Man that reminds me of a charter flight I took once in Mexico. Cool vid and you did a darn good job following that sucker around.

Nate nice bit of footage there especialy since its your first shoot of an aerobatic rc helicopter. What makes ir realy difficult is that the pilot does not
seem to have a set routine and is just making it up as he goes along see if you can persuade him to fly a set routine from a script and that way it would probably help you if you knew what his next move was going to be, it will also help you to decide when to zoom in a bit and when to zoom out. It's all a learning curve.

Alan

Ditto what Alan said about getting a routine to follow. Also, it would have been easier to see if the sun was at your back. It would have eliminated the abrupt lighting changes and also make the chopper stand out from the background better. You did do an excellent job of keeping the chopper (mostly) in frame. Those things really zip around quick.

Get to work editing the video and put some music in there. I think you could probably get a good 30 - 60 second video from it. I see you're a new boot here. If your new to editing, welcome. Now get used to throwing away 60% of what you shoot unless it's event video.

Oh yeah, get your friend back out to the park at the same time of day to get some shots of him using the transmitter. He doesn't actually need to be flying, just LOOKING like he is flying. Mix those in with the shots of the chopper flying. If you can do it under similar weather conditions, all the better. Less fixing in post.

I still can not see any advantage in using a tripod - even with much better head. The movements are not and will not be really fluid or stable.
Remember - this is enough for short video "for everyone". But a "Friend - sponsored by a few RC Helicopter companies" (or another RC Pilot) need a video whitch show exactly the flying program.

We are actually testing a new sort of "secret" technology in this helicopter. My friend designed 100% of the code and electronic board that is allowing the helicopter to fly like that. He works for Lockheed Martin

This is a Flybarless helicopter like the real ones. I doesn't have a center stabilizing flybar. The stabilization is done with electronics.

So this video is ALL just a practice test run for both of us. I was getting use to the camera on the Manfrotto 701 and all the settings. He is still testing the electronic board.

He will be flying a routine for a competition coming up next month so it will be easier to video.

The helicopter is 100% electric Lithium Polymer/ Brushless motor technology. There is not ONE gas/nitro helicopter that can match the power to weight ratio of a good electric setup. But cost is the factor that favors nitro. He is using batteries that cost $300/per flight. 5 min "3D" flights.. and then you have to recharge. He gets pretty much everything for free. Electric WILL push nitro to into non existence in the next 3 years.

When we start doing stuff for real I will cut out and edit. I'm not new to editing. It's been a long time passion for me in video and audio. He wants the whole video uncut for review on the board they are developing.

This was a last minute sun's going down test video. We will shoot with perfect lighting in the right time of the day.

The goal of a promo video in RC is JUST TO show off how good the pilot is with clear vivid video. They sometimes film the pilots fingers and put that in a PIP window for the whole routine. This isn't a short film. It's more a documentary on high skill level. Just like skateboarding.. it will never get a huge audience because it's difficult for most people to understand and relate to.

I tried to video without my new manfrotto 701 head.. it's NOT pretty. The tripod is 1000x better. It's so jumpy and blurry if you try to follow with holding the camera that it doesn't look any different than a $700 consumer camera.

Would something like a SpiderBrace help?
Reasonably cheap & effective, whenever I've used it.

Gaff-tape a throwaway camera to one of those little choppers, that's what I say.

Assuming you get a good tripod, and you manage to capture perfect framing of the helicopter in flight, and you manage to zoom in close, getting good close-ups of the helicopter. once you achieve this, your footage is worthless, in my opinion. to see the jerky movements of the aerobatics, the camera can not follow the helicopter perfectly. I honestly thought the first video with no tripod represented the movements better, I thought the clip using a tripod achieved much better close-ups, and displayed the helicopter better, but lost some of the WOW effect of the aerobatics. the best of both worlds might be two cameras, one zoomed in, one wide angle. I think your doing an awesome job, and you are already beyond my abilities in following the action.

I agree with Allen. You did a good job following the heli with the Tripod Nate, but to me it did look a little flat. When using a Media Rig you can shoot at many different angles and move around much more which can give a little extra something to a vid. If your going to be shooting a lot of RC aircraft I would highly recommend trying one out.

Benjamin....

Here's a Nikon 3700 digi cam strapped to one of my planes....

www.rcflights.co.uk/Videos/EzAberHarbour.wmv

Mark

No need.. I have a 2.4ghz wireless camera that weighs 10 grams. =)

Allen and Mark

Thank you guys so much for your feedback. It's nice to hear what others find attractive to watch in a video. I will keep posting small 60 sec clips as I keep filming to better my skills.

Wonderific!
 

As others have said the pilot's fantastic and you did a terrific job of keeping up with him. No small task. You also picked a great sky to shoot against. Sun and clouds can be magical sometimes.

When I saw your shutter speed I thought that I might have gone quite a bit faster, but what you got was truly remarkable. Nice job.

BTW, you might want to look at vimeo.com for hd video hosting. I like the quality there.