Gimbal or FPV First?

[BrandenB2]

Hey everybody, I'm piecing together my new toy as I have the money for it. I've saved up enough pennies to get either the Zenmuse or some sort of FPV kit. Which should I get first?

My thoughts were that the FPV kit is kinda useless without stable video and the ability to tilt the camera. So I was thinking gimbal first. Would love the opinion of some of you who have been doing this for a while. Or even the experience of some fellow noobs.

Thanks!

 

[RichardWendt]

First, you should have a RC aircraft what can be fly;
Second, your RC aircraft can lift and compatible with the gimbal you got.
Third, get a camera which can be installed on your gimbal;
Then assemble three of them, you got a FPV.

 

[Gizmo3000]

Hey everybody, I'm piecing together my new toy as I have the money for it. I've saved up enough pennies to get either the Zenmuse or some sort of FPV kit. Which should I get first?

My thoughts were that the FPV kit is kinda useless without stable video and the ability to tilt the camera. So I was thinking gimbal first. Would love the opinion of some of you who have been doing this for a while. Or even the experience of some fellow noobs.

Thanks!

That's certainly a tricky one to answer, as anyone who's been flying for awhile will tell you the same thing - do whatever it takes to get BOTH.

If you get the gimbal first, yes, your video will be stabilized, but you'll be unable to see what the camera is seeing, limited by line of sight flying. - you'll have to wait until you land to be able to view the footage.

and if you get the FPV first, you'll be able to see the video, but unable to tilt - and the footage might be unpleasantly unstable.

But if I was forced to choose between the two, I'd probably lean towards FPV.
-its a lot more fun to fly with FPV
-you can much better line up the shots (especially if you're shooting stills)
-and if you're really, skilled, and fly in low winds (get up early), you can get some decent video, which can then be stabilized in post (if you've got the editing software).
there are a LOT of high end quad flyers who fly exclusively with non-gimballed FPV, flying thru bushes and trees and stuff.

Honestly tho, once you fly without FPV, you'll really want to get it, and once you fly with FPV, you'll probably want stabilized footage.

The ideal thing for you to do is scrap together whatever funds you can and figure a way to get both.
consider the $150 Tarot intend of the Zenmuse, you can't go wrong with it. - and then you'll save enough money to get into an FPV setup perhaps.

 

[windrockwater]

I have both an FPV, a ground station monitor, and, a gimbal. The gimbal is really nice for stabilized higher quality video. I would get that first. Then a ground station. Then FPV. Thats just my 2 cents. In my fairly tight areas, i am simply not confident enough to fly solely via FPV. I keep getting nervous and taking the goggles off! but the small ground station monitor i just installed is great.

 

[BrandenB2]

Great insight everybody. Gosh, seems like I need to do everything I can to get both... By the way I'm flying the Phantom V1.1.1 stock right now if I didn't already mention it. Don't know if that changes anyone's opinions. I'll have to look into the Tarot gimbal. I've heard great things but just wanted to go with the big name (no real reason though).

Oh and I might have the terms confused. When I say FPV I mean either the goggles or some kind of monitor fixed to my transmitter. I didn't know one was called ground station. I think I'd freak out with the goggles on too, not being able to see everything around and behind the Phantom.

The pinch I'm in is that I'm going to California to shoot surf and beach video in less than a month and most likely will only have enough money for one or the other by then. But maybe going with a cheaper gimbal and video feed setup will help. I've also read you get what you pay for so be careful with the bargain bin kits.