EOS M for Quadcopter?

Thinking about starting taking photos with a Quadcopter. Seems like really fun and nice to combine flying multirotors and taking photos / videos


But what camera should I get for this task?

My 5D MKIII will be WAY to heavy for a "normal" quad.
So started thinking about the Eos M camera...

Or is there a better option?


/Jocce

Go Pro. 2.6 oz, 4.8oz with housing. 10mp photos. Time lapse 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60 second intervals. Wifi control.

BrickR wrote in post #16640371
Go Pro. 2.6 oz, 4.8oz with housing. 10mp photos. Time lapse 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 30, 60 second intervals. Wifi control.

Have you ever used a GoPro for taking stills?

I have a GoPro3 and it (compared to "regular" cameras) sucks... (for stills...)

The only good thing with it is actually the low weight...but I do want something more advanced with better quality!


/Jocce

What copter are you using?

You already got one or you buying / building a new one?

dannybres wrote in post #16640446
What copter are you using?

You already got one or you buying / building a new one?

Letting a friend build one for me


/Jocce

I've done quite a bit of low aerial photography using rc planes and KAP (kite aerial photography) A few things I've learned:

Forget aperture. It won't matter when your shooting from a couple hundred feet.

Smaller sensors are better because you'll never want bokeh. You'll want everything in focus.

Crank up that shutter speed to 1200 and beyond.

Shoot at noon so that you have as few shadows as possible (if you are several hundred feet up and mostly shooting down). Obviously you might vary the time of day depending on your subject, artistic efforts, etc. But usually shadows are bad thing in aerial photography, and because you need extremely high shutter speeds, bright mid-day light is a good thing.

Better to let the ISO creep up a bit than to have a slow shutter speed.

Video is a big problem because of vibration and odd frequencies from propeller motors. It can totally be overcome, but wavy lines are very common for beginners. Stills are easier.

Wide angle is good. The wider the better, because you'll do a lot of cropping, rotating, and you'll need good software to straighten your horizon (which can curve from the lens and from the natural curvature of the earth.

I would recommend the Canon S series.

I also recommend the Canon SX series because you can use Sanyo Eneloops and get about 900 shots per session. I put the camera on continuous (which was essentially one picture per second) at a high shutter speed, focused to infinity and taped down the shutter button. It starts clicking, I place it in the plane (or kite rig) and send it up. The first 50-100 photos are scrapped, the next four or five hundred are good, and as the plane/kite comes Down another 50-100 are scrapped.

Go to APlanding.com for help. It's a slower website bus is a wealth of knowledge. Also, RCgroups is another website with great rc aerial advice.

Good luck and have fun.

My first ever kite photo. 400 feet. Savannah.

You should check out some of the radio control forums.. rcgroups.com is a popular one. They'll be able to tell you what you need as far as batteries, motors & propellers in order to lift the EOS-M. (It shouldn't be that elaborate). I have a hexacopter that lifts my 7D.

I didn't stick with the 7D.. I went to a mirrorless camera because I wanted a 'steady cam' gimbal mount to counteract the movement of the craft when I'm doing movies. The weight of a larger SLR gimbal, plus camera was a little too much for my hexacopter, so I went with a mirrorless camera and a lighter duty gimbal mount. I wanted an EOS-M, but got a better deal on a Sony NEX.

Here's a shot of the 7D mounted on the hex.....

EOS-Mike wrote in post #16640884
Keep in mind this one important rule: it's not a matter of it, but a matter of when. It WILL happen.

Assume you mean if, not it?

Jocce wrote in post #16640357
Thinking about starting taking photos with a Quadcopter. Seems like really fun and nice to combine flying multirotors and taking photos / videos


But what camera should I get for this task?

My 5D MKIII will be WAY to heavy for a "normal" quad.
So started thinking about the Eos M camera...

Or is there a better option?


/Jocce

Go Pro Hero series for video is cheap & easy.

For stills? I guess the EOS M would work, but maybe something like the new SL1 would be fun to try? I think dSLR in general is going to be hard for this. Smaller cams would be better to get something like 24~21mm field of view, which is a lot harder (and heavier) to achieve on a crop sensor dSLR. Just thinking of weight alone. If weight didn't matter, I think the SL1 in continuous with an EF 20mm F2.8 stopped down to F11/F22. But that thing would be heavy.

Very best,

Lowner wrote in post #16640898
Assume you mean if, not it?

Yes, I fixed it upon review (auto correct, ipad, etc.).

MalVeauX wrote in post #16640899
Go Pro Hero series for video is cheap & easy.

I've got a GoPro Hero 3 that I started out making aerial movies with. They work, but you're stuck with a fixed lens that's prone to barrel distortion and a small fixed aperture. There is only one zoom level and it's done digitally by cropping the area of the sensor that captures the image.

The camera is pretty impressive on a bright sunny day, but around dusk, dawn or on a heavily overcast day, the video gets pretty noisy and shaky as the gain goes up and the shutter speed goes down. My Sony-NEX outperforms it in lower light and I'm sure the EOS-M would too.

Heya,

This is true, though my experience with the Hero is on my kayak, as I use it while kayaking and fishing in the ocean. I needed water proof and ultra wide. So it fit the bill. The video is awesome, if it's a bright day. But it absolutely suffers in low light. And stills are just not an option. But for high FPS 1080p footage, in a waterproof case, small and light, and with easy to mount options, it's great.

I wonder if there's affordable cases that are weather proof yet, for the cams like the EOS-M?

Very best,

If strictly for stills, a Sony NEX or Samsung NX would be hard to top for sensor size in small/light package.

For video consider the m43 stuff - panny is one of the best in this area (GH2 / 3 and G6) for cost / sharpness.

For photos... lots of options in m43 land.

How would you take photos though, remote feed?

EOS-Mike wrote in post #16640884
I've done quite a bit of low aerial photography using rc planes and KAP (kite aerial photography) A few things I've learned:

Forget aperture. It won't matter when your shooting from a couple hundred feet.

Smaller sensors are better because you'll never want bokeh. You'll want everything in focus.

Crank up that shutter speed to 1200 and beyond.

Shoot at noon so that you have as few shadows as possible (if you are several hundred feet up and mostly shooting down). Obviously you might vary the time of day depending on your subject, artistic efforts, etc. But usually shadows are bad thing in aerial photography, and because you need extremely high shutter speeds, bright mid-day light is a good thing.

Better to let the ISO creep up a bit than to have a slow shutter speed.

Video is a big problem because of vibration and odd frequencies from propeller motors. It can totally be overcome, but wavy lines are very common for beginners. Stills are easier.

Wide angle is good. The wider the better, because you'll do a lot of cropping, rotating, and you'll need good software to straighten your horizon (which can curve from the lens and from the natural curvature of the earth.

I would recommend the Canon S series.

I also recommend the Canon SX series because you can use Sanyo Eneloops and get about 900 shots per session. I put the camera on continuous (which was essentially one picture per second) at a high shutter speed, focused to infinity and taped down the shutter button. It starts clicking, I place it in the plane (or kite rig) and send it up. The first 50-100 photos are scrapped, the next four or five hundred are good, and as the plane/kite comes Down another 50-100 are scrapped.

Go to APlanding.com for help. It's a slower website bus is a wealth of knowledge. Also, RCgroups is another website with great rc aerial advice.

Good luck and have fun.

My first ever kite photo. 400 feet. Savannah.

This is also a kite shot from when my skills had advanced a bit.

This is the first time I shot a photo from a remote control plane.

Keep in mind this one important rule: it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. It WILL happen.

a good argument for using cheap cameras when it crashes