Radian Pan question

Hi Katya:
Sorry for the delay I was out on a shoot all today (Pacific time). Let me set my C8 up and see what happens. I'll let you know when I've done that -- probably Friday Pacific time, if that's ok. I upped my tree count and broken props by one....the cost of doing copter business, I surmise..

 

Hi Katya: Yes, as usual, the Cinestar came through with shining colors. Just one small nick in one propeller which I swapped out on site. The beauty of the cylindrical boom construction is that things can rotate around the booms and thus absorb the energy.

It was, of course, my own fault -- shooting low passes over an orchard with trees at the far end. Human depth perception is just not good enough at even 50 meters distance and I *just* went a teensy bit too far... I'm wondering whether the distance readings I get in the Smart On Screen Display are repeatable enough (they don't need to be accurate, just repeatable), that I could have walked down the orchard with the C8, got a distance reading, and then always made sure to hold several meters short of that reading... I'll do some static experiments and see just how repeatable those readings are -- they'll be the "home" position to current position based on the GPS, so as I say, I don't expect accuracy, but it would be nice if they were +/-5 meters of repeatability.

I'll try the experiment later today -- just doing the "grand rounds" on the forum now.

Andy.

 

Don't go to any great trouble to find the Apples film, Katya -- I'd certainly like to see it and I'll show it to the producer of the segment at Oregon Public Broadcasting -- I'm sure they'd find it informative....but don't "disturb the universe" to find it!

Thanks
Andy.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll check them out. I tried Clipwrap on AVCHD footage from the Sony CX730 -- Preview on the Mac plays it flawlessly, but FCP 7 stutters badly when you play it back either in the Viewer or on the Timeline. Sigh. Premiere works flawlessly with AVCHD without any messing around....

As an alterative to Shot Put Pro, I use Synchronize Pro X -- it's one of the few copy programs that does a read-after write verify so you can be reasonably certain that the data is there. It's not specific to video, and can also be scheduled and runs across LANs.

Andy.

 

Katya:
Going back to your original posting. Could you post a screen shots of the Diagnostic Window and the Configuration Window for the pan Radian sensor, please?

Thanks
Andy

 

Katya: Talking of XDCAM/FCP etc.: Well, I tend to shoot my educational DVDs on two or three Canon XLH1a's and they output HDV 1080i60, so I usually edit in that -- bearing in mind that DVDs are still standard definition (aka "crap def") unless they're BluRay ("high def"), so my requirements are a long way short of broadcast/movie. There seems little point in shooting in XDCAM HD 50 at 4:2:2 if you're going to end up throwing it all away for a crap def DVD.

However, I'm starting to see a need (from clients) for the Sony CX760 AVCHD to end up as XDCAM HD 50. I've also tried Pro Res, both LT and HQ. Whither the end client goes, go I!

I've not quite got my head around the syllogism that says it's better to convert to XDCAM/ProRes on ingest and edit in XDCAM/ProRes, or whether to edit in camera native (in my case HDV 1080i60). Seems like FCP/Avid/Premiere just has to munge through a lot more data when you switch to XDCAM/ProRes....is there really benefit in terms of transition quality rendering, for example?

I'm looking seriously at the C300 or even the new Canon 1DC. I shoot stills with a Hasselblad H4D-50 and have become acclimated to 12 stops of dynamic range. The Black Magic Cinema appears to have a nice wide dynamic range too, although it's pretty basic beyond that (according to Philip Bloom's super review).

Question for you: When you fly your C300, what batteries do you use (single/double) and what do you set your "come home" voltage to? There's always that tension between payload and flight time -- and I find it makes everyone (shooter and me) too damn rushed to line up a shoot, and shoot it smoothly because we're under the Damoclean sword of battery life.

Andy.

 

Thanks, Katya.
By the way, it looks like you're using Windows 7 -- in which case, you can use the Print Screen key (or it's equivalent if you don't have it on your keyboard) to capture a digital image of the screen to the clipboard. From there you can paste it into another document (e.g. a digital paint program, Photoshop...)

Alternatively use Start > All Programs > Accessories > Snipping Tool
Using this technique you can capture just part of the screen.

The advantage to either of the above is that you don't have Moiré patterns in the final image.

Let me go dangle me Cinestar and see what I get.... I'll let you know.
Andy.

 

Thanks for the reply on the ingesting to ProRes/XDCAM. It confirmed my suspicions -- you might as well edit as close to camera standard and then export the final movie using the codec for the format the client wants.

I hear you on the 5D. I'm using the 5D Mk III but the flight times are so short. I just got a pair of 10,900 mAH Maxamps rated at 150C peak discharge rate. Now I have to wait for the Oregon weather to be dry before I can fly them -- looks like that's a week from today -- although some days are only 20% chance of rain, just cloudy. A pair of those weighs 4.1 lbs (1.85 Kg), so it'll be interesting to see how efficient they are (where efficiency factors in the increased weight of the battery versus the extension to the flight time).

They're $310 each battery....so imagine showing up for a shoot with $3,000 in batteries!

ANdy.

 

Oh...sorry....my bad. I assumed that you were on the same machine for email and software. I'm like you -- I use a PC (well Mac Book running BootCamp Win 7). To do screen captures from my Mac, I use Remote Desktop for the Mac, reach out across the LAN, get the PC screen on my Mac, and then take a screen capture on my Mac of the PC. How's that for not letting technology get the upper hand!

If this technique is not too confusing, the link to the Mac remote desktop software (which is free) is http://www.microsoft.com/mac/remote-desktop-client .

Andy.

 

I just done did the dangling, Katya. As you say, when the mode is Fixed Stabilized, the pan servo is not holding position and the gimbal can be rotated in pan.. The green light on the pan sensor is flashing slowly, the yellow (ok, orange, but it looks yellow to me) is on solid.

So, to go through your original email:

I am initialising the system on the ground with transmitter (DX8) in off mode.
Green lights on all three radians flashes rapidly then move to slow blink
Orange light is solid orange​

The roll & tilt radians lock in the correct position but the pan moves to about 22 degrees right of centre​

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I do not see this motion in pan when the system first comes up. I'm not sure what would be causing it. I could see it being an irritant if you (like me) like to take off nose out and you power up the gimbal and now you're not nose out any more!

Then when I turn the transmitter mode switch to 'fixed position stabilised' both green & orange lights on roll & tilt axis go solid & if I then hang the copter off the ground the roll & tilt respond correctly, the pan just stays where it is but not locked in, i.e. I can move the gimbal on the pan axis with no resistance.​

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That's what I see too.

I then switch the transmitter to 'stabilised slew' all lights on the pan radian are solid and the slew works fine and gimbal is locked in and working fine although I do have a clockwise drift.​

I see this slow rotation of the frameset above the gimbal. I do NOT see this when the C8 is flight though -- I suspect that the Flight Control board is nulling it out or that the flight dynamics are different from the "dangle dynamics."

Hope this all helps.
Andy

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