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Been watching some very cool batreps this holiday season, and wondered... has anyone ever used a mini drone to record a battle? If not, could it be done?
Now, I know NOTHING about how drones operate, but a quick internet search has revealed some adorably teeny drones that could feasibly get POV from the miniatures' perspective, maybe even do flybys too!
Presumably there'd need to be a third person present to control the thing as the two players got on with the game... or is there a way to pre-programme a drone so that it hovers over a set area, avoiding hazards (e.g. models and terrrain!) automatically? Could you even direct it using a laser pointer or something to pick up important actions at a particular time?
Would love some insight from anyone who knows their stuff! Cheers
Wouldn't let a drone fly near my models I can assure you that. Also you won't be able to hear commentary over the motors, and small drones only have 10 mins maximum flight time before you have to recharge the batteries. Absolutely no point to using a drone at all.
Yeah, if it's a question of bringing in a person and equipment to record a battle, then given that a table top is pretty accessible you'd be better going handheld or mounting a camera on some sort of overhead rig. I mean, the idea of deploying a camera drone over a tabletop game is... Fun, I suppose but totally unnecessary.
Sure while you're at it slap a go-pro on a RC Rhino and get some 40k dash-cam. You could be the only person thinking outside of the box as far as bat-rep photography goes, you might find there's an audience for it. (And a really good reason nobody else is doing it)
theCrowe wrote: Yeah, if it's a question of bringing in a person and equipment to record a battle, then given that a table top is pretty accessible you'd be better going handheld or mounting a camera on some sort of overhead rig. I mean, the idea of deploying a camera drone over a tabletop game is... Fun, I suppose but totally unnecessary.
Sure while you're at it slap a go-pro on a RC Rhino and get some 40k dash-cam. You could be the only person thinking outside of the box as far as bat-rep photography goes, you might find there's an audience for it. (And a really good reason nobody else is doing it)
As a bit of a fan of POV wargaming photography, I love your idea of an R/C Rhino (or Stormblade, etc.) taking vids, or even just pics, as all the gubbins would be hidden, thus not breaking immersion for participants ... in a way.
On edit: but back OT ... I don't really think a drone would produce anything that couldn't otherwise be done more simply.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/12/29 22:38:06
Thanks all for indulging me! As I said in the OP I have no experience or point of reference even for using drones, but now I do
Automatically Appended Next Post: Thanks all for indulging me! As I said in the OP I have no experience or point of reference even for using drones, but now I do
The killer for me is the limited flight time - I had no idea battery life was so short! I reckon there’s still potential for flybys of deployment/after movement phases etc as separate bits of film, but I no longer think a drone could do the whole thing.
Cheers all!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/12/30 08:43:25
The downdraft from the drone alone would be an annoyance if its high up and a risk to knocking over models if it was flying low to focus on specific areas of the game. It's a neat idea, but a drone just isn't suitable for this kind of situation.
Plus the noise would be annoying to the players, the battery life a concern and with a mini drone the camera is going to be very small.
You could likely get a decent tripod off ebay and mount a mobile phone camera to the end in a bracket and just set that easily above the game. Using a second phone/camera to then record closer details if you wanted and then edit the results together.
I think this is a case where a drone is just too much cost for no real gain in this kind of situation where you can easily move your arm or a fixed tripod to the required position rather than a machine.
