video questions output questions....

[TimBaconHeli]

Hello,
So first off, thank you in advance for any help. This resource has been invaluable to me this last fall and winter as I progress through the ranks. If I had a dollar for every minute spent on rc heli's and my side Hobby of aerial video I'd be a very rich man.....in any case here goes. So I've built a 3 axis gyro stabilized gimbal to hang under 700-800 sized helicopters. Through brute force and good Ole American ingenuity I've worked through many of my problems save for this last question. Here it is, my intention is to use a nikon dslr to record to a Ninja atamos ninja 2 in RAW format though the hdmi. I have just received my video down link gear, "5.8 ghz 600mw transmitter & receiver" to send my composite signal from my nikon to the ground while recording continually on the camera. This is know works. What I don't know and can't seem to work out ahead of time is, ""is it possible to both use the composite out of a nikon D-series dslr AND the hdmi out to record RAW at the same time"? Or is it a one or the other thing? Basically I'm trying to get video to the ground while also recording at a higher raw bit rate as well. For right now I'm going to stick with the lower quality internal H.264 video recording but ultimately want to record in RAW so I can sidestep the record time issue and have higher quality footage for editing. I'd like to use the composite out vs adding another camera to the gimbal for simplicity and also I get the cameras exposure and other information on screen doing it that way too on the ground so I have an idea what it going on in the air as well. I'm just trying to work all this out before I strap more hardware to the gimbal and before I spend more money. Thanks again,
Tim

[Mapoff]

I feel like the communication in the AVP forum is dead. I'll be a champion and keep this thing going. Your question may be answered better on a forum specifically for that camera you have. I'm sure others have wanted the same thing even on the ground. Should be easy enough to test if you already have the equipment.

Glad to see another person trying to use a helicopter. I hope the underslug works. I have a BMC Production 4k using my own front tubes. I have my own 20mm CF tubes with a much thicker wall. All my equipment is on the gimbal with zero wires coming up since its a two man operation I wanted the gimbal to be completely seperate. If I had motors with encoders I could allow a 270* sweep but I'm behind on the technology.

[TimBaconHeli]

Yeah, it does seem to be rather dead in the sub-forum. With my limited experience I'm going to go out an a limb and say that the multi rotor revolution if you will, has killed off alot of interest in custom single rotor setups because it's just too easy and hard to pass up buying something that out of the box is ready to fly and takes okay video with little pilot load to boot. But.....and in my opinion a very big but....small sensor cameras with no optics and heavily compressed recorded files will never compete with a full size gimbal with raw recording capabilities and a full sensor dslr. Hence the reason I am going that route myself. I went underslung with a custom carbon fibre quick mount on a 360° gimbal as it affords just that, 360 degrees of freedom for the AV operator to frame shots and will cut down on my load piloting getting into position. I'm slowly working through the inherent issues with mass hanging so low atm, but haven't put a ton of time in it as I still have yet to attach the Atamos ninja and that will add a substantial amount of weight and likely undo all the work to date on balance and fbl gains etc. It would be nice to somehow keep this sub-forum a little active at least as its good to just spit ball back and forth sometimes for new ideas and such. Great to see at reply, thanks!

[TimBaconHeli]

So, through trial and error, i awnsered my own question... DSLR output in live view is "either" HDMI or composite. In either case, for reference the Atomos Ninja 2 is like taking the sunglasses off a DSLR when it comes to video.. Impressed. So much more RAW data for post processing, and HDMI triggered timecode etc... The ability to use SSD drives and so on. Without it turning into an ad for the company I can say without a doubt that for anyone interested in any kind of "serious" video work with DSLR cameras its all but a must have. Even on a lower end body it adds so many features. First and foremost, endless recording, provided you have enough space on your media, and DNxHD or ProRes native 220ish mbps vs heavily compressed camera codecs. Impressed!
Tim