I'm learning (a bit)

MedicineMan4004 · Oct 17, 2017

Had my first real serious crash but didn't loose the Spark in the river! Recovered it on the bank after watching it fly into a boulder and bounce off onto another boulder. It was still running and sending video feed to the Ipad. Got home, tried to fly and all works fine=video, camera, gimbal, controls, etc.
So the Spark is one tough little drone.

Now on learning the camera.
This shot of the falls was 'extracted' from video.
I pulled the video into Photoshop, harvested 30 images from the video file.
Stacked 20 of the 30 for the final TIFF. Popped the tiff into Luminar for some color pop,
back into Photoshop to denoise the water a bit.

You guys might be more critical but I don't think this is bad at all from a sensor the size of
a pinky nail.

Back to the crash. All was good and suddenly the drone started flying at high speed straight at the falls.
All I could do in my panick was pull the stick and the drone to the left where it crashed.

Since I'm loving droning I must now turn my attention to flight logs and deciphering them.
I did notice on the I-pad 'compass error' near the top of the screen just after the crash, maybe it was
there while flying but I didn't notice.
The crash was yesterday.

Also,both these shots, my lake, and the waterfall werein Manual camera mode.

Here's a shot of where I live taken today, house hidden in the trees across the lake.

Lastrexking · Oct 20, 2017

Good thinking on stacking to make it look like a long exposure.
I was wondering if the Spark was stable enough for long exposure with a decent nd filter, but this might be better.

Sparkster · Oct 20, 2017

Beautiful pictures! I crashed my Sparkster too. I was flying in sports mode up and down our long driveway and when I stopped it, it floated a bit to
recover from the stop and crashed into the side of my car. Agreed it is solidly built. One of my Sparksters bottom lens covers popped off. I was able to pop it back on and its as good as new.

MedicineMan4004 · Oct 20, 2017

Thanks Lastrex and Sparkster.
Lastrex....not a long exposure though, I extracted images from the vid then stacked. But it is really stable thats for sure.
Sparkster I seriously thought mine was dead, but like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps going.
I've studied my crash, had a big droner friend study.....I was deep deep in the gorge....didn't have enough satellites, etc. And at my level
probably foolish/lucky to survive flying over water.
Many lessons learned.
Thank both of you again for your comments.
Robert