After 4 months and over 50 flights with my Phantom quadcopter, I decided that my aerial photography needed an improvement and I finally made the plunge into the world of FPV (first person view). Among the many challenges of aerial photography and videography with the Phantom is the difficulty in aligning the GoPro camera at the subject when the copter is far away and pointed in a different direction than the pilot who is on the ground. FPV is the name given to a wide array of electronic components that transmit a live video stream from a camera in the air to a pilot on the ground. Most often, FPV is used with video goggles that provide a completely immersive flight experience for big-time entertainment.
In my case, I wanted to be able to both fly line of sight for simplicity and reliability’s sake and be able to view the video feed to help align the camera. There are numerous small displays that can be mounted on the RC transmitter for this purpose, but they typically require a separate FPV receiver and battery that quickly add to the complexity of the system. In keeping with the Phantom’s theme of just working right out of the box, I began a search for an FPV kit with a similar philosophy and shockingly only found one vendor that met my needs—Kumba Cam.
The FPV kit arrived from Kumba Cam a little over a week ago, and within minutes of charging the batteries, the system was piping a live video feed from my GoPro to the provided 7 inch monitor that mounted on my RC transmitter. My first flights were equally successful and I have found that the system performs just as expected. At this point, I have been practicing flying with the new vantage point and am eagerly looking forward to the improvement it will make on my aerial photography.
For my full review of the Kumba Cam FPV kit, check out the video below:
Hi Pat, my name is Paolo fm Italy and found your report about Phantom and Kumba Cam very interesting. I am an aeromodeller old style ( ( building with balsa fm basic planes drawings ) but this drone technology is fascinating me. One question about the Hero2 camera which now there is a new Hero3 Black, question is : can you remote control the camera say you decide to take photos and then video ?? or do you just set the camera before the copter flight and then turn it off after landing ? and then, while the camera is taking photos can you still control the video with the Kumba Cam set up ?? thank you and waiting for your replies, best regards, Paolo fm Italy
Hi Paolo,
All of these new technologies really are amazing. Although it is possible to control the GoPro cameras from a WiFi remote, the range is not as far as the copter and the 2.4GHz wifi will interfere with the Phantom RC frequency. So the way that everyone operates the GoPro is to start video or time lapse recording before take off by pressing a button on the camera and then pressing it again after landing to stop recording. DJI is coming out with a new copter this year called the Vision that will allow you to remotely control the camera from the ground. It looks to be an interesting new upgrade to the Phantom.
Pat
Thank you so much for making my search that much easier. I’ve seen kumba Cam mentioned very favorable in other blogs but yours cinched the deal for me!
Thanks again for taking the time to review this and I appreciate the quality I’m about to receive from the Kumba guys 🙂
David
Dear Pat, thank you so much, surely I will be looking forward to see the new DJI Phantom Vision version.
Meanwhile I have one last question.: While you are flying and visioning Kumba Cam monitor through the GoPro camera lens, does the camera still records photo frames and videos ?? thank you and best regards, Paolo
Hi Thank you for review. I was looking for something like this out of box. Have you tested the range on this antennae? I am worried of it going out of line of sight and then losing video transmission and not knowing where it is to bring it back.
The kumba cam is great but the range is very disappointing. They advised of an antenna upgrade for 49.99 but not sure what the distance will gain. As is I get 200′ max before it starts breaking up.
Thanks for taking the time to create such a thorough review. I hope to purchase a Kumbacam soon.