Controlling the GoPro Hero3 while flying

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I'm brand new to all this. And I'm trying to figure out what Quad / Camera / Equipment to get. I keep going back to the Phantom 2 with the H3-3D Gimbal and a GoPro Hero3+. Seeing all of the discussions about not using WiFi during Flight, FPV has to be part of the solution ... but it seems that I really haven't found any solutions to controlling the Camera while in Flight ... or maybe I just haven't looked in the right places. Can you control the camera? ... like taking stills while in flight and sending them back to a smartphone/tablet ? .... or do you basically turn on the camera taking video ... take off and use the FPV to get the shots that you want .... land ... and turn the camera off? Seems like if that the case it sure limits the capabilities of the Hero3+.

Thanks for any help .... G2HTs
 
afaik you are correct and there's no way to actually control the GoPro while in flight. You understand the reason behind not having the gopro wifi on, yes? on a P2 non-vision your RC operates on the same frequencies.. it's not wifi specifcally, but the same frequencies so if you have the gopro's wifi on, as your Phantom moves away from you that gopro transmitter will rapidly become a stronger signal than your RC and your Phantom can do any number of things, best case being Failsafe (return to home auto-land), worst case being a total flyaway (LOTS of cases of this)... and believe me these things are fast it could get VERY far away before you even know what happened so better safe than sorry! never use gopro wifi while flying. I turn the gopro wifi on when on the ground to manage the settings quickly via iPad but then of course you need to turn it back off.

FPV simply lets you see LIVE what the camera is seeing.. if you're just flying around with a gimbal and gopro watching from the ground it's next to impossible to frame a shot precisely (gimbal angle, Phantom orientation, etc). FPV lets you see exactly what the gopro is seeing so you can frame your shots, but simply broadcasting/receiving FPV doesn't have anything to do with "controlling" the gopro.

indeed, you must set your gopro's settings and hit record, take off, fly around, etc land then hit the button to stop recording.
or if you really want you can take off and hover and press the button... I've done that a few times when I forgot to hit record before takeoff. watch those fingers though!

I personally went with the P2 / gimbal / gopro option because I felt like that was more flexible. I mean, now I have a GoPro that I can do whatever with when I'm not using my Phantom. With the Phantom Vision models that camera isn't any use to you when you aren't flying
 
^ this. i find that the stills i take from the gopro video usually look allot better the stills directly from the camera's still function due to the high jpeg compression it applies.
 
QYV said:
I personally went with the P2 / gimbal / gopro option because I felt like that was more flexible. I mean, now I have a GoPro that I can do whatever with when I'm not using my Phantom. With the Phantom Vision models that camera isn't any use to you when you aren't flying

Yes, I did understand the reasons behind the problems, but thanks .... I'm pretty sure I'm going the same P2/gimbal/gopro route for the exact same reasons as you ... so many other uses for the GoPro .... BTW .... I'm around 90 miles north of you just off the Hudson.
 
chrisono said:
^ this. i find that the stills i take from the gopro video usually look allot better the stills directly from the camera's still function due to the high jpeg compression it applies.

Thanks for mentioning this ... although it's "nice" to be able to send a pic to someone while still in flight, it isn't a deal breaker.
 
I have my GoPro set to take stills every 10seconds at the same time as video. recording to a 64MB Scandisk Extreme SD Micro card.

Start the GoPro and send the P2 Up. Flight time approx 20 minutes and bring the P2 back to land. Stop recording.

hey presto stills and video from the same flight. Short montage of stills here http://vimeo.com/95487434 , nothing exciting just a development happening locally to me.
 
Do you feel that still taken while shooting video come out a lot better then frame grabs from the video.
 
MStacey said:
I have my GoPro set to take stills every 10seconds at the same time as video. recording to a 64MB Scandisk Extreme SD Micro card.

sure I haven't read the manual but I've been having trouble figuring out all the photo / timelapse settings on the gopro. I typically configure it using the iPad app, not the buttons and I've basically just been shooting video only at various framerates and such but I'd like to try taking stills.

If you don't mind, would you describe how exactly you set the gopro to take snaps like you describe?
 
Bluegrass said:
Do you feel that still taken while shooting video come out a lot better then frame grabs from the video.

Here's a link that compares the differences http://www.all-things-photography.com/go-pro-hd-hero3-review.html

You see the difference when you zoom in and crop and image .... which you would probably do allot with stills taken with a GoPro hanging from a drone ... unless your looking for panoramic pictures
 

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