Drone Video of Boat

Kameroo

Kameroo

Member
Feb 1, 2007
690
Louisville, KY
Boat Info
12' Kayaks
Engines
Human
I have a friend who's a boater and also does video production. He recently decided to get into the drone business for boats, so here's a proof-of-concept video we shot in Louisville this week:

Apologies in advance it's not a Sea Ray! My other boat is a Boston Whaler if that's close enough.

He's already got the attention of one local broker who asked him to do a contract for all their boats. I think he's on to something!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hjdr5ZulHU&feature=youtu.be

[video=youtube;8hjdr5ZulHU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hjdr5ZulHU&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
Fantastic video, was that all shot with a drone??? Incredible control especially the indoor flying, just brilliant, I bought a Parrot AR Drone to get some video of my boat this summer, not a chance they will be of that quality though, thanks for posting :).
 
I love how he flew the drone all over inside the cabin. :lol: But really, that is cool to get the cruising shots.
 
He's also been trained and experienced in real estate videos, hence the good interior shots. He uses a wide angle lens for those, which I wish more brokers would do on Yachtworld.

My favorite part of the video was the 2 second shot from the water. We did that with a Go-Pro floating just above the surface.

A friend commented that there should be more information on the boat or a link to the ad. The video itself is a part of a bigger ad or can be linked from Yachtworld, which is why he kept it clean on YouTube.

I'm not sure where he's going to wind up on pricing. I met a guy at the Miami Boat show who did the same for $2,000 per video, but he had access to multi-million dollar listings. I think inland he'd be doing well to charge $500.

The drone used is a DJI Phantom 2 Vision. The Vision model has it's own 1080p video camera, but one issue we found was that the drone was tilted sideways when going 20 mph to keep near the boat. Some of the tilt could be taken out with video editing, but a gimbaled platform with a different camera would be better yet more expensive.

There were a few times during filming when we lost sight of the drone and had to rely on its camera view on the controller to get it back. That's a little nerve-wracking when you're hovering your $1,200 RC over the water, but is just something to get used to.
 
Quint...We're going to try go get up to Cinci this year by water. Should be a good trip. We're wondering if the lockmaster would object to drone locking footage?
 
Awesome flying - You guys are not going to like the rest of this post.

If he builds those videos into a business the FAA will shut him down and recover all the money made. Commercial use of a drone is illegal in the US and are enforcing their rule on those that get any publicity. If he does it quietly, he will probably get away with it for awhile but you can see the problem. The more successful, the more attention.
 
my DOG HOUSE said:
Awesome flying - You guys are not going to like the rest of this post.

If he builds those videos into a business the FAA will shut him down and recover all the money made. Commercial use of a drone is illegal in the US and are enforcing their rule on those that get any publicity. If he does it quietly, he will probably get away with it for awhile but you can see the problem. The more successful, the more attention.
Click to expand...

This is is not entirely true. I own a video production company and know the folks at DJI. Their products are certified by the FAA, but must be operated in areas where it is legal to so so. (We use ours with a DoD client on a military installation where airspace is controlled by the military)

SeaRay used Phantom drone footage in their new video and it was produced by a production company in the Keys.

They sell drones, and much more expensive versions, are in use in TV and film in the US. They are more cost effective than a manned helicopter.

On another note.. $2000 for a video of a multimillion dollar boat is very cheap.
Quality video is expensive to produce.
 
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my DOG HOUSE said:
Awesome flying - You guys are not going to like the rest of this post.

If he builds those videos into a business the FAA will shut him down and recover all the money made. Commercial use of a drone is illegal in the US and are enforcing their rule on those that get any publicity. If he does it quietly, he will probably get away with it for awhile but you can see the problem. The more successful, the more attention.
Click to expand...

so far not illegal - FAA lost first round http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/06/us/drone-pilot-case-faa/

but FAA is appealing....
 
Thanks Kaz, I hope it holds. But with the FAA and US Govt. who knows.

DoD is immune from most everything. There is a fine line with the FAA of defining a Commercial operation, however selling a service to fly is defiantly a Commercial operation. Hopefully they come to their senses but we are talking about the Federal Government.
 
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Good video, thanx for sharing. I especially enjoy looking at pictures of other peoples' boats, particularly the interiors and how they're set up. It's too bad there's so much regulation regarding this type of video production in your country. One of our suppliers at work specializes in this and has done areal video productions on everything from new boats through weddings to real estate listings. As far as I know there is absolutely no regulation on it at all. Although,,,, he calls his machine a remote control helicopter and not a "drone".
 
You'll be glad to know that my friend has been monitoring the FAA situation and consulting with counsel since making the decision to purchase the drone. The latest ruling has resulted in these things popping up all over the place, where in the past they were operated underground so-to-speak.

I hold an FAA certificate myself, which I why I'm not involved in that business. It's a little harder for them to go after unlicensed pilots, but it hasn't stopped them in the past.

If you watch car shows and home shows, you can see little drone shadows all over the place if you pay attention, and that was before the latest ruling. What's new is that people are going public after the latest ruling. Having said that, I've suggested that my friend be very careful when operating near airports or approach corridors.
 
What would be the difference if these videos were able to be done with a RC helicopter? Is that the same as a drone?
 
I am not sure, but I don't think the video is near as stable. Plus it takes much more skill, these drones are a no brainier. (Just don't run the battery out over water!) Similar to flying a newer Airbus. Fly by suggestion.

The technical difference in the control is that in RC it is a one way communication. The drone is a two way "handshake" in various modes and it has intelligent orientation. This is what got the FAA's attention.
 
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That is awesome!! Just did a craigslist search to see if I can find one at a discount. Looks like a lot of fun!!
 
I have a friend that is one of 3 drone lawyers in the US. And he is very active in the field. He has a blog if you want to keep in the know.

http://dronelaw.net/

And the DJI Phantom 2 is the best bang for your buck I have got to play with yet.
 
my DOG HOUSE said:
I am not sure, but I don't think the video is near as stable. Plus it takes much more skill, these drones are a no brainier. (Just don't run the battery out over water!) Similar to flying a newer Airbus. Fly by suggestion.

The technical difference in the control is that in RC it is a one way communication. The drone is a two way "handshake" in various modes and it has intelligent orientation. This is what got the FAA's attention.
Click to expand...

My RC helicopters have had gyro's and telemetry (return data to sender) for about 15+ years. It used to be very clunky but now it is quite elegant with ArduPilot and similar systems. And phones/tablets have so much more power now than 15 years ago.. :)

The "revolution" in R/C -> Drones really started with the 2.4 GHz radios that started out as park flyer radios but have now taken a lot of market share from the old 27/38/42/72 MHz. The 2.4 GHz unlicensed radios led to the "build your own" which led to a few open source radios - which then inspired the 2 way systems - and then the open source "gps enabled" 2-way com's systems - and now we have "drones" where you can put a route on a map and R/C device fly's by itself - and sometimes with video back to the "controller" like with a DJI.

Anyway the Phantom 2+ was just released / latest model - have a very nice new 3 axis camera ! :)

We do have a couple of DJI's here where I live - and it is not always nice having one of them "sitting" on top of you as you never know what they are recording. And while I am a liberal person - I do think that people that use drones should do so with a bit of respect for the people they are filming.

I do have an old "Parrot 1.0 drone" but that only does video in 640x480 i think - where the new Phantom 2+ can do 14 megapix photo's and 1080p Video. That is more than enough to film nice girls through windows at a distance.... And when they get camera's with High ISO like my Nikon D800 - they can film practically in the dark. I'll bet that will be in less than 2 years.
 
I just looked up the DJI Phantom 2 Plus, and it looks pretty cool. The camera should solve some of the issues we experienced, such as the tilted video while flying sideways.
 
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