FREEFLY Systems Alta #1 picked up by MRF own Steve Maller
- Thread starter SleepyC
- Start date
SamaraMedia
Active Member
+1 Awesome Steve!
Pumpkinguy
Member
looks like steve has a new hat.
stevemaller
Heavy Lifter
Amazing machine, and truly flattered and humbled by this cool little film they made. Very talented folks up there!
My ALTA is flying beautifully...taking it slowly here so that I am truly familiar with its personality. But I will say that this is by far the best-integrated and designed multi-rotor I've ever seen, much less flown. And the portability is just amazing. I flew back to the SF Bay Area from Seattle with the ALTA checked as baggage on Southwest, and it came through just fine. Ironically I had a Taranis transmitter in another Pelican case (thought I was going to use it with the ALTA but have since changed my mind) and the Taranis was jostled enough to break off two of the 3-way switches in the baggage handling process.
Kudos to Freefly!
Stay tuned...off to a wedding in Napa today and the ALTA was a special request by the bride and groom (and their 4 sons).
My ALTA is flying beautifully...taking it slowly here so that I am truly familiar with its personality. But I will say that this is by far the best-integrated and designed multi-rotor I've ever seen, much less flown. And the portability is just amazing. I flew back to the SF Bay Area from Seattle with the ALTA checked as baggage on Southwest, and it came through just fine. Ironically I had a Taranis transmitter in another Pelican case (thought I was going to use it with the ALTA but have since changed my mind) and the Taranis was jostled enough to break off two of the 3-way switches in the baggage handling process.
Kudos to Freefly!
Stay tuned...off to a wedding in Napa today and the ALTA was a special request by the bride and groom (and their 4 sons).
stevemaller
Heavy Lifter
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
Amazing machine, and truly flattered and humbled by this cool little film they made. Very talented folks up there!
My ALTA is flying beautifully...taking it slowly here so that I am truly familiar with its personality. But I will say that this is by far the best-integrated and designed multi-rotor I've ever seen, much less flown. And the portability is just amazing. I flew back to the SF Bay Area from Seattle with the ALTA checked as baggage on Southwest, and it came through just fine. Ironically I had a Taranis transmitter in another Pelican case (thought I was going to use it with the ALTA but have since changed my mind) and the Taranis was jostled enough to break off two of the 3-way switches in the baggage handling process.
Kudos to Freefly!
Stay tuned...off to a wedding in Napa today and the ALTA was a special request by the bride and groom (and their 4 sons).
Here's an idea for a new MultiRotorForums.com web-series....."Living the Droneam, With Your Host, Steve Maller"
Drone+Dream=Droneam........in case some of you guys didn't catch that little gem of wittyness.
Very happy for you Steve, please share and then share some more....we're living vicariously through you at the moment!
stevemaller
Heavy Lifter
Love it! I'm gonna have to get one o' them fancy Hollywood agents now.
stevemaller
Heavy Lifter
Here's a "real" piece I did yesterday with the ALTA at a wedding...
stevemaller
Heavy Lifter
I'll have to snap some tomorrow.
Basically, the copter is separated into two assemblies: the hub/arms/motors, and the center core. The center core contains the battery tray and the MōVI mounting. It also spans the top and bottom of the copter through a large opening in the center of the copter. The core sits on six silicon ring-based vibration isolators. This way the gimbal is not only isolated from all the power systems, but it's counter-balanced by the batteries. A little difficult to visualize, but it's ingenious.
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
Steve,
When Freefly released the Mōvi there were features that were new to gimbals showing that Freefly really understood the camera operators' needs as much as the need for the footage to be stable.
Have they introduced any new features to the ALTA's flight control system that we haven't seen yet in other systems?
you've got me and Sleepy paying attention, if no one else!
When Freefly released the Mōvi there were features that were new to gimbals showing that Freefly really understood the camera operators' needs as much as the need for the footage to be stable.
Have they introduced any new features to the ALTA's flight control system that we haven't seen yet in other systems?
you've got me and Sleepy paying attention, if no one else!
Giovanni59
Member
Oh, I'm paying attention! I'm into this technology for about 3 1/2 years now and it's been a real roller coaster. I have been flying Andrews excellent Hexacrafters, two 800mm and one 1100mm. I have been getting very good footage from a 3-axis alex mos gimbal that Hexacrafter manufactured but it just wasn't quite there yet and like Zenmuse if is designed for a specific camera. I wanted to upgrade to larger cameras so I bit the bullet and bought a Movi M10.
Initial flights with the M10 on the HC 1100 were very good and even completed one job with my Sony Nex 7. Noticed slight vibrations/micro shakes and sometimes even the jello effect. I immediately bought the full cage upgrade and while getting ready for the next job I did some tests with a G4 and the shakes were worse, not larger but more frequent. OK, time to check my vibration isolation, made some adjustments to it and the M10 and I thought I had it licked.
We did about 7 flights and upon reviewing the footage the micro vibrations are in about 60% of the footage. I and my client were devastated. On top of that upon landing from the last flight I must have been experiencing a motor failure because it started spinning and descending rapidly, crashed into a tree.
This was not my first crash and I am not one to give up so easily but it was then and there I decided I have had it with this technology. I have about $20,000 invested in all this and although I have paid for that equipment I am barely in the black. Thank God my architectural photography business is doing so well. I was deciding that I would give up on the aerial video and concentrate only on aerial stills. I love my Photohigher gimbal (thanks again Bart).
But after a few days I am thinking "you know you love this business and technology, the excitement of getting incredible footage and even all the challenges." If I continue with aerial video I think the only way is with the Alta, and only if it pans out to be the excellent UAV it is touted to be.
So, Steve, I will be paying close attention to your venture with the Alta. I just hope it turns out to be reliable. So far we all can see that it is integrated to work beautifully with the Movi, which is to be expected so that will solve my vibrations issues and most importantly for the first time I can be using a system entirely manufactured by one company. That is huge to be able to have that. I am so tired of having failures and never really finding out what went wrong.
Sorry for such a long rant.
Frustrated in Florida
John
Initial flights with the M10 on the HC 1100 were very good and even completed one job with my Sony Nex 7. Noticed slight vibrations/micro shakes and sometimes even the jello effect. I immediately bought the full cage upgrade and while getting ready for the next job I did some tests with a G4 and the shakes were worse, not larger but more frequent. OK, time to check my vibration isolation, made some adjustments to it and the M10 and I thought I had it licked.
We did about 7 flights and upon reviewing the footage the micro vibrations are in about 60% of the footage. I and my client were devastated. On top of that upon landing from the last flight I must have been experiencing a motor failure because it started spinning and descending rapidly, crashed into a tree.
This was not my first crash and I am not one to give up so easily but it was then and there I decided I have had it with this technology. I have about $20,000 invested in all this and although I have paid for that equipment I am barely in the black. Thank God my architectural photography business is doing so well. I was deciding that I would give up on the aerial video and concentrate only on aerial stills. I love my Photohigher gimbal (thanks again Bart).
But after a few days I am thinking "you know you love this business and technology, the excitement of getting incredible footage and even all the challenges." If I continue with aerial video I think the only way is with the Alta, and only if it pans out to be the excellent UAV it is touted to be.
So, Steve, I will be paying close attention to your venture with the Alta. I just hope it turns out to be reliable. So far we all can see that it is integrated to work beautifully with the Movi, which is to be expected so that will solve my vibrations issues and most importantly for the first time I can be using a system entirely manufactured by one company. That is huge to be able to have that. I am so tired of having failures and never really finding out what went wrong.
Sorry for such a long rant.
Frustrated in Florida
John
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
jfro
Aerial Fun
Got my attention too although more than likely, I will never be able to spend that much as I'm trying to stay retired and do this for a hobby... Even though it's an expensive hobby....
I've been flying a x8 3515's 22 pounder with a naza which I find flies pretty good. I also have some quads and an hex with larger motors using different flight controllers including XAircraft and Pixhawk. I thought I had them all dialed in reasonable well for filming (gh3, gh4, and occasionally a 5d mark ii) until I started flying an Inspire. My others feel a little clunky compared to the Inspire, not terrible, but not as smooth.
I would guess that if I ever got to fly an Alta properly set up, I'd find it to be smoother for filming than what I have and as smooth as the Inspire experience.
I too am wondering if the flight controller is leaps and bounds above the others in regards to filming...
I am also wondering where all the pro's have disappeared to on this forum? Most of the peeps I learned from in last 3 years seem to not be here anymore......
SamaraMedia
Active Member
I felt the same way but then I realized they're probably too busy now making a living, the same as some of us would like to, or not, be doing. Following some on Instagram when they get chance to post something it's usually from a location shoot. Happy for them all as the hard work they endured is paying off.
I don't feel totally left out as there are still a dozen or so that I follow here that are more than capable of pointing me in the right direction. MRF still best place for reliable info, IMHO...
I don't feel totally left out as there are still a dozen or so that I follow here that are more than capable of pointing me in the right direction. MRF still best place for reliable info, IMHO...
SamaraMedia
Active Member
Just saw the most recent post from FreeFly Systems on Instagram and saw a tilted horizon. Not sure if the rig that shot the footage of the approaching Alta was another Alta or a ground camera not leveled. I was a little surprised by that but I will reserve judgement until I see more
footage.
footage.
Bartman
Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
i refer you back to post #14
http://multirotorforums.com/threads...mrf-own-steve-maller.26980/page-2#post-211277
stevemaller
Heavy Lifter
Here's what I can say regarding what the big leap is with the ALTA: it's the full-machine integration and testing, including the MōVI. Everything is designed, tested and built together. The SYNAPSE flight controller does have some features like velocity clamping that are likely to end up being copied by DJI and others, but it's much more than that. It's also a very tough bird, and I'm assured by the Freefly folks that they've experienced numerous crashes that have taught them how to make a stronger, more forgiving machine.
But I really need lots more time with it to "become one" with mine. I am not under any illusion that this system will fly itself. But I'm confident that I can invest my time in flying it, not tinkering with it. That's a whole new thing for me.
But I really need lots more time with it to "become one" with mine. I am not under any illusion that this system will fly itself. But I'm confident that I can invest my time in flying it, not tinkering with it. That's a whole new thing for me.
Giovanni59
Member
Steve, that is exactly my contention. I am hoping that there are no issues because if I am going to continue in this business I would need to go in this direction. An analogy would be if I showed up at an architectural shoot with a camera where the shutter was made by one company, the sensor by another, the circuitry by another and all those things were shipped to me and then I installed them all in a camera body that I bought and built by another manufacturer, threw on a lens and started using the camera. And if something didn't work quite right who do I call? Ultimately it is my responsibility. Yes, DJI pretty much builds all their UAVs and are integrated to work with their Zenmuse but they are no Freefly Systems.
I have no problem with the price, I think it is fair.
I have no problem with the price, I think it is fair.