FPV - without gimbal?

[TheMattSanner]

Is it a huge problem to do FPV without a gimbal? It seems like most people add a gimbal, but I'm thinking that with the wide FOV that the GoPro has it might not be necessary.

Also, what's the least-expensive, but decent, FPV system out there (don't care goggles vs screen), and where's a good place to shop for it?

Thanks!

 

[Ksc]

you could do it without a gimbal. people use the gimbal to get a nice smooth image. If you wanted to save a lot of weight, you could do fpv with a pinhole spy type camera mounted to the front. Image quality will suck but you'll have good flight times.

fatshark is in my opinion the easiest system and you can get them from most of the online dealers or ebay or even locally (craigslist)

 

[OI Photography]

readymaderc.com and getfpv.com are two popular sites that have a lot of good FPV options, including full bundles.

 

[WReimer]

If you've never done any FPV, you will benefit GREATLY from starting off with NO gimbal on your camera.
Unless you have tremendously well developed spatial orientation, the first time you move or rotate your camera in
any way you will be sunk...figuratively an literally. Using a GoPro for FPV is a fine idea; I do it all the time. HOWEVER...if I want to shoot stabled video from the gimbal, I also have a second, fixed, forward facing camera that can be quickly mounted, connected to my FPV system then detachedehen I'm done

 

[Gizmo3000]

It really depends on what kind of FPV flying you wish to do.

Most people opt for gimbal+FPV because they kind go hand in hand.
- FPV allows you to frame the photo/video, but without a gimbal the video will often look shaky and unstable.
-and gimbal without FPV, you're just flying around hoping to get the shot!

But there's another group of people out there who fly FPV without a gimbal, I refer to them as sport-flyers, they're the ones who fly fast, thru trees and other obstacles, doing loops and rolls. You can easily tell by the fact that the camera rolls/banks left or right as it's flying.l - tho sometimes the video might appear jerky or have a bit of jello.

some people fly with two camera's, one for FPV and another on the gimbal
But flying with two camera's can sometimes have it's disadvantages, as if you're shooting with a GoPro, but flying from the perspective of the FPV camera, you'll be unable to monitor what the GoPro is seeing (if it's tilted down enough, or even IF it's recording or not (easy to forget to push that button sometimes!).

the OSD Mark II has a remote switch you can use tho, to switch between viewing thru the FPV camera and a GoPro., but that get s a bit complicated (and also requires a tx with open channels)

 

[Driffill]

It really depends on what kind of FPV flying you wish to do.

Most people opt for gimbal+FPV because they kind go hand in hand.
- FPV allows you to frame the photo/video, but without a gimbal the video will often look shaky and unstable.
-and gimbal without FPV, you're just flying around hoping to get the shot!

But there's another group of people out there who fly FPV without a gimbal, I refer to them as sport-flyers, they're the ones who fly fast, thru trees and other obstacles, doing loops and rolls. You can easily tell by the fact that the camera rolls/banks left or right as it's flying.l - tho sometimes the video might appear jerky or have a bit of jello.

some people fly with two camera's, one for FPV and another on the gimbal
But flying with two camera's can sometimes have it's disadvantages, as if you're shooting with a GoPro, but flying from the perspective of the FPV camera, you'll be unable to monitor what the GoPro is seeing (if it's tilted down enough, or even IF it's recording or not (easy to forget to push that button sometimes!).

the OSD Mark II has a remote switch you can use tho, to switch between viewing thru the FPV camera and a GoPro., but that get s a bit complicated (and also requires a tx with open channels)

^ what he said.

When I first seen this thread, the first thing that came to mind was martcerv's videos of flying in manual mode using FPV. Flying in manual mode the pilot needs to correct for all movements of the phantom to keep it in the air, if you were to use a gimbal and fly in manual mode, you would have not solid way of knowing what the phantom is doing. If you plan to record videos to shows friends or even post online, a gimbal makes the footage so much easier to watch.

I've have (literally) only just finished wiring up my brushless gimbal (tarot T-2D) but before that (for a few months) I used a cheapo $50 servo based gimbal (I might list it for sale on here if anyone is interested in it??) if you YouTube onemadvan you'll get a few vids pre gimbal and with gimbal to see the difference

 

[OI Photography]

the OSD Mark II has a remote switch you can use tho, to switch between viewing thru the FPV camera and a GoPro., but that get s a bit complicated (and also requires a tx with open channels)

That's the main reason I chose the iOSD mk2 over the mini, so I could switch between gopro and a dedicated FPV camera while in flight. There's also separate video switches available that will let you flip between up to 3 camera inputs, but as Gizmo pointed out those still require a dedicated channel from the Tx/Rx to operate.

Right now I'm just using the gopro on a 2-axis gimbal with my FPV setup, but I don't really use that for most of the flight, just when I'm mostly in place and need to do final framing on the shots. Trying to pilot the whole flight via a video feed from a camera on a gimbal can be annoying at least, and cause serious problems at worst.