Drones and fireworks

[Melp]

Is anyone doing any video taping of fireworks with a drone. I was given one for christmas and am working on getting good enough to tape one of my shows. In michigan I am only able to go up to 400 feet off the ground. Will this be high enough to capture mortar breaks?

[shake the cove]

seen a few posted on you tube . I'm dying to bump into someone who has one at one of our shoots and would like to film. Don't have time to do it myself with all that goes on during a shoot, but it looks like it would be a blast from the drones perspective. Any others out there have done it yet/

[esgrillo]

Melp - I have had a friend video my last few shows. It is a consumer show but the drone video is a really good add to the video. My last 3 4th shows on youtube have drone footage. They are also good for taking pre-show setup shots as well. They only can stay up about 15 minute so depending on how long your show is that could impact what you can get.

[displayfireworks1]

Click on that link in Ed's profile and you will see the video. I thought that was one of the better ones. One of the guys that helped me July 4th said he has one of those drones, somehow you can set it up to automatically fly in circles directly above you.

[Bazerk]

Here is a link to my New Years which utilizes the automatic circling. 400 ft is plenty high to catch everything up to probably a 4in shell. The second video is the drone in a stationary state. Neither one of these were higher than 150ft. You will see in the new years video that the 3in shells I was using were out of the frame and this was due to the fact that I was within 2 miles of an airport and shouldn't have had the drone up in the first place. They are great to use for this.


https://youtu.be/BhwqUMPV3zA


https://youtu.be/UyU1D60HTZ0

[Bazerk]

The flight time changes pretty drastically depending on the drone you have as well as the self flying modes. DJi is great for both. My newest drone has a 30 minute flight time which covers most any show I need to do.

[Bigjohnson]

Where are you at in Michigan?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

The flight time changes pretty drastically depending on the drone you have as well as the self flying modes. DJi is great for both. My newest drone has a 30 minute flight time which covers most any show I need to do.

I'd be interested in getting a model number from you on that drone buddy.

[Pyro47240]

Melp - I have had a friend video my last few shows. It is a consumer show but the drone video is a really good add to the video. My last 3 4th shows on youtube have drone footage. They are also good for taking pre-show setup shots as well. They only can stay up about 15 minute so depending on how long your show is that could impact what you can get.

Ed, your shows rock! Must be nice to have all the donations. I have to give sperm and blood to be able to afford what I do! With Cobra it only gets worse. I'm adding more modules this year to be at 15 and with 15 you know you need more works! LOL

[Bazerk]

I'd be interested in getting a model number from you on that drone buddy.

I have both the Phantom 4 Pro and the Mavic Pro. The Mavic gets me a solid 25-27 mins and the Phantom 4 Pro gets me 27-30. Both are amazing drones.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I have both the Phantom 4 Pro and the Mavic Pro. The Mavic gets me a solid 25-27 mins and the Phantom 4 Pro gets me 27-30. Both are amazing drones.


Saaaa-weet! Thanks for the info. If you could only buy one, which one would you get? I don't need one that does anything too fancy. Image stabilized and can hover and/or fly a box pattern maybe. That's about it.

Now I have something for the birthday wish list. :cool:

[Bazerk]

Saaaa-weet! Thanks for the info. If you could only buy one, which one would you get? I don't need one that does anything too fancy. Image stabilized and can hover and/or fly a box pattern maybe. That's about it.

Now I have something for the birthday wish list. :cool:

Both are amazing machines. The Mavic is much more portable. The Phantom 4 Pro has amazing camera control as far as manually setting the exposure, ISO, shutter speed and that kind of stuff. The range is the same on both. The P4P has a little longer battery life, you can use a bigger screen when flying it (ipad vs iphone or android phone) and it is more stable in high wind situations. I love my P4P. I use it to take amazing photos and of course video. There is a $400 difference between the 2. Me personally, if you can swing the extra $400, I would get the P4P and it will be something you can grow into as far as using it for more things in the future. Oh and the P4P has 360 degree obstacle avoidance so you cant fly into shit unless you turn that system off whereas the mavic only has it on the front and bottom.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Excellent!! It's all about the picture/video quality as far as I'm concerned. Sounds like the P4P is the way to go.

[Bazerk]

Excellent!! It's all about the picture/video quality as far as I'm concerned. Sounds like the P4P is the way to go.

I agree and it is a dream to fly. Its easy and the quality is second to none. You will love it, I promise. You may already know this, but most drones dont have audio so if you want to share video you will want to have another source to grab the audio from or overlay the video with music.

[Melp]

I got the DJI phantom 3 professional, from what I am told it has the best camera. I tested my drone out and at 392 ft at a hoover it went for a total of 26 minutes before the battery alert went off and told me to land or before it automatically lands by itself, Just a little bit nervous bringing at night as I have not flown in the dark yet

[Melp]

grand rapids

[Bazerk]

I got the DJI phantom 3 professional, from what I am told it has the best camera. I tested my drone out and at 392 ft at a hoover it went for a total of 26 minutes before the battery alert went off and told me to land or before it automatically lands by itself, Just a little bit nervous bringing at night as I have not flown in the dark yet

Someone lied to you. The cameras are not even in the same ball park bud. 12mp vs 20 mp for starters. Also, you cant get 26 minutes of flight time with the phantom 3 pro let alone getting the alert which leaves you roughtly 5 more minutes of flight time. Please only share factual information here so that people can make well informed purchases. I invite you to check this comparison out.
https://fstoppers.com/aerial/battle-sensor-sizes-phantom-4-pro-vs-phantom-3-pro-162427

This is a short but sweet test.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Just a little bit nervous bringing at night as I have not flown in the dark yet

Okay... Stupid question time. If the drone is capable of landing by itself, why not let it? I mean, the drone doesn't know if it's night or day. I'm *assuming* the thing can land itself because it uses GPS and knows where it came from and therefore how to get back to where it started. Yes? No?

[Bazerk]

Okay... Stupid question time. If the drone is capable of landing by itself, why not let it? I mean, the drone doesn't know if it's night or day. I'm *assuming* the thing can land itself because it uses GPS and knows where it came from and therefore how to get back to where it started. Yes? No?

It can land itself, but the sensors are hindered by low light (night time flying). When landing via GPS the error of distance can be up to 10ft. If your in a field, that is fine. However, if your near water, trees and things like that, 10ft can make a big difference. They have plenty of lights on them so essentially you can fly it over you and just come straight down. I do this all of the time with no issues whatsoever.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Ahhh gotcha. That makes sense then. Thanks for the info!!

[Bazerk]

Ahhh gotcha. That makes sense then. Thanks for the info!!

Anytime Rick.

[Melp]

Baserk my apologies i was told it was one of the best cameras next time I will have to research all cameras before I post or I'll just refer them to you as your knowledge and expertise far out ways mine.
Rick in Tampa it sets a return home point but when I have tried it,it hasn't landed very close to that spot, make sense? I should ask baserk will it land within 5' of the home pt or 15' is there a range?

[Bazerk]

Baserk my apologies i was told it was one of the best cameras next time I will have to research all cameras before I post or I'll just refer them to you as your knowledge and expertise far out ways mine.
Rick in Tampa it sets a return home point but when I have tried it,it hasn't landed very close to that spot, make sense? I should ask baserk will it land within 5' of the home pt or 15' is there a range?

No need to apologize bud. I'm sorry if I came off a little brash. I just feel like this is a big purchase for some people so facts are pretty important. The Phantom 3 doesn't have the downward facing sensors like the phantom 4 pro and the Mavic have. The latest firmware update to these two machines actually improved on that very issue. The P3 uses GPS to mark that location so it can vary by 10ft and sometimes more. On the P4P and Mavic it uses imagery as well as GPS to land so it is much more accurate. Within say 1 ft of take off position.

Don't get me wrong, the P3P has an amazing camera but with the release of P4P and the Mavic, they are game changers when it comes to the camera.

[Pyropug]

I have a phantom 2 with go pro 4 silver mounted. Will try to video this coming years show with it. Anyone know what are the best settings for GoPro videoing fireworks?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Don't get me wrong, the P3P has an amazing camera but with the release of P4P and the Mavic, they are game changers when it comes to the camera.

Pyropug brings up a good point. Does the P3P or P4P camera have a "fireworks" mode? Or do you need to be a photographer to configure the thing?? I'm a point and shoot kind of guy. :o

[Bazerk]

Pyropug brings up a good point. Does the P3P or P4P camera have a "fireworks" mode? Or do you need to be a photographer to configure the thing?? I'm a point and shoot kind of guy. :o

They both have full auto mode. If you like the colors and the clarity of my New Years video that was shot with the P4P in automatic mode. The quality of the sensor on the P4P is what makes it a prosumer drone. You really can't go wrong.


https://youtu.be/m8DDOhD3Uok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8DDOhD3Uok&feature=youtu.be

[Melp]

Okay so many questions, I know some may seem trivial
How high were hovering (highest I can go is 392')
How far away are you away from your display,(half a block)
In your video were you using the button on the bottom of the controller to switch between looking straight forward to straight down
Going into the DJI app there is so many settings for the camera how do I even know if it's set on auto if I can get a video looking like yours I'd be pretty proud
Did you use a certain program to produce your video and is it on mac

[Bazerk]

Okay so many questions, I know some may seem trivial

How high were hovering (highest I can go is 392')
The highest anyone is supposed to go is 400ft. Your not supposed o fly within 5 miles of an airport without approval from ATC (Air Traffic Control). However, I was within 2 miles of a very small airport and was only hovering around 150ft which is why you cans ee the 3in shells flying out of the top of the frame in the video.


How far away are you away from your display,(half a block)
I set my drone to do a 360 degree circle around the center of my show. I would say that it was probably about 600-700 foot radius.


In your video were you using the button on the bottom of the controller to switch between looking straight forward to straight down
In the beginning I had the camera tilted down but that's because I wasn't flying it and I didn't realize that the camera wasn't pointed up high enough to get the breaks. As you can see in the video, I realized it about 3 mins in and adjusted it from that point.


Going into the DJI app there is so many settings for the camera how do I even know if it's set on auto if I can get a video looking like yours I'd be pretty proud
In the app under the camera settings, just set you focus to auto, iso to auto, shutter speed to auto and white balance to auto. I recorded mine at 4k 30fps.


Did you use a certain program to produce your video and is it on mac
The final edit was done in Final Cut Pro. Sometime I use Adobe Premiere Pro, either will do the trick just fine.

Here is link to my 4th of July show where the drone is stationary in the sky.

https://youtu.be/UyU1D60HTZ0

[Melp]

The reason I asked the height was I was pretty sure that here on the forum it was a topic and I was sure the break height was around 500ft 1944 I just got done watching the video on setting up way points and that didn't even cross my mind to do that very cool. It's obvious I am going to have to do a lot of practice before I attempt doing this. Besides that my wife said I better not blow up that drone with a 3" mortar

[Bazerk]

The reason I asked the height was I was pretty sure that here on the forum it was a topic and I was sure the break height was around 500ft 1944 I just got done watching the video on setting up way points and that didn't even cross my mind to do that very cool. It's obvious I am going to have to do a lot of practice before I attempt doing this. Besides that my wife said I better not blow up that drone with a 3" mortar

You will want to use point of interest mode. Its easier than way points and it is done completely hands free once you set it up initially. Its hard to actually hit the drone with a shell. If you keep it on the perimeter you want even come close.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

They both have full auto mode. If you like the colors and the clarity of my New Years video that was shot with the P4P in automatic mode. The quality of the sensor on the P4P is what makes it a prosumer drone. You really can't go wrong.

Perfect!! This is getting better all the time! :cool:

I was looking at this drone on my laptop the other day and my wife walked by. She said "don't even think about it!" Lol...

Too late. I'm already thinking about it!

[Bazerk]

Perfect!! This is getting better all the time! :cool:

I was looking at this drone on my laptop the other day and my wife walked by. She said "don't even think about it!" Lol...

Too late. I'm already thinking about it!

Tell her I hacked into your account and ordered it.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Tell her I hacked into your account and ordered it.

Lol.. I wish it was that easy.

[Bazerk]

Lol.. I wish it was that easy.

Oh it is that easy. The repercussions may not be all that easy, lol.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Oh it is that easy. The repercussions may not be all that easy, lol.

Lol... Bingo!!