Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

I've used two cameras on tripods at the same camera station and at the same time with reasonable results but looking up at the Phantom and then down at the camera feed then back up to the quad and back down again and down and up.....wait where is it?

If I only ever plan on single pilot operations then should I even consider monitoring the feed or rather should I develop a proficiency at knowing what the shot is, Framing is always important but given the nature of quadcopter stills and video maybe need not be as precises as an over the shoulder two shot.
I planned on waiting for the Phantom Vision but now may proceed to get a phantom and select a cam.
I do not want footage shot thru those fisheye lens so what would be a good alternative anyone?
thanks
Bruce

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

If you are holding the remote you don't take your eyes off the bird.

Have someone else look at the downlink and give you verbal instructions.

If you are flying solo then you get what you get.

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

One style is known as LOS - Line Of Sight where you only watch the acft. The other is FPV - First Person Video where any flight inputs are based on what you see on the monitor. You can use one or the other but not both.

A lot of people fly FPV, its a lot of fun, however for the "unofficial commercial AP" its best to fly with a camera operator flying FPV and the pilot flying LOS. If everything is single pilot then you can fly FPV [though your FPV camera should not be mounted to the gimbal, you need to see your orientation to the ground] but depending on your location you should still have a spotter. There are a lot more things that can go wrong flying FPV.

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

Thanks for the insights I suppose there's good reason for a larger than solo flight crew. I hadn't considered that.
Ffound a slightly used rx100 locally for a good price so it will be the first
Have yet to find a sale price on a phantom but still trying

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

Not so much with the larger craft, however I have heard that the smaller Phantom will sometimes fly out of radio range and just keep going. I have talked to two people that have lost both the craft and the gopro on it this way. they were looking at the monitor and did not realize how far they had let the craft go. One person even tried running after it hoping that the link would be reestablished. somewhere there will be hiker that runs into a UFO landing sight in the woods.

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

I strongly recommend against flying FPV. It is much more dangerous and as mentioned can lead you to flying much beyond the radio range and/or out of the airspace limits for the craft.

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

loosing a phantom is usually an user error.
they do not follow instruction (like properly calibrating before flying or waiting the GPS is fully initialized on ground and then on flight)
or ignoring that when you fly in semi-manual mode, the phantom will keep forward to the last command issued.

i think FPV is not good for filming, it could be ok for a first pass, and see what the camera will get, but you better too shoot large, have a good stabilization.

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

Thanks for the addition comments. I think with sufficient rehearsal time the framing can be imagined
Sort of like texting while driving,,,,sooner or later.....
Multitasking isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Still trying to figure out triggering the shutter on a rx100

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

@Chris have you direct experience with this? thks

Re: Do you watch the Phantom or the monitor?
 

Whether its an RC or a real plane, flying anything is all about mitigating risk, all flying is dangerous. FPV flight is just another way to control an aircraft with a different sight picture. Its no more or less dangerous than LOS flight.

Lots of people fly FPV safely all the time, like any form of flight it becomes hazardous when you exceed your ability to maintain control and that primarily comes down to experience.