Re: shooting from a helicopter

With balance...a Jet Ranger should be relatively OK...it's not like you can get a way with operating a helicopter with an out-of-balance rotor for long like a car with an unbalanced tire (the engine is a turbine, so it's not like it needs to be "timed" or tuned to be smooth)

Any of us who have shot out of a piston driven helicopter like the Bell Ranger ancestor to the Jet Ranger, or these small Robinsons and Rotorways do appreciate the turbine powerplant.

I have a feeling that the camcorder's conversion from 1080 (the sensor's native res) to 720 may have contributed to the problem. You may have been better off to have the camera shoot 1080/24 and then scale down in your NLE.

There was probably some vibration...and the camcorder doesn't have much mass to dampen it, but I'd bet the reason why the 480 downconvert looks better has to do with the camcorder's ability to do a better job to 480i-keep in mind that this camera has interlace sensors...they're not the full 1920x1080 progressive Exmors in an EX1/EX3.



TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,