Drones are very popular now a days and good camera system is one main feature in almost every drones.
What is the FPV Means? – FPV (First person view) As the name of it, when you using a fpv system you can watch the live video feed of the drone as a bird that watch from sky.
So flying an FPV (first person view) drone or quadcopter is an awesome experience.
I know most of you experienced that bird’s-eye view only on movies or television. Btw with this revolutionary RC Drone technology, anyone with with enough tech skills to handle a drone can now have this awesome experience.
Alight, lets get know about What is the best camera system for drone and almost every factors you’ll need to consider when choosing a FPV system for your quadcopter, hexacopter or any multicopter you have.
Use Of FPV Camera Systems
As I said earlier “FPV is the bird’s eye in sky”. Now a days most people think FPV Systems are only using to drone racing. Actually people used FPV system for many tasks. Such as –
1. Military
Before now, in the military the mainly used FPV systems for spying on enemies and inspect ground using drones.
2. Racing
After getting handy these FPV systems, Drone racing sport got popular. As a interesting sport, this drone racing has been growing around everywhere now. FPV System allows great thrilling experience to racers.
3. Search and Rescue
If you’re a reader of RC DIY DRONES, you may know drones can use for many tasks, the main reason for that is, it is unmanned. With the capability of FPV, it use for to rescue missions cuz it feeds live video to operator’s eye so he can search easily rather than looking from a monitor.
4. Inspection
Such as search and rescue missions, FPV Drones can use for inspect things from sky like a bird, easily with live feed.
5. Drone Pilot Training
With the beauty of the FPV technology, people can practice drone flying from great view.
6. Agriculture
Drones are using agricultural tasks such as flying above fields and check heath of crops or feed the crops easily with FPV technology.
How to Choose a FPV Camera ?
Choosing a good FPV Camera isn’t a big deal if you familiar with camera equipments. Also there’re some key factors to consider when selecting best FPV camera.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Best FPV Camera
Imaging Sensor :
The main role of CCD (charge-coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) sensors is convert light signals into electrical signals. So the quality of the images are mainly depend on these sensors. So when you choosing FPV camera read the camera details and search little bit about its sensor model.
Form Factor :
There are main 4 types of FPV cameras depending on size and mounting holes that help to mount the camera to the frame.
Standard
Mini
Micro
Nano
When you choosing correct form, you may have to consider your drone’s frame type and size.
Aspect Ratio :
Aspect ratio means the size of the image being displayed on your monitor or screen. There are main 2 formats one is 16×9 and other is 4×3. Simply 16×9 more wider and shorter and 4×3 more shorter and taller (see the image). Most FPV pilots are prefer 4×3 format is better than 16×9 cuz when flying taller range is more important.
Latency :
There are small delay when processing the image and output the live feed. So there are FPV Cameras on the market with many latency values also prices may vary on that. When flying lower the latency (delay) is better.
Field of View :
Field of view (FOV) is the area of record by the FPV camera, these range mainly depend on lens size of the camera. Shorter the lens of the camera gives wider FOV and longer lens gives smaller. So more FOV is essential to FPV camera.
Wide Dynamic Ranging (WDR) :
WDR is short for wide dynamic range, this technology use for balance the whites and blacks on the image, with the camera without WDR, is not quality cuz if you flying a cloudy day images could be more darker and if a sunny day images could be over exposed.
So make sure when choosing best FPV camera system for drone, it enables WDR feature.
On Screen Display (OSD) :
When this use for smaller drones or quadcopters On screen display isn’t important thing because most of informations of the drone such as battery level are giver by drone flight controller. Also OSD FPV Cameras are more weighted than standard camera.
Low Light Performance :
Cameras working good in low light situations are best FPV cameras, cuz when low lighting conditions, flying is little bit difficult,So when you choosing a Best FPV camera make sure it performs well in low light conditions.
Voltage :
Power is most important part when its coming to flight time of a drone, so there are FPV cameras working on various input voltages. Most new FPV cameras supports 3.3v to 35v range.
CONCLUSION
Today we talked about What is FPV camera system , uses and key factors to consider when choosing best FPV camera system for drone. FPV is also a awesome experience and now a days FPV racing is a growing sport. I hope you got good knowledge of FPV cameras. Thanks for reading. Peace.
