Aviator Goggles For The Drone Flyer

Don't expect fashion in this column - you won't be wearing a leather coat and a RayBan's for drone flying. You'll be lucky to score a giggle hat and a worried expression - and no-one will be shouting " Chocks Away ", " Tally Ho ", and " Wizard Prang " when you stack your expensive machinery into the side of a bus.

If you're flying it with straight visual control you are in much the same position as any of the R/C airplane types - peering into the sky trying to see what altitude, attitude, and wind reaction is going on at any particular time. Good luck with that...I have memories of crashing balsa wood all over the place in my youth. Model airplanes move in three dimensions up and down, side by side, and fore and aft. Their pilots also move in these ways but they add the additional dimensions of fear, expense, and regret.

But back to the drones. Some of the civilian ones may be fitted with cameras rather than 20mm cannon and these cameras can send images back to the operator - this allows them to see what the drone sees - effectively putting the pilot in the driver's seat of a plane that has no seats. The images that come back to the ground can be received by smart phones and pads with appropriate apps.

Well and good, but anyone who has ever tried to see the screen of a flat smart phone or pad in glaring sun knows that it can be nearly impossible to pick up details. And if you are busy operating the radio control set with both hands you have no way to shade the screen. Until now.

  
Hoodman have brought out a set of hoods and accessories that will blank off extraneous light from iPhone 6. iPone6+, iPad Mini, and iPad Air devices. The hoods attach by various elastic straps and velcro pads to firmly grip the screens - no falling off in the heat of the moment if your flying style involves a lot of body English.

You're not restricted to just one style, either- if the shorter hood is not doing the job for you there are extension packs that velcro on with padded edges so that you can push your face right down in there and no extra light gets in.

If you need to poke away at the phone or pad screen there are cut-aways and elasticised panels that let your fingers into the dark. You may look like a bit of a robot attached to your control panel and screen but at least you will have the best view of what the drone is seeing and that has to give you better control.

You can buy the individual parts to fit iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ as well as the iPad Mini and iPad Air or you can elect to get them as paired kits. The all go under the moniker of Hoodman Drone Aviator and they are all very well made.

They are in stock right now at Camera Electronic or you can order them through the on-line shop. good insurance for that vital flight.

For Colourful Personalities

Well, that's what the packaging says. Examine yourself in the mirror to see if you qualify - right now we can cater to black personalities and silver personalities but apparently you can also get these little brackets that are made for blue, purple, and green ones as well.

What it is  - the SideKick 360 - is a bracket that mates a mobile phone to a tripod. There is a pair of screw-clamp jaws that sits either side of the phone and gently grips it while the whole rotates on a ball-joint mount. The base of it is aluminium with a choice of 1/4", 3/8", and Arca Swiss foot mounting. You can mount the phone in landscape or portrait orientation.

Useful? Well, if you are a phone shooter, yes. You'll get to use longer exposures ad get steadier shots. It will let you stand your phone on a tabletop or a cistern for a selfie and leave your hands free to make gang signs.

You could mount it on the dashboard to allow hands-free.

Works on small and large mobile phones.

It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Loses An iPhone

I noted recently that there are services that let you track your iPhone when it is stolen. You are not allowed to go round to the druggies gaff with a fire axe and get it back and the police are far too busy to do it for you, but at least you have the satisfaction of being able to bleat about it on Facebook. With a bit of luck you will get an emoticon.

There are more practical ways of dealing with this -amongst which is making arrangements not to have it stolen in the first place. And while you are at it, not to have the rest of your gear stolen.

My house is no more secure than any other - it has fly screens, door locks, deadlocks, and window locks, which deter moths and me, but would present no barrier at all to thieves. What does present a barrier is a large metal safe bolted to the wall and floor - a relic from the days when I kept firearms in the place - legally, I might add* Now it keeps family papers, cameras, old broken watches (sentiment...) and the occasional memory card for a job that is under way. It could be broken into but that would take time and machinery and noise - so currently it is secure.

Also secure is the Drobo hard drive array that holds my pictures - buried deep a cavernous drawer of a large metal desk, it gets enough air to stay cool and enough protection to avoid thieves. The monitor that sits above it is secured with a steel cable Kensington lock - enough trouble to deter the casual juvenile. I have no fear of thieves stealing my books - Plato or Michael de Montaigne rarely attract the sort of people who ransack houses. Indeed, I would welcome them taking some of the stuff on the shelves as I hate it but cannot bear to part with it.

Moral of this tale? There is no moral, other than lock up your hard drive and computer. Let them have the iPhone - then you can live free of the damn ring tone and will not spend the rest of your life looking at it in shops. Your thumbs will thank you.

* Found something better...

Uncle Dick

Crowdfunding In Photography

Have just watched a YouTube video on the management's time...and am proud of it! Even used shop electricity to do it...and all to good purpose.

The little film was about crowdfunding for a plastic enlarger. Apparently someone wishes to make a little enlarger that accommodates a mobile phone and then projects an image from this to classic B/W enlarging paper. To enable people who only have images on their iPhone or other phone to pull them off for prints.

It's a novelty, Folks. If it gives you a thrill and reminds you of the dear old fume-laden days groping in the dark, well good on them. The video asks for money up front so that they can buy the construction of the actual devices, with the promise that if they get enough they will be able to do the job and you'll get one of the first batch.

Interesting concept. We've see it in the photographic world before - the Russians apparently got enough western cash to make batches of re-designed Petzval lenses for modern DSLR cameras. Sometimes the call for moolah works and sometimes it goes unheeded - I remember one scheme that wanted to develop a tiny wireless flash trigger for mirror-less cameras that seems to have come to naught.

Good ideas whose time have come? Perhaps. Trendy new business models? Perhaps.

E-shellgame? Perhaps.

Note: if you've got a lot of images on a mobile phone you can get a Fujifilm Instax Printer and do the job yourself right now. In colour. In the light. We've got he printers and film right now. No shells. No game.

Pardon My Packshot

Some packages are just too good to unpack.

Witness the neat job Røde have done on the new model stereo microphone for the iPhone 5, the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Plug it into the appropriate Apple product and add the appropriate app and you can record stereo sound in 24-bit/96 khz with a high=pass filter and windshield. that's studio quality in the field.

Now you can attach it to your DSLR and make movies or just thrust it under a politician's nose and make trouble.

In-store right now. We've also got them for the older models of iPhone as well.

iSee You And iHear You

iHave recently purchased an iPad for use in travelling and am undergoing instructions from my daughter in its operation. iAm not quite the dinosaur she thinks me, and have been able to switch it on and off quite unaided. You just whack it on the edge of the table and it goes off.

For those of you who are also on the road and are using the iPhone we have a number of Røde accessories that might assist you.

1. iGrip - this is a metal bracket that grips the iPhone securely and lets you hand hold it or attach it to a standard tripod. This means you can record sound without picking up shuffling fingers.

2. iGrip and lenses  - here is the iGrip with additional supplementary lenses to fit the iPhone. more options for camera reportage.

3. SC2 patch cable to let your iPhone take the audio from your DSLR camera.

None of these will help me attach my new iPad to my Linhof Kardan E monorail camera but I am going to ask Ernest to make a special fitting. He's good with engineering solutions.

iCan look forward to his response.