BEST WAY TO START AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY? ON A £600 BUDGET.

[neil-liverpool]

Hi, i have been flying rc helicopters and mini quads for 8 months now and i would like to do some decent aerial photography, ive been looking at hexacopters but they are well out of my price range of £600 so how can i get started on this budget?

i have a digital slr camera but i presume a £600 bird would not be good enough to carry its weight, so any camera advice would also be appreciated?

[RS]

Hi.
Well with  your budget I would say  you should build a quad .
In terms of  safety  they are  equal (  quad vs  hexa)
If one  motor or esc decides  to fail, both  going to fall  of  the  sky.    The safest here would be an oktocopter.

So I would go for  a simple quad frame + good quality components like motors, esc and   affordable camera gimbal . Good gimbal alone would cost  like 600£ and more , but its much more important for doing videos.
As  for  the  camera, I would go for  Sony NEX5  with wider  lens ( pancake)  or Pansonic Lumix GF1  or  newer.
Both are great cameras, but as a dslr owner I prefer Panasonic over Sony because of  the manual controls similar  to dslr.

You could also try something like this
http://ecilop.tv/shop/ecilop_easy.phtml

http://youtu.be/SvyvguQlKFs

Here is how it   works

http://youtu.be/BZnSMJRYZ-c

[Jumpy07]

 

As you have some rc experience it will make it much easier for you.. that said.. multi are different and you will crash and damage as part of the learning process.. so please factor this in.
Lifting SLR';s, and you have identified does require a decent hex or octo.. .. well outside your budget.
Most hobbyist tend to keep the camera payload light, and use small multi';s with budget gimbal';s, especially if the budget is low. A good quality gimbal can cost £1000';s.
Looking at your budget, would recommend a decent quad with high landing legs which will enable you to fit a gimbal underneath. Lot of these available.. X550, Turnigy HAL would be two that comes to mind.



The GoPro 3 Black is a good lightweight camera with still and video quality that would challenge some cheap SLR';s.. but this would probably blow your budget. I started with a small digital pocket camera which may be an option.
Even at the cheaper end you will struggle with your budget...
There are a lot of other decisions you will have to make, such as flight controller..  you need something that is stable, has position hold, alt hold and gimbal control.
Personally I don';t think £600 is enough, this will probably get you a small quad with fixed mini DVR camera.. but something you can add to and upgrade.
 

[johnrs]

Which DSLR do you have and how heavy is it?

This is kind of where I want to go with mine, but being new into the hobby I would be bricking myself if I air lifted my 600D under my hexa.  Mainly due to being inexperienced and a few crashes

Think you could very easily get a hexa into the air for under £600 if you happy to build yourself

[Balders]

Take a look at my Hexa build thread on the hexa';s/Y6 part of the forum.

I';ve lifted 2kg';s so far, and in total, I';ve probably spent circa £600 - £700 (I';ve not been counting).

It did involve parts from all sorts of different places and most importantly I DID already own the Naza flight controller which is 300quid on it';s own.

[johnrs]

Like the landing gear on that 450 frame.  where is that from ?

[Jumpy07]

Like the landing gear on that 450 frame.  where is that from ?

Not sure.. looks like Droidwork clone  .. have a look at these http://quadcopter.heliguy.com/Extras/Multicopter/Introduction/

[neil-liverpool]

hi folks, thanks for your replies and advice.

It looks like my best option is to build my self, im happy doing this, infact i think i will enjoy it because i liked stripping my helis down and rebuilding them.
I would like to try build a bird that is big enough to upgrade parts at a later date,
here are my needs atm

CAMERA....
The dslr i have is a nikon d50, its pretty old cam so im thinking i might be better just using a ok compact cam to get the weight down, what do you think. (by the way i plan on taking pics of buildings from not to far away so i dont need a massive megapixel cam)

GIMBAL....
At the moment im happy to just have the camera in a fixed position and just move the bird to the angle i need, but i would like to make a bird that is big enough to add a gimbal at a later date.

What air frame and elecs would you folks reccomend (i would like to fit a NAZA if poss)
I also have a dx6i and dx8 along with a few recevers that i can use.

[Gaza07]

The naza is a good choice for a good camera ship but if you add the gps this is going to take 300 out of your budget although it well worth the cost 
Tha fact you already have a 8 channel radio is going to help with the initial setup cost, I quite like some of the frames on rctimer like the one you showed me earlier in chat 

[Balders]

nice thing about the naza (amongst it';s many nice features) is that it supports a gimbal natively.

In multi';s, weight is always your biggest enemy, so really you have to think about how much weight do you want to lift and work around that.

Also, do bear in mind that again without a gimbal, there';s a fair chance that photos will be off kilter and require a bit of levelling/straightening up, post production.

Last thing is to mention (I';m not getting all heavy on you at this point, just pointing it out) is that if you intend on doing anything with the photos you are taking (ie selling them/taking reward) you will be breaking the law.

I know that last bit seems totally over the top and ridiculous, but since when has the law ever been common sense. 

Might be nothing to do with what you are after, but would be remiss of me not to mention it.

[QuadBod]

nice thing about the naza (amongst it';s many nice features) is that it supports a gimbal natively.

Not disagreeing with you, but even the £18 KK2.0  supports a gimbal natively!

[neil-liverpool]

gaza, i was planning on just getting the controler for know, i can always add the gps at later date.

balders, i dont mind doin a bit of post editing if it helps keeps the setting up cost down.

[neil-liverpool]

quadbod how reliable are the KK2.0?

[QuadBod]

quadbod how reliable are the KK2.0?

For manual flying, they';re great (and autolevel in 1.5 is rock solid)! For something with GPS, telemetry support, RTL, etc. an APM or one of the clones (arduflyer, Crius AIOP) would be a good option.  For out-of-the-box stability, Naza - but that';s what you';re paying a premium for.