Blog Posts
Phantom 3 Professional: Polar Pro Polarizing FIlter
Drone

Phantom 3: Testing PolarPro Filters

Phantom 3: Polar Pro Filters Polarizing and Neutral Density Filters One of the things that annoys the crap out of me about the Phantom 3 Professional is that it comes with only a UV filter to protect the lens. The photos it captures really suffers from the lack of a polarization filter, and in a lot of cases, neutral density filters.  Another is how difficult it can be to remove said UV filter – the aluminum deforms easily – so take care removing. Use a rubber band around the edge and turn counter-clockwise – GENTLY! I did some research on the aftermarket options, and the folks over at Polar Pro Filters just happen to have a bunch of filter options for the Phantom 3 series.  I’ve seen a few posts

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Phantom 3 White Propellers dyed blue and purple using RIT
Drone

Phantom 3: Eat Dye and Shit Colors

Things that happen with Dye and Propellers when bored I saw a post on one of the Phantom 3 forums I follow about dyeing the stock white P3 propellers different colors using RIT fabric dye. I did a couple test runs with props that were on when a hemlock jumped out and swatted my drone. The results are above – I think that the blue came out better than the purple, but the purple was the first test I did. What I figured out with the blue is: Heat water to 160° F Pour into pyrex dish Add the dye, then add more than you think you need Stir it up and lay the prop in the dye walk away – don’t fiddle with it, pull it

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DJI Phantom 3 Advanced
Drone

DJI – New Phantom Firmware

Phantom Firmware: Follow Me to the Waypoint’s Point of Interest! Engadget reports that the DJI Phantom 3 series of drones (of which I own the 3 Professional) are getting a Phantom firmware update next week (7 Sept 2015) to fill some feature gaps (!!!) that have been widely panned by owners on a number of forums, and in blogs I read before purchasing.  It was the one worry I had, but figured with DJI’s competition including the features as standard in their drones, it was only a matter of time until they pushed an update. So what was announced that will be added in next week’s Phantom firmware update? Waypoints – you will be able to set a number of waypoints for the drone to follow using

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Sunset over the Pocono Mountains at 400' - Phantom 3 Photography
Drone

More Phantom Photos – then a crash

The tree jumped out in front of me … honest officer Flying the Phantom UAV around after work, playing with the controls, got a bit more comfortable so I took it up between 350 and 400 feet and out into the forest somewhere around 500 feet. Got a couple good images, which I cleaned up in On1 Perfect Photo Suite. First one of the sun setting over the Pocono Mountains, from 400 or so feet up, and the other of the house from out over the game lands. Oh? Did I mention a crash? Yup. I got a bit cocky and was trying out flying in a circle around a 7′ pole I have in the backyard for my weather station… and as I was going

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Francis E. Walter Dam - Phantom
Drone

Phantom 3: Francis E. Walter Dam

Francis E. Walter Dam This morning, I got up and headed out to shoot some video and get some more flight time on the Phantom. Most of the parks nearby had activities going on, so I headed out to a quiet spot I ride my motorcycle to now and then for some ‘down time’ – Francis E. Walter Dam. The dam is an 1800 acre Army Corp of Engineers project with an 80 acre lake, fishing and boat launch. I didn’t take too many photos, the wind started to kick up and I didn’t want to take a chance of my drone crashing into the lake, suddenly becoming a whale … er… submarine, so after hanging out a bit, chatting with a couple guys fishing

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I took a selfie of me on my back deck with the drone
Drone

Phantom 3 Drone Selfie – “Drelfie”?

I’m lookin’ at you lookin’ at me lookin’ at you… Still learning how to fly the Phantom and control it with fine grained actions. I took the bird up to the FAA limit of 400′ above ground, and then came down in a nice tight spiral till I stopped right in front of me and snapped a quick selfie: I had been playing with the camera settings in the Phantom 3 Advanced Android and iOS apps, and had left it on HDR which did not play great with the red shirt I was wearing – it was VERY bright.. so I had to convert from RAW to JPG to post … which was done in On1 tools, so I tweaked it a bit too.. Still

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Eastern view from above the house
Drone

Phantom 3: Video up to 400′

Phantom 3 – What went up … … didn’t crash 🙂 As posted earlier, I picked up my Phantom 3 the other day, and lo’ and behold, I have a vacation day today – funny how that happens 🙂 Today, I went to try and fly at Beltzville State Park, as I found a page at the DCNR website that said there was space for flying unmanned arial vehicles (UAVs) at the park … and there is, but you first must join a private club to use the space and they gave me the contact info. While I found that odd at first, after speaking with Brian from the Beltzville Flying Machine Society I got a better handle on it – BFMS leases the space and makes sure

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Personal

Phantom 3: First Flight

First Flight @ Home So, I got a chance to take the Phantom 3 out before the sun went completely down and took a quick video from about 225 feet over the house and a bunch of photos at varying heights … Not a cinematic masterpiece by any means or stretch of the word, but hell, the damn thing didn’t fall either. The photos have not been edited, only resized for the web, the video was not modified other than fade in/out and the title. Now I need to learn to fly it more ‘smoothly’ and get some better video going [envira-gallery id=”4140″]  [youtube=https://youtu.be/KavdOIFqLpA&rel=0&w=900]

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Phantom 3 Advanced: Box Contents
Photography

Achievement unlocked: Phantom 3 Advanced

Phantom 3 Advanced: Boys and their toys … Ok, I fully admit it, I have a need for gadgets… and I just got one of the best gadgets I’ve had in a while 🙂 I picked up the Phantom 3 over at Stroud Photo in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania; a great shop and the people are amazing – helpful and they know their shit (unlike some other shops we could name). We ordered the Phantom on Monday, and today (Wednesday) I got a call that it arrived… I don’t think I’ve made the drive home faster ever (was that the sound barrier breaking that I heard?) After signing paperwork that says I wont sue DJI or Stroud if I do stupid with the drone and hurt myself or

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