My rig is finally all operational again, so I spent a couple hours getting some shots... I now see the limitations on the 5D and post stabilization... 100% of the shots need stabilization. I can see the post warp effect on a few, (garbage in-grabage out). At least I have an idea of the limits. But overall, I am happy with the results for such quick shoot and post prod.... now its go time
Nice work, Scott. Great sinister music -- fits the ominous weather just right. Nice hard sync point on the landing too. You land better than I do, too. What lens were you flying on the 5D? I'm hoping the 24mm f2.8 IS will take some of the lumps and bumps out of the footage -- probably not as much as the B.O.S.S. on the Sony CX760, but.... Andy.
Thanks Andy! I somehow forced my self into a 3 foot landing zone, sometimes its best to just get it down after dumping it from 200 feet, I feel like a 3ft drop is nothing... lol (wipe brow nervously). I was flying the Canon 17-40L... I rented the 24mm IS, sadly wasn't THAT much better (although I only had it a day). The 5D is just so dam ridged. Even with IS lenses, there is always some post stabilization to be done. I have a CX760 coming this week, I'm sure the results will be nice. But, trade off on lensing and quality. I mounted my 70-200 IS II (what I consider my Jesus lens), but I need to re-work the gimbal. Couldn't get the CG close enough. It's a bit much for the servos as well... but I would LOVE to fly that lens. The IS is pretty slick in that one. I feel like I am getting to know the limits and I'll just work within them (no matter the camera). The warp stabilizer (after effects/premier CS6) can do some insanely good stuff. But as I'm sure you know, some footage is just garbage. Best part, from a shooting perspective, I feel great about what I will be able to produce in the future based on the results today.
Some of mine are best described using the words you see in the NTSB accident reports: CFIT. Controlled flight into terrain. Did you add the tilt/focal plane effect in post (in the opening sequence) -- it looks like you were flying a T/S lens? I'll be interested to hear what you think of the footage you get from the 760. Ooof....good luck balancing the gimbal with that -- you'll need to put ballast weights somewhere on the gimbal.... True -- but at the expense of shedding pixels when it has to crop. Indeed. In every sense of the phrase, you're off to a flying start.... Now learn how to stay out of the trees. AMHIK. Andy. PS: Looks bloody cold in Michigan. Just wet here in Oregon.
T/S was done post (Magic Bullet Looks)... as well as the "cool" weather. It was actually almost 60, but I just felt like playing with looks. And yes, loosing pixels is like a punch in the XXXX... tradeoffs, tradeoffs
Nice job. I think you can do better on the post stab though. Looks like you have it set to auto-zoom in warp stabilizer? I would not use that. Try stabilize and Synthesize edges, then crank up the synthessis edge controls under advanced options. (forget what they are called, Feather and one other) Then you can add additional scaling so you don't see bad edges. One thing about the fullframe cameras that is nice is a lot less lens distortion due to the wide FOV you can get with a medium lens like a 35mm. Some is still visible once you stabilize a shot that has a lot of yaw. Unfortunately, I think the 5DII is pretty bad for aerial video. The compression turns fine details into moire mush and the rolling shutter is one of the worst. It is fantastic for stills though. In my experience, IS on a canon lens has not helped one bit. In some cases I think it made it worse.
Agree, the post was "quick & dirty".. it was on all default settings. And yes, the 5D has a lot of drawbacks for the application... curious what you think is the "best" alternative. I'm going to shot the CX760 this week... The image quality doesn't blow me away though. Money no object, whats the best cam/lensing for this rig?
Tough to say what the best aerial camera would be. Havent found it yet! I think it would depend on the use and what the production requires. They all have significant drawbacks, be it weight, price, rolling shutter, compression... Etc. For full HD 24p I've been really happy with the hacked GH2. It's light, cheap, and has great detail and nice IS that actually helps a little. For other frame rates I don't like it. Other cameras to consider are the FS100, Gh3, Blackmagic, 5D mk III. Not speaking from experience here so maybe others can comment. I agree that the 760 doesn't produce a great image from what I've seen. Very video-ish. Nice that it's stable, but I wouldn't want to use it for anything other than industrials.
Yeah, I have seen some stuff rom bule yonder films shot on the GH2 that look really great... which hack do you run on it?
I'm still using the Senda A/ Sanity patch. It's a hybrid that will work in 30p and 60p, but is pretty amazing and so 100% stable at 24p. There have been lots of new development since I settled on it. Maybe with some downtime I'll try some different settings. I found that patches that were stable on the ground would freeze and stop recording in the air. A must is the super expensive 64 gig 95 mb/s sandisk card.