Comments on: Time Building In San Francisco http://wikirfm.cyclicandcollective.net/2010/07/time-building-in-san-francisco-with-boatpix/ Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:39:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Chris http://wikirfm.cyclicandcollective.net/2010/07/time-building-in-san-francisco-with-boatpix/comment-page-1/#comment-752 Chris Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:38:58 +0000 http://wikirfm.cyclicandcollective.net/?p=1624#comment-752 Thanks Dave! The audio is fairly simplistic--just a microphone placed inside the cuff of my headset. I'm a bit surprised that it worked as well as it did. The camera doesn't do a great job of reflecting the altitudes in any of the video I've captured so far (from this flight in San Francisco, or from several flights I did with your CFI in San Diego). The camera lens--in this case a wide-angle on a fixed mount--distorts the view, and I was testing different mounting angles. In this case, we descended from 100-200 AGL down to 20-40 AGL for the photos, and flew so that we were pacing the boats for a few seconds while shooting photos. I also have the recording unit for the video system stowed under the seat--at these altitudes, no additional cockpit distractions are needed! Thanks Dave! The audio is fairly simplistic–just a microphone placed inside the cuff of my headset. I’m a bit surprised that it worked as well as it did.

The camera doesn’t do a great job of reflecting the altitudes in any of the video I’ve captured so far (from this flight in San Francisco, or from several flights I did with your CFI in San Diego). The camera lens–in this case a wide-angle on a fixed mount–distorts the view, and I was testing different mounting angles. In this case, we descended from 100-200 AGL down to 20-40 AGL for the photos, and flew so that we were pacing the boats for a few seconds while shooting photos. I also have the recording unit for the video system stowed under the seat–at these altitudes, no additional cockpit distractions are needed!

]]> By: helinomad http://wikirfm.cyclicandcollective.net/2010/07/time-building-in-san-francisco-with-boatpix/comment-page-1/#comment-745 helinomad Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:16:31 +0000 http://wikirfm.cyclicandcollective.net/?p=1624#comment-745 The audio setup for this is absolutely great, I want a rig like that for myself! What are the specs? The video camera, however--well, helicopters have always been a challenging internal photo environment; but what we really needed was a swivel mount of some kind so the video showed the boat being photographed--that would come closer to giving the full impact of the flights. One thing I do wonder about is that the apparent camera angle (both of them) appears to have been unusually high--that is, we're looking DOWN not sideways, at the shoreline and wakes, suggesting that the photo pass was at perhaps 100'. Not the usual; essentially all of these photo passes are (normally) at between 8'-30' over the water. (Scary? Well, Chris doesn't mention that the helicopters are all Mariners with fully-inflated floats). (from a BoatPix.com pilot) The audio setup for this is absolutely great, I want a rig like that for myself! What are the specs? The video camera, however–well, helicopters have always been a challenging internal photo environment; but what we really needed was a swivel mount of some kind so the video showed the boat being photographed–that would come closer to giving the full impact of the flights.

One thing I do wonder about is that the apparent camera angle (both of them) appears to have been unusually high–that is, we’re looking DOWN not sideways, at the shoreline and wakes, suggesting that the photo pass was at perhaps 100′. Not the usual; essentially all of these photo passes are (normally) at between 8′-30′ over the water. (Scary? Well, Chris doesn’t mention that the helicopters are all Mariners with fully-inflated floats). (from a BoatPix.com pilot)

]]>