The unmanned flying DSLR camera

Posted on 27 Apr 2010 at 10:33

One videographer has taken his hobby to the skies with a home-made creation featuring a Canon 7D digital SLR strapped to the body of a custom radio controlled helicopter.

The remote recording rig - demonstrated over on DIYPhotography.net - is the work of Texas-based videographer Eric Austin and allows for the recording of fly-by sequences - traditionally an expensive proposition, requiring a helicopter and pilot to be hired for several hours - extremely quickly and cheaply.

Built around Canon's 7D digital SLR camera, the rig is capable of recording the fly-by footage in full 1080p high definition and features a 5.8GHz radio downlink to provide a live preview of the footage, allowing the shot to be customised and directed on-the-fly.

Planned improvements include a GPS-equipped autonomous auto-pilot - currently under test - which Austin claims "will allow precision flying and other features such as position or hover hold, altitude hold, etc." without the need for a human pilot to be in control at all times.

The camera is connected to the body of the helicopter via the tripod screw mount, which Austin states offers a certain amount of shock protection - something that's important when you have an extremely expensive camera whizzing through the sky. While the rig is designed to absorb the impact of a crash without damaging the camera too much, Austin says the trick is for him to "always do my best not to crash."

Additional footage is available on Austin's helivideo.com.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

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