorry for the reply on an answer well over a year old, but I guess my question needs an answer from you.
I am trying to refocus a lens in a CGo3+ and I was wondering what distance you use to calibrate the focus on an H. Is it also 2 meters? and why so close by? is it focussed properly for infinity then?

Hello,
I confirm that the distance is correct with a chart iso 12233, because your goal is very wide angle.
On the other hand, focusing is one thing (screwing or unscrewing the lens), recentering (re-centering) is something else! You have to slightly unscrew the lens holder and re-center it at best (it's so easy, but you can do it)

 

[Rubik]

The only thing I have to add is that focusing is really REALLY sensitive. The slightest rotation of the barrel makes a difference. Once I got close, I made a series of marks around the bezel less than 1mm apart and one mark on the 98-deg FOV lens barrel. I took full resolution photos of the neighbor's house and car across the street (30m +/-) at each mark and compared the images on my 4k monitor. I ended up splitting the difference between a couple of marks; it's that sensitive.
I have not done any recentering. As I recall, the lens holder fit snugly on the sensor board. You want to make sure there is no adhesive left to tilt the lens.