Flying in fireworks.

[lablover]

Me too, half a mile away is fine with me. No desire to drop my Phantom on somebody's head.

OR wreck it. Some guy from New Jersey posted a video of him flying right through the middle of the fireworks. It looked spectacular, but he obviously didn't care about his costly drone getting hit with an exploding rocket.
Personally, I don't have an extra $500 laying around to buy a new Phantom!

By the way, I have a chart that shows how high various shells fly. If you are flying at 400 feet, only the 2, 3 and 4 inch shells will explode at or below 400 feet. The shells go all the way to 12 inches which explode at 1200 feet, so it looks like your idea of setting the gimbal to go the extra 30 degrees upward, is a good one. I am going to do that myself.

Another pilot said that settings for video should be ISO 400 - 800 and shutter speed should be 1/30 for NTSC (that's us right?)
A lot of stuff to take in! Good luck, Ray

Thanks Ray

I did some night shooting the other night and shot 4K at 1600 iso and they looked pretty good. I'm gonna start at 800 tonight and see what happens. We only get one shot at this!...LOL

Good luck Kelsei...too. Post what you end up with. Worst case is we learn something from all this.

Flashlight..Remember a flashlight........Yea, I'll forget.

 

[Uncle Stumpy]

Thanks Ray

I did some night shooting the other night and shot 4K at 1600 iso and they looked pretty good. I'm gonna start at 800 tonight and see what happens. We only get one shot at this!...LOL

Good luck Kelsei...too. Post what you end up with. Worst case is we learn something from all this.

Flashlight..Remember a flashlight........Yea, I'll forget.

LOL!

 

[lablover]

As a side note...Just played with home lock on DJI Go and can see this might be a good thing to use tonight in case I get turned around etc......Just pull back on the right stick and she will come to within 5 M of the home point...Could be a plus I think. Altitude permitting

 

[JetFalcon]

I've done it, and the drone never lost control.

I did it at a 4th of July party last year, at two of them. Everyone went nuts.

 

[JWH]

The town I live in does a great fireworks show every year. I plan to launch from my front yard and get just above the trees. I will be away from the crowds and at a safe distance from the launch point. The drone will go straight up and straight down. I will try not to touch the right stick. It would be easy to get disoriented at night because I live in a heavily wooded area. I appreciate the post with the camera settings. I was wondering about that.

 

[Kelsei]

Here's a shot I got!

 

[JWH]

Here's a shot I got!

What were the camera settings? Great shot!

 

[Kelsei]

I actually took this picture while videoing the show and the camera settings were on the original settings.

And thank you!!

 

[ifly2high]

Hmm, drink beer all evening or get some fireworks pics...life is full of hard choices [emoji848]

 

[lablover]

I got some pretty good video, just need to go thru it all and find the best stuff. Saw another UAV in the sky acting a fool and getting way too close to the fireworks. I'm also pretty sure I saw it get hit and fall to the ground...!!! I did do a screen shot of what DJI app was telling me as I was heading back to the launch site. I was heading back backwards as the grand finale was happening and DJI app was screaming at me about low battery percentage. I think I was at 16% when I got her on the ground....The screen shot is when I landed.

 

[lablover]

Here's a shot I got!

Pretty cool shot. I need to figure how to get a screen grab from the video I have

 

[JWH]

I got some pretty good video, just need to go thru it all and find the best stuff. Saw another UAV in the sky acting a fool and getting way too close to the fireworks. I'm also pretty sure I saw it get hit and fall to the ground...!!! I did do a screen shot of what DJI app was telling me as I was heading back to the launch site. I was heading back backwards as the grand finale was happening and DJI app was screaming at me about low battery percentage. I think I was at 16% when I got her on the ground....The screen shot is when I landed.

I am going to postpone the launch until a few minutes into the fireworks show to avoid that! I don't want to miss the grand finale due to a low battery. I probably won't be able to land, swap batteries, and get back into the air quickly enough.

 

[lablover]

I am going to postpone the launch until a few minutes into the fireworks show to avoid that! I don't want to miss the grand finale due to a low battery. I probably won't be able to land, swap batteries, and get back into the air quickly enough.

Wish I had done the same..I did get it but I was further away..Good thing I did it in 4K...Zoom function time.

I will say I did find myself creeping closer and closer every few minutes to the fireworks...Wish I could of got closer but I'm happy...For sure a learning thing

 

[Hayabusa1]

Before you ask, my memo for the fireworks camera settings:

Images:
ISO 100-200
Shutter speed 2 seconds or slower to give the "streaking" effect

Video:
ISO 400-800
Shutter speed 1/25 (PAL) or 1/30 (NTSC) seconds

Altitude 50-120m

Litchi orbit radius or path at least 500m from the launch area to keep the drone near the back or outside the area crowd zones

Display Fireworks Facts

Do I adjust this djigo if I use litchi or on both.
I see the isolation. I don't understand on the video about shudder speed. Mine goes down to 30.
P3s
I just want some better video and images for tonight.

 

[lablover]

Just a quick non corrected clip of me when I was heading back to my car before the battery died..Made it on the ground safe and sound! whew. If I didn't have to get up so early tomorrow to work I'd head someplace tonight and do some. Only can figure hw to post it in youtube and add link. Not sure if thats the right way to post videos here?

 

[lablover]

Do I adjust this djigo if I use litchi or on both.
I see the isolation. I don't understand on the video about shudder speed. Mine goes down to 30.
P3s
I just want some better video and images for tonight.

You can make the adjustments in litchi. I used DJIGO as I'm more familiar with it and felt safer at night

 

[JWH]

Just a quick non corrected clip of me when I was heading back to my car before the battery died..Made it on the ground safe and sound! whew. If I didn't have to get up so early tomorrow to work I'd head someplace tonight and do some. Only can figure hw to post it in youtube and add link. Not sure if thats the right way to post videos here?

I will probably be close to that same distance. I will be flying over my own property to avoid any problems with flying over people and to not disturb the ones launching the fireworks. I will record in 4K to hopefully get the best opportunity for some post editing work.

 

[lablover]

Another quick grab....

 

[JWH]

Another quick grab....

How high did you have to go to get those shots?

 

[lablover]

How high did you have to go to get those shots?

I was at 300 Ft high over some wooded area near the fireworks. I wanted to get closer but then I would of been over a large crowd so I stay put. I will say the Map helped a lot here..Being dark I really couldn't tell exactly where I was at. I planted my drone right in the center of the wooded area and called it good.