Want to try out aerial photography, but can’t afford a quadcopter? [Jeremy] rigged up a low cost GoPro Slingshot and took some pretty nice flyover shots of the lake.
The slingshot itself is meant for water balloons, but easily has enough power to fire the camera. In order to get good video, some stabilization was needed. [Jeremy] made a stabilizing fin out of packaging foam, and used an eye bolt to connect it to the GoPro’s threaded tripod mount. The simple tail fin made of out foam and zip ties actually did a good job of stabilizing the camera.
This looks like a fun experiment to try when you’re at the lake, since you can probably build it with stuff lying around the house. For [Jeremy], it also proved to be a way to keep his dog entertained since she retrieved the camera after each shot. After the break, check out the video footage from the GoPro slinging rig.
Neat – even better if you make burning spiraling out of control airplane noises when you watch the video.
Ha, that’s a great idea. My wife loves it when we’re watching TV etc and I add my own sound effects. Ok maybe not :D – saying “brains, braaaiiins” at random times while watching Walking dead is also a frowned upon pastime.
I put the video on our living room TV the other day; really looks cool on a larger display.
So glad I’m not the only one who does this.
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What a great web site.
Thanks for the write-up Eric!
I guess that’s a fun delivery system but the video is barely useful for anything – not ever that much of aerial shot per se since at least 50% of the time you’re shooting the skies on its way up. But the time it points the nose downward, it’s spiraling so hard you can’t see much. Same camera tied to a helium-filled baloon would do much better, IMHO.
There were actually two shots in the video where the camera spiraled very little. I think with a little more fine tuning they could get some very even, stable flights.
that just looks like plain (modern) fun! the dog is cute too!
Thanks! It was a lot of fun making the video.
put some fins on the rear end of the assembly ;)
I think a large band launched glider would be cool too!
It would be pretty easy to adapt with some small servos and receiver/batter and a good waterproofing technique to get some amazing shots.
Probably need to “adjust” the automatic K9retrieval system to work with a glider.
Ha, yeah, I wasn’t counting on her retrieving the assembly so well, but I guess her instincts kicked in!
Cool. Would be better video with some rotational stability though. Stick some wings on there :-)
How about some low drag fins for launching, and then when the nose tilts down at the peak of flight it releases a parachute?
Ok, now add GYRO STABILIZATION!
LOL when I caught the brief shot of someone wearing the slingshot as a sport cup. He looked quite secure and happy.
Back in the Army we called those water balloon launchers “funnelators”.