What non-gopro cameras are people using on solo?

[Tomsu]

tell me more!

PM me your contact info and I will give you a call.

Tommy Tomsu

 

[NewAgeAerial.com]

I use a Panasonic DMC-GM1. It is a 16mp, micro 4/3 camera with interchangeable lenses. Currently running the 14mm pancake lens, but the kit 12-32mm works great with legs extensions. The 14mm is a touch lighter.

I am not sure what the fascination with automatic camera triggering is. Majority of my missions are flown at 50m and 5m/sec speed, taking a picture every 1 sec. At this setting, I get a ground resolution of 1.35cm. That is a pixel size of 1/2 inch on the ground. The GM1 has an intervolmeter that can be set in 1 sec intervals. I shoot in manual, iso 200 (lowest the camera goes), speed 500 (fastest the camera will shoot with mechanical shutter, the electronic shutter has given me issues in the past). I meter the light for aperture setting. If there are scattered clouds, i sometimes shoot in speed priority and let the camera auto meter for every shot (this has caused missed shots). I shoot in raw, so correcting the exposure in Lightroom is very easy. I can easily get 2 stops of exposure correction without losing any detail with this camera. My overlaps are 90% front and 80%. I know seems like overkill, but i have never had time in the field to process my photos to see how many shots were missed or blurry. With this overlap, I can throw away all the bad (if any,) and cherry pick the very best. No matter what camera you put on a uav, the camera will not give feed back if the photo did not take or was blurry. Even if someone came up with camera that did give feedback, is the drone supposed to turn around and try again? This why I go beyond the recommended overlap and could care less if I have automatic triggering.

I have also added a true analog fpv system with negligible latency. Trying to fly the Solo with digital latency is very difficult when doing tower or roof inspections. This is basically the same setup most fpv racers are using and I have it wired directly to 12v supply on the main board. When i turn on the battery, it fires up. Slap on my Fat Shark V3's and I can put the Solo confidently anywhere I want.

So to sum it up, forget automatic triggering for missions and mount any camera you want on the Solo. Lighter is better. My Solo weighs exactly the same as with the gimbal and GoPro mounted. So I have not lost anymore flight time than anyone else and I get better control with much better pictures. Still fits in the backpack with 7 batteries and 2 chargers! I keep the camera in a separate Pelican case with my GoPro, lenses, camera chargers and batteries.

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nice rig for sure!

 

[yama]

That's a pretty neat setup.

Coming from fit builds I sometimes wonder why I bought the solo to do surveys with. As I have been thinking of chopping and adding bits too it.
It's a shame that bus connector is on the gimbal otherwise I could put my Sony nex on there.

Sent from my XT1572 using Tapatalk

 

[genie4x4]

Ok just to rehash the gopro hero 5 saga, why cant it do wha thte hero 4 black can do? Has gopro not included the software in it because they were concentrating on their own drone, or is it just because it won't fit in the gimbal mount?

 

[Johnnyj28]

Which go pro is the lightest??
I'm gonna buy this bird soon.
Which go pros work best with it??

 

[andrew.baker.142]

Ok just to rehash the gopro hero 5 saga, why cant it do wha thte hero 4 black can do? Has gopro not included the software in it because they were concentrating on their own drone, or is it just because it won't fit in the gimbal mount?

Hero 5 won't work in the gimbal for two reasons:
1) Doesn't fit
2) Doesn't have the required connections

That being said to can put the Hero 5 on the Solo fixed mount and start recording before you take off. You will not have live video because the H5 does not have HDMI out.

 

[andrew.baker.142]

Which go pro is the lightest??
I'm gonna buy this bird soon.
Which go pros work best with it??

Only GoPro Hero 3+ Black and Hero 4 Black or Silver are compatible with the gimbal. They all weigh about the same. The H4 Black has the highest specs, but no LCD screen on the back.

 

[XevetS]

My setup is a Sony AS100V mounted on a goodlucksell/buy ebay 3 axis storm32 gimbal, its made for a gopro but I clocked it 45 degrees and setup custom PID'S. I hardwired it right to the gimbal data cable, It has HDMI out so I get Video feed and I also have pitch control using the Solo's expansion bay rail (pin 18 I believe) and a ground, I ran these wires to the pwm input on the storm32 controller (I could not get the MavLink to work)...smartshots have no gimbal control but you can tilt/pitch the camera as needed..

some more pics...

I also have a second $79.00 ebay deal solo with an all in one FPV setup and an FPV screen on my controller....Pics to follow

FPV Solo All in one Eachine FPV unit with 900 TVL 200mw no latency that I can detect.... i strapped a small 2 cell 1100mh battery underneath weighs next to nothing...thats an FPV screen mounted to the solo controller also

 

[kostello]

Hi everybody!
I have a question about the сhinese camera - I hooked up the camera to 3DR solo and got fpv for a few minutes, but after turning off the solo and turning it on again, FPV does not work any more ((( can you help me with this?

 

[EZL]

My gopro knockoff works very well in the oem gimbal simply zip tied in place. No rings needed and very smooth playback. You just have to start video before taking off.

Same here, I am using the GitUp Git1 camera with the gimbal and I balanced the camera on the gimbal. There is not shake and the videos look good
panning the gimbal up and down. I rigged up a rubber mount to hold the camera in the gimbal and the plus is, I can remove the SD card from the camera
to view the videos without removing the camera and the stock hdmi gimbal connector connects to the camera the same as the GoPro does. The only
time you have you have to un-mount the camera is when it needs to be re-charged.

I also might add, I can land the Solo and it shuts down and restart the Solo. The camera will restart
in video mode and you can fly the Solo capturing video to the SD card as another video file on the
camera.