360 VR by drone

[Richard Brooks]

Hello all,
I'm looking for the best solution to produce a VR 360 film using the Inspire 1 without preferably having the drone in the shot. I'm looking at the 360rize systems Product Details for Pro6v2but was wondering if anyone was using one and what the results are like and if there are any good alternatives.
Many thanks in advance

Richard

 

[Advexure]

Richard -

I've seen dozens of DIY 360 VR setups with the Inspire 1 over the past couple of years and know many clients that have purchased DJI aircrafts in all product lines to rig with 360 video systems. We worked with 360Rize (at the time 360Heros) probably five years ago when our team was working with Sail Video System on their 3rd Person View Mount for the GoPro which has now been adopted for many different 360 video solutions. 360Heros was at the bleeding edge with their 360 rigs for GoPros. We can highly recommend their company.

I've also seen many guys using the Samsung Gear 360 with DIY mounting solutions. Check out this page for some discussion on a mounting adapter: Samsung Gear 360 adapter in the DJI Inspire 1

Here is also another application using the Gear 360:

I was also just exposed to the Freedom 360 Rig which you may want to take a look at as well: Freedom 360 - The Original 360 GoPro Mount

I'm not a 360 video expert but from my understanding the only way to not have the Inspire in the shot is to have a top mounted camera (I may be wrong on this one).

I hope this information and insight helps and best of luck with that setup.

Mike

 

[SanCap]

Richard -

I've seen dozens of DIY 360 VR setups with the Inspire 1 over the past couple of years and know many clients that have purchased DJI aircrafts in all product lines to rig with 360 video systems. We worked with 360Rize (at the time 360Heros) probably five years ago when our team was working with Sail Video System on their 3rd Person View Mount for the GoPro which has now been adopted for many different 360 video solutions. 360Heros was at the bleeding edge with their 360 rigs for GoPros. We can highly recommend their company.

I've also seen many guys using the Samsung Gear 360 with DIY mounting solutions. Check out this page for some discussion on a mounting adapter: Samsung Gear 360 adapter in the DJI Inspire 1

Here is also another application using the Gear 360:

I was also just exposed to the Freedom 360 Rig which you may want to take a look at as well: Freedom 360 - The Original 360 GoPro Mount

I'm not a 360 video expert but from my understanding the only way to not have the Inspire in the shot is to have a top mounted camera (I may be wrong on this one).

I hope this information and insight helps and best of luck with that setup.

Mike

I used to ice climb those falls back in the late 70's!

 

[Advexure]

I used to ice climb those fall back in the late 70's!

I'm sure the Ice Age was a great time to be alive

 

[SanCap]

I'm sure the Ice Age was a great time to be alive

I am getting close to being fosilized!

 

[Bob Royall]

I use a 360fly 4K on a go-pro mount on the back of my Inspire 1 and in works great!

 

[skybandit]

I use a 360fly 4K on a go-pro mount on the back of my Inspire 1 and in works great!

Can you send pics?

 

[Bob Royall]

Can you send pics?[
360fly 4K mounted on bottom of Inspire1. Works great but is not stabilized so works best when wind is calm!

 

[skybandit]

How's the vibration? Obviously it depends on weather conditions but I'm guessing you must get some since you don't have the benefit of vibration isolation that way.

 

[Bob Royall]

Can you send pics?

How's the vibration? Obviously it depends on weather conditions but I'm guessing you must get some since you don't have the benefit of vibration isolation that way.

i haven't noticed any vibration but like I said it moves around when it's windy

 

[William Gaddy]

i haven't noticed any vibration but like I said it moves around when it's windy

I've done 360Fly both bottom, back, and top-mounted on my inspires -- if you're shooting video, since the camera is not gimballed, you are definitely going to want to do horizon stabilization in Post, with a tool like Kolor Autopano Video Pro. I even tried replacing my X5R camera head with a 360Fly drilled into a lens cap -- when the gimbal motor started making grinding noises I called that experiment off! You can see some results of the former approach here (bottom-mount, and Kolor-stabilized):

 

[William Gaddy]

...And one of our reels has a shot that shows a split screen before/after stablization here (very windy day, about 25kt, same setup, 360fly bottom-mount on battery compartment):

 

[oblivie]

Is there any setup for the Inspire 2 ?

 

[William Gaddy]

Is there any setup for the Inspire 2 ?

We don't have one so I haven't look at it closely -- our first experimentation involved GoPro mounts (like Bob Royall) but in the end we opted for a permanent modification that involved 12/20 standard machine screws for camera mounts on the back and bottom of the Inspire1 battery compartment. I imagine the same is possible for the Inspire2 in some fashion.

 

[skybandit]

I'm reviving this conversation to see if anyone has any further info on producing stable 360 footage. I have an i2 and recently did some flying with a Samsung Gear 360 mounted to a rod which was mounted to the lens cap. Results not great. Tried two different rod lengths as well as the cam mounted right on the cap.

Seems not possible to get stable footage in-camera without a gimbal mounted to the drone itself. Anything like that exist?

 

[William Gaddy]

If you've got an I2 it might be big enough to bottom mount something like a lightweight hand-held 3 axis gimbal, like this AFI A5 3-axis Stabilization Handheld Gimbal for Sports Camera -$120.46 Online Shopping| GearBest.com

You can also use various software for post-production horizon stabilization, but I've found there are two problems to contend with 1) low frequency oscillations -- these are caused when the attitude of the quad is being changed by the operator rotating the yaw and or throttle (the pitch changes, relatively slowly) and 2) high frequency oscillations (vibration caused by the motors themselves, automatic microadjustments of the ESC due to wind, turbulence, backwash effects, etc).

It seems to me most post software does a really good job with the latter. but horizon drift in the former is a real problem and I've always had to manually fix it when contending with ungimbaled 360 on the Inspires.

 

[William Gaddy]

I've also tried mounting both a 360fly and Theta S on a modified lens cap on an X5R and X5 gimbal, but the weight/moment was always way too front-heavy. I've resorted to bottom- (or back-) mouting with 1/4-20 screws I've modified the battery compartment to expose, and then doing correction in post.

This is unstabilized:

This is stabilized:

 

[skybandit]

In my particular case post stabilization is a worst case scenario because what I want to shoot will be projected on a half dome so maintaining resolution is utmost importance. I'll check out that handheld gimbal but also wondering if there's something more compact out there, even a good DIY gimbal. I'm imagining the gimbal hard mounted to the drone and then the camera under-slung to the gimbal.

 

[William Gaddy]

In my particular case post stabilization is a worst case scenario because what I want to shoot will be projected on a half dome so maintaining resolution is utmost importance. I'll check out that handheld gimbal but also wondering if there's something more compact out there, even a good DIY gimbal. I'm imagining the gimbal hard mounted to the drone and then the camera under-slung to the gimbal.

I think you're on the right track. It's too bad DJI is stingy with their pin-outs. I've thought about taking one of those iPhone gimbals or an even a parted-out Osmo and hard-mounting to the bottom of the battery case. Cheers, and good luck!

 

[chinaevacase]

360 VR is a great thing, i like it very much