D800E Meets the Lions

ChasCS

I watched this on the Canadian Discovery Chanel the other day....

Video by: ChrisMcLennan

The remote controlled 4x4 camera buggy gets up close and personal as it is stalked by this curious pride of lions in Botswana.

The "Car L" project was hatched by Chris McLennan and engineered by Carl Hansen to capture unique images of lions with a Nikon D800E, fired remotely by Chris McLennan using a trigger system built into the remote control unit.

Made possible by HP and Nikon New Zealand.

VIDEO BELOW...



Pretty awesome footage!!

paulr

Fantastic ````wonder what the Buggy cost

Msmoto

My guess is the housing and buggy would come close to $3,000 or more. But, as one only needs to have the lens opening and no external controls, I am thinking a Pelican case and $500 buggy could be put together for about $1,000…like for my D4, using a shock proof housing that could be indestructible. One of the techniques is the fixed focus at 1 meter, very short focal length, and hi ISO so as to get great DOF and shutter speeds.. Maybe even my D90 could go into one of these…..with 16-35mm…..mmmmm……

It also appeared they had more than one robot…..and the first one could be a dummy to grab the cat's attention, images with the second one. What a super idea by the boys down under.

Golf007sd

That was cool

ChasCS

Yeah, pretty cool indeed, as we witness the cats come up for a peek.
If you don't know how large is my love/respect of these giant sized cats, just glance at my avatar pic...
Not going to guess on prices for the RC buggy used in the vid, but you can buy a decent enough electric rig for a few hundred dollars.
I've only been into RC seriously for about one year myself. Although I do have one nitro monster car, the majority of my RC hobby involves flying with electric operated... My current project is my Align TRex 700E DFC HV helicopter.

There are cameras on all sorts of model helicopter's and Quadcopter's these days, they come standard on many models.
I also have a rePlay1080 HD that can be attached to any of my models.
http://replayxd.com/cameras/replay-xd1080-camera/

And gopro are also available for much cheaper than strapping an expensive D800 to your rig.
Just go to any quality RC hobby shop like Great Hobbies and have a look around.


Talk about getting up close and personal with these awesome lions, it appeared the one craft was going to be partially eaten... Smile

Msmoto

Some research on the photography rig. Aqua Tech sound blimp…about $1300 and the RC unit about $250. The protection for the camera is minimal as the sound blimp is primarily to reduce the shutter noise which it does by 90%. And, one can repair the RC car with spares fairly easily.

The concept of being so close to the animals is indeed very fetching as the interaction is simply beautiful.

sevencrossing

here is another remote camera

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12070732

Golf007sd

here is another remote camera

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12070732

X_X \:D/ )

Msmoto

I am thinking about one which will survive with the elephants. A chrome moly cage with four wheels….but strong enough so if the elephant steps on it, the camera survives. ) )

Mac_The_Knife

This one wouldn't survive an elephant, but for three hundred bucks, it's a start.
http://www.losi.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=LOSB0104T1

Photobug

Love the polar bear video. Certainly applied a lot of pressure to the case forcing it open. Cool.

ChasCS

There must be some real uncomfortable situations while doing location shoots, but this one...

http://m.dump.com/sealstent/

Trying not to laugh at this photographers plight... Hope that's a rugged brand!!