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In the last year Quadcopters have really exploded and have become incredibly affordable. I really enjoy taking my quadcopters out any chance I get, but there are too many instances where it's just not possible to use for an "aerial-style" perspective. Even if they can finally set down some proper rules and regulations to the use of 'drones', there will still be many situations where it would be impossible, illegal, or irresponsible to fly.

palo-alto-test1
GoPro on 10 ft Painter Pole - Hiking around Monterey Bay, CA grabbing Aerial Images

Prior to flying a camera, I've been experimenting with P.A.P. [example photo above] - Pole Aerial Photography (a.k.a Aerial Mast, Elevated Aerial, or Telescoping Mast Photography), and i've recently even shared an article about a sturdy 12 foot Budget Tripod I can use for video. For those of you who love adding "aerial-style" perspectives to your projects, then you really should take a look at this new 28 Foot tall Carbon Fiber MegaMast.

I'm sorry I didn't grab any still images as an example, but I plan on doing so this week. I have a couple of Real Estate projects that i've been dying to add aerial images to (and was unable to fly a noisy copter). When I get some of those images, i'll update this article, but for the time being you can see just how high this massive beast climbs to.

While the MegaMast can be positioned up to 28 Feet, you don't have to use it at full height. The MegaMast can still add unique camera angles at 10 feet or even at just 15 feet. The extension on the legs are a clever design to not only add more width to the base, but can also be individually adjusted for uneven ground (like when used on a sloping driveway).

The MegaMast weighs around 16lbs, and collapses to just 69" inches, so it's certainly manageable for one person to travel with and setup. For additional stability, the MegaMast will have an option for some type of guy-wire cabling, which is not available at the moment. To find our more about the MegaMast, check out the website at Seaport Digital (click here).

Product Description
* Give your real estate photos a lofty advantage in the competitive housing market.
* Reach above the crowds at events like concerts and graduations.
* The MegaMast will give your camera an "aerial" perspective from 27.5" (8.4m) in the air without the need to fly expensive drones. The risers are made of sturdy carbon fiber tubes with large latches to make setup quick.
*A rigging system is available separately to keep the stand steady in windy conditions.
Features:
> Made of sturdy, light-weight carbon fiber tubes.
> 27.5' (8.4m) tall for "aerial-style" perspectives.
> Easy latches make setup quick.
> Supports up to Full-frame DSLRs.

cheesycam pole megamast aerial photographyaerial pole photography megamast
find-price-button MEGAMAST 28' CAMERA STAND




Quick Tip:
This Special Tripod Leveling Adapter Can save you hours and speed up your workflow.

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If you caught my Instagram feed, I just received a few more gimbals to test out. I've been meaning to get another Gimbal Stand, but didn't want to dish out the big bucks. Here's a simple DIY frame using a single 10 Foot piece of 1/2" Electrical Conduit. You can find this at most hardware store for under $4.00 dollars (for all 10ft). You'll also need to have access to a pipe bender, so hit up your electrician friend, or run down to a hardware rental store. It's sooo easy anyone CON-DU-IT.

Once you have the basic bends in place, it's just a matter of sitting them side by side and clamping them together. Now I threw this together very quickly, but after thinking about it a bit more I should have gone with a 1" metal hose clamp.

If you want to dress it up, you can always cover the conduit with pipe insulation, add end caps, or paint it black. Anyways, now that many of you guys are diving into the world of Gimbals, I thought this little quick project could help you save some money - Enjoy!

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12 Minutes and $12 Dollars. How to #DIY All Metal Custom #Gimbal Stand. Any size you want http://cheesycam.com

View on Instagram

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Reminder, the FREE Set of 15mm Carbon Fiber Rails deal at PVGEAR ends tomorrow. Limited time and limited quantity. These are made from real Carbon Fiber (not fake plastic ones) - super lightweight and super strong. [only available for USA residents lower 48] USE PROMO CODE: pvgear6

Not only does it make your rig look more professional with the flat black carbon fiber, but it's also an excellent way to shave weight from your Rig. I also use Carbon Fiber rails for the top bar of my custom mini gimbals (seen here). Converting a few of my setups from metal 15mm rails to 15mm Carbon Fiber, I was literally able to take off a couple of pounds. You can also see a pair of 20" Carbon Rails used with my ENG Lens Rig (seen here).

More about the deal over at the website https://pvgear.com

PVGEAR_free6_promo_grande

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Taking this setup out with my family today. Let's see what type of footage I can come back with. My fast sd cards did not come in so I may not be able to shoot with ProTune.

#Kamerar Kampro #RodeMics VideoMic #GoPro #Hero4

IMG_6816.JPG

Just checked my mailbox. Yup, that is a brand new #HERO4. @GoPro support has been very responsive and I shipped my other unit back to them. They said they were unable to duplicate the weird problem I had, but will test my unit once they receive it. Outside of that, i'm still excited to shoot with this HERO4, and I should have a video up next week with some samples.

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CAME-TV has a lineup with some of the most affordable gimbal stabilizers available, but the low cost tradeoff is that they may lack some of the conveniences like tool-less adjustments of more expensive systems. Of course since they operate using the same Alexmos / Basecam 32 Bit control boards and Dual IMU sensors, and are tuned using the same software as more expensive gimbals, the CAME-TV still provides incredible camera stabilization.

CAME-TV's first DIY 7000 Gimbal Kit started with an 8 Bit controller and later was upgraded to a 32 Bit controller with Dual IMU sensors. Following the success of those two models, CAME-TV followed up with a new 7500 (RTR) Ready-To-Run model. If you have the time and patience to learn how to properly balance and tune, the CAME-TV gimbals can offer some amazing dynamic camera movements.

As an example, check out all of the sweeping footage shot in this San Francisco Car Show video {below}. These shots were captured using the CAME-TV 7500 3 Axis Gimbal by SatoStudios.

And now the most recently improved product release in the ‘7000′ series from CAME-TV is the new 7800 model. The 7800 gimbal is based on the RTR 7500 model but now adds a slim camera Quick Release along with modified side and top handles (finally all black in color). The new 7800 gimbal ships mostly assembled, pre-configured with profiles, and is available now at a (currently discounted) price of $1280 US (click here).

CAME-TV CAME 7800 GimbalCAME-TV Gimbal Stabilizer Quick Release
find-price-button NEW CAME-TV 7800 3 Axis Gimbal Stabilizer

CAME-TV Gimbal Stabilizer 7800 new
find-price-button NEW CAME-TV 7800 3 Axis Gimbal Stabilizer

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As simple as this small feature is, and one that is just naturally expected in any digital camera, the news of this new BlackMagic Design firmware is a major highlight of my day. The feature i'm talking about of course is the ability to (finally) format an SD card "in camera" on the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Here's a snippet about the new firmware.

bmccp
find-price-button BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera RAW Video / ProRes

Press Release Snip:
“Following on from the popular release of in camera disk formatting on the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K last month, we are very happy to now release this feature for all models of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and Pocket Cinema Camera,” said Grant Petty, CEO of Blackmagic Design. “Having this new formatting feature in the camera means customers get increased convenience as well as getting the most out of the SSD’s and SD cards so they can record higher data rate but extremely high quality RAW formats easier then ever before!”

Full Press release found here: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/pressdetails?releaseID=61927

I just wanted to add that BlackMagic Design has not been making actual video cameras for as long as companies like Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, etc. In fact it's only been a few years. Maybe the rollouts of new products haven't been all smooth sailing, but these continuous firmware improvements and amazing cameras offering more features for a price others can't match show that they are on the right track. Just wanted to give them a thumbs up for continuing to evolve, support, and improve even their older systems.

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Here's a couple of very popular prosumer microphones in use by DSLR Video shooters, so if you've had this on your radar there are a few deals going on right now.


Sennheiser MKE 400 Compact Super-Cardioid Shotgun Condenser Microphone Camera Mountable
semke400
read more button Regular Price $199.95 Sale $169.95 with Free Shipping


Sennheiser MKE 600 Shotgun Microphone
semke600
read more button Regular Price $329.95 Sale $279.95 with Free Shipping


Sennheiser MKH-416 Short Shotgun Interference Tube Mic
semkh416p48
read more button Regular Price $999.95 Sale $879.95 with Free Shipping


Rode VideoMic Pro Compact Shotgun Microphone, 200 Ohms
rdvmp
read more button Regular Price $229.00 Sale Price $189.00 with Free Shipping

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Now that I have one perfectly working GoPro Hero4, I started looking into the SD Error that I was getting previously. The user manual that comes with your GoPro HERO4 may tell you that a Class 10 microSD Card is required, but that general piece of information is not enough.

My Sandisk Ultra microSDXC cards although rated at Class 10 have a Max. Read Speed: 30MB/s & Min. Write Speed: 10MB/s. In order to work seamlessly i'll need to step up to the Sandisk Extreme Plus which is also a Class 10, but with a Max Read Speed of : 80MB/s & Max. Write Speed: 50MB/s. Here's a list of suggested cards so far according to the GoPro Support webpage.

sandisk microsdxc hero4
find-price-button SanDisk Extreme 32GB microSDHC

sandisk microsd card
find-price-button SanDisk Extreme 64GB microSDXC

microsd card class 10 hero4
find-price-button Lexar 32GB SDHC 633x

gopro hero4 microsd card speed
find-price-button Lexar 64GB SDXC 633x

These Samsung Pro microSD cards also appear to be able to handle the speed requirements. Since there's a delay on shipping the other cards, I'm probably going to give these a try.

samsung pro microsd 64GB goPro hero4 4k videosamsung pro microsd 32GB goPro hero4 4k video.jpg
find-price-button Samsung Pro MicroSD Cards

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Ok, I really hate posting too many things on one subject, but this battery issue may or may not be a serious problem - I personally think it is. In fact, in order to confirm this issue I went ahead and opened up another brand new $500 dollar GoPro HERO4. That's a lot of money spent on testing (you owe me GoPro) but I think the results were worth it. Unfortunately this final test shows exactly what the problem is, but still leaves me completely clueless at the same time. Watch the video below to see what I mean.

So turns out the battery is not the problem. It's actually a bit disturbing. I have two brand new GoPro HERO4 cameras, both appear to be in perfect working condition. Yet the bacpac doesn't like one of them and it does it in a very dangerous way. Someone would never know this until after 3 minutes of powering on the camera. Had this been in the waterproof housing this could have ended up in a very different way.

With millions of these units shipping, I'm hesitant to say I have the only one in the world with this issue. If you plan to pick up a HERO4 camera with an external battery bacpac, you may want to give it a good long test outside of the housing before deciding if it's perfectly fine. As for now i'm still waiting to hear from GoPro support. If anyone else is experiencing something 'not quite right' with the HERO4, leave a comment below.

---------Updated Information--------------------

I picked up a Temp Gun earlier today and ran a quick scan. I can't vouch for the accuracy of this cheap gun, but after about 8 minutes powered on the general reading of this unique HERO4 was 156° F.

GoPro Temp Reading Hero4

So to put that in perspective, they say that a person will receive a second degree burn in 3 seconds of exposure and a third degree burn in 5 seconds of exposure to water at 140°F. And just for kicks if you've ever placed a powered on MacBook Retina over your skin that's about 102°F-113°F which is very uncomfortable. So again, i'm not vouching for the accuracy of this temp gun, but if it's close 150°F is not something you want to throw in your pocket.

---------Updated Information--------------------

[Update] I just got an email from GoPro support and I will be sending in the unit(s) over for them to inspect more in detail. Hopefully we'll have an answer soon and hopefully it's just a very isolated incident [with mine]. I'll try to keep you updated.