Why is GoPro 3 Balck recomended, not silver? other camera q's also.

[JamesMaeding]

I heard on a youtube vid that the gopro black is the one to use (with drones), not silver.

Why?

They both have interval mode.

Looks like the black has higher res for stills, but resolution is not everything if the lenses are similar.

This raises the question, what have people found to take the best Recap "compatible" photos within that $300 silver price range?

By compatible, I mean yielding accurate and usable point clouds.

Is the stabilization on the drone more important than the camera?

As I watch the vids on recap, the presenters always just say "use whatever gives the highest quality photos".

Sounds good, so I am looking for real field experience to see where the camera/gimbal/control system related money should be spent.

thanks

[richiee · Accepted solution]

To begin with, the Black is higher resolution, yes, but they do NOT have the same lens. This is the reason we support one versus the other. We have the lens profile to automatically dewarp the Black's images, but we can't do the same for the Silver at this time. Resolution itself is also very important for the reconstruction because the more pixels we have, the more accurately they can be matched.

Stabilization is not more important than the camera, but they are both important in their own respects. If your images are blurry, they won't make for a good reconstruction. Likewise if the photos are low quality and badly exposed, they also won't produce a good result.

If you have the budget, a larger drone capable of lifting a DSLR will produce even better results. It really comes down to a question of what you're trying to do.

[JamesMaeding]

ah, very helpful respose Richiee, that makes sense now on the black gopro.

That makes me wonder though, is the lens profile a factor on other cameras?

Or is it that only gopro's have fisheye effect so that comes into play?

Those black gopros are $400 and I would prefer to get down to the $200 range.

I will research this more.

Note that the key word for interval timers is "intervolometer"

[richiee · Accepted solution]

The reason we need to treat the GoPro's differently is due to the severity of the warping from the fish-eye lens. For most cameras, this won't be an issue (and in fact we do some minor corrections on other images already).

You are also correct about the intervalometer. We do not process video, so being able to set an interval for photos to be captured is very helpful (unless you want to rig up some sort of remote triggering system).

The camera itself isn't as important. For instance, you could find a cheap, used, point and shoot camera and hang it from a kite or a balloon if you had the patience. We certainly don't require the use of any specific equipment (with minor exceptions), we're simply offering suggestions.

Hope this helps.

[JamesMaeding]

I ran accross an interesting idea, hack the cheap camera firmware to add interval picture taking to cannon cameras.

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