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Of Metal and Men...

CraigCam

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Greetings fellow pilots. Today I got to do B roll pick up of a party bike being built. These are multi-person rolling bars that are popular in college towns. Apparently, they are manufactured here in Tucson. It's a big deal and a fast growing business.

The location is a massive multi building metal and fabrication shop. It's a compass nightmare. But you know, if you turn off the GPS, the Typhoon H flys just fine and is perfectly safe especially if you are in team mode. Being able to fly and not look at the screen allowed me to maneuver confidently and my camera op did pretty well considering he's new to the ST16. No quirks or odd behavior beyond the drift you need to compensate for. And the motors shut off super quick on the catch. We were in and out and got what we needed in 6 mins.

I know that video is always smoother with GPS disabled as it was almost necessary with the earlier platforms. Between the GPS bouncing my old drones around (especially when windy) and those 2 axis gimbals, it was hard to get contiguous passages of shake free video. But the H gimbal is so good that GPS bouncing doesn't translate. You see the fight the most in the "jerkiness" when you move out of hover horizontally when looking at the drone but never in the record.

With GPS off, every stick motion is smoother but you can never take your eye off of it because of the potential drift (no trims so what you going to do?) from any wind change. That's why you need a second person to handle the camera. I have never heard all the puffed up trolls mention team mode as a standard feature with the H and it's probably the best part. It's a game changer for doing pro work on a consumer product.

We did hand held pick up footage with the steadi grip I got with my Q500 also. I'm pretty happy today with my investment and time spent learning and flying. Apparently, the last person who tried this same shot crashed three times. I'll post some clips so folks can judge for themselves how tricky it seems next chance I get to do some editing.
 
The second operator concept was something learned by cinema multirotor pros a long time ago. The flying is the easy part, getting the shot is the hard part. You lose a lot of the best shots being single operator. Glad to hear your getting some work done and still having fun while doing it!
 
(no trims so what you going to do?
Didn't we get functioning trims after a Firmware update? :confused:
But the H gimbal is so good that GPS bouncing doesn't translate.
You are right: the gimbal on the H is definitely great! I don't know about other platforms but 'Im impressed of how nice the gimbal of this unit is. A couple of days ago I recorded a random video with the landing gear intentionally infront of the camera and flying aggressively just to be able to perceive how much of the vibration and movement the gimbal negates.

Definitely some shots are missed being a single operator, I wish I could try the team mode, but whenever I use the H I am all by myself hehe.

Waiting to see some of the footage you got!

Greetings!
 
Didn't we get functioning trims after a Firmware update?
Sure we did. But it may not work in this situation unless you stay at the same heading for the whole flight. Because the drift is caused by wind you would need to re-trim with every heading change.
 
I thought the right trim did the cruise settings and the left camera EVO.
 
I thought the right trim did the cruise settings and the left camera EVO.
Right. But you can use it like trim. Each press on the pad increases the speed. As soon as you move the right stick it cancels the pad.
 
With a little practice you can learn how to use the trims to fly a straight path even in a crosswind. Set the speed and aim the front an an angle into the wind to offset side drift, use the L-R pads to adjust the drift angle if the wind is more or less than you thought.
 
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So here is a quick edit from the no GPS shoot. I could not color correct as Premier update changed things and I'm lost again. The CGO was white balance locked only. The camera op was new and a little heavy on the tilt. But, considering this was a hit and run for B roll, I'm happy.

 
It is very nicely done. Now I am considering doing something like that for company I am working for.
 

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