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Any tips for shooting from a Cessna plane?
I will be shooting from a Cessna top winged plane window next week. No budget for giro, any tips for low budget stabilization for Cannon 7D. My plan is to use a inflated rubber ball to cushion the jitter from the plane and shoot downwind. Heard of bungees doing the trick.
Would appreciate any experience and pointers on the matter. I have to do a shot of a woman that will be on a field on the ground so probably will need 0 70mm lens or more to get in close but that meen more vibration in the shot.
Many thanks.
filmmaking-editing-dop-dad
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29 Replies
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70mm lens or 700mm? Your typo makes it difficult for me to understand.
I do have to ask your decision making process for what I would consider an impractical shot. My first instinct, if there are resources near you, would be to pay to rent an RC camera helicopter and pay an operator. There are many small radio controlled helicopters that can handle the weight of a dSLR and afford you very dynamic shots.
I don’t think filming with a 70mm lens would be terribly difficult for very short amounts of time (I’ve done 5-10 second shots hanging out the side of a chase car at 80mph, and I don’t think a plain is much bumpier), what concerns me is that Cessna prop planes need to go about 90mph to stay safely aloft, and a 70mm lens would put you dangerously close to the ground.
If you meant a 700mm lens.. you’re basically using a long lens with a doubler. The image quality goes down considerably, and most people will recommend a gyro head even on a tripod on the ground for lenses over 400-500mm for best performance.
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[Angelo Lorenzo] “Cessna prop planes need to go about 90mph to stay safely aloft,”
Well, you can actually go about half that fast (it’s going to depend on the model), but I wouldn’t recommend going quite that slow. Something like a little C150 or 152 has a pretty low stall speed, about 45 knots per hour… although you’d certainly want to be flying a bit faster than that unless you had a fair bit of altitude in case you did stall so there was plenty of room between you and the ground to recover. I’ve flown Cessenas that stalled even a bit slower than that, flaps down… it just depends on the airplane, every one is a bit different. Jump up to a Cessena 210 and the stall speed is about 55 knots, I think (I personally have never been behind the yoke of a 210, but I think those are the specs). A C172 is somewhere in the middle.
One of the issues would be is altitude and focal length. I don’t know how close your close-up shot of this woman has to be, but it might be pretty tricky. Firstly, that would seem to dictate a long lens, but of course the wider your lens the smoother this shot is going to be. I personally wouldn’t try that shot with anything longer than about 35mm, and would even prefer 28mm. 18mm could be pretty steady, with practice… but then again that’s pretty darn wide. The other thing as I said, is altitude… and how close you are able to get to your subject. It somewhat depends on your terrain, location, and the willingness of your pilot to do it (which might involve skirting some rules). Technically he or she should not be flying you any lower than 500 feet above ground level at any point in the flight…. except of course at takeoff and landing. If you’re out in the sticks somewhere and not near any controlled airspace they might be willing to do it… I sure wouldn’t recommend it though at anything near stall speed.
Let us know how it goes.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The Cessna is the wrong plane for this; you want an open-cockpit ultralight 2-seater. Some googling will find you a club nearby.
If the Cessna is all you have, don’t touch the plexi at all. You will only add vibration. Stay wide and have the plane do the camera moves. The windows don’t offer much down-angle for a long-lensed camera. A helicopter is really more ideal for this work because you can take the door off and shoot hand-held from the back seat with a great view, and the chopper can get you a much better position at any speed.
I agree that an RC helicopter or quadcopter slinging a go pro would be good as well. Other options include a balloon or even a large kite with an RC-controlled camera platform on it. All depends on the shot and your budget.
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It seams to me that successfully making the shot as described would be close to impossible. . . even under the most experienced hands. 1) Under a slow-flite configuration (full flaps, hanging on the prop, battling a wind currents, aircraft stability) the air speed will be too high to have any controlled dramatic flow to the scene. 2) The wing strut on a Cessna high wing airplane will be right in the middle of your view. You will have a highly restricted area through which to shoot. 3) A 70mm focal length lens would be virtually impossible to hold steady. 4) Repeat takes won’t improve the situation.
Suggestion: Hire a helicopter with a gyro door mount for a repeatable, stable platform. Or a long crane, use a wide angle lens, swing and boom down to your tight shot.
You have outlining a complex and difficult shot. I doubt that you will be able to find a pilot who is interested in attempting the low level maneuver that would be required, plus the shooting obstacles are most difficult to deal with.
Good luck,
Ken -
You can pop off the door of a Cessna, too, but the flight characteristics and shooting obstacles make it a poor choice as a shooting platform.
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A Piper Cub would be better than the Cessna, for that matter.
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Yea, but you can only shoot at about 4 o’clock from a Cub if you are careful not to get the elevator in the shot . . . the prop, landing gear and strut preclude shooting forward or down much, though you can open a fairly wide door.
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Most Pipers have double wing struts, those those are double the obstructions of the Cessnea.
I certainly wouldn’t take the doors off of either… the Cessnea will buffet like crazy if you do that. They’ll sometimes buffet pretty badly with just the windows open at low altitude.
I agree with everyone else that this is just the wrong tool for the job… but was going on the assumption that you HAVE to use the Cessnea and HAVE to use the DSLR before suggesting anything else.
A helicopter with a Tyler mount would generally be considered the “right” way to do this, or a remote controlled quad-copter… but sometimes the right way to do things are out of reach. I’m not sure this is the solution, though.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Something like this:
https://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=469159
Is what you use if you don’t want a copter.
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It would seem to me that if the budget precludes a stable platform One should consider re-writing the treatment. Maybe shoot from the ground, from the top of a windmill or water tower, or big step ladder. It just most likely won’t work from a fixed wing aircraft . . . but you might have fun trying.
Ken
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