Tomorrow i will try one more test, 12,6 kilos setup i can take off 1 more kilo changing the freefly battey for the genstattu 6000. Acording to the last service boletin and the freefly manual Iam not able to fly Arri and Epics anymore with no mottor temperature inssue. i'am trying my best in reduce weight. but i mainly i bought the Alta to fly Arri mini and epic, with 1 cine lenses and one motor at least, but this is only possible at sea leavel betwen 0 degrees and 10 degrees. i'am not saying that iam not able to fly, here you can see:. i can fly, but my motor go up to 70c in 3 minutes at 24 degree celsius at 3000ft and 12,6 kilos. according to tabb last bolettin i should land at the first alarm, now set to 70c. Please Freefly, state honesty if alta is able to fly Arri mini, and Epics or not, in my test i found that alta is not able to delivery what its advertesing. please be honesty with the filmaker comunity!
Alexandre I am not freefly and I feel your frustration as its been echoed by several others. There's no way anyone can tell you this camera will work or that camera will work. What I can tell you is that it all depends on total weight and where you are flying and what the weather conditions are. These factors make a huge difference in a go or no go situation. Let's talk about the factors of the Alta: 1. Battery size, selection, how many used etc. 2. Which gimbal you are using 3. What accessories the gimbal have like FPV camera, batteries, follow focus etc. 4. Which camera you are using. 5. Which lens you are using. Any of these 5 factors can make a "HUGE" impact to whether or not if the weight is too much. Let's talk about the external factors: 1. Pressure altitude and elevation of where you are. If you are 6000 above sea level its probably not going to work. 2. Temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity will effect density altitude. So as you can see all these factors can really sway whether or not its going to work. There might even be situations where the Alta can't carry a Heavier DSL in the rocky Mountains in August. Get your complete flying weight and your atmospheric conditions and then you can determine whether it will work. Freefly has an outline in the manual that will tell you based on these factors. Good luck.
tks, all this help me a lot but did not solve my problem if you look to my setup in the picts you will see the weight exercise, 12,6 kilos 11,6 in the best situation with epic and alexa mini, try yourself and post what you achieve. i consider all your points i would expect more reallife temperature and altitude conditions to fly not with still lens leica m, but with the cine option my point is: reading the manual the alta is not able to fly any pack bigger than this ,in the picture, in almost all situation, the maximum is 13,6 kilos total weight at sea level 0 degree, really???????? what kind of situation you think we expect face with this machine? at least I expect better scenarios and more chalenge situations. if you can remeber your last's sets..... we face diferents condition all over the world, we are filmakers! everyone nows what iam talking about. iam not able to sleep well for several days. IS ALTA ABLE TO FOLLOW THE FILMAKER REALITY WITH BIG CAMERA? and razonable configurations nothing exagerate in diferents situations in our world, following the directors dream? or should i olny consider to use alta at sea level at 0 degree, came on? i think we all are expecting more, at least for what was adeverteinsing, nothing more NO TRICK WITH CONFIGURANTIONS With all variants!!!!! we are not playing in this business.
Hi Dave... I´m flying way down the maximum weight that states in the manual... 12,3 kilos 30 degrees celsius and 250 feet above sea level... and my ESC pass 70 celsius easily... we are talking about weight + temp + altitude Every day QC and FreeFly uploads photos of de Alta flying RED and Alexas minis with all kind of setups... so are they using a different Alta? I just don´t understand...
How are you guys weighing your alta's? How are you getting your full up weight? Where are you located?
Dave... easy answer... ;-) with the scale supplied with the alta... hanging from the top with all included, movi camera batteries etc etc... I´m in Paraguay South central america... declination -13 degrees... (you have to come some day... great barbecues)
Hello, here my experience: Setup: RED Dragon with Zeiss EF Compact Prime 3,3kg (7.27lbs) 2x Tatuu 10000 mah 2.8 kg (6.17lbs) For the RED power i use a 4000 mah lipo (500gr.) (1.1lbs) Movi M15 2kg (4.4lb) Total incl. Battery 8.6 KG (18.94lbs) this is the absolut minimum weight for for a Red Dragon setup! Flighttime on 600m masl (1968ft) around 9-11 minutes (All this with the old firmware) Best Regards Ricardo
I think the scales might have been a recent idea, Dave. It's just a simple baggage scale. I'm not sure this is the exact model, but it's something like this. Andy.
I agree with all sentiments in this thread... I feel the ALTA isn't what they thought it would be 10 months ago at NAB time. I recall the "Alexa Mini, I've got you" marketing line in the promo videos, as well as talk of "15lbs for 14 minutes" The demo unit we all touched and felt at NAB was pretty exciting, with the Summicrons, FIZ Motors, and Bolt/Tomahawk... It appears this was optimistic. Whilst I totally understand that conditions and altitude are huge factors in how we operate, I would be interested to see how many users are flying below 0C and at sea level. What do they use in the Summer months? It would be an interesting Poll - What is the altitude of your "home ground" and respective average Daytime Summer and Daytime Winter temperatures of your region.
For whatever it's worth, I'd like to say that I also feel burned by the Alta's advertised performance. Please just be honest with your customers, our industry is already overrun by companies overstating their product's capabilities. As an early adopter going back to the M10, I'd like to keep my trust in Freefly. That being said, I love working with the Alta and smaller cameras, the app and feature set are great and it is a work horse. Just completed a two day job with 40+ flawless flights.
Yeah its a tough one... It is such a great machine besides the payload. Like you, the majority of our work is on lighter cameras, and it is flawless. Would gladly re invest in the next version of Alta (NAB??) and keep current ALTA as a smaller machine.
Hi Ermel as spoke with you on the phone , this is a main concern . And we clear advise that for most of the condituons we have in Brazil, all the recomended weights ARE EXCEED. With the described setup PLease be safe and lets NOT give a chance for Any accident. Lets fly inside the recomened weight according to height and temperature. Thanks for your atttention.
If only drone technology was where the marketing hype said it was. I've yet to find a drone platform that lives up to all the expectations created by hype and have just come to expect a certain level of creative license in the claims made by sellers. For sure the Alta is a great and well designed platform. The benefits of transportability and low maintenance are excellent but we still use custom heavy lifts for real work.
Freefly made a good drone but has some limitations. There is multiple crews that run the alta with way more payload than its allowed. That poses a certain risk and can have a bad impact on the whole industry. Since crashes and accidents get notices and then result in drone ban on certain events or areas. Like the ski accident, some crews lost up to 10 Jobs based on that accident and that is not good for industry. But there is planty of companies that make a true 20 pound lifter and a lot off custom build options so if someone realy needs a high payload he Will go for alternatives. Lets see what this year brings and where the future brings us. We have some new stuff in testing also.
Dejan, looking forward to seeing what your working on at Kopterworx. You guys always have high quality gear coming out. I would be interested in one your hammer x8 frames if you ever choose to sell the frame on it's own.