solentlife

https://shop.soloshot.com/

I really like the look of this and Wife said ... Nigel - its your 60th B/day coming up ... treat yourself to it.

With shipping and tripod etc. $545 ....

Great thinks I ... and I click on the buttons ... enter address ..... put Credit card number .... FAILED transaction.

I try 6 different cards ... yes I have a lot of them !! NOTHING WORKS ... one says wrong match .. another says street and Postcode mismatch ... another says transaction declined ...

I want it but cannot pay !!

I have sent a mail to them and now wait to see reply.

This camera set-up will solve the videoing of my models totally !

Nigel

firemanbill

I've got one. Used it once.

seemed like a good idea at the time... Not a bad product, I just never use it.

solentlife

Is that the Soloshot2 ?

The site says the Soloshot3 is not available till Spring 2016 ...

My want is for a system that I can set up and then have model centred throughout the flight in video. I can also walk around and not worry about hatcam angle / orientation ...

Nigel

firemanbill

Yeah I have the soloshot2, got it with the sony camcorder and connectivity cables. It works and tracks really well. I just don't get out enough to use it I suppose. Maybe I will more next spring when I am able to fly more. I was pretty busy all summer this year getting moved into the new house and didn't get out very often.

formontoya

The wife said OK...life does not get much better than that!

I've drooled over them as well but do not personally see the need since it's just me that looks at the vast majority of anything plane related that I would capture. On the other hand...if we had kids it would be great...put the "tag" on little Jimmy and the camera would follow his every move.

solentlife

Would be really great IF they would accept my credit card or if they accepted PayPal ....

Nigel

firemanbill

probably one of THE mst frustrating things to me. Good luck, hope it works out for ya!

solentlife

Finally sorted the payment .... the US bank they use like many others refused foreign transaction from 'certain' countries ....

This is not unusual ... a vendor sets a site payment with Worldwide accepted, but fails to check the list ... various countries need extra authorization.

Anyway - ordered and now I wait !

What I would like now is a manual to read while waiting ... and to know how it will auto-zoom while filming.

Now we wait till Spring for a review !

Nigel

JetPlaneFlyer

Looks like an amazing gizmo!.. Looking forward to some high quality video productions!

solentlife

Its one of the major points ... to get good quality and also make sure model is centred on frame.

There's also the Club Meetings where you go walk-about. Set this up and off you go ... general meeting video that EVEN INCLUDES YOU !!

Other models : Have a guy who really flies well in the Club ? Get him to put the Tag in his model ... perfect video of his flight for him and the Club.

Now there is one aspect that I thought of and might just work ... Get a big model that can carry the weight. Fit the base and camera to the model. Put the Tag where you want in the meeting / group / ground ... the camera will then pan / tilt to video from the air ... mmmmmmmmmmm

Any other ideas ?

I'm hoping that because it says it's fast tilt / pan ... that I can actually use the camera set-up on a boat that tends to rock and pitch while filming.

I must say getting rid of the 'swing left / right / left' annoying bit of headcams is a bonus ! We all do it. Line up for take-off, look left / right / up / down ... and of course its quick so camera makes it look terrible ! But this one won't have that ... so should be a better overall video.

Nigel

JetPlaneFlyer

I'm generally surprised how well my headcam videos come out, the main issue I have is the lack of zoom. Clearly though this Soloshot gizmo is lightyears ahead of any head cam in every aspect.

If I'd not just blown all my pocket money and already cashed in my Christmas and birthday 'vouchers' on a new 770 size heli.... I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Presumably you can pre set how closely you want to frame the subject, then the camera automatically adjusts zoom for distance?

solentlife

I've asked the questions and waiting answers ... but of course being xmas ...

I could not refuse the Wife ... SWMBO ..... she said Buy It ... what could I do ?

nigel

solentlife

Well ... winters coming to end ... spring round the corner ... so I'm getting itchy towards the time I can get my hands on the SS3 ....

BUT ... I go online to ask about delivery - as originally it said early Spring. Now it says late spring or later and that people who ordered later will wait....

Not too happy with this. I don't know if I'm an early or later order'er ... so when do I get my gear ?

I appreciate they wanted pre-payment to complete development and production - but now ?

I just hope that its worth the wait ...

Nigel

birdDog

That thing looks amazing. I am looking forward to your future productions! I am concerned that we may miss your narration/commentary during the flight though. Keep this in mind!

solentlife

Thank you ... I always thought I sound a bit daft !
I try to give info in the video and also in the text box - so others thinking of the same model get something ..

Commentary can always be dubbed on .. but of course it loses that 'spontaneity' as when in flight etc.
I have thought about having my usual camera still used. That way I get a soundtrack I can overlay on the SS3 recording. But I will need to sort that 'interference sound' I get quite often. I think its when the card gets used too often and erased ...
I may think about a digi-voice recorder.

Nigel

pizzano

"As soon as I start to watch a video and its 'Fisheye / Wide angle' ... I stop it ... to me I cannot watch them, I absolutely detest FE / WA view.

And to be honest - 99.999% of flights vid are boring and that includes my own. So I wont spend such money on a camera.....

My main reason to video flights is actually not for YouTube. I video so I can analyse the flight for faults / reasons for crash / improve the model. YouTube and letting others see them is a secondary function. So camera necessary to do this is not so important and an 808 will do fine.

Nigel"

And I'm sure all of those SS3 RC vid's you're looking forward to making will be for analysis and instructional representation purposes only.......since they will lack any entertainment value to the viewer..................................and "the 'throne' one is comfortably seated upon is best served at eye level with one's constituents"..lol..............................at least the quality of such (vid) should be magnificent.......!

solentlife

Hey P .... why do you do it ? You think it funny or a joke ?

I'm going to refrain from being 'un-nice' on WF ...

You post the same on the Runcam thread ... with silly sarcastic remarks.

To put it politely go back and read the 3 points over there which are no "save Sensei" but genuine reply to anothers more acceptable and less sarcastic post.

You miss the point in this thread as well that WIFE actually said buy it when she saw me looking at it.

Well done P ... you've trodden in it again.

Nigel

JetPlaneFlyer

Hi Nigel,

I'm looking forward to hearing your review on the SS3, it does look good... BUT, as is often the case with these pre-orders it looks like they were very 'optimistic' on their claimed early spring delivery date. The web site is now saying 'Summer 2016' (so that could be as late as August). I wonder if that just applies to new pre-orders or has the date slipped for existing orders too?

solentlife

No idea really ... I went through their FAQ and news snippets and as I understood ... early pre-orders have priority and they advise later pre-orders will ship in summer.

For over $500 spent BEFORE availability ... I'm not too happy about it. It's not the money - its the lack of communication on it that annoys me at present. I get impression this is a 'cottage' industry set-up and not a full blown manufacturer set-up.

I went through significant delays on the Smartieparts boards - but that guy was straight up and clear with regular updates on situation. But SS3 ? They say they update us ... but in fact they don't. Any info online is sketchy and non-committal.

Our Club already has bookings for Fete's / Shows coming in for 2016 and the SS3 was to be an important tool in these .. looks like it's not going to happen as originally promised.

Cheers JPF ... as soon as I have the gear ... I will post up a review ...

Nigel

solentlife

LATE SUMMER delivery now !!!!!!

I am really unhappy about this and they don't seem to think its at all bad.

They palm us of with example videos of Golden Gate bridge shot with the SS3 as they claim ... SO WHY DO I want to see THEIR video's when its MINE I want to see ?

Optimistic ? They really screwed up on their time-line. As I read it now - it doesn't matter whether you were an early Pre-Order or not - no-one is getting a unit till late summer AND THEN they are talking about update software to flash the units with after that !!

Its a bloody shambles.

SS3 ... you are p******g me off with your tales of 'tuning the systems' and adding more to delivery delays ...

Nigel

solentlife

Now I am really getting annoyed ...

I check out the audio side of this apparatus and it uses a non-standard 2.5mm Jack plug if you want to use your own microphone / audio input.

So I thinks ... no problem ... just needs an adaptor to swap sizes.

I have an excellent remote wireless microphone which I want to use for this ... I can have the SS3 setup away from me ... the wireless mic with me while I fly ... it has headband mic or lapel clip type ...
The problem is the Rx side has a standard 6.3mm jack as used by most of the recording industry !

Can I find an adaptor from 2.5 male to 6.3 female ? No.

So I thought 2.5 male to 3.5mm to 6.3 ... UGH ... its doing my head in !!

But whatever fits will need to be a cable so the camera unit can pan / tilt etc without the Rx unit on it ... so a shortish cable is needed. Ideally a 2.5mm plug with about 0.5m cable to a 6.3mm socket. All stereo of course.

I've looked over ebay ... and will later check out local electronic shops ...

Nigel

Wildflyer

Dang Nigel, I may have just thrown away an earphone for an old cell phone I had, that had a 2.5mm plug, It had a 4 conductor plug, if I can find it I'll let you know, and send it to you if you want it.

Shouldn't be too hard to put a 6.3mm socket on it.

solentlife

I've managed to find a heath Robinson lash up to sort it.

6.35 to 3.5 adaptor.
3.5 to 3.5 cable
3.5 to 2.5 adaptor.

Seems an awful way to do it - but there are no 2.5 to 6.35 adaptors.

Tks for the thought WF.

If SS3 had a 3.5 jack like most gear - would have been much better.

Nigel

JetPlaneFlyer

2.5MM MINI STEREO PLUG TO 6.35MM-6.3MM-1/4 JACK ADAPTER

solentlife

Blimey ... I looked for ages .. drove myself nuts trying to find one ...

There is one problem though ... I need a length of cable between the ends !! I cannot hang the Rx on the camera ... MAYBE ...

I will order one anyway and see if it works ..

Cheers JPF ... I owe you another beer !

Nigel