A fascinating device.

Waiting at the traffic lights in San Francisco the other day, my eye was caught by this plaque so I quickly made a snap.

It turns out that AeriCam manufactures a state-of-the-art miniature helicopter which permits a movie camera or DSLR to be attached for aerial photography. It costs $12,000 ready to fly. They also manufacture a gimbal mount for an additional $2-3,000 which helps minimize vibration and the results are quite extraordinary in their smoothness and professional quality.

Results from their six bladed ‘hexacopter’ can be seen by clicking the image below.

San Francisco from the Bay Bridge. Click the image for the video.

If you can overlook the extraordinary car skills displayed by the driver, focus on the smoothness of the aerial shots. It’s not quite clear to me how one gets a video feed from the camera to the operator to permit accurate composition, but at $15,000 this device appears to be far cheaper than helicopter rental, and is available in moments to any cinematographer. The rather sparse web site refers to a ‘video transmitter’ so I assume that beams a live picture back to earth to the included ‘9″ SonyMonitor’. Bad weather? Put it back in the box and come back another day.

The recommended payload is 10lbs which will easily accommodate a big DSLR and lens. The device is GPS capable so programming locations should be easy. Order lead time is 6-8 weeks. American ingenuity at its best.