Hero Takes Flight 3D

Scientists have yet to prove its existence, but I believe that certain people have is the geek hormone.
This “geek-mone” manifests itself in an undeniable lust for all things technical and well, geeky!

I am most definitely ruled by my “geek head”, so to speak. And one of the few places where I can display these primal urges is at the NAB trade show held every year in Las Vegas. This year was no exception. There I was surrounded by all of Techdom. A veritable geek nirvana. It was really the best of both worlds. I was presenting daily at the Atomos booth, exposing the secrets behind shooting 3D on a 2D budget. The Atomos Ninja 2 and Samurai external recorders have been used on most of my successful 3D travel documentaries. Plus they now have the new Samurai Blade which with it’s 325dpi and 1280×720 5″ Super Atom IPS Panel. With it’s built in Waveform/Vectorscope among all of the other goodies that it has, it was surely one of the best of show this year.

As I started to move on feeling a mix of euphoric highs and “I can’t believe I have to wait so long” lows. Kevin said I should check the booth just behind GoPro. That they had some “really cool stuff”, geek speak for exciting technology.

My eyes bulged and my heart quickened as I saw the DJI Phantoms hovering above with, low and behold, a GoPro Hero3 attached. And I’m not talking about bubblegum, rubber band attached marvel. I mean an honest to god attachment made to hold the Go Pro Hero3.

This is when my “geek hormone” levels went, literally, soaring. The ideas, the possibilities, the wonder of it all. Making my introductions to Taylor from Dronefly I was able to get a little flight time in to fuel the desire even more.
And so, that is the tale that brought me to a small airstrip just on the edges of Bangkok to test my latest object of Techno-Geek wonder.

You see, like the kid that can’t wait until Christmas morning for everybody to get up to open his gifts, I have opted to make my own gifts. Utilizing a CAD program, 3-D printer, soldering iron, solder, wires, circuit boards and gaffer’s tape I set out to create my own 3D rig system for the Hero3.

It is here that I will insert this warning to my brethren Gerksters out there. Once you open the box, addicting vapors from the depths of the Phantom Multi-Rotor Device box will be unleashed upon you.

Not content to just fly this fantastically engineered marvel. You will want more. I mean even if you drop your transmitter control this beauty has a built in carrier pigeon tech that automatically will return it and land it safely at your feet.

So not content to merely fly it and record amazing 3D video, I too longed to have my eyes in the sky too. That’s where the FPV or First Person View, comes in to play. With this add on I can use the Hero 3 cameras to transmit glorious video back to me on the ground. I did hold back slightly by opting for mere 2D video and a monitor to become part of the machine in flight.
While I still need practice to master this modern DaVinci like masterpiece, the fun and 3D video will live on. It is no masterpiece yet and I am still tweaking my 3D Rig design, but while the rest of you may be content to wait for Christmas, I will be out flying and shooting more 3D.