Drift HD170 Camera - My review from a pilots perspective

[182 STOL driver]

Very interesting --- I saw a article in a R/C model airplane Magazine using servos and old radio to change direction/elevation of camera . I have a old 3 channel and servos(270 degree travel) hmmm. I'd like to be able to turn it on or off when i want -also saw the remote they had . Thinking of a 1/2 shaped ball (clear) mounted on wing tip( or inspection cover) with forward /aft /and side views. I'd like a monitor screen to see what the camera is aimed at --- maybe blue tooth or hard wired hmmm. It'd be cool to have 2x,4x or variable telescopic remotely from cockpit in flight --- HD video .I've also got more channels R/C units up to 8 channels and boxes of servos.

Sail winch servos and a cheap servo driver will make a pretty clean instal and give you one heck of a swing. Plus it will eliminate the TX and RX and you will just have a dial to run the servo.

http://servocity.com/html/dual_servo_driver.html

http://servocity.com/html/spt200_pan___tilt_system.html

I've got plenty of servo's and radios .After rethinking this I think I'm going for a fixed mount -in several locations .

[Halestorm]

I've been playing with the time-lapse function a bit, really enjoying it. Here's one I made of my favorite subject, just happened to catch one of the best sunsets of the year too! I've been using a Joby tripod for this stuff and it shifted somewhat during the shot, so no, the Dutch Angle is not on purpose.

http://vimeo.com/35046420

Sam

[NoCOpilot]

Wow. Beautiful aircraft, gorgeous sunset, nice work!

[swixtt]

Sam, can we have details on your vid!?? amazing! power, card size, settings, software! very curious on this!

[Halestorm]

Let's see, I used the stealth with the big battery, 36 gig card, 1 shot every 2 seconds, neutral exposure. Roughly 20 gigs of raw footage parsed down to a 620mb 1080P movie and then a 156mb 720 movie uploaded to Vimeo with iMovie.

Sam

[Zzz]

I've been playing with the time-lapse function a bit, really enjoying it. Here's one I made of my favorite subject, just happened to catch one of the best sunsets of the year too! I've been using a Joby tripod for this stuff and it shifted somewhat during the shot, so no, the Dutch Angle is not on purpose.

http://vimeo.com/35046420

Sam

Nice work. Beautiful.

[Grassstrippilot]

Brilliant! Can't wait to start playing with mine some more.

[lesuther]

Reduce the padding on your mount. The ball mount may be too flexible as well. My mount only has a thin layer of vinyl flat irrigation tube under the clamp to the strut, in the same location as your mount, and no ball mount (forward facing only). The mount is rock steady except at initial roll due to the prop stall buffeting for the first 20 mph.

In addition, I use 30 fps, and the prop is completely invisible except at low idle. I also usually bump the f-stop up a bit to get better saturation at low light (sunset).

The Corel video package is easy to use and less expensive than the Magix package, IMHO. I got mine for $34 at Sears, and it works well.

[Grassstrippilot]

Thanks for the info on your setup. I can't wait to continue testing mine next week (hopefully). If you get a chance, please post a pic of your mount setup.

I also got my Magix for $35...or I should say my wife did, on Amazon.

[andy]

Here's a picture of an action camera mount that I use with my Drift HD170 Stealth. This picture shows an Oregon Scientific ATC-3K camera, but I use the same mount with my Drift. Cut a 12" section of 1" PVC pipe and slide a foam cushion around the middle of it. You can get these cushions from a bike shop that sells car carriers or handlebar foam. Use soapy water to slide it onto the pipe. The water will dry and it will be very secure after that. This protects the paint on your wing strut and keeps the pipe in place. Use a 24" heavy duty bungee cord, not a cheap one. Hook one end around the open rear side of the pipe and then wrap it several times around the strut and pipe then hook the end onto the back end of the pipe where the first hook is attached. Wrapping the bungee cord around the pipe will keep the pipe and camera mount from rotating as well as preventing movement in any direction. Slide the handlebar mount that comes with the camera around the front end of the pipe with a small flat piece of rubber between it and the pipe. This will create a lot of friction between the pipe and the handlebar mount to keep it from moving or rotating. The handlebar mount is the strongest mount that comes with the camera and will easily withstand the wind pressure while presenting a small surface area to minimize drag. I use a piece of black PVC pipe and a yellow bungee to match the airplane's colors but the white pipe works fine too.

This mounting is quick to install or remove without tools, inexpensive, very secure and won't leave any marks on your paint. You can put it wherever you want on the strut but I would recommend moving it down away from the point where the strut attaches to the wing to disturb the airflow around the wing as little as possible. The farther up the strut you put the camera, the less you'll see of the nose and propeller, but you won't be able to completely remove them from the picture due to the 170 degree field of view in 720p mode. I recommend using 60 fps frame rate to minimize the propeller artifacts in the video and turning the camera on and off with the remote as needed to keep the file size from getting too huge, which makes it harder to edit.

[gp125racer1]

Nice setups everyone! I've seen these utilized on R/C platforms .... cheap and effective:
http://www.claserdesigns.com/pantiltcameramounts.html

[Marc]

Has anyone had any luck with getting a reply from Drift? My Stealth has some issues and I haven't been able to get a reply through the form on their website after a couple messages and several weeks. At this point I'm mostly interested if they have anything resembling service and I buy another Drift or if I just cut my losses and go for a Go Pro.

[Halestorm]

Yes, I've been having trouble getting them to respond as well. I've sent several queries about my remotes. Everything about the camera is great for me except the remote, which was a big selling point for me originally. 5 meters range has proven impossible for me to achieve, and with a window or a little aircraft structure in the way it's more like zero meters. Go Pro is coming out with a wifi remote, may be time to try that option. I really want to put one of these cameras on a wingtip!

Sam

[MtCoyote]

Try this info. They are the distributor for North America.

Joan Stevens
Business Manager
True North Trading Co
Email: truenorthtradingco@gmail.com
Phone: 704-966-9768
www.driftinnovation.com

[swixtt]

i had mine replaced instantly when i had a problem with mine. the 1/4" thread started to pull out. i dealt with a reseller i bought it from. they also upgraded me to the Drift Stealth:)
make sure the batteries are up on the remote device.

[rlhawk11]

I have had problems with the 170 Stealth and the new HD (both when first released and had development problems). Both were resolved at once upon contacting Joan (Info below). When using the e-mail there were problems with lack of response.
If you have problems, go to the source. She is friendly, helpful and willing to back her company's product.

Joan Stevens
Business Manager
True North Trading Co
Email: truenorthtradingco@gmail.com
Phone: 704-966-9768
http://www.driftinnovation.com


Hawk

[rfinkle]

RLHawk & I have experimented with camera mounts from the extreme (3#) to the very simple (3oz), and as usual, simple seems to be better. We are using the Drift Stealth cameras.

Our camera mounts are made of .125 thick 2024 Aluminum that we cut into a T shape and bent the vertical part of the T to 90 degrees. We have mounted the bracket on an inspection plate with two screws, utilizing existing fasteners and mounting plate. We did not use any vibration absorbing material between the bracket and inspection plate. We use a water hose bib washer between the camera and the bracket and it works extremely well keeping the camera stable during flight. The camera is mounted to the bracket via 1/4-20 allthread with hose bib washer between camera and mount, a flat washer, lock washer, wing nut and safety pin through the allthread. We avoid prop clutter by mounting farther out on the wing and adjusting the zoom level. We also have a wide range of camera movement to adjust the shoot angle.

We have run the gamut with getting audio from the cockpit onto the video without loud wind and engine sounds. Our solution to the audio has been to run a cable from the cockpit to the camera external mic jack. We then placed a small mic in one ear cup of our headsets. This works really well and catches all audio coming through the radios or intercom.

Feel free to PM either of us with questions.

Pics of the simple camera mount









Pics of camera attached

[robw56]

Very cool set up!

[pokette]

my latest:

works now

[patrol guy]

Is there a good articulating camera set up that works remotely yet? I have a pipeline company that wants a wing or strut mounted camera, with the video screen and on/off controls that can be aimed, all from in the cockpit. I just saw something last week (but can't find it now) that was close, but when it was turned, it turned too quickly and was jerky because of that. If push came to shove, that could work I guess.

Way back when, Greg tried a complicated and expensive thing, but somehow it was not ready for the market then.