Guys,
There is a hobbyist in New Delhi, who does aerial photography using helis. Check out this website :
http://rcobserver.com/

Looks like he is using Hirobo Gas helis.. the Eagle2 GS and the other one is a Raptor with a modified skid ?

Looks cool, and great work !!

Gaurav

Looks great, What kind of camera the would have used? How they have managed to provide battery for them? What kind of high resolutions transfer they have used?

Any guesses?

As you may read, they mount standard mass commodity dSLR and handy cams and not 70mm movie cameras / Large format cameras. at the nose they have put a Gyro dolly which can receive a range of cameras.

Live feed is mostly for monitor/preview with some basic camera control provided using a radio (seperate control, I presume). The actual recording still happens on the native recording medium of the the Cam (CF/SD card, Digital Tape etc). high resolution live feed is but extreemly high costly and energy consuming affiar (imagine, Cartosat have a band width of 1-2Gbps down-link!!)

These Helis are Giant!! I mean fantabulus! how much do they cost ? just for scaring my self from not to dream of owning these some day!!

Quote from: ujjwaana on February 05, 2010, 11:53:22 AM
Live feed is mostly for monitor/preview with some basic camera control provided using a radio (seperate control, I presume). The actual recording still happens on the native recording medium of the the Cam (CF/SD card, Digital Tape etc). high resolution live feed is but extreemly high costly and energy consuming affiar (imagine, Cartosat have a band width of 1-2Gbps down-link!!)

I got Answer for this...

See the attachment for the Transmitter and receiver system that cost only $400 but highly advanced to transmit the video/audio from the heli(long range even) where you can use camcorder or high resolution camera...


Also check the below video of dragon flyer involved in Aerial photography

This guys has no. of Choppers, Eagle GS2, JR voyager GAS this comes prebuilt from JR for a Camera mount and  a big 80 cc Gas heli. This guys make awesome money,  2 lac a day and 25 % to travel. Imagine he has no competition to do that. Why don't u guys think about it good business.
 

I hope everyone is aware that AP is restricted in India.

Quote from: anwar on May 03, 2010, 03:31:16 PM
I hope everyone is aware that AP is restricted in India.

Its indeed restricted in India but doing it outside the no fly zone upto the low altitude of 80-120 feet is allowed & requires no permission.

Doing the same with a commercial heli or plane requires several permission which you wont ever get without paying bribes & running in sarkari daftars dealing with babus.

Ranjan,
Anwar is right, AP in India is prohibited at any height and in any part of india, whether RC or in real heli. Some years ago u would have got away, but not today. Just dont get caught. Many guys are doing it across the country totally obvlious of the rules. U need Min of Defence clearence. It is only for pure RC flying below 400 feet that there is no restriction outsied restricted air space.

Our laws are always ambiguous how come they allow photography from commercial planes & not RC planes, I remember there was a notification in 2004 deregulating it.

Quote"There is no stretch in this country that has not been mapped aerially and is not available on the Net. So, why should we stop individuals from photographing the area under the garb of security concerns?"

http://www.indiamike.com/india/india-travel-news-and-commentary-f80/ban-on-aerial-photography-gone-t8749/

Ranjan,
from what i know, u need to get clearence for aerial photography done from real aircraft.. If u can locate that de-regulation document it will be great for every one. If any one else knows and can put up the document on this forum it will be great.
Rameh Tahlan

as per my knowledge what i have studied long back was CAR Section-2 Airworthiness meant for Aircraft Maintenece Engineers
http://www.dgca.gov.in/ftppub/D2f-f3%20.pdf
in this page 14 point(2)

second one here for Section 3 states
http://dgca.nic.in/misc/draft%20cars/D3F-F1%20(July%202010).pdf
hope this helps a bit

Praveen
page 14 point(2) is in relation to capability of the aircraft, airworthyness only, meaning the aircraft is capable of the job, as specified, which includes aerial photography. it does not automatically permit u to do aerial photography, just like if u buy a passenger aircrat , it does not mean u can fly with passengers at will. u have to take permission for each flight. Kindly do not mistake airworthyness with operations. The 2 issues r totally different.
The second link u have placed does not open, so i cannot comment.
Ramesh Tahlan

Praveen,
managed to open the second link u put up.
For aerial photography u r required to submit 7 copies of permission  for aerial photography along with a map of the geographicla area. Now next time u want photograph another area not covered in ur first applicaion, u start all over again with 7 copies.
Ramesh Tahlan

obviously, you know one thing sir ,if need to take permission from DGCA you need god's help ,even a dot mistake you are erased !

Does this have anything to do with aeromodelling as a hobby? Don't ground shots look nice??

Quote from: tg on July 27, 2010, 11:08:11 AM
Does this have anything to do with aeromodelling as a hobby? Don't ground shots look nice??

Yes its an extension to that hobby see yourself

http://www.diyphotography.net/photographer-rigs-a-canon-7d-to-an-rc-helicopter
http://www.pugetsoundaerial.com/portfolio

Yes - In the land with an established AMA, insurance for flyers, low cost, easy availability, hobbyists working within limits, easy public understanding of the hobby, vast open spaces for flying, virtually a club in every city, clear flying rules and every one enjoying flying and following the rules.

Here - opposite and no!!

OTOH I saw something amazing on Discovery where a model nitro heli was used in an African jungle with a lady wearing a helmet that had a display which was beaming images from a video cam on the heli. Amazing thing was that this lady could turn her head around and control the heli similarly.

Check these http://www.rctoys.com/private/videos.html

Dorns are even better can be controlled via Iphone & have camera on board.
http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/en

HI Guys,
Frankly Aerial Photography was what got me introduced to this hobby and to this forum!! I was looking at ways to remotely control cameras and landed here. Now I see myself spending more time on this hobby than on making advances on Photography!! :-)
but AP ends at a point where u simply cant get permission to shoot. that too objects which you can shoot from inside a commercial aircraft (and their hazy windows) but not from your own equipment!!! Such stupidity     

Plz chk http://www.rcobserver.com/

How come businesses like the one above do this so openly?

You can get a license and do things legally.  AP is NOT blanket banned.  The professionals go through proper channels, use much higher quality gear and so on.

Low altitude photography upto 100mts don't need permission as long as you are shooing with confined of the premises & not shooting from public area, its more  for safety purpose there are license requirement so we don't face accidents.

There was a notification in 2004 which allowed shooting from civilian aircraft when air borne & I travel often with my camera on board.

Here are few shots for you all to enjoy, I have removed the GPS data from the images purposely.

pls get in touch with the AMAI and get their directions on this topic. Ensure that we are on the right side of the hobby at all times. The vast majority of us just want to build or buy and fly planes and don't need one guy to do something that's clearly not exactly legal  and kill the hobby for the rest.