On location battery rotation?

William Gaddy · Oct 29, 2016

One of the things my company does is automated image and horizon stabilization in post -- so the Disco can get great footage, just not 4K... I imagine the use case here is probably not so much for doing 12 hours of continuous dolly manuevers on a set, as it is probably continuous loitering... Let's ask the OP -- Perscatorial Pursuit, did you have a particular use case in mind for this scenario?

Cheers

Pescatoral Pursuit · Oct 29, 2016

The guy at my rc store recommended a vtol a couple days ago when we were discussing extending flight times. This seems better suited for fpv than photo/ videotaping though.

William Gaddy said:
One of the things my company does is automated image and horizon stabilization in post -- so the Disco can get great footage, just not 4K... I imagine the use case here is probably not so much for doing 12 hours of continuous dolly manuevers on a set, as it is probably continuous loitering... Let's ask the OP -- Perscatorial Pursuit, did you have a particular use case in mind for this scenario?

Cheers

Races, primarily.

William Gaddy · Oct 30, 2016

Well, if it's FPV racing on an obstacle course, that pretty much eliminates the Disco. It might be fast (80 km/h), but it can't stop on a dime like a quad can or do a hard 90 degree turn in a short radius. FireFly6 might be worth looking into if you have $$$$.... otherwise if you're stuck with DJI, like an above poster said you're probably looking at 7 TB48's and 6 hi-amp chargers, a chiller/cooler, and a lot of work with battery maintenance...

Pescatoral Pursuit · Oct 30, 2016

No i meant filming races.

William Gaddy · Oct 30, 2016

Ah, if you're doing a lot of chase shots you might want to look at the xCraft hybrid VTOL. Fast as hell (100 km/h), about 20 minutes flight time on a bog-standard 6C, with VTOL and hover/loiter capability...price isn't too mad, either ($1500). Now if you are just loitering and hovering for a long period of time for aerial racetrack shots, you probably can't go better than Inspire X5 or X5R, but you're going to need a chilling solution of some kind if you want continuous duty cycle for hours... and a lot of TB48 batteries and chargers. Only problem with that solution is it'll be **** hard to flypack and travel with a ton of TB48's unless you have a big crew (at least 4) to spread 7 TB48's around to...

Kilrah · Oct 30, 2016

Might want to use P4s instead.

William Gaddy · Oct 30, 2016

Kilrah said:
Might want to use P4s instead.

I've never flown the P4, but after hauling around Inspires up mountains and along barely marked trails, I could definitely see the appeal. Is there a RAW option on Phantom 4's yet?

Kilrah · Oct 30, 2016

Nope, but the size/weight/longer flight times/smaller batteries could tip the scales even if the drawback is no RAW.

William Gaddy · Oct 30, 2016

Kilrah said:
Nope, but the size/weight/longer flight times/smaller batteries could tip the scales even if the drawback is no RAW.

I tend to attach 360 VR witness cameras, so most of the time the Inspire is required. But if I just wanted to to a quick 4K shoot, would you recommend P4 or Mavic?

Kilrah · Oct 30, 2016

Don't have my Mavic yet, can't wait... but from what I've seen there are really few cases where you'd want a P4 over it. Seems if you're regularly shooting 1080p60 the P4 has an edge in that particular mode.
I mentioned P4 for the HDMI output possibility as it seemed the use case was live footage, and that's one thing the Mavic doesn't have (well not natively).