The Future of the Solo

dmassphoto · Jul 9, 2015

nacjr said:
I don't think the GoPro was ever intended for the Professional market. There are other camera's that meet the Professional demands and they require much bigger and powerful flying platforms than the Solo can provide.
I think you're asking too much from the GoPro.

Just my $.02

Plenty of professionals are using the GoPro nowadays for whatever reasons they are. I'm not using mine except for my personal stuff.

Asking for a rectilinear lens and RAW image files is not much, IMO.

dmassphoto · Jul 9, 2015

RyanG said:
As for the photography question. Yes it would be great to shoot DNG, but you CAN (not easily) defish the go pro images (stills) with photoshop. It doesn't take very long at all. That being said, I haven't even tried to do so for the video part, but I would think that might take longer, but running a script in Photoshop for the video might actually work as well. (Yes Photoshop can run scripts).

Ryan G

I haven't tried to defish in Photoshop yet, but that reminded me...I bet there's a script out there already that handles the exact distortion. Just gotta find it. That said, the new version of Adobe Camera Raw fixes distortion much better than PS can, IMO.

RyanG · Jul 9, 2015

I do it manually.. BUT If you find it I would love to get a copy of that. Back to flying for confidence.

Ryan G

GoodnNuff · Jul 9, 2015

I'm not a photographer. But I know enough that I've always assumed that the GoPro was an action cam most suitable for posting videos to YouTube. I've never understood people who claim to be professional photographers complain about the GoPro. To me, its akin to complaining about Poloroids 30 years ago for not being suitable for portrait photography....

mbgt72 · Jul 9, 2015

I bought the 4.35 10mp lens but have not installed it yet. Seemed like the best option given it removes all fish-eye and is the same resolution of the 5.4 but with a wider field of view. Test videos of it looked good at least.

dmassphoto · Jul 9, 2015

DeweyAXD said:
Can't seem to play the vid on the ipad but sounds bad! You kind of forget that RTH puts it over your head.... Would be a hell of a way to get it back if it landed on you skull from 30 feet due to a dead batt. :lol:

I'd like to know what you think about it once you've tested it!

mbgt72 · Jul 9, 2015

^^ Will do.

For those that haven't seen the link, here's the link for their video of the 4.35 mm lens. Should still shoot 4k fine.

Koz · Jul 9, 2015

RyanG said:
That being said, I haven't even tried to do so for the video part, but I would think that might take longer, but running a script in Photoshop for the video might actually work as well.

I use ProDrenaline to remove fisheye from my P2V+ videos. ProDrenaline also has preset rendering for many of the different GoPro cameras and settings. ProDrenaline also allows you to do some basic color corrections, white balance, contrast, saturation, etc. I also use it to remove the fisheye from my still photos.

Harleymhs · Jul 9, 2015

Flying Squirrel said:
I am new here ... Solo on order and waiting ... waiting ... waiting. You guys are scaring me! I love to fly, and I love to take pictures. I've been strapping cameras to RC aircraft for a while now. When I discovered 3DR I was immediately enamored with their concept and products. I bought into their marketing and signed up ... I've done lots of reading - lurking - and the one message I am able to take away is no one is using the same measuring stick.

Sharing with the group ... It costs about $600 per hour to put a Robinson R44 in the air. I can mount as many GoPros as I please, and for another $100 per hour I can mount a live photographer. Depending on flight time to destination I may get a 1/2 of actual shooting per one hour mission.

The future of Solo: For the cost of 3 hours of flight time - 1.5 hours of shooting, you can own a tool capable of shooting footage man is incapable of acquiring - never mind "professional" images... the perspective is priceless.

I think Solo should be viewed for what Solo can do, not what one thinks it should do. The creative freedom that comes with a drone is fantastic and at this price level that freedom is attainable.

My 2 cents

Just got mine the other day, 1st one DOA.. Got another one from BEst buy today , flew it today 1st time,. Not impressed at ALL.. Kept loosing connection to the controller, then needed to be leveled, had issues from my iphone app would level the solo, had to break out my Nexus 7 tab to do it.! Coming from a Blade QX3 think this Solo is going back to best buy and going back to my Old Friend the QX3 .. Never had an issue with that at ALL! JMO

Lonewulph · Jul 10, 2015

mbgt72 said:
^^ Will do.

For those that haven't seen the link, here's the link for their video of the 4.35 mm lens. Should still shoot 4k fine.

Thanks for the vid, I was curious if that lens was a bit more affected by lens flare, as was stated by the maker,.. I wonder if a polarizing filter would help.

RyanG · Jul 10, 2015

Still want to see a comparison of the 5.4 vs 4.35 vs stock with the same image / video.

Just a quick shot with each lens so i can see which makes the most sense.

Unless of course you have a lens that is defished with the same perspective.

Ryan G

GoodnNuff · Jul 10, 2015

Does anyone know if changing the lens or adding filters will affect the Solo gimbal? I know that the Tarot gimbals have problems if you change the weight or balance of the GoPro. Some Phantom owners were burning out the motors on their gimbals unless they counterbalanced the filter or lens. Will this be an issue with the Solo gimbal?

Jubalr · Jul 10, 2015

RyanG said:
Still want to see a comparison of the 5.4 vs 4.35 vs stock with the same image / video.

Just a quick shot with each lens so i can see which makes the most sense. Unless of course you have a lens that is defished with the same perspective.

Ryan G

I ordered the 4.35 yesterday. looked like a good choice from their sample vids. We'll see how it does.

dmassphoto · Jul 10, 2015

GoodnNuff said:
Does anyone know if changing the lens or adding filters will affect the Solo gimbal? I know that the Tarot gimbals have problems if you change the weight or balance of the GoPro. Some Phantom owners were burning out the motors on their gimbals unless they counterbalanced the filter or lens. Will this be an issue with the Solo gimbal?

More than likely it will be more of an issue due to the nature of the existing GoPro filters. Most I've seen require special filter holders and, although I can't find weights from the manufacturer, they look heavy duty. These are the Graduated ND filters I've been looking at, and I'm not sure what PolarPros have regarding weight.

These are the filters I've been researching:

http://www.phantomfilters.bigcartel.com/ Next to nothing in weight, but they fit behind the existing UV filter on the P3 lens. Not sure how they would work on the GoPro unless you found some tape. They are basically roscoe gel samples cut to a specific size.

http://polarprofilters.com/shop/quadcopter-multi-rotor These are made specifically for gimbals and are cheap. If you look at how much regular camera filters cost you'll agree. That said, they don't make a Graduated ND which is a huge bummer. This might be your best bet currently.

http://www.amazon.com/Snake-River-P...4867&sr=8-6&keywords=lightweight+gopro+filter - These are lightweight (7.6g) made for Gopro but I'm not sure how 7.6g will affect a gimbal. They have lots of other options as well, so it might do well to do some more research.

Still haven't found a Graduated ND filter yet for the GoPro.

Lonewulph · Jul 10, 2015

GoodnNuff said:
Does anyone know if changing the lens or adding filters will affect the Solo gimbal? I know that the Tarot gimbals have problems if you change the weight or balance of the GoPro. Some Phantom owners were burning out the motors on their gimbals unless they counterbalanced the filter or lens. Will this be an issue with the Solo gimbal?

There are a few lenses, even without filters, that can cause probs with the gimbal. But the ones that do this are listed in the product line up list on Peau's site. They offer lens/filter combos and state if there is a gimbal conflict or if it won't fit into the case, etc. I haven't researched others yet.

http://peauproductions.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=137_139

http://peauproductions.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=192_194