My First Person View (FPV) experience so far

[Ronnie]

Some of you may find this interesting and I've cover part of this in another thread.

For those that haven't seen that thread yet, I recently wanted to get into flying my quadcopter (aka drone) through FPV goggles. I already have the capability to see what the camera on the drone sees through my smart phone or tablet but I wanted a more immersive experience hoping that it will allow me to get better footage of the subject I am filming/recording.

Initially, I bought the "budget" FPV goggles by Walkera. $150ish with the cable which lets me play only pre-recorded videos off of my iPhone 4 or ipad 1 or 2. I could have lived with the picture quality but not the inability to see what's on the phones or tablet's screen (e.g. the FPV app I use to fly).

Wondering if I could live with the phone set up a few inches from my face I bought a cardboard set of FPV goggles from ebay. $9 including shipping. Without instructions it took me a few minutes to assemble these. I just tried them tonight, they suck! The image is clear but is sometimes divided such that the image on the right of the screen looks like it's on the left and vise versa. Also without a strap for a hat or helmet they can't be easily used for FPV. I should have passed on these entirely but the day I got a message that the following set of FPV goggles shipped was the day after I got notice that these had shipped.

Last but not least is what I finally decided to stay with. Cinemizer's by Carl Zeiss. $800ish including all adapters and cables. They project what ever is on the screen of the attached iPhone or iPad through an HDMI cable. The lenses are independently adjustable and since it is wired instead of wireless I don't have to worry about channel conflict with the heli transmitter or the wifi extender.

Here are pics of all three units on the ground and on my Son's head.

 

[Big Shasta]

LOL....the cardboard mess is hilarious.

You made quite the leap in the end. I'm looking forward to some posted video.

 

[Bruce]

Sounds like an awesome way to fly the quad copter!

 

[Ronnie]

Quick update, I only tried flying with the cinemizers 2 or 3 times and I can tell it will take a few more sessions to break some of my old rc heli habits and get comfortable flying fpv.

Everything looks bigger at first, the blades of grass visible on take off on landing look like trees.

Right now I need a spotter, the first time out I was about to land in the drive way when my son told me about the car in the driveway about 2 feet under it.

If I have time this weekend I may tow the boat to the local high school and practice filming around it.