I've been flying for about two weeks now. Still blown away by the experience. Thank you all for the useful info on the site.

If you're interested, here's my first attempt at a video with the footage I shot. (For some reason, the link below will not present in HD . If you click through to the vimeo site you can see it in all it's high-rez glory)



Tim

Tim, not bad for your first video, I've had mine for a fortnight and was thinking of putting together a view of the better clips I have taken.  I live in Scotland where water is a dominant feature, even though I have confidence in the bird and my piloting skills it is still scary flying over water.  Glad you are enjoying your inspire.  PS whilst the forums have been very helpful , they also scare the pants off you.  

Nice video TimG but the post title is misleading.

Wow, really stunning video!

garethgr Posted at 2015-5-8 16:10
Wow, really stunning video!

What he said!!

Captain Obvious Posted at 2015-5-8 16:16
What he said!!

What he said about him saying

Wow..Out of the gate swing'n !!!..Nice.

FictitiousPerso Posted at 2015-5-8 16:31
What he said about him saying

Same as     

lesmess Posted at 2015-5-8 15:01
Tim, not bad for your first video, I've had mine for a fortnight and was thinking of putting togethe ...

Yeah lesmess,

The stories of props flying off prompted me to get the prop locks. RTH fails also have me worried. I lost signal (and completely lost sight of the Inspire) on the wide shots of the redrock ridge) RTH kicked in and I finally got signal back.

Tim

markaguille Posted at 2015-5-8 22:00
Same as

Thank you all. I'm stunned at how intuitive the controls are and the detail of the image. The stabilized gimbal is just incredible. Wonderful tech.

Very nice! I'm sitting at home waiting for FedEx to deliver my Inspire 1.... Can't wait to fly it..oh wait, need to charge batteries, update firmware,...  I'm on pins and needles.

Can you convey your prior experience with drones and your first thoughts flying the Inspire 1? My first thought is "please don't let me crash it my first flight"

Nice. Does anyone know if someone answers your post whether you will receive an email alerting you? If it does, does anyone know how to set that up?

cziakas@gmail.c Posted at 2015-5-9 00:29
Very nice! I'm sitting at home waiting for FedEx to deliver my Inspire 1.... Can't wait to fly it..o ...

Read the manual at least twice. Update firmware etc, read the instructions with the firmware carefully.
Get a good checklist....and stick to it.

Also know what to do when things go Pear shape so you wont panic and crash etc.
Find a wide open place with no people around and go fly. Keep it close and not to high. Build up your confidence over a few flights before going higher and further away. I did at least 10 flights before I got more adventurous. Then try fling in Atti mode.
Have fun

cziakas@gmail.c Posted at 2015-5-9 00:29
Very nice! I'm sitting at home waiting for FedEx to deliver my Inspire 1.... Can't wait to fly it..o ...

Hey Cziakas, I started my UAV addiction on the Parrot AR Drone a few of years back. Then about a year and a half ago I got the Phantom 1. Strangely I  logged less than 20 hours on the thing. I guess I got too busy. So, I'm by no means an expert like a lot of the guys here. My work and family keeps me way too busy to spend more than a few hours a week flying.

I can say that the Inspire is a LOT easier to fly than that first generation of Phantom. Much more stable, more power, and you can feel the weight of the airframe as it moves and changes direction. It results in more fluid, more organic shots than the light weight Phantom. That unit tends to 'flit' around if you don't baby the controls .

I was super nervous with the idea of flying (crashing) the thing until I actually got it into the air. Once you're airborne and it's responding to your inputs it seems like second nature.

Finally, letting it out of sight and flying by monitor was perhaps the most frightening leap of faith for me. Use your radar and if you really get lost switch to the google map and check your altitude.

When you first go out measure the height of the tallest tree in the area by flying up to it's crown and checking the altimeter. Set your RTH altitude 10' above that.

You'll be fine. What could possibly go wrong???????

Tim

TimG Posted at 2015-5-9 05:32
I started on the Parrot AR Drone a few of years back. Then about a year and a half ago I got the P ...

A good start I wish I could have more time to devote to flying and get just some of the amazing shots you got VERY NICE man.

Boogieman Posted at 2015-5-9 05:36
A good start I wish I could have more time to devote to flying and get just some of the amazing sh ...

Thanks Boogieman.

When I was ingesting the footage I really didn't think there would be much there because everything I shot was under the log exposure. The desert was a very bland tan but once I added some saturation It really popped. Some of those shots I pushed into about 40%. Thanks 4K rez. I 'm surprised how well it turned out.

Next purchase; an entry level grading monitor and calibration tool. My wife . . . . I think she's not happy about all this.

Nice video. Makes me want to get to work and get some videos going for myself. Thanks for posting.

TimG Posted at 2015-5-9 06:44
Thanks Boogieman.

When I was ingesting the footage I really didn't think there would be much there ...

I really need to sit down sometime and really understand all the camera settings.  I know a little but nowhere near enough to achieve the full power of the camera.

Rockeyes Posted at 2015-5-8 15:06
Nice video TimG but the post title is misleading.

Yeah...I'll say. It's kind of like putting up a subject line..."Inspire Owner Arrested..." then inside ...."by the beauty of the scenes around him."  Or "Inspire Crashes..." inside ..."my bank account". This guy has a future in TV news. Details at 11.

pete1144@me.com Posted at 2015-5-9 09:11
Yeah...I'll say. It's kind of like putting up a subject line..."Inspire Owner Arrested..." then in ...

Ha! I worked as a news photog for 15 years. Sorry about that. I'll change it now.

Redeye Posted at 2015-5-9 02:18
Read the manual at least twice. Update firmware etc, read the instructions with the firmware caref ...

Got my drone today, technically yesterday as its 2am now.  Charged batteries, charged controller, updated firmware in drone, controller, camera, all batteries. Then took it for its maiden flight, minus the camera.

I used "Beginner mode" for my first flight.  Having a Blade Nano for the last month really helped!  Flying the Inspire 1 was easy as pie, still very scary.  Everything went perfect, no crash and no near crash.

Definitely the key is to take it easy the first several flights.  While I wanted to go far and fast I resisted the urge.  I am so glad I got  the Inspire 1.

TimG Posted at 2015-5-9 05:32
Hey Cziakas, I started my UAV addiction on the Parrot AR Drone a few of years back. Then about a ye ...

Yup, Super nervous is exactly what I was...My thought over the past week was "lease don't let me crash it on the first flight".  I kept it in beginner mode, 100 feet box.  You don't really comprehend how far away 100 feet is until you see your $3K investment become the size of a dime in the sky.

Well, I survived my first flight. Going to try and get some sleep so I can wake fresh and fly again.  I may have to call into work sick on Monday....and Tuesday...mmmmm, maybe even Wednesday.

And I agree with the title of the post "How is this legal?" . Typically if you were having this much fun you would be asked to take a drug test.

cziakas@gmail.c Posted at 2015-5-9 14:19
Got my drone today, technically yesterday as its 2am now.  Charged batteries, charged controller,  ...

Congrats Cziakas!

It is easy right? Wait to you see the video. The detail is incredible and the stabilizer is near flawless. I find it easier and better to rotate the airframe instead of relying on the gimbal for pans. I find it feathers the starts and the stops of pans better. For solo operation you can assign the left back button on the controller to switch the tilt dial from tilt to pan and then back again.

Stick with the "Log" under Fn / Color. It's flat as all hell but it's gives you the greatest latitude and when you color correct it's beautiful. If your computer can handle it shoot 4K and then down-convert when you output.

You might want to look into buying  the additional NDs that are being sold in this forum:

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... &extra=page%3D1

I found the sweet spot for exposure is 1/50 or 1/60 sec at 24fps and as low an ISO as possible. If you go over 1/100 shutter you'll start to notice a slight flicker in the footage. Strangely it's in the middle width of the frame. It's subtle but it's there. Keeping it below 1/100 makes it go away. On sunny days, without the higher NDs you'll be forced to use shutter to get a proper exposure and that will cause flicker.

Avoid higher ISO too. Lots of grain in those shots. You can see it in some of the desert sunsets I shot above.

Oh! And from what I've read. Make sure you use the prop locks if you have the original props (Non-quick release). There's some talk of the props randomly falling off mid-flight!

Congrats again.

TimG Posted at 2015-5-9 15:26
Congrats Cziakas!

It is easy right? Wait to you see the video. The detail is incredible and the s ...

I'm sure I'm ready for more filters. My amateur status is all that and more, especially when it comes to photography.  

I flew again today, this time with the camera.  Very bright (washed out) using the standard filter,not ND. Also the video wasn't smooth. It seems like it would pause for a bit then go again. I am using a new SD card, 32GB but the same model as the 16gb that came with the drone.

I guess I just need to test a little and see what works best.

cziakas@gmail.c Posted at 2015-5-10 00:04
I'm sure I'm ready for more filters. My amateur status is all that and more, especially when it co ...

When I first recorded video I was getting stutter step on playback. Then I noticed I was using Quicktime 7 (5 year old pro version of Quicktime) and when I went to the current version of Quicktime in Mac OS 10.9.5 it played smoothly. So what I learned was that it wasn't the SD card or the Inspire that was at fault, it was my playback software. Be sure to dump the card over to your computer before playing. Trying to playback from the SD card would be another bottleneck.

TimG Posted at 2015-5-10 00:26
When I first recorded video I was getting stutter step on playback. Then I noticed I was using Qui ...

I realized that as well after my last flight. My system couldn't playback the 4k video so it froze. I converted the video to 1080 @ 20kbps and it looks great.  

What I'm planning on doing is just to record in 1080 @ 60fps. This way I don't have to down convert. I'll reserve the 4k video for when needed, sightseeing and vacation video. Should I just stick with 4k and down convert ? What are the pros and cons?

Only two days of flying under my belt and I can't see this ever getting old. I'm having so much fun, even if I don't use the camera.

Great stuff TimG! I like your music choice too. Looks like we're in the same area so hit me up and let's go flying together!

Douglas
www.nowpicturethis.com

cziakas@gmail.c Posted at 2015-5-10 15:45
I realized that as well after my last flight. My system couldn't playback the 4k video so it froze ...

Even though 4K is a bear to handle and playback I always shoot in it. The big advantage is that you can crop your material in post. There are many times you want to frame out something or zoom into something when you're building your clips. Shooting in 4K allows you to do this and still preserve full HD quality in the final output. I've found that if you shoot in HD, you are limited to about a 30% enlargement of the frame before it starts to fall apart. With 4K it'll handle over 100%.

It future proofs the footage as well. (Well at least for the foreseeable future). I work in TV and started shooting news in 1991.  Back then we shot in SD, with a 720 x 486 resolution in a 4:3 aspect ratio on BetaSP. I shot some beautiful stuff but now all of it, hours of footage from around the world is for all intents and purposes obsolete. It's kind of soul crushing to know that almost two decades of your life's work is no longer visually interesting.

So from that perspective, I will always shoot at as high a resolution as is available to me.

Fly this drone IS fun. I shot some material yesterday of some red rocks in ST. George, Utah. Used the iPad 2 and a PadHat sun visor. It's a struggle to see anything clearly in full sun. I was coming up on these cliffs and for the life of me, I couldn't see how close to them I was - both in height and distance. It's frustrating because I've found the closer you get to a subject, especially something as massive as a rock wall, the cooler it looks. I can't wait till my HeadPlay goggles ship and I can try them out.