{"id":20135,"date":"2018-08-21T13:02:03","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T17:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=20135"},"modified":"2018-10-26T10:58:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-26T14:58:28","slug":"experiments-with-a-new-camera-mount-system-for-aircraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/21\/experiments-with-a-new-camera-mount-system-for-aircraft\/","title":{"rendered":"Experiments with a new camera mount system for aircraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best things that I saw at Oshkosh was <a href=\"https:\/\/flightflix.net\/\">Flight Flix<\/a>, a vibration-isolation system for mounting an action camera on an airplane or helicopter. I purchased mounts for the Cirrus SR20&#8217;s tie-down ring and the tow ball underneath the R44 and have begun testing these with the <a href=\"https:\/\/driftinnovation.com\/\">Drift action camera<\/a> that the company favors due to its long battery life and easily rotated lens for proper &#8220;horizon up&#8221; orientation. I&#8217;m wondering if readers can help with critiques on a couple of tests from the SR20 under-wing mount:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/bxwqogupo7gccb0\/cirrus-tie-down-drift-1080-60-stabilized.mp4?dl=0\">1080p, 60 frames-per-second, in-camera digital image stabilization<\/a>\u00a0(corrected link!)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/g9p5xenj1g9p3lf\/cirrus-tie-down-drift-1080-120-no-stabilizer.mp4?dl=0\">1080p, 120 frames-per-second, no stabilization<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Which one seems better? (&#8220;better&#8221; = &#8220;more stable&#8221;) Thanks in advance!<\/p>\n<p>(It was a slightly challenging day for a &#8220;stable video&#8221; test, with winds gusting up to 18 knots and bumpy air through about 3,000&#8242;.)<\/p>\n<p>Dream #1 is to get footage from a $199\/hour airplane that looks as good as footage from a $199 drone. Dream #2 will be to get footage from a $369\/hour helicopter that looks as good as footage from a $369 drone!<\/p>\n<p>[So far I am not loving the <a href=\"https:\/\/driftinnovation.com\/\">Drift camera<\/a>. The connection between the camera and the Drift app on an iPhone X is tenuous and I have found it tough to make the settings stick or even start and stop the camera reliably. By contrast, the integration between a phone and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dji.com\/osmo\">DJI Osmo camera<\/a> is so tight that feels like using a regular camera&#8217;s electronic viewfinder. Support from Flight Flix has been excellent, on the other hand, and they seem to have thought of almost everything. Flight Flix has produced some inspiring sample videos with the Drift, so I know that it can be done even if not by me! And the four-hour battery life (Wi-Fi off; bigger battery option) seems realistic.]<\/p>\n<p>One thing that strikes me as odd is that airframe manufacturers haven&#8217;t added mounts for action cameras, both inside and outside, on their latest versions. Wouldn&#8217;t most people who spend $800,000+ on a new Cirrus want the option of making a recording without hanging something off a tie-down ring?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the best things that I saw at Oshkosh was Flight Flix, a vibration-isolation system for mounting an action camera on an airplane or helicopter. I purchased [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flying","category-photography"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Experiments with a new camera mount system for aircraft - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/21\/experiments-with-a-new-camera-mount-system-for-aircraft\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Experiments with a new camera mount system for aircraft - Philip Greenspun\u2019s Weblog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the best things that I saw at Oshkosh was Flight Flix, a vibration-isolation system for mounting an action camera on an airplane or helicopter. 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