Rascal Takes to Lake Flight!

Well, Rascal and I have had 4 flights so far!  To say the GoPro KARMA Drone is exceptional is an understatement.  Of course this is coming from a NooB, so the more experienced pilots, photographers, and cinematographers out there may know what flaws or limitations the KARMA has that other drones may not.  But that said, I still offer that one needs to determine their goal usage for a drone, and find the one that best suits their own goals.  Mine being yes, cinematic, but primarily to enhance my collection of local Fine Art stills for sale, and “must have” the added versatility of use of the GoPro off the drone, made my choice a no brainer.  As for Model? Hero5 vs. Hero6?  Since I do plan to do some cinema, the Hero6 Black offers up the 4K setting at 60/fps (frames per second), where the Hero5’s capabilities at 4K top at 30/fps.  Now while I have uber tons more to learn on cinematography, I can liken this difference into DSLR terms, the 60/fps & 30/fps are kind of like JPG & RAW, lol.  Maybe not that dramatically, but in laymen’s terms an advantage is more versatility in slow-motion.  Thinking about it, if you have 60 frames vs only 30, you now have that many more to play with, and use how you see fit.  So the price point is pretty similar for such an added abundance of flexibility.

Here are a few images I’ve captured.  Still doing lots of practice….

SO…..  Now by reading the books I recommended in my Last Post (the ones by incredible photographer Jordan Hetrick,) I’m learning of GoPro KARMA’s auto shot paths feature!  These are little auto programme’s that GoPro built into the drone to make it possible to capture some more difficult shots without using the controller’s joysticks manually!  I have a long way to go on practicing completely manual skills, BUT have to try these out today.  Just the “Dronie” one is going to be fun; it will zoom out and return in a straight auto shot path of even up to 1000 feet!  Wowsers!  Then the “Orbit” one is one I was trying to do on my own, (unsuccessfully) so let’s see what GoPro gave me for automating that one!  (Orbit will circularly move around a 360 degree circle around the subject.)

I also had a request to give the estimate of recording time on the 64GB card I suggested in my Earlier Post.  Of course it will depend on resolution, right, but I’ll break it down in my next blog post.  That said, preliminary by looking at file sizes from what I downloaded so far,  and 8 minute Clip was 2GB.  So, doing the math, it seems maybe that a 1 minute clip at high res will cost you approximately 1/4 of a GB.  Now, what made the 8 minute clip 2GB?  I’m sure lighting / subject matter has to do with file sizes also, but just to give a general idea… Under the above math, you might get (64*4) or 280 Minutes, or (280/60) 4 hrs-ish of video per card?  Mind you, you will be shooting stills as well, which vary in size, and when shooting on 12mp linear, I had ranges from 5-8 MB per photo.

I will leave you with a link to a short sample video of Flight over the Lake.  Still a test clip, unedited.

Headed out for now… Cheers all!

JJ