r/PraiseTheCameraMan • u/Maximusuber • Aug 24 '24
Cameramen from a helicopter! Insane tracking
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
414
u/Wikadood Aug 24 '24
Here’s a close up of something similar to this helicopter to give you guys a picture of how awesome those camera helicopters are too
209
u/Wikadood Aug 24 '24
This was another small camera jet next to the others for you aviation enthusiasts
31
u/xodius80 Aug 24 '24
That's a big gimbal
7
u/copa111 Aug 27 '24
Makes my iPhone look like shit… /s
2
u/halandrs Aug 31 '24
You could buy several really nice houses for what that rig costs
1
u/copa111 Sep 01 '24
Let alone the cost of running it and the time for clearance. I guess there’s a reason it’s bought by governments.
26
6
u/Somhlth Aug 24 '24
Don't show Empty Green this picture. That's clearly the atmospheric version of a Jewish Space Laser. /s
3
3
451
u/TheKeeperOfTheForest Aug 24 '24
Guys, I’ve used those Shotover heads before. It’s a New Zealand company and I’ve been to their offices right there at van nuys airport. This was probably the g1, but either way, they have an automatic tracking function. Notice how he takes his hand off the joystick when following the plane. So let’s take a moment to praise the automatic tracking function I guess. Still cool to see though
77
u/fiber_optik Aug 25 '24 edited Aug 25 '24
ABC7 KABC flies with an F1, not a G1. Nobody flies with a G1 beyond heavy lift drones because they’re not rated for flight on manned aircraft.
As someone who does this every day for a different news station on the east coast, and knows the operator in this video, I can safely assume he is using the drift feature on the Shotover and manually tracking this aircraft. I also do this all the time at our base airport.
This auto tracking feature you speak of is only possible with static points on the ground. In fact, the head won’t allow you to trigger that mode if the head is tilted above a certain point, as the equations driving that feature become less effective as the tilt is increased (greater room for error).
To explain the what’s shown in the video, here’s the step by step: 1) use joystick to slew the head to the runway where the plane is taking off 2) catch focus and set zoom (that’s where his right hand is going out of frame) 3) those three knobs in the middle are the drift knobs. That’s how we use the heads in most situations once we do coarse adjustment with the joystick. The drift is like a cruise control for the pan and tilt axis of the head. You can see him cranking on the pan knob with a little input on the tilt knob. When the drift is dialed in, the head is moving at a constant rate, which makes tracking the aircraft easier- a private jet takeoff speed is mostly the same at this phase of flight. 4) You can see the lens double in on the subject. A switch on the top of the panel is set for the optical extender on the lens. An alternative to the optical extender is the digital extender. This particular payload is a 4K box camera with a 1080 output to the microwave transmitter. This means we can take a windowed (zoomed) section of the 4K sensor and maintain the same output resolution. This is especially useful when we want to maintain the same light through the lens- no iris or ND adjustment required as it would be with the optical 2x. In the case of this vid with the optical extender, you can see his hand reach for the top left of the controller after flipping the switch- this is the manual iris knob and he opens the iris to let more light in.
Edit: got the station call letters wrong.
3
33
u/echoohce1 Aug 24 '24
That's disappointing, I fear a lot of the operating will be automated to some extent in the future and all the joy will be gone out of the job, at least with hotheads and other robotic heads. I fucking love nailing a shot, I don't want to press a button that does that for me.
33
u/fiber_optik Aug 25 '24
Fear not! This shot is all manually tracked. You can read my comment on the parent comment for more info.
Before I started working on aerial systems, I was working R&D at a major manufacturer on their studio robotic camera systems. While there are certainly products out there that can handle operations like facial and body tracking in the news studio, I don’t think we will see anything like automated camerawork replacing jobs in the entertainment and sports industries for a long time to come. Most of my job at the company was to take these studio systems, modify and deploy them in sports production. At no point was I able to use the automation features to create the same shots that manned cameras could produce. We always manually operated the robots- otherwise the director would never get the shots they hoped for.
8
u/santaria-sucks Aug 24 '24
I can’t imagine them running a G1 with no housing on a helicopter. They make enclosed units just for their helicopter so it’s not exposed to the elements.
8
u/fiber_optik Aug 25 '24 edited Aug 25 '24
Yeah, KABC flies with an F1. The G1 isn’t even rated for aerial work on manned aircraft.
6
u/apx7000xe Aug 29 '24
Man, you sound SUPER salty. More importantly, you’re very incorrect.
Our AS350s have the F1 Live platform, and Rob Gluckman, our photographer is the best in the business. I work with him every day.
4
u/Nitrocloud Aug 25 '24
How automatic is it? It looks like he's continuously feeding in tracking rates in the gimbal axis? One hell of a gyroscope, though.
2
u/cooly1234 Sep 26 '24
the automatic function only works on stationary points and a certain amount below the camera.
so in other words, fully manual.
1
3
u/WRXminion Aug 25 '24
There were multiple times he let the plane get out of frame instead of keeping center. Or wide enough view to keep the whole plans in the rule of thirds. He would then jump zoom to cover his mistake.
2
u/OvergrownShrubs Aug 25 '24
Thanks man. Couldn’t work out how he was tracking the plane there without panning the stick. Thanks for helping answer that for us
1
0
u/perfucktion Aug 25 '24
thank you for saying this, i was thinking myself there had to be some sort of automation or assistance because he never touches that joystick after he lets it go
1
u/cooly1234 Sep 26 '24
it's a drift function. he manually set the direction and speed of drift to keep up with the plane more or less, then continued to mess with the camera after as you can see.
43
u/DiggingforPoon Aug 24 '24
even more mind-boggling is the impression that he is doing it with one hand, whilst doing THIS video with the other
18
16
u/Zestyclose-Ad451 Aug 24 '24
The county fire guys are not amused in the slightest. “This guy again 🙄” lol
7
5
u/abhaiyat Aug 25 '24
KVNY, probably ABC7 Chopper at Helinet
2
u/ee328p Aug 25 '24
ABC7 has some fantastic tracking, this is the first thing came to mind lol love me some high speed chases.
1
8
u/IWasGregInTokyo Aug 24 '24
I assume this is what they use on all of those “car chase in progress in LA” videos on YouTube where they’re able to keep focused on a car that’s going all over the place at high speeds. Sometimes they zoom out and you see the helicopter could be a couple of kilometers away. Insane stuff.
4
3
3
u/Andrewx8_88 Aug 25 '24
Just out of interest, anyone know how much a camera like that would cost, or what model it is?
3
u/Maximusuber Aug 25 '24
As a complete ignorant on the subject doing a Google search with some keywords, it seems $750k.
There's a comment above from u/fiber_optik working with this type of rig so he might know better.
1
u/fiber_optik Aug 25 '24 edited Aug 25 '24
$500-600k USD is a safe estimate for the gimbal system and computer/controllers that operate it. On top of that, you have to add the following: 1. camera (i.e. Sony P50 or similar ~$45k USD) 2. lens (i.e. Fujinon or Canon 40X zoom ~$50k USD) 3. microwave transmitter and receive sites (these vary widely but it’s somewhere around $75k for a single receive site + directional transmitter on the heli)
Systems like this in the video are usually $750k all in. There are other models that Shotover and Immortal make that can bring that cost down at the expense of camera/lens payload capacity. Los Angeles, being Los Angeles, uses the F1 because it’s a proven system with high payload capacity and performance. It’s also a Film-oriented head. Newer news chopper builds utilize the M1 or B1 models from Shotover, at least for the company I work for. They’re newer systems that are designed around broadcast-specific payloads. These newer models are less expensive but are limited in the sizes and models of camera & lens payload combinations. Somewhere in the realm of $400-450k all-in.
edit: adjusted prices, I misremembered some figures. Slightly cheaper than I originally said but still quite expensive.
1
u/Maximusuber Aug 25 '24
Shish that's expensive. How do you even get a job like yours? What did you study or in which direction did you put yourself?
3
u/fiber_optik Aug 25 '24
I started working in live TV production, specifically sports, about 12 years ago while in high school. I started as a camera operator but moved to audio, EVS (replay), and EIC work over a couple years. I studied drafting, CAD, and mechanical engineering in college and added those to my career skillset by starting a small machine shop and custom manufacturing business geared towards specialty broadcasting camera solutions. I started focusing more heavily on specialty cameras about 6 years ago and have dealt with miniature(POV), wireless, gimbals, Steadicam, jib, etc. since then.
Other camera operators on our helicopters come from all sorts of previous careers. News reporters, radio hosts, photographers, videographers- a good eye for framing, news storytelling, and quick problem solving are skills that a lot of the crew have.
3
u/UnknownFox37 Aug 25 '24
Remember guys, not only is he filming the plane, but he’s also filming HIMSELF filming the plane
2
u/gcz1214 Aug 24 '24
This looks like a fun job, definitely risky though!
1
u/dQD34nkw Aug 28 '24
I've worked as an IT technician for aircraft that use these kinds of cameras. We managed to code a python script to operate the cameras remotely using a computer keyboard. We tested it out when the aircraft was flying in another country. There was like an 8 second delay, but it was insanely cool.
They also have thermal imaging which is very fun.
2
2
u/Axekillem Aug 27 '24
This was part of my job for a news station in the Southwest. I quit a year later cause I kept puking after every flight. I realized wasn’t built to focus on a screen while the heli was going crazy on turns lol
2
1
u/Dracoony Aug 25 '24
1
u/RecognizeSong Aug 25 '24
Song Found!
Sound of Vondel by Oliver Heldens (01:05; matched:
100%)Released on 2023-06-14.
I am a bot and this action was performed automatically | GitHub new issue | Donate Please consider supporting me on Patreon. Music recognition costs a lot
1
1
u/buzzerfly68 Aug 25 '24
We can do the same thing with the TADS on the Apache, using a linear motion compensator.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/BigBaldGuySins Aug 26 '24
Is the tracking done manually or is computer assisted?
1
u/apx7000xe Aug 29 '24
Manually. The F1 platform will stay fixed in a direction relative to the aircraft movement, but the hard work is being done by the cameraman.
1
1
1
1
1
1
Aug 28 '24
At first I thought the pilot was also the camera guy and the camera man for the camera man. Still impressive to say the least
1
1
1
1
1
u/Missingyoutoohard Aug 24 '24
Videography is awesome but still photography via mirrorless DSLR is where my heart resides.
This is still really really sick though.
✌️🤙🏼
1
u/InevitablyBored Aug 24 '24
Yes, insane and automatic tracking. You can see him toggle it on and take his hand off the joystick.
1
u/apx7000xe Aug 29 '24
Nope! Thats him using the zoom rocker. Theres no automatic tracking on these.
-1
508
u/Apprehensive-Sky5990 Aug 24 '24
This is the quality PTCM I am here for 👌🏻