Yay Me! Got a GoPro!

So I was able to score a Hero 3 Black from my buddy for $200...not to shabby I say. Been wanting one of these for a while now. We have a huge club event with hisDJ company and several other sponsors. TONS of lights and lasers to light up the room so there ought to be some usable footage. Gonna put it at the end of a long monopod and hover it over the crowd.

Otherwise looking forward to the possibilities. Otherwise the company I started working for also has a Quadcopter and is getting the other copter with 8 props. Both have gimbals. we're looking at doing footage at the ski resorts here in Mich-Again this winter.

BenB i know you got one. Anyone else have anything here to share. Footage? Creative uses?

Practice with those choppers before doing a real shoot. And watch out for legalities. But practice the hell out of them. They are very misleading as to how easy/hard they are to fly.

I watched a couple of your flights Ben. As far as I have read is that they are illegal to use to record footage...PERIOD. Otherwise I have heard you can use them to film...as long as you are not charging to film with them. However you make it up in other parts of the package...weird sounding to me...and shady.

The FAA is currently conducting an investigation, and is expected to establish rules for drones sometime in 2014. You can fly these things as normal RC aircraft, under RC FAA rules. Basically not over people or vehicles, in a remote crowd free location, at least 3 miles from an airport, and no higher than 400 feet (normal aircraft have a low of 500 feet).

Once you put a recording device, audio and/or video, it is a drone and those are 100% illegal at this time, not only commercially. Let me repeat, putting a recording device for audio and/or video on anything that flies, for any reason at all, under any conditions at all, is 100% illegal in the US at this time, period!

You'd have to get a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA normally to do this, but they're not giving them out for recording of audio/video material at the moment.

On the other hand, no one has been fined or arrested yet. These small Phantom Quadcopter like units are getting more and more popular. Most of them get crashed so many times, so badly folks have to buy a second one, or give up. That due to lack of patience and following the guidelines for proper training and practice flights.

I have collected lots of stories, and have several of my own first hand stories, about law enforcement from campus police, to mall security guards, to local and state police coming along and being ignorant of the law, stand there and get interested and ask you a lot of questions. I've had a fire chief spend 20 minutes watching me fly and shoot video, talking about how they've been considering a drone. Where I live there are lots of chemical plants and oil refineries. His unit specializes in industrial fires at these plants. To see what's on the other side of a wall of fire requires a tall ladder truck and a guy on that ladder. He says every time they do that, the fireman on the ladder gathering information gets serious burns. A drone, even on at $5,000 would save his men injuries, and save his unit hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and melted equipment.

So, yes, they're technically illegal, never charge for the service as a business, and be VERY CAREFUL when you fly them around people. With the accidents that have gone viral on YouTube, it is only a matter of time before the FAA gets fed up and stops looking the other way.

FYI, I gathered my information through a great deal of research. I have an article coming out at macProVideo.com about these aerial video craft, and even spoke to FAA officials here locally and at their headquarters as part of my research. So yes, I know what I'm talking about, just FYI.

Don is correct, they are illegal as all hell, period. Use at your own risk. And if you do use them, PRACTICE NON-STOP in a safe place before taking it out for real work or anything. They are easier to lose control of and crash into a person or damage someones property than you think. Deceptively easy to fly, is what I call them. I'm on my third unit, BTW, and have graduated to more sophisticated models, one can carry an actual DSLR. And yes, I am flying illegally...

Great info, Ben! Thank you very much. I'll keep an eye out as well for your article on the site as well. Thank you for all of the research and time you've put into it.

Just be carefull, GoPro's are like Doritos, it hard to have just one

That reminds me, be VERY careful with those Phantoms and crashing them. I've destroyed a GoPro Hero with a Phantom. The Phantom only broke a carbon prop, no other damage. But my GoPro lost it's screen. I can use it via WiFi, but the built-in screen is shot. And yes it was in it's waterproof case.

Man, I'm sounding like such a downer here, eh? I don't mean to be. Just want everyone to be safe, have fun, and learn to fly correctly. It really is a blast.

BenB wrote: On the other hand, no one has been fined or arrested yet.

wearechange.org/the-1st-faa-prosecution-...-civilian-drone-uav/

Just FYI

1st one, he was a high profile pilot, working for a large firm. But the lawyer is correct, they issued policy statements, not regulations. The FAA stance is wacko, and waiting until 2015 is retarded. Hope the guy wins, and it forces the FAA into some SANE regulatory action. I never charge money, I do it for fun, and the FAA has told me I'm still flying illegally.

Lots of folks are afraid of how easy this will make illegal surveillance by private individuals on other private individuals.

Like I said, BE CAREFUL, FILM AT YOUR OWN RISK.