Here is some footage from various recent projects that I have been involved with:

http://www.aerialpan.com/upload/6-9-2009_reel.264.mov



Best,

Tabb Firchau

WOW!! Love that shot of the wave! Great video

Hi Tabb, some of the shots are fantastic and the image quality looks awesome to me. Would you mind to share what RC heli do you use and what camera?
I recently bought a flight simulator as I am keen to be able to do similar stuff in my wildlife documentaries. I realise it take a long time to acquire the skills but I am going to try.
Cheers,
Ofer Levy Photography (http://www.oferlevyphotography.com)

Thanks guys for the kind words!

Ofer: Helicopter is a maxi joker 2 electric heli from minicopter ® - RC-Helikopter und Zubehör (http://www.minicopter.de) and I am using the copterworks 3 axis gimbal and lower frame conversion from Copterworks > Home (http://www.copterworks.com). It takes a long time to learn to fly these birds but the process was a lot of fun for me!

Cameras used were: HVX200, EX1, and Canon 5Dmk2


Best,

Tabb

Thanks Tabb, much appreciated!
Cheers,
Ofer Levy Photography (http://www.oferlevyphotography.com)

Awesome work. Do you have any control over the zoom/focus/etc when it's in air or do you plan it out before it goes up? Really impressive!

Thanks Matt!

We have the ability to control zoom/focus but I find in practice we never use it as it is too difficult to make focus decisions over the SD downlink signal. Works better to setup the shot before hand. As for zoom we usually fly prime lenses or lock down the zoom and if needed fly closer to the subject.

Best,

Tabb

Very nice stuff, Tabb ! How is the the 5D to fly ?

There is some really fab footage in that project, Tab!

Are you also using some kind of IS or Gyro with the rigs?

I would have thought that using the Canon 5D, apart from the advantages of compact and lightweight form, would often prove difficult to use due to the very short amount of footage you can shoot on each flight before needing to bring back the heli rig.

By the way, the Kings of Leon music blends well as a soundtrack with each clip, especially to the seashore fly-overs.

The best aerial footage I've seen lately is the BBC wildlife Planet Earth footage where they follow a swimming polar bear out to sea (that was filmed using a Sony heligimbal gyro-cam with 40X lens, fixed to the nose-cone of a helicopter and controlled by remote operation using a joystick from inside the cab).

Wow..that is impressive!! How much does a helicopter fully set up run you? Minus the cost of the camera of course. What cameras can go in it? Do you basically hit record on the camera, shut the case around it and fly? Or is there remote control of the camera from within the air?
It doesn't send the video feed wirelessly back does it?