Tamar Valley Flyover

As you can imagine the weather so far has kept 

us pretty much grounded here at Kite Vision, but when the sun has briefly come out we've managed to get the new bird up in the sky.


Here is a short video from a test flight right on our doorstep in Gunnislake.

Enjoy and don't forget to watch in HD!

               

Inspire 1 Pro

With the new year, we decided to invest in some incredible new kit. We needed something that would enable us to push our work to new levels whilst also remaining compact enough for us to take to all of the locations we shoot at with ease.

We opted for the DJI Inspire 1 Pro. An upgraded version of DJI's incredibly successful Inspire drone. The Pro comes with upgraded motors but most importantly a hugely upgraded camera and gimbal module, the X5. 

With the X5 we are now flying with a micro 4/3rds camera sensor enabling us to capture Ultra HD 4K video and 16 megapixel raw stills. This new camera not only captures better footage than anything we have shot before but more importantly offers up much more flexibility in the post production process, something we have really been looking for. 

We're able to capture some great shots with the Inspire (when its not raining!) so keep your eyes peeled for more content from our test flights and jobs!

Flight Case - Storing and Transporting kit

Its not normal for two people to get excited over a box - but we are!

Today a new Flight Case arrived for transporting and storing all our kit safely. 

Made by B&W International it is a heavy duty case with specialist foam cut to fit all parts of our kit perfectly and most importantly, securely. Having a case of this sort should be highly prioritised when owning a Drone as they are vulnerable to damage when transporting and storing. Its such a great bit of kit as it fits our drone inside with all the props still attached as well as the GoPro and stabilising gimbal. With extra space for spare battery packs, our flight controller and our FPV monitor it really has us covered on all bases and with Lithium-Polymer batteries being as volatile as they are, it really puts our minds at ease knowing they're safe and sound!

Our new addition to the GoPro

Along with Kite Vision's Phantom 2 Quadcopter is our small, but very clever camera, the GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition. It may be small but the quality of its aerial images always seems to amaze us! Whilst the Phantom 2 was made to fit this camera we have noticed a slightly strange thing occurring on the footage from one of our shoots. This takes the form of horizontal black lines moving along the screen when the camera is positioned towards the sun and in particular when shooting in the midday sunshine. This is a result of the cameras filming speed picking up the shadows from the sun beaming down on the props. Each prop casts a shadow upon its rotation over the lens of the GoPro.
 This video below shows the lines appearing for a few seconds on our test footage of the Tamar Bridge.

                                  

Although this is a fairly rare occurrence especially when using our First person viewing monitors, we are perfectionists so it was a priority to try and stop this from happening on future shoots. After a little bit of google searching we found that this is a fairly common among drone flyers and luckily there is a brilliantly simple solution! We got a bit of black card, cut it into an appropriate shape and stuck it around the lens with strong tape to create our very own lens hood. This simple correction enables the shadows to be blocked from the lens, consequently putting a stop to any black lines appearing on the footage.

Since taking these photos the lens hood has been tested several times and been adjusted slightly, and its working great! Due to the high sensitivity of our stabilising gimbal any extra weight can cause issues, so this super lightweight and more importantly cheap and convenient fix is perfect.
A simple problem with a simple solution, High Five!