Author Topic: Using drones for stock video even though it is illegal. (Read 99985 times)

cdwheatley · « **Reply #25 on:** August 20, 2015, 12:59 »

Quote from: jjneff on August 20, 2015, 12:35

Great footage and thanks for sharing! Maybe we need to chat, I have already made hundreds of dollars with my drone in 4 months! Your footage is very high quality!

Thanks John, you have some amazing shots in your video!
Sales are coming, but much slower than anticipated, especially for stuff that really hasn't been possible to do before, or not very much. I guess the demand just isn't there yet, or at least for the type of stuff I am shooting. I could see lifestyle drone stuff being a winner, but it's a little dangerous to fly that close with a wide angle lens...haha. I've had some really close calls.
The other thing is, I'm seeing more and more drones popping up everyday. Won't be long before the micros are flooded with aerial stuff.

spamowanka · « **Reply #26 on:** August 20, 2015, 13:29 »

wow! amazing videos guys

jjneff · « **Reply #27 on:** August 20, 2015, 15:05 »

Drones are like video cameras, they are everywhere but with the footage you shoot it is not everywhere! I am slowly including models with my drone, planning everything ahead of time and doing the prep work. I get up at 5am to shoot and stay late in the evening to get what I want. I pay people and pick locations. 99% of stock shooters don't do this with a camera or a drone. If you keep on your path with footage like this you will rise quickly! Getty has been good for this stuff for me so far! The rewards come to those who take the time and risk to get shots others don't. Thanks for the kind words on my clips, I could learn a lot from you!

cdwheatley · « **Reply #28 on:** August 20, 2015, 15:44 »

Quote from: jjneff on August 20, 2015, 15:05

Drones are like video cameras, they are everywhere but with the footage you shoot it is not everywhere! I am slowly including models with my drone, planning everything ahead of time and doing the prep work. I get up at 5am to shoot and stay late in the evening to get what I want. I pay people and pick locations. 99% of stock shooters don't do this with a camera or a drone. If you keep on your path with footage like this you will rise quickly! Getty has been good for this stuff for me so far! The rewards come to those who take the time and risk to get shots others don't. Thanks for the kind words on my clips, I could learn a lot from you!

Thank you for the words of encouragement. It's too expensive to shoot the way I am doing it, video is new to me, but not all that different than shooting stills. Weather plays such a huge factor for flying above the ocean that it's hard to plan ahead very far. I spent last summer documenting all the popular islands/beaches in the Virgin Islands. I'm afraid to add up what that cost me to do that, it would be a long time to see any return. Anyway, It was a lot of fun. We'll need to tone down the spending to have any future shooting stock video. Stay local and shoot more lifestyle. Getty is tough on some, getting good search placement there is something I haven't quite figured out yet. Nobody buys your clips/images if you can't find them. Obviously you've been doing this a long time, so you are well established. In hindsight, I should have started years ago.

KB · « **Reply #29 on:** August 20, 2015, 17:41 »

Quote from: cdwheatley on August 20, 2015, 12:26

Here is a sample of some of the stock stuff I have done with a drone in the past 2 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hceIbMYDtXE all the aerial shots are done with a phantom 2, gopro and gimbal.

This is great stuff. One of my most favorite places in the universe; thanks for refreshing some wonderful memories. And so well done.

I have to add, though, that I really, really hated one clip: The one with someone touching a turtle.

Perhaps it's useful stock to show what should never, ever be done, but I doubt it's likely to be used that way. Instead it's far more likely to end up encouraging people ("oh, that looks so neat").

cdwheatley · « **Reply #30 on:** August 21, 2015, 08:27 »

Quote from: KB on August 20, 2015, 17:41

Quote from: cdwheatley on August 20, 2015, 12:26
Here is a sample of some of the stock stuff I have done with a drone in the past 2 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hceIbMYDtXE all the aerial shots are done with a phantom 2, gopro and gimbal.
This is great stuff. One of my most favorite places in the universe; thanks for refreshing some wonderful memories. And so well done.

I have to add, though, that I really, really hated one clip: The one with someone touching a turtle. Perhaps it's useful stock to show what should never, ever be done, but I doubt it's likely to be used that way. Instead it's far more likely to end up encouraging people ("oh, that looks so neat").

Sorry about that, I had no idea that you could harm a turtle by touching it. I guess I should know that after living in the islands for 7 years. Swimming with turtles is amazing, they are like cute puppies, you just want to play with them. I've had a few people make similar comments and point out the issues with touching them. Rest assured that won't happen again by me.

marquixHD · « **Reply #31 on:** August 21, 2015, 14:31 »

Quote from: spamowanka on August 20, 2015, 06:07

tahanks jjneff, I was considering getting Phantom2 with GoPro4 but my research shows that Phantom's3 camera gives better quality still photo. on the other hand having a copter without built in camera gives you possibility to change optics when there is something new/better on the market without changing a drone. Sending a dslr into the sky is very expensive, i was thinking about compact camera, but gimbals are also expensive toys. There are some rc tech guys willing to assemble the system for compact, but I don't want to carry a soldering gun in my bag and all those sticking out wires looks user unfriendly.

Have you been exercising on smaller copters before flying P3?

totally with you when it comes to user-unfriendliness of the "big rigs", @spamowanka. Things have become better lately though with, for example, the Tarot hexacopter series, see http://steadiflite.com/advanced-apv-tool-the-tarot-t960-hexacopter/ for details: these can carry a full DSLR (or a good MFT offering a better choice of lenses than, say, this badly-fisheyed Gopro thing along with its totally unacceptable shutter-roll etc most seem to use these days)... While definitely not as sleek as these prosumer Phantoms (with their own severe limitations and also cost draw-downs), that Tarot set-of-flying-tubes is definitely manageable for non-RC-techies. Not worse than a decent video rig set-up on a tripod, frame, and external screen. (Ask someone to help with configuration, or you may even "buy" that as an add-on service for a ready-to-fly result.)

Me, I definitely used a small copter as a "training wheels" solution; and it's not even mainly the flying part but the aerial filming and overall composition portion that needs LOTS OF practice here -- used to "get my feet wet" flying a Blade 350 QX3 which is the cheapest platform for any meaningful AP/V use and image quality (and does not have that overly expens-ified Gopro garbage hanging underneath), can be had pre-owned from eBay for 300 bucks or new for a tat higher.

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #32 on:** October 04, 2015, 16:56 »

Hi UAV fans,

I have been fly a large commercial UAV for the past 18 months. The bird has a payload of 25 pounds. I have a Movi M5 gimbal with a Canon 5D mark 3 at this time ( Upgrading to a Red ). The bird is flown as a two man team with one person flying and the other ( myself ) working the gimbal for swings, tilts, pan, focus, zoom and iris from a Freely controller. We send our uncompressed signal through a Teradek wirelessly to a Shogun monitor where the data is recorded to hot swappable ssd hard drives. If anyone is interested in information about commercial level UAV's as well as information about obtaining your 333 exemption please feel welcome to send me a PM. I don't check often but I reply to every message. Best of luck everyone.

Cheers,
J

cdwheatley · « **Reply #33 on:** October 05, 2015, 14:19 »

Quote from: marquixHD on August 21, 2015, 14:31

Quote from: spamowanka on August 20, 2015, 06:07
tahanks jjneff, I was considering getting Phantom2 with GoPro4 but my research shows that Phantom's3 camera gives better quality still photo. on the other hand having a copter without built in camera gives you possibility to change optics when there is something new/better on the market without changing a drone. Sending a dslr into the sky is very expensive, i was thinking about compact camera, but gimbals are also expensive toys. There are some rc tech guys willing to assemble the system for compact, but I don't want to carry a soldering gun in my bag and all those sticking out wires looks user unfriendly.

Have you been exercising on smaller copters before flying P3?

totally with you when it comes to user-unfriendliness of the "big rigs", @spamowanka. Things have become better lately though with, for example, the Tarot hexacopter series (see http://steadiflite.com/advanced-apv-tool-the-tarot-t960-hexacopter/ for details): these can carry a full DSLR (or a good MFT offering a better choice of lenses than, say, this badly-fisheyed Gopro thing and its totally unacceptable shutter-roll etc most seem to use these days)... While definitely not as sleek as these prosumer Phantoms (with their own severe limitations and also cost draw-downs), that Tarot set-of-flying-tubes is definitely manageable for non-RC-techies. Not worse than a decent video rig set-up on a tripod, frame, and external screen. (Ask someone to help with configuration, or you may even "buy" that as an add-on service for a ready-to-fly result.)

Me, I definitely used a small copter as a "training wheels" solution; and it's not even mainly the flying part but the aerial filming and overall composition portion that needs LOTS OF practice here -- used to "get my feet wet" flying a Blade 350 QX3 which is the cheapest platform for any meaningful AP/V use and image quality (and does not have that overly expens-ified Gopro garbage hanging underneath), can be had pre-owned from eBay for 300 bucks or new for a tat higher.

The shutter roll on gopro rig is easily fixed by adding a ND filter. The bigger problem with gopro is the ugly fisheye, easily fixed in post, but it stretches the image, the edges look terrible. Images from gopro 3 are so bad it takes forever to clean up in post. I've just recently crashed my phantom 2 into the drink due to battery failure. Those batteries need to be carefully taken care of or they will fail over time. I fly over water almost 100% of the time so it was bound to happen sooner or later. Luckily there is the DJI Inspire 1 which I just purchased, camera is improved (no fisheye)with options to upgrade to a micro four thirds camera Zenmuse X5, or X5R depending on your needs. This is a game changer in my book, the small drone size with a decent camera and interchangeable lenses. I'm guessing these cameras will compete with a flying dslr in a very small package. It's not really possible, or economical for me to fly a giant rig Like Jonathan mentions from a boat. It would also draw a huge amount of attention as well which is not always favorable.

leaf · « **Reply #34 on:** October 06, 2015, 02:54 »

Yeah the X5 raw is looking realling exciting. I have had a large drone to fly a Canon 5D Mark III camea but the Inspire X5R will easily outperform that setup in a much smaller, easier to fly package. Good things are coming for drones

It's about time someone makes a drone-dedicated camera like DJI just have. It really makes no sense sticking up a camera like a 5D in the air which has tons of features that you can't use while flying and take up unnecessary weight (screen, buttons, viewfinder, mirror, battery, magnesium body, audio support).

cdwheatley · « **Reply #35 on:** October 06, 2015, 18:34 »

Quote from: leaf on October 06, 2015, 02:54

Yeah the X5 raw is looking realling exciting. I have had a large drone to fly a Canon 5D Mark III camea but the Inspire X5R will easily outperform that setup in a much smaller, easier to fly package. Good things are coming for drones

It's about time someone makes a drone-dedicated camera like DJI just have. It really makes no sense sticking up a camera like a 5D in the air which has tons of features that you can't use while flying and take up unnecessary weight (screen, buttons, viewfinder, mirror, battery, magnesium body, audio support).

Right, love or hate DJI they are heading in the right direction:) also interesting would be the ability to detach the x5 and put the gimbal on a stick for hand held work. Looking forward to that option which should be right around the corner. Hard to imagine where the tech will be a few years from now.

Amos Struck · « **Reply #36 on:** October 08, 2015, 06:25 »

I wonder if it worth to start shooting with a DJI Phantom 3 Professional?

Any advice on this?

cobalt · « **Reply #37 on:** October 08, 2015, 08:14 »

Is anyone using a drone to shoot video indoors?

I know that to do anything outdoors i need a license and permits, but in my own home or studio?

leaf · « **Reply #38 on:** October 08, 2015, 15:56 »

Quote from: cdwheatley on October 06, 2015, 18:34

Quote from: leaf on October 06, 2015, 02:54
Yeah the X5 raw is looking realling exciting. I have had a large drone to fly a Canon 5D Mark III camea but the Inspire X5R will easily outperform that setup in a much smaller, easier to fly package. Good things are coming for drones

It's about time someone makes a drone-dedicated camera like DJI just have. It really makes no sense sticking up a camera like a 5D in the air which has tons of features that you can't use while flying and take up unnecessary weight (screen, buttons, viewfinder, mirror, battery, magnesium body, audio support).

Right, love or hate DJI they are heading in the right direction:) also interesting would be the ability to detach the x5 and put the gimbal on a stick for hand held work. Looking forward to that option which should be right around the corner. Hard to imagine where the tech will be a few years from now.

Yep. They are one step ahead of you 😀
http://petapixel.com/2015/10/08/the-dji-osmo-is-a-handheld-12mp4k-camera-with-a-brushless-gimbal/

jjneff · « **Reply #39 on:** October 08, 2015, 18:07 »

This is my backyard :-) shot this with my drone this morning. This is a National Forest so drones aren't banned yet. Flying as much as I can while I can. Stayed below 400ft! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekfob4IcTUo

cdwheatley · « **Reply #40 on:** October 08, 2015, 18:15 »

Quote from: leaf on October 08, 2015, 15:56

Quote from: cdwheatley on October 06, 2015, 18:34
Quote from: leaf on October 06, 2015, 02:54
Yeah the X5 raw is looking realling exciting. I have had a large drone to fly a Canon 5D Mark III camea but the Inspire X5R will easily outperform that setup in a much smaller, easier to fly package. Good things are coming for drones

It's about time someone makes a drone-dedicated camera like DJI just have. It really makes no sense sticking up a camera like a 5D in the air which has tons of features that you can't use while flying and take up unnecessary weight (screen, buttons, viewfinder, mirror, battery, magnesium body, audio support).

Right, love or hate DJI they are heading in the right direction:) also interesting would be the ability to detach the x5 and put the gimbal on a stick for hand held work. Looking forward to that option which should be right around the corner. Hard to imagine where the tech will be a few years from now.

Yep. They are one step ahead of you 😀
http://petapixel.com/2015/10/08/the-dji-osmo-is-a-handheld-12mp4k-camera-with-a-brushless-gimbal/

Haha!:) Truth be told: I already typed my way over to B&H and pre-ordered one. Normally I would wait until the bugs are worked out, but couldn't help myself this time. Pretty excited about this thing with X5 for run and gun beach stock work. This might prove to be a one man band's dream! I have a ton of uses for this setup. Fly the drone, shoot from boat, shoot on the beach, everything in motion and all secure in one suitcase. Christmas came early this year:)

cdwheatley · « **Reply #41 on:** October 08, 2015, 18:22 »

Quote from: jjneff on October 08, 2015, 18:07

This is my backyard :-) shot this with my drone this morning. This is a National Forest so drones aren't banned yet. Flying as much as I can while I can. Stayed below 400ft! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekfob4IcTUo

Beautiful! Nice work!:)

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #42 on:** October 08, 2015, 18:33 »

Quote from: jjneff on October 08, 2015, 18:07

This is my backyard :-) shot this with my drone this morning. This is a National Forest so drones aren't banned yet. Flying as much as I can while I can. Stayed below 400ft! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekfob4IcTUo

Really gorgeous! Sort of a shame you can't fly over yourself - just your drone gets the amazing views

jjneff · « **Reply #43 on:** October 08, 2015, 18:35 »

Thanks and I am excited about the Osmo as well!! amazing tool and will be getting one myself!

jjneff · « **Reply #44 on:** October 08, 2015, 18:36 »

Have a model for next week and I will be using the drone as my main camera

noodle · « **Reply #45 on:** October 08, 2015, 21:15 »

Great footage man!

jjneff · « **Reply #46 on:** October 09, 2015, 09:20 »

Thanks! Still learning but it is a lot of fun :-)

Jonathan Ross · « **Reply #47 on:** October 13, 2015, 13:37 »

Hi all,

I don't want to spoil the party at all but before you drop 8K on this new DJI product I would be absolutely sure that not one rotor will go out on you. At 3K the first model was okay, losing 3K is a lot different than 8K. Many countries do not allow the use of 4 rotor systems as they can be dangerous. DJI horror stories are all over the place if you do a bit of google search. This industry is moving so fast unless you are ready to start making money tomorrow with your new flying camera I would wait it out. No rush for now they are all just getting things figured out and the changes are happening at light speed. Please read reviews at B and H, and everywhere for that matter, about the Inspire 1 and all DJI products. This new unit is the same Inspire with new optics but the guts of the bird appear to be the same as the 1. There are lots of good ones but there are plenty of bad ones and DJI is the worst for repair if you recover your crashed bird. You could easily be down for 2 months waiting on parts and for professional that makes business difficult. Best of luck

Cheers,
J

cdwheatley · « **Reply #48 on:** October 15, 2015, 11:40 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on October 13, 2015, 13:37

Hi all,

I don't want to spoil the party at all but before you drop 8K on this new DJI product I would be absolutely sure that not one rotor will go out on you. At 3K the first model was okay, losing 3K is a lot different than 8K. Many countries do not allow the use of 4 rotor systems as they can be dangerous. DJI horror stories are all over the place if you do a bit of google search. This industry is moving so fast unless you are ready to start making money tomorrow with your new flying camera I would wait it out. No rush for now they are all just getting things figured out and the changes are happening at light speed. Please read reviews at B and H, and everywhere for that matter, about the Inspire 1 and all DJI products. This new unit is the same Inspire with new optics but the guts of the bird appear to be the same as the 1. There are lots of good ones but there are plenty of bad ones and DJI is the worst for repair if you recover your crashed bird. You could easily be down for 2 months waiting on parts and for professional that makes business difficult. Best of luck

Cheers,
J

You make some good points. Dji does not have a great track record for customer service. One of the problems with DJI is they have captured a huge portion of the market. I would have to say out of the last 50 drones I've seen flying down here 90% of them are DJI, not sure what actual numbers are, but a lot of phantoms around. So, with that huge number of drones, a lot of mishaps are going to happen. A lot of those problems are due to pilot error, bad calibration of compass, or IMU, maybe not doing a solid pre flight check, battery failure, not reading the manual. I flew a phantom 2 over water for two years and never had any issues other than my battery failing which was my fault. Cost me my drone, but I'm moving on. I'm not saying there are not bad units out there like with any company, but a lot of these accidents should not have happened. Most of these people are relying totally on GPS also. I know the inspire 1 had some firmware issues in the beginning, but they have seemed to iron them out with the latest updates. Mine has flown flawlessly so far (knock on wood). I wouldn't fully trust any of these drones. There is always risk involved. $8,000 in the air is a lot of money. Not to mention the cost of a computer that can process the x5r files. The X5 however looks like a nice upgrade at $2,000 especially for stills if you are coming from an X3, or gopro setup. I'm impressed with the Inspire 1, it's quiet, handles very well, camera rotates a smooth 360 which really comes in handy for pans, something I always tried to do by rotating the drone, but never worked out well. Total control over camera and its functions while it's in the air is a huge bonus. Switch from 4k to slow motion on the fly. These features would cost a lot to build from scratch. I've been flying in 20 mph winds which I would never do with a phantom and it's pretty stable. These smaller drones with a large sensor and interchangeable lens are the future. Investing in a large model at this point, might not be the best option either with the way things are headed. As Leaf mentioned, why put all the camera extras in the air. Slim it down to a flying sensor. Waiting is not a bad idea, but not being late to the party has it's advantages too, especially when it comes to stock.

marquixHD · « **Reply #49 on:** October 22, 2015, 10:53 »

Quote from: Jonathan Ross on October 13, 2015, 13:37

Hi all,

I don't want to spoil the party at all but before you drop 8K on this new DJI product I would be absolutely sure that not one rotor will go out on you. At 3K the first model was okay, losing 3K is a lot different than 8K. Many countries do not allow the use of 4 rotor systems as they can be dangerous. DJI horror stories are all over the place if you do a bit of google search. This industry is moving so fast unless you are ready to start making money tomorrow with your new flying camera I would wait it out. No rush for now they are all just getting things figured out and the changes are happening at light speed. Please read reviews at B and H, and everywhere for that matter, about the Inspire 1 and all DJI products. This new unit is the same Inspire with new optics but the guts of the bird appear to be the same as the 1. There are lots of good ones but there are plenty of bad ones and DJI is the worst for repair if you recover your crashed bird. You could easily be down for 2 months waiting on parts and for professional that makes business difficult. Best of luck

Cheers,
J

fully have to agree. The kind of "service" from DJI is appalling in light of the fact that we are talking K$ products and multi-K$ products here (and with their inefficient way of handling requests and collecting fault data, they show how unnecessarily long these actual repair times are going to be right from the start).

As for the fast-moving part of that segment, again it's DJI who are the ones having demonstrated very bad product development policy -- this time with their larger copters and the infamous "flip of death" problem. Apparently they did not even care to test their expensive airships but (ab)used multi-K paying customers as "beta testers" who then had to foot the bill for crashed ones out of their own pockets, thank-you-very-much.

Indeed, I would not go for anything but small (and somewhat affordable) quadcopters from DJI in light of that. These haven't been overly changed and messed-with for a number of model generations and seem to be sufficiently "stable" as a product now. Phantom-2 to "vision" to Phantom-3 and all its variants (sold in large numbers) may be "reliable enough" to go for.

And yes, very pleased elsewhere with the overall experience and results from Phantom 3s (when you succeed getting a fault-free copy with working FPV and image data feed so you can actually shoot images with it, that is).

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Author Topic: Using drones for stock video even though it is illegal. (Read 99985 times)

cdwheatley

spamowanka

jjneff

cdwheatley

KB

cdwheatley

marquixHD

Jonathan Ross

cdwheatley

leaf

cdwheatley

Amos Struck

cobalt

leaf

jjneff

cdwheatley

cdwheatley

Jo Ann Snover

jjneff

jjneff

noodle

jjneff

Jonathan Ross

cdwheatley

marquixHD

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