Pipeline Winter 2013 from Eric Sterman on Vimeo.
This is a great aerial video which has been doing the viral surf video rounds, it’s produced by Hawaiian Eric Sterman, and naturally I wanted to know what kind of kit he was using to get these images, and compare it to my own drone video gear.
After a browse on his Instagram account I’m pretty sure this is his set-up:
- GoPro Hero 3 Black edition – £260 you could probably use the Hero 3+ Silver edition as it’s got most of the same video modes too.
- DJI Phantom quad copter – £359
- Zenmuse Gimbal – £250 ish, I think he’s using the H3-2D gimbal, this is the cheapest version, but he has control over the tilt, which requires some modification I think, you can read more here.
So for about £1000 (and a lot of patient practice) you can produce the type of images featured in this clip, pretty amazing when you think a photography flight in a real helicopter will set you back about $700 an hour. You can see why quad copters are so appealing to surf photographers in particular, offering a relatively unique angle on wave riding.
The UK has been experiencing the longest spell of strong winds and rain that I can remember so although I’ve been getting plenty of waves and had some chances to take photo’s, I haven’t flown my Blade 350QX in weeks, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to use it on my holiday to New Zealand which is coming up in February.