Flying is perhaps one of mankind's oldest dreams. I mean, just think about Icarus and his desire to reach for the heavens or all of those pioneers of aviation, many of them having sacrificed their lives in order for us to be able to travel safely (and quite rapidly) to far away destinations. But that's not the subject of our next tale. No, what we'll talk about as follows is aerial photography and two very passionate people who've turned the love for flying, gadgets and photography into an actual business.

So, the tale will start as all tales do, with...”Once upon a time.” Once upon a time (in fact, just a couple of weeks ago), in a galaxy far, far away, I had the chance of attending a press event organized by Panasonic and dedicated to the launch of some of the Japanese company's latest digital cameras and camcorders on the local market.

Besides the cameras themselves and some fierce karting, I also had the chance of witnessing first-hand some very interesting applications of Panasonic’s technology, namely some people who'd decided to adopt the company's tech and put it to good work in all sorts of different areas. And perhaps the most interesting of all these applications is the one demonstrated by the guys from Skycam, who have attached a Panasonic camera (and/or camcorder) to an unmanned aerial vehicle (also known as UAV, for short) in order to obtain high-quality photos from above.

The whole rig (which you can see in the photos), complete with the Panasonic Lumix DMX-LX3 camera, used for taking shots, was in fact extremely impressive, and it convinced me to look deeper into the subject of aerial photography, as offered by Skycam.

In fact, I was able to find out some pretty cool things. And I'm not only talking here about the actual aspect of the photos (which is absolutely fantastic), but about the technologies used in the process.

In order to obtain those low and medium altitude shots, Skycam uses a UAV powered by an electrical battery (in other words, no emission, everything's green). Of course, there are some limitations to the use of such a vehicle, including wind conditions (zero or a maximum wind speed of around 15 Km/h), no rainfall or snowfall, and temperatures between -5 and 30 Celsius degrees (if you really want to get some high-end photos, that is). Also, the overall safety level of the respective area is very important, since the UAV must have a safe place from where to take off and land.

Speaking of the vehicle, it's interesting to mention that, when fully equipped, it weighs around 4 kilos and can go as high as 300 meters. However, most of the photos are taken somewhere in the 15 up to 60 meter range.

After taking a closer look at Skycam's technology and seeing some of the things that can be done with the flying rig mentioned above, I decided to talk to the guys themselves, and interviewed Mr. Gabriel Maliscki, the photographer of the team, who was kind enough to answer on behalf of Skycam to some questions regarding what drove them to tackle this particular field.

Softpedia Gadgets: Why aerial photography? What drove you to try this area, of all?

Skycam Team: Ever since the beginning of his very existence, man has looked up to the skies, was fascinated by flying and dreamed to have the freedom enjoyed by birds, perhaps even imitate their flight. I found out on the Internet that the first ever aerial photo was taken back in 1858, and from that moment on, mankind has been absolutely fascinated with this new perspective on objects, people, etc.

Looking from above, things tend to get a whole new dimension, a new and very attractive perspective. We're coming to the aid of pretty much everyone out there, making the access to this whole dimension a lot easier.

Softpedia Gadgets: What made you decide to tackle such a difficult segment, especially on the Romanian market, which is a bit... traditionalist and difficult to penetrate?

Skycam Team: It all started back in 2006, at the aeromodelism runway in Chitila (a small suburb of Romania's capital Bucharest), where I met my colleague, Laurentiu (the second member of the Skycam team). After several meetings and flights, we came up with the idea of taping a camera phone capable of recording video to the model plane with scotch tape, and we were so thrilled with the results that we started searching the Internet for ideas and specific equipment required for this brand new type of... hobby (that's what it was back then).

However, things got very complicated, very fast, as we managed to get ourselves some complete FPV systems, featuring OSD and GPS, as well as LCD glasses. The FPV system works in the following way: a video camera with 480-550 lines of resolution fitted onto a plane sent the video signal to an OSD (On-Screen Display), used for overlaying text onto the image. The text consisted of telemetry data sent from the on-board GPS, such as the altitude, speed, distance from the ground, distance to the Home point, space orientation, battery voltage, etc. From here, the video signal was sent in real time to the ground station, via the emitter fitted onto the plane as well.

On the ground, the video receiver forwarded the video signal to a pair of LCD glasses, used for viewing live the image sent from the “cockpit.” It was like a video game, only that you could feel everything on a whole different scale, a more vivid one, as if your were actually up there.

Anyway, after reaching this level and getting some inspiration from other parts of the world (especially the United States), we decided that it would be sort of a good idea to start this kind of business in Romania as well, especially given the fact that it was virtually unknown here. In 2007, when we actually established the business, there were only a handful of aerial photos being made, mostly from life-size airplanes and helicopters or hot-air/helium balloons, and there weren't probably any UAVs out there.

Softpedia Gadgets: What kind of a reception did you enjoy on the market?

Skycam Team: For the time being, this market segment is fairly undeveloped locally. This type of business is not yet quite well-known, but our customers are really fascinated by this “flying gadget.” Some of these people probably consider these helicopters fitted with photo/video equipment to be nothing more than simple toys, but I assure you that this is not the case. These helicopters can have propeller blade diameters of up to 140 cm and a weight of up to 6 or 7 kilos. So, I assure you, these are no toys.

Softpedia Gadgets: What made you choose Panasonic as equipment provider for aerial photos?

Skycam Team: After trying out all sorts of products and brands from the photo segment, we finally settled for the Panasonic Lumix DMX-LX3. This compact digital camera targeted mostly DSLR users who were looking for a device to accompany/accessorize their SLR equipment. To put it simply, what the LX3 has to offer are exactly the features we were looking for.

Softpedia Gadgets: What type of video equipment do you use?

Skycam Team: For aerial video recording, we're using a compact HD digital video camera, the Panasonic HDC-SD9. We also use the GoPro Hero HD, which is employed around the world for small-size UAVs, due mostly to its very small dimensions.

Softpedia Gadgets: Is the UAV you're currently using your own design or did you purchase it?

Skycam Team: Basically, the UAV is a radio-controlled helicopter, which we've modified for aerial photography, in order to meet our specific needs: the landing gear is customized, we've added quite a lot of vibration dampening elements, and we've also tinkered with the photo/video camera rig, which is now gyro-stabilized on 2 axes (pan & tilt) and can rotate at 360 degrees on both axes. So, to make things easier to understand, when there's serious wind and the UAV moves in all directions, the camera's support remains in a fixed position, which is extremely helpful during the aerial photo shooting session, because we don't “lose” the subject.



Softpedia Gadgets: What are your thoughts on the evolution of this particular market segment?

Skycam Team: Due to the current unfortunate economic situation, people are not that ready and willing to adopt such a solution, probably thinking that prices for such an aerial photo/video recording session are pretty high. But that's really far from the truth, since prices are actually very low, compared to conventional aerial photography sessions, where a full-scale plane (complete with a pilot) and a photographer are required. And we really hope that this type of business will receive more attention from the press and people alike, because, let's face it, it's something really “addictive.”

All I can say is that I wish the guys the best of luck, and I really hope I'll get to see more of their demos in the future.