Aerial videography - to handhold or monopod

[Tahria Sheather]

Hi there,

I'm trying to get a bit of clarity on what is best for shooting smooth aerial video from a plan (w door off). Unfortunately we can't get our hands on a gyro so we're wondering what the next best thing is. I've read quite a few comments from this forum and it seems like the verdict is still out on whether handholding or monopoding would be better.

We're going to be shooting on Canon 5d Mark iii's...
Let me know what other info you may need to help provide sound advice.
Thanks!

[Jim Michael]

Airplanes produce a lot of vibration so if you use a monopod don't place it against the airframe or floor. Also if you are flying at a time other than right after sunrise there is a risk of bumps from thermals ("air pockets"). Some folks use a couple of bungees attached to the airframe to help steady things. Some airplanes have a visible frame structure (steel tubing) and some have handles. Either should be safe to attach a bungee to so long as you have the pilot's permission to do so. Keep your eyes on the horizon to reduce risk of motion sickness.

[Allan Black]

I've been hanging out the open door of our Navies Historic flight Huey chopper for 30 min flights around the area south of Sydney,
to get footage for the annual Wings Over Illawarra DVD.

WINGS OVER ILLAWARRA 2012 A HUGE SUCCESS (click for more) Historical Aircraft Restoration Society Inc

I looked at renting (even buying) a small motorised gyro stabiliser for the job, but not so far ..

Gyro Stabilizers : KS-8 Gyro

Shooting with a Canon HV40 now, I shoot in 10sec bursts and the best arrangement so far is to hold my breath and lock my arms tight to my chest.
I use the viewfinder and have gotten better at it over 5yrs. I know the pilots well enough now so during the briefing, I show them last years shoot
so they know what it looks like and what I'm after this year.

I wear the Hueys cans so I can talk to the 2 pilots and the stills photog with us, who shoots out the opposite open door.

I remember the very first flight as we rose up over the crowd, hanging out the door it took 10 secs to settle down and not freak out :)
then the job at hand kicks in and we're off. We put on a show in front of the crowd, 360 circles at ground level, back ups and low level high speed passes.
Chasing a WW2 Spitfire as it takes off down the runway is something else.

You'll have trouble recording the sound because of the terrific airflow through the open door, here's what I did.

Before we took off, I recorded the Hueys engine during the warm up and replaced the audio on the actual shoot with it.
Choppers keep a steady RPM while the pilot changes the angle of the blades to obtain lift. I've also done this with a Cessna and a DC3.

Ask your pilot to vary the revs slightly while you're recording your sounds, and get the mic close enough to the engine to block out any other sounds
around the airfield, watch out for any distortion. 15 secs is enough, you loop it in post and I mix some wind blast from the shoot in,
at various low levels for certain shots, to fool the naysayers :) Sound is 70% of what you see.

Shoot on auto, reaching round to adjust the exposure is a no no. Don't strap your harness so tight you can't turn/twist around.
And don't plan on zooming in .. unless you're confident you're holding your cam very steady, have fun :)

Cheers.

[Robert Turchick]

I'm part of the media crew for the AZCAF which flies a B-17, B-25, SNJ, C45, DC-3 and a pair of dual seat Mustangs.
I've filmed in almost all the aircraft and have had mixed results with different methods of stabilizing the camera.
Ideally a gyro would be perfect but its not in the budget right now.
My best footage has been from the side hatch on the B25 using my xf300 hard mounted on a tripod that was strapped to the frame of the plane. Vibration was not a problem even with the big radials thundering at full power.
Next best was using a monopod with the xf300 while seated in the back of the SNJ with the canopy open and seat reversed. I only used the monopod as a way to securely hold the camera which was also safety wired to the frame of the plane. I took advantage of the image stabilizer in the xf300 which is the best I've ever used. Essentially I was handholding the camera but had an extra point of contact with the monopod which rested on my foot.
I have shot with my 5D mk3 from a heli and gotten decent results. The 24-105 lens has IS which was a big help. I also used the Zacuto z-finder which gave me 3 points of contact to stabilize the camera.

The common threads with all my air to air and air to ground shooting was the use of wide angle lenses and image stabilizing in-camera along with more than two points of contact between me and the camera.

All that said, I am also a cineflex operator. There just simply is no better way! Unfortunately i can't afford to buy the system I use which is mounted to an A-Star! All in its about a six and a half million dollar rig, not including pilot or fuel! To actually fly the rig costs more (4 hour minimum) than most projects entire budgets!

[Bob Hart]

My personal preference is not to brace directly to the airframe of small aircraft. The vibrations from the engine and propellor buffet are much coarser than the big multicylinder radial engines on the larger retired military aircraft. The jello effect with a CMOS sensor is cruel.

With a camera in the Mk3 weight class, my personal preference is to add a bit of mass to it via the baseplate mount. This has the effect of loading your arms and slowing the rate of sudden movements. It requires a certain floating style of handholding which can be practiced in a moving car.

I have a weird method of handholding which replicates the shape of the isoelasticarms of a steadycam. It does not work for everyone. Being lefthanded and a musician helps as all fingers know what I want them to do.

My left hand goes palm down to grip the top front of the camera with some fingers extended forward to work the lens rings by the fingertips. Autofocus lenses set to manual with their light friction can be your friend here as draggy old manual lenses can cause your fingers to slip or require more effort which translates into unwanted movement.

The heel of the palm of my right hand goes under the rear camera base with fingers pointed back towards my face. Fingers four or five hit the run and stop control.

This places the pivot points of your wrists on near to vertical centres above and below the camera mass.

The more common disturbances you will encounter from lumps in the air will be in a vertical direction. This handhold tends to cause them to become a parallel movement of the camera, not an angular one. Whilst any visible parts of the airframe will move up and down in the shot, the subject should remain fairly steady.

It takes a bit of practice to achieve a good float. Sliding a camera sized box up and down a wall or a doorframe with elbows half-bent at about 90 degrees is a good exercise for learning this to intuitiveness, then practice in a moving car going over speed humps in a carpark or bumpy ground.

Just make sure no one catches you doing it or you may receive those patronising looks as they reach for the phone to get you some help.

I also tether the camera with a lanyard from being able to fall out or dong the pilot into disability if anything violent happens during the flight. Take care that the lanyard and the camera cannot foul the flight controls if you are in a front seat, which in door-off ops you may have to be.

The lanyard is also not so long that the camera could fly out of reach, pull up hard outside and then batter the airframe before you can haul it back in.

Finally from a safety standpoint, depending on your pilot's experience and personalilty, you have a responsibility to be aware his or her workload is of a fairly high constance. Pilots assume a greater workload by accommodating your needs. If they are not experienced working with camera people, they are also putting themselves to an even greater workload by having to learn on the job.

Any who feel obliged to please may over-reach their limitation and those of the aircraft, especially if decisions are being made in the air, not in the preflight briefing beforehand on the ground.

This clip was part of the learning process with a single KS8 gyro for the first time.

FOURNIER AIR-TO-AIR IMAGES - YouTube

It was a bit difficult as I was working the camera acrossways whilst seated and looking at a fixed monitor. Next time I will do it from the floor with the camera directly ahead of me. You will observe I was fighting the gyro trying to track the aircraft and not keeping up. All a new learning curve for me.

[Josh Rudy]

In the Marines, when we need to film from a rotory aircraft, we take the xf100 and 3 or 4 long bungee cords. Hook the bungee cords to the tie hooks by the door (two upper, two lower if available). It'll help a little with possible eractic movements and vibrations.

This goes without saying, but make sure you dummy cord your camera to your body!

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

Originally Posted by Tahria Sheather

Hi there,

I'm trying to get a bit of clarity on what is best for shooting smooth aerial video from a plan (w door off). Unfortunately we can't get our hands on a gyro so we're wondering what the next best thing is. I've read quite a few comments from this forum and it seems like the verdict is still out on whether handholding or monopoding would be better.

We're going to be shooting on Canon 5d Mark iii's...
Let me know what other info you may need to help provide sound advice.
Thanks!

Without a doubt, handheld (or shoulder brace) is the best. I wouldn't use a monopod at all. Stills images don't need IS lenses (just fast enough shutter-speed), but IS can help with video footage.

The most important thing is to avoid air turbulence as much as possible (especially when in small aircraft, bush-planes or microlights) - so if flying in warm weather try to be up in the air early morning before the sun is too high in the sky. Often by midday the warmer air can cause too much turbulence.

Also remain out of the slip-stream, by keeping the body of the camera & lens slightly inside of the open doorway so that it is shielded from the wind.

On a safety note, make sure that you remain strapped in to a decent harness, and also fit a secure wrist strap or climbing rope-clip to the camera body.