Camera-Equipped Copter Beams FPV to Goggles for Beautiful Aerial Imagery

We’re getting to the point at which photographers can buy fancy aerial drones without having to sell a kidney. You’ve probably already seen photos and videos shot from camera-equipped radio-controlled helicopters before, but did you know that the camera’s view can be beamed to a pair of goggles, allowing the photographer to be immersed in a first-person-view of what he or she is shooting?

Here’s a beautiful video in which Esben Nielsen shows off this kind of rig through various shoots this past summer in Bornholm, Denmark:

Nielson writes,

The multirotor used to film this is a hexakopter, and is a mix of different manufactures. The frame is a Cinestar8 and the electronics are mostly mikrokopter. The camera controls we built our self.

If you have semi-deep pockets and would like to use one of this copters for your own FPV aerial photography, check out Quadrocopter‘s Cinestar multi-rotor helicopters (used by NASA, Google, National Geographic, and the BBC). The cheapest DIY kit costs around $3,200.

A Cinestar ready-to-fly RC helicopter

For around ten grand, you can buy a ready-to-fly copter, which can be upgraded (for more dough) with stabilized camera mounts, a first-person-view system, and a remote shutter release for Canon/Nikon/Sony cameras.


Update: Here’s another stunning example we just spotted over on Fstoppers:

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