Best 360 Camera for flying on P3P?

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Looking at fabricating a mount for my P3P or P3A for a 360 cam and would like to hear from any of you who have current gen 360 cameras as to video quality vs weight.

From what I am seeing, the vast majority require a WiFi connection so I am worried that the range is extremely limited. I would like one that I can start record and take off. I don't really see the need with 360 to start/stop remotely but, hey, nice if its got it. But it MUST continue to record when beyond WiFi range.

So whats the best bang for the buck and still able to be lifted by a P3 and maintain a reasonable flight time. Video mainly but still capability nice (not required). Lightest weight with highest video quality and resolution. External uSD card desired, but not required.

I am fully aware that adding weight will decrease flight time so that is why I am concerned with weight. I hve heard the Nikon is both heavy and the stitching sucks as bad as its software. So I don't think thats a player here. I have a Samsung S5 phone so the samsung is a potential candidate but I don't like the idea of proprietary apps specific to a Samsung phone.

I am all Android here, no iOS so I don't need anything that requires anything Apple. If it works with iOS, fine, requires it, no, not fine.

Thoughts?
 
Where would you mount it? It'd have to be below the level of the legs, wouldn't it? How would you stop the vibration too?
 
Looking at fabricating a mount for my P3P or P3A for a 360 cam and would like to hear from any of you who have current gen 360 cameras as to video quality vs weight.

From what I am seeing, the vast majority require a WiFi connection so I am worried that the range is extremely limited. I would like one that I can start record and take off. I don't really see the need with 360 to start/stop remotely but, hey, nice if its got it. But it MUST continue to record when beyond WiFi range.

So whats the best bang for the buck and still able to be lifted by a P3 and maintain a reasonable flight time. Video mainly but still capability nice (not required). Lightest weight with highest video quality and resolution. External uSD card desired, but not required.

I am fully aware that adding weight will decrease flight time so that is why I am concerned with weight. I hve heard the Nikon is both heavy and the stitching sucks as bad as its software. So I don't think thats a player here. I have a Samsung S5 phone so the samsung is a potential candidate but I don't like the idea of proprietary apps specific to a Samsung phone.

I am all Android here, no iOS so I don't need anything that requires anything Apple. If it works with iOS, fine, requires it, no, not fine.

Thoughts?
I hung a 360 Ricoh Theta from my P3P with no special rigging, and the p3p carried it with out any problems. App works fine with all my androids.
Has no SD car but good (enough) memory and has WiFi controls, usb download port and an HDMI connection. Also has a standard tripod screw in opening. Excellent 3d movies/stills.
 
I had looked at the Theta. Briefly. Very briefly. The Theta was removed from my possible list almost immediately by the fact it only shoots video in 1080p. And when you view it as a 360 sphere you are only seeing maybe 1/4 of that so it would be almost like looking at video quality from a 1990's camera. I just don't see it as a contender in the current market which typically shoots in 4k thereby viewing a 360 pano in 1080.

That coupled my is limited 8g internal memory (no SD) makes it worth about 1 battery of recording. The time to DL the video off of it to prep for the next flight makes its use extremely limited.

It has a couple things going for it, that being small/light and the fact the lenses are very close together (thin) which makes for very good closeups. But that closeup ability is mitigated by the fact the drone isn't going to be close up to anything (God willing!).

I was looking at mounting below the legs and using the extra shock cushions that came with the P3A and P3P. I could 3D print a fairly light bracket to hang from the legs and an isolation plate for the camera proper that would suspend below that via the gimbal shock cushions I have. I can always order more if it turns out to be a keeper project.

Ones high on my list:
Giroptic - uSD card, f1.8 optics, they mounted one on a hawk!, 180g (not sure if that includes battery), 2k video. Has slight blind spot straight down but fine with that because its pointless to see the bottom of a flying drone, lightbulb adapter says it will work upside down. $499 at B&H

360fly 4k - Not sure why they call it 4k since its not shooting in 4k (2880 x 2880 @ 30FPS according to their FAQ), 172g weight, Aperture is only f2.5 so requires more light than Giroptic, also only one camera/lens so larger blindspot under it however, no stitching because only one camera, they say it DOES record upsidedown and even allude that its great for drone use. Massive 64g internal but no SD. $499 at B&H

Gear 360 (Samsung) - I have seen references to this already being mounted on drones. 3840x1920 video so its the highest res so far. f2.0 aperture so reasonable light gathering. Weighs in at 152g and they specify that includes the battery. 16g internal ram. No SD. Seems to require a S6 or later phone so thats why this is at the bottom of the list. $280 at Best Buy

I will gladly entertain other options if yall have them.
 
Well, rolled the dice and grabbed a 360Fly 4k yesterday at lunch from Best Buy. I designed a mount to suspend it from the legs last night and got it off the printer this morning. Looks promising. I used the bolt/washer from the 360's own display case and the extra shock boots that came with the P3 so absolutely zero cost for the mount (other than the printer filament which is minimal). If I keep it I will likely order some more extra boots for the P3's so I have backups.

Weather not good today so no test flight but I did clip it to my P3A and it snaps on and holds well and the plate is jiggly like the gimbal plate is. Still gotta print some retainer pins but other than that, I think its ready for a test flight. Probably will add a lanyard so its not lost, just in case of a hard impact or if something fails, I don't drop a $500 camera off the rig.
 
I made this mount, getting ready to get the LG360 cam.
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Sent from my SM-N900P using PhantomPilots mobile app
 
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Thats hilarious! Thats almost identical to what I did! 3D printed mine though. I don't have any CF sheets and no real good tools to cut it as cleanly as you did. I am quite sure yours is substantially lighter. I like the wire tie idea, brilliant.

Once I prove it in flight and use, I will put the mount up on thingiverse. Raining tonight. Not looking good tomorrow either. Will take my case to work with me just in case its nice at lunch.
 
Oh, and since the 360fly uses a standard 1/4-20 thread, the mount I made will let you hang just about anything with a 1/4" bolt through the base. Not just the fly, suppose you could hang a GoPro or other camera accessory under it.
 
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Well, on the way into work this morning, I drove through torrential rain, hail (pea sized) sleet, rain/snow and finally snow. I can't think of another precip that I didn't encounter.

UAV says no-go all day. Brought the drone just in case. But I can't recall UAV ever being wrong. So likely another scrubbed day.
 
Well, weather clear today. First test flight. Winds about 12mph, 22f and got about a 13min flight before the alarm bells. So the weight is not prohibitive to the flight time. However I did not fly far (laterally) so it was not significantly bucking wind either which will likely affect it significantly.





Mount attaches and seems decent for support.

Not quite the result I had hoped for.
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The drone oscillates and the 360 video is not very usable and would have to be substantially post processed to stabilize it.. Not sure if the added weight below the landing gear set up a harmonic it can't deal with or what. I am also wondering if its possible if the VPS is involved and maybe seeing the mount and confusing the heck out of the drone. At the beginning of the flight it was in P-Opti mode for some reason and I had to fight it quite a bit against the wind. And that may be the issue. Need to disable VPS and try another test flight. It finally settled into P-GPS after several minutes and became self stable.

Here is a still from the flight.


Not sure where to share a 360 image so that its navigable.

Also another lesson learned. Clean the lens :( I forgot to wipe down the 360's lens before taking off. In some stills I took prior to flight as well as the video, its obviously not clean. Meh, just another pre-flight ToDo. The lens is so big on the fly and its a freaking ball, its very easy to touch and smudge.
 
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Thats hilarious! Thats almost identical to what I did! 3D printed mine though. I don't have any CF sheets and no real good tools to cut it as cleanly as you did. I am quite sure yours is substantially lighter. I like the wire tie idea, brilliant.

Once I prove it in flight and use, I will put the mount up on thingiverse. Raining tonight. Not looking good tomorrow either. Will take my case to work with me just in case its nice at lunch.
Nice....
 

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