Category Archives: Aerial Photos & Videos

Aerial Photos & Videos

Video: Leistkamm

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Hiking in Switzerland is great, but it’s even more fun if you bring you quadcopter! Enjoy this great video that I recorded along the hike from Arvenbühl up to the Leistkamm. Music Credits: Phase IV (lo-fi is sci-fi) / CC BY 3.0

For filming I used my stock Phantom quadcopter with a GoPro Hero3. The hike itself starts in Arvenbüel (1273 m) and takes about 2h40 to climb up to  Leistkamm (2101 m) and another 2h to get down again. The view along the hike is very rewarding, especially on top where you are standing on a small rim. To the west is Lake Walensee, to the south you are looking along the Churfisten rim, of which Leistkamm is the most Northern one.
Phantom and backpack on top of Leistkamm in Switzerland.
Phantom and backpack on top of Leistkamm in Switzerland.
During the hike, I strapped the Phantom outside onto my backpack. Batteries and remote went inside. All in all it’s still pretty light and I can definitely recommend taking the Phantom with you all the time! So, stay tuned for more great videos from FPVblog.com
Aerial Photos & Videos

How To: Slowmo GoPro videos in iMovie 11

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Today I would like to describe a workflow for natively handling high-frame rate videos with iMovie 11. I use this workflow to create super smooth slow motion scenes from 60fps or 120fps footage recorded with the GoPro. The following method uses iMovie 11 only with original videos straight from the camera. No additional software, plugins or other video pre-processing is needed. The trick is:

Import the videos straight from the camera or sd-card into iMovie 11 through the “Import from Camera…” dialogue.

In the next dialogue I then select Optimize video in Full – Original Size. The import takes quite some time, as the videos are transcoded while being imported. Once finished, the videos can be added to projects (such as 30fps NTSC). Without any additional transcoding the “Slow Motion” settings of the clip use the higher frame rate to make super smooth videos. Example slowdowns are 50% with a 60fps clip or even 25% on a 120fps clip.

iMovies' Import from Camera dialogue preserves high frame rate (60 / 120fps) from the GoPro without additional transcoding.
iMovies’ Import from Camera dialogue preserves the high frame rate (60 / 120fps) from the GoPro without additional transcoding.

Important: Any other import method will not work properly. The higher frame-rate will be lost if you add the exact same file through the general “Import” function or through the iPhoto library. This must be a bug or accidental feature of iMovie, depending on how you look at it. Have fun!