Hasta La Gadget!

In a quest to get the perfect shot, Eric Austin, a Texas-based videographer, found a neat way to fuse a remote controlled helicopter and a Canon DSLR camera so he could shoot aerial videos easily and get the kind of footage that would otherwise be difficult to pull off.

“I took a hobbyshop helicopter and modified it to hold a camera, so I can get low altitude, close and tight aerial shots,” Austin told Wired.com.

An amateur videographer turned pro, Austin got interested in remote-controlled photography just four months ago.

“As I did more photos and videos, I realized I could develop a niche where I could use the advancements in technology to provide the kind of photos most people can’t get easily,” he says.

Austin is one of the many hobbyist photographers who are finding ways to use drones and remote-controlled helicopter toys to get a more attractive camera angle. Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson helms a site called DIY Drones where users have found a way to use unmanned aerial vehicles to do aerial photography. Last year, New York City photographer Anthony Jacobs showed a helicam built using a German helicopter rig called MikroKopter. Jacobs used his helicam rig to shoot videos of neighborhooods in the city.

Austin, who has a website devoted to his RC helicopter videography, says he wanted to do something similar and offer HD-quality video and photos.

That’s why, he says, he decided to create a rig that would be reliable and produce the kind of footage that could be used by professionals. And as this clip shows, the video can be interesting.

Aerial video with a Canon 5D , 7D helivideo.com from Eric AUSTIN on Vimeo.

So far, Austin has helped shoot footage for TV shows including History Channel’s Sliced series.

Austin started with a remote-controlled helicopter called Align T-REX 700 and modified it to carry a special frame and camera mount. He tweaked the landing gear for the helicopter, covering it with a bright pink foam from the “noodles” used in swimming pools.

“The color stands out when I am flying the helicopter outdoors,” says Austin. “And if I crash into the water, my whole equipment won’t go to the bottom. It will be ruined, but at least I will get my gear back.” Austin says he hasn’t crashed his helicopter yet, but the foam ensures that in case of a hard landing, the equipment is less likely to completely fall apart.

He adjusts the camera’s settings when it’s on the ground and presses the Record button right before takeoff. For still images, Austin says he uses an external timer that activates the shutter every few seconds.

To create his flying video rig, Austin says he spent hours on the online discussion forums at the Helifreak.com website.

“I didn’t know anyone to talk to,” he says. “And then realized the only place to go was online where people were discussing this.”

One of the more challenging shoots that Austin has done with his helicam was flying over a cliff that was about 25 feet high with a river below. And he didn’t crash the copter.

“The probability that a crash will happen is there, but so far, I have been careful,” he says.

To download video, Austin has set up a 5.8-GHz video downlink feed using an on-board wireless transmitter.

All of this didn’t come cheap. Austin estimates the entire rig cost him about $15,000. But for those at home, who want to do something similar, he says there are cheaper alternatives.

“I went for the best and most expensive components because I didn’t want to risk it failing mid-air,” he says. “But you can get an RC helicopter for about $400 and put a point-and-shoot camera on it.”

See Also:

• Helinet Brings Live Aerial Video to Cops’ Smartphones
• World’s cheapest aerial video platform
• High-Tech Tomb Hunter Finds Unmarked Graves for a Living
• Aerial Stereoscopy Photography
• Flying Copter-Cam Swoops Over New York City
• They’ll Ride a Balloon Into Space

Photo/video: Eric Austin

[via DIY Photography]

“Eye of Dragon” must be Chinese for “better kit lens, fancier neck strap, a branded photo album, and a leather case.” Because that’s the totality of substantive changes you’ll be getting if you opt for the upgraded Jackie Chan variety of Canon’s Rebel T2i. Of course, there’s also the knowledge that you’ll be one of only 2,010 owners of this exclusive kit, which will set buyers back an unenviable 10,000 Yuan ($1,467). If you ask us, we’d rather just buy the body and add on the EF-S 18-135mm lens ourselves, but then we were always more partial to Bruce Lee anyway.

Canon brings out Jackie Chan-branded Rebel T2i / 550D for Chinese market originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 05:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s hard to mention the word “Palm” without also mentioning either “takeover” or “shakeup” in the same sentence these days, but the company was able to change the subject — rather refreshingly, may we add — to the more pleasant topic of new webOS features coming down the pike at its Developer Day conference in Sunnyvale this weekend. It doesn’t look like we’ll see anything Earth-shattering this year, but devs will be getting their grubby paws on some oft-requested features including direct API access to the microphone and camera, new security and cryptography features, some sort of “media indexer” that’ll make life easier on folks trying to make media apps, and support for Bonjour, zero-config networking, and the Bluetooth Serial Port Profile, a rather generic profile that should open up the door to new categories of accessories that we haven’t seen paired to a Pre before.

They’ll also be adding support for asynchronous background services written in JavaScript, which should theoretically allow data-intensive apps to be more responsive while they’re hard at work; a redesigned App Catalog (pictured); and a new set of developer extensions called Mojo Core that promises to let folks with existing web apps convert them into webOS apps way faster. Palm’s being coy about when exactly we’ll see this, but the official word is that everything they’re discussing this weekend should be in users’ hands by Fall. As far as we know, they didn’t append “come hell, high water, or acquisition” to that timeline, but we figure it was implied.

[Thanks, David R.]

Palm Developer Day reveals interesting bits on the webOS 2010 roadmap originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there is such a thing as a no-compromise point and shooter, the Coolpix P100 might just be it. It throws a back-illuminated 10 megapixel CMOS sensor in behind a 26x optical zoom lens, and supplements them with the hardware to record 1080p video at 30fps, with stereo mics pulling in sound, or full-resolution photos at a stunning 10fps clip. Throw in the articulating display on the back and you might already be asking where to buy one. Not so fast, though, as the Photography Blog guys have some notes for you. Firstly, the 10fps mode fills up the camera’s buffer after only 6 shots, and the usable burst mode is actually a (still decent) 2.8fps. There’s also the criticism that low-contrast detail is often lost thanks to overzealous noise reduction, but on the whole their experience of the camera was still positive. Macro performance was rated as “outstanding,” while Nikon’s Vibration Reduction was credited with performing its job admirably, and the conclusion was that casual photographers would get a lot of mileage (and fun) out of the P100. Read on for the full analysis.

Nikon Coolpix P100 reviewed, found to contain oodles of zoom and superb movie mode originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We won’t even front — we’ve got a thing for visiting National Parks, and in a way, we’re dangerously envious of these fellows who crafted this here BeetleCam. In short, the device is a wildlife photography robot: a four-wheeled, remote control buggy that holds a DSLR, a couple of flashes and enough torque and battery life to power through African wilds for hours on end. After months of testing, building, rebuilding and rebuilding again, the BeetleCam was packaged up and carried over to Tanzania’s Ruaha and Katavi National Parks. During the fortnight-long excursion, the buggy managed to survive being mauled by a lion (sadly the same can’t be said for the Canon EOS 400D) and get staggeringly close to elephants, African Buffaloes and other untamed fauna. Frankly, this is one of the more amazing homegrown gadgets we’ve seen in quite some time, and we couldn’t encourage you more to hit up that source link for the full spill.

BeetleCam wildlife photography secures stellar snaps in the wilds of Tanzania originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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