Stabilised cameras - good for aerial photography?

DJI Osmo with ND filters

The latest firmware for the Osmo Pocket has brought the PRO (manual settings) mode accessible via the camera menu i.e. without having to use a phone to configure it.

The way to access it is obscure and is made worse by the horrible little LCD touch screen which is hard to use without inadvertently changing some settings.

You can now set the shutter (which is a fake shutter, with all these little CCD/CMOS cameras) and the ISO. If you set the shutter to say 1/100 (supposedly the best for smooth motion for 50fps) and set the ISO to 100 (the best for quality) you then have no latitude for exposure, so will have to use ND filters to control the exposure. If you set ISO to AUTO you have less work to do, but will be risking grainy images if the ISO goes to a few hundred (this is not a high-end DSLR ).

I think with an ND32 it will be ok for a sunlit snow scene…

A neat feature of the Osmo Pocket is that it works equally, and completely transparently, upside down, i.e. like this

The recorded video is exactly like normal; no need to do anything in editing.

That mode could be quite applicable to mounting under an aircraft, obviously inside some sort of glass “dome” for protection from the airflow. Not sure one could “swing” that on a certified type however

I am trying to get my hands on a USB-C equipped phone, for the extra config.

I have spent the week testing the Osmo and it is pretty good.

The stabilisation is great, though it needs to be set to “slow follow” rather than “fast follow” which tends to produce strange jumps. It also needs the pan (pitch) adjustment wheel accessory; setting the pitch using the existing methods is horrible.

Yes that is exactly the sort of application I had in mind.

You just need to find a way to externally mount it, and remotely control the zoom/pan because these things tend to have a “mind of their own” so you can’t just set them up and go flying.

Hmmm I have a feeling this is accessible only from an attached phone, and the phone has to be a USB-C model. I cannot get any connectivity with my Samsung S7 which is micro-USB, using a converter.