Hi all,
I've worked with a couple drones over the past year, both DJI based, one a Naza M-Lite build and the other a stock S800 Evo.
I'm looking at purchasing an Iris+, but a lot of the filming I hope to do will be over or around water, and was wondering if anyone had found a solution for keeping the GoPro in a waterproof case while still using a gimbal.
Hopefully, it will never go in the water, but if it does, I'd like to mitigate the losses.
Interested to hear if anyone has suggestions.
Thanks,
Graham
Replies
Hi Graham,
It is possible to do but it will come at a cost, namely increasing the payload.
The slim GP housing itself weighs in at about 61g, a gimbal that can hold a GP with the housing will need to be somewhat larger and more powerful hence it will weigh more than say a Tarot or Feiyu-Tech. A lens filter that fits the GP housing on average weighs about 16g.
As you can see the numbers will be greater than that if a more traditional set-up so that will result in a decrease in flight time.
You do have some other options though. Replacing the stock landing gear with something that floats ie small foam tubes. There have been quite a few operators that have gone this route with great success. The advantage is that only a small amount of extra weight is added in comparison to what I mentioned above.
The other option is that if you truly want the GP in it's housing, in a decent gimbal with a good flight time then you may need to look at a more powerful drone.
The IRIS+ can fly with the GP in it's housing attached to the nose mount and have a decent flight time but beyond that your easy of mind over water will be replaced with "how much time do I have to film?"
Todd H.
Very good question: I think many would prefer to use the protection that comes with a Go-pro Camera. Even if you crash on land, the camera is what typically takes the brunt of the force.
I'm very interested in this as well. I hope you get some good replies. The only gimbals, made for the GoPro specifically, that I have seen need to mount it w/out the waterproof housing.
I had a servo driven tray type gimbal in the past that you could mount any sort of light camera, I used a Sony NEX 6, by way of a 1/4 20 screw. That could work for a GoPro in its case as well, but I doubt the Iris would be able to lift anything like that.