Drone based Aerial Photography

This panorama was taken with a GoPro HD Hero action camera. Apart from 1080p HD video the camera can take a 5 Megapixel photo every two seconds. The lens of the camera has viewing angle of 170°. For stitching with PTGUI the edges of the 5 MPixel images were cropped.

My MikroKopter Drone (HexaKopter) in the sky (2010)

The most challenging problem with drone photography is vibrations. CMOS camera sensors use the rolling shutter principle. This however, is prone to image distortions caused by vibrations (jello effect). In order to reduce motor vibrations the camera is decoupled via a soft viscose sponge. Tape is used to prevent dangling of the camera. The jello effect can further be reduced by well balanced propellers.

I realized that the jello effect is less obvious in low light conditions. Recently I learned that some people use neutral density filters to reduce the jello effect: With less light the Gopro will widen the rolling shutter - vibrations now cause a small blur rather than the jello distortions, thus resulting in a much better video quality.