Blackmagic Forum

Greetings, I've been searching for a while and haven't find a compatible Copter for the BMCC 2.5K or the BMPC 4K. So ¿Any Copter suggestion? No matter the price, I don't have that much money, just want to know. Thanks.

Hi Rafael,

I recently look at what kind of copter can run a camera like the Bmcc and i find a guy in the south of my country ( France ) who did it with a mikrokopter hexa at 20 000$. i find another guy who do this too www.mcclic.mc you can check his pictures and see that he put a scarlet and fs700 too on copter

Best regards and be careful with copter and cameras !!!

We've been flying with RED Epic for a while now, BMCC should be ok too. All custom built hardware and pilot has been flying for 15+ years.

http://londonhelicam.co.uk

Hi Dharmeone,

Very inspirationial showreel! Congratulations. Where did you get the music from?
Images and music are awesome. Good luck for future projects!

You won't get any ready to fly solutions. They will probably also weigh more than 7 kgs, which is more or less the maximum un-certificedoperators can fly legally within EU.

Try kopterworx.com for hardware.

(our aerial page -> https://www.facebook.com/filmcopters )

AndiDieMaus wrote:Hi Dharmeone,

Very inspirationial showreel! Congratulations. Where did you get the music from?
Images and music are awesome. Good luck for future projects!

Thanks for your kind words Andi!

The music is Steve Reich. The footage is mainly adverts and feature films, we've got a lot of new stuff we've shot all over the planet, will try to update the reel soon.

dharmaone wrote:

AndiDieMaus wrote:Hi Dharmeone,

Very inspirationial showreel! Congratulations. Where did you get the music from?
Images and music are awesome. Good luck for future projects!

Thanks for your kind words Andi!

The music is Steve Reich. The footage is mainly adverts and feature films, we've got a lot of new stuff we've shot all over the planet, will try to update the reel soon.

I agree with AndiDieMaus, very good aerial pictures, great job !

When i look some videos on French tv with aerial footage, i think they can put only 5dmarkii with rolling shutter and ugly stabilisation effect on post-production so its nice to see Great Cinema Cameras flying like this.
Come in France, we want fly !!!

Best.

I fly quads and aircraft with cameras on them and have for a couple years now. There are plenty of multi-rotors that can carry DSLRs. Usually they have 6 or 8 motors on them. You can buy them for anywhere from $1400 US, to $20000+ US. You can make one for about $500 or less. I made mine, which is much smaller to carry a gopro, for less than $200.

c131frdave wrote:I fly quads and aircraft with cameras on them and have for a couple years now. There are plenty of multi-rotors that can carry DSLRs. Usually they have 6 or 8 motors on them. You can buy them for anywhere from $1400 US, to $20000+ US. You can make one for about $500 or less. I made mine, which is much smaller to carry a gopro, for less than $200.

Sure, a lot of them "can" carry an slr, but the question if it can carry it safely and still have that 2:1-3:1 power to weight ratio that is needed for flying in gusty wind, emergencies or if motor/prop fails on an octo/hex. Safety is crucial with these machines, and I really hope that people will live to their responsibilities when flying the aerial platforms.

Mapas wrote:I agree with AndiDieMaus, very good aerial pictures, great job !

When i look some videos on French tv with aerial footage, i think they can put only 5dmarkii with rolling shutter and ugly stabilisation effect on post-production so its nice to see Great Cinema Cameras flying like this.
Come in France, we want fly !!!

Best.

Thank you Mapas!

We do international shoots all the time - if you have some contacts who are interested feel free to pass our website on, would be awesome to shoot in France, you have some stunning landscapes!

christiangruner wrote:

c131frdave wrote:I fly quads and aircraft with cameras on them and have for a couple years now. There are plenty of multi-rotors that can carry DSLRs. Usually they have 6 or 8 motors on them. You can buy them for anywhere from $1400 US, to $20000+ US. You can make one for about $500 or less. I made mine, which is much smaller to carry a gopro, for less than $200.

Sure, a lot of them "can" carry an slr, but the question if it can carry it safely and still have that 2:1-3:1 power to weight ratio that is needed for flying in gusty wind, emergencies or if motor/prop fails on an octo/hex. Safety is crucial with these machines, and I really hope that people will live to their responsibilities when flying the aerial platforms.

You must be a seller of multirotors. I guarantee you I could build a multirotor that would have 4:1 lift to weight, auto-stabilization, and a gyro stabilized gimbal for the camera under $1000. Electronics are cheap, and gyros are ridiculously cheap. The gyro chip used in a $1000 stabilization board is the same gyro you get from Mouser for $4...

c131frdave wrote:

christiangruner wrote:

c131frdave wrote:I fly quads and aircraft with cameras on them and have for a couple years now. There are plenty of multi-rotors that can carry DSLRs. Usually they have 6 or 8 motors on them. You can buy them for anywhere from $1400 US, to $20000+ US. You can make one for about $500 or less. I made mine, which is much smaller to carry a gopro, for less than $200.

Sure, a lot of them "can" carry an slr, but the question if it can carry it safely and still have that 2:1-3:1 power to weight ratio that is needed for flying in gusty wind, emergencies or if motor/prop fails on an octo/hex. Safety is crucial with these machines, and I really hope that people will live to their responsibilities when flying the aerial platforms.

You must be a seller of multirotors. I guarantee you I could build a multirotor that would have 4:1 lift to weight, auto-stabilization, and a gyro stabilized gimbal for the camera under $1000. Electronics are cheap, and gyros are ridiculously cheap. The gyro chip used in a $1000 stabilization board is the same gyro you get from Mouser for $4...

I'm not a seller, I'm flying these things
And no, you cannot build a MR for 1000 usd capable of lifting a stabilized BMCC with a 2:1 ratio. Yes, you can buy cheap stuff for frames, motors, esc and so on, but the quality is way too low, prone to failure and vibrations.
But would really like to see what solution you would suggest under 1000 usd You'd need some serious discounts somewhere..

Thanks for the answers every one, really interesting comments. I hope there are more comments to come. I find this topic interesting for the Forum, no one has ever asked a good copter option for the BMCC, lets try not to mention DSLR's, they are a very differents game due their size, weight and subject of the question. Thanks again.

¿Any more comments out there?

I do aerial filming too and have been using BMPCC a lot lately. I disagree you can build machine for bmpcc as low as $500, even if most cheapest crappy parts were used. You can probably lift it to air for couple of minutes in calm weather but filming with it is not going to happen.

To carry BMPCC with a decent lens safely and reasonable flight times you need around 6-8kg AUW capable hexa or octo. I also prefer 3:1/2:1 thrust ratio for strong gusty weather and also brushless gimbal needs to be oversized if tend to shoot any other conditions than calm. When you have a shooting it's rarely ideal conditions, couple of days ago i had a shooting and forecast showed 17-18m/s gusts, fortunately it wasn't that bad, only around 10m/s.. But you can forget $200 so called "SLR" rubbish gimbals, it's not going to do the job.

My smaller machine 800mm hexa is flying around 13-14min with one flight pack carrying BMPCC, and my Octos are flying 15min with 2 batteries with bmpcc and 8min with Scarlet and canon 17-40mm/4. I would say minimum price for parts of bare copter and gimbal is around $4000-5000 if you build all by yourself. Plus you need batteries, chargers, radios, tools, second and third spare copter, second gimbal, garage, van....

Here's some more info and pics:
https://www.facebook.com/madeinsky.fi
www.madeinsky.fi

I have a Cinestar8 octocopter from Freefly systems (see link below on my facebook page). It was a ready-to-fly system when I picked it up but it is only reccommended to lift 5lbs. I tried a lumix on it and it worked well but i'm still very scared to mount my BMCC on it, for now I'm only going to stick with 5DMKII. The complete rig cost about $11,000 and it has a stabilized gimbal.

https://www.facebook.com/EquaStudios

I am still editing a client's footage, I would have posted it but there's test flight on my page

KariY wrote:I do aerial filming too and have been using BMPCC a lot lately. I disagree you can build machine for bmpcc as low as $500, even if most cheapest crappy parts were used. You can probably lift it to air for couple of minutes in calm weather but filming with it is not going to happen.

To carry BMPCC with a decent lens safely and reasonable flight times you need around 6-8kg AUW capable hexa or octo. I also prefer 3:1/2:1 thrust ratio for strong gusty weather and also brushless gimbal needs to be oversized if tend to shoot any other conditions than calm. When you have a shooting it's rarely ideal conditions, couple of days ago i had a shooting and forecast showed 17-18m/s gusts, fortunately it wasn't that bad, only around 10m/s.. But you can forget $200 so called "SLR" rubbish gimbals, it's not going to do the job.

My smaller machine 800mm hexa is flying around 13-14min with one flight pack carrying BMPCC, and my Octos are flying 15min with 2 batteries with bmpcc and 8min with Scarlet and canon 17-40mm/4. I would say minimum price for parts of bare copter and gimbal is around $4000-5000 if you build all by yourself. Plus you need batteries, chargers, radios, tools, second and third spare copter, second gimbal, garage, van....

Here's some more info and pics:
https://www.facebook.com/madeinsky.fi
http://www.madeinsky.fi

Agree, there is no way a Copter on that cost, I wonder what he was writing about.

emdy wrote:I have a Cinestar8 octocopter from Freefly systems (see link below on my facebook page). It was a ready-to-fly system when I picked it up but it is only reccommended to lift 5lbs. I tried a lumix on it and it worked well but i'm still very scared to mount my BMCC on it, for now I'm only going to stick with 5DMKII. The complete rig cost about $11,000 and it has a stabilized gimbal.

https://www.facebook.com/EquaStudios

I am still editing a client's footage, I would have posted it but there's test flight on my page

¿Cinestar8 Huh? Amazing stuff indeed ¿Any other good Copter or brand who can stand to it?

Hi my name is Antonio I have what your looking for and it won't bust the bank open I have (and can) build you a octocopter like mine that will carry a BMCC as I have one to. For under 3K if you want to see my HV lifter shot over to my you tub Chanel it's
AWCINEMA.

Now that said my frien I would not recomand you put such an expensive camera in the air a lot can happen and it has happen to me OUCH$$$

I would recomand you fly the pocket camera and enjoy the money rolling in

Who am I ? I have 5 years of flying radio control drones or UAV'S 25 years of racing Rc cars I help beta test for DJI inovations and fly 3 phantoms- 1-F450 and 2-F550 S-800 and the new EVO S-800 and 2 Ironman1000 octocopter.

I can tell you I didn't crash 10,000 times! I just found out 9,999 ways why not to carry expensive cameras in the air!

AW CINEMA wrote:Hi my name is Antonio I have what your looking for and it won't bust the bank open I have (and can) build you a octocopter like mine that will carry a BMCC as I have one to. For under 3K if you want to see my HV lifter shot over to my you tub Chanel it's
AWCINEMA.

Now that said my frien I would not recomand you put such an expensive camera in the air a lot can happen and it has happen to me OUCH$$$

I would recomand you fly the pocket camera and enjoy the money rolling in

Who am I ? I have 5 years of flying radio control drones or UAV'S 25 years of racing Rc cars I help beta test for DJI inovations and fly 3 phantoms- 1-F450 and 2-F550 S-800 and the new EVO S-800 and 2 Ironman1000 octocopter.

I can tell you I didn't crash 10,000 times! I just found out 9,999 ways why not to carry expensive cameras in the air!

To be honest, yes, I have been thinking the same, it's better to fly the BMPCC than the BMCC.

I have yet to see any aerial with the bmcc, I just brought one home tonight though! I'll have it in the air in a few weeks. I'm going to go look for some in the meantime.

This music video is pretty good with a lot of aerials done. Entire thing was filmed with BMCC:

Go to vimeo and search "Walk On" music video shot entirely on BMCC with many Aerials. All 2.5k RAW