Man allegedly shoots down neighbor’s drone with shotgun

[Howard 538]

By this do you mean that the camera is small compared to the lens? A 600mm lens is about $12,000.00 so I would expect nice pictures.

Yup, a 600mm lens is large and expensive, but only if it is a prime not a zoom.  I've got a fairly cheap 150-500mm lens (well cheap by lens standards).

[PeteF 1,044]

Now you are changing the story, you said it was up for an hour.  Anyway, so what if they are taking pictures from 200'?  You are concerned about this only because you saw it, if someone wanted to be nefarious there are cameras so small that you would never even know someone was taking pictures.  There are cameras that look like shirt buttons that are worn and you cannot detect.  What would you need to call police for a quad with no visible operator?  What is it that you are actually worried about?  Actually the operator would be visible as there are FAA rules that the operator must be in visual range of the craft, and most of these things have a very limited range.

 

I just find it very funny the parents that are so concerned about photos of their kids yet use their cellphones with geotagging to take pictures of their little ones and have them go right up to the cloud or social media.  Many of these people take pictures in their kids' rooms and post them providing a direct trail for a pedophile.

 

Okay my bad, was buzzing the infield for ~1/2 hour then stopped for 5 minutes and came back for another 1/2 hour.  Yep that's completely different from flying for an hour.  At 100-200 feet it was quite audible.  Players kept looking up at it.  What happens when someone gets hit with a batted ball, because they were distracted by the very loud buzzing?  Of course it won't be the drone operators fault.  Go to the field where you made your demo video, at night, see if you can fly the drone out of your view range.  At night 100yds is about all you can see.  So FAA rules really didn't apply did they? 

 

And no, no pictures of my family, make it to the Internet.

[Howard 538]

Well I would bet there are lots of pictures of members of your family on the internet, just they were taken by others. The difference between 30 minutes and an hour is huge in quad technology. It's like comparing a bike to a motorcycle, yea they both have two wheels but that is all they have in common. As for buzzing noise, well the weed wackier behind the stands makes the same noise. Since these birds typically have many lights on them you can actually see them further at night. That said there are also people with illegal guns that carry them in public. That said most quad owners are good people that will cause no harm just like most gun owners. I hope you aren't trying to take away more rights from us good drone owners just because there are some bad people.

[Oleg 8]

It is 7 something inches completely extended and way cheaper than $12k - http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonic_14_2p5_100-300_4-5p6/2

 

And you can easily go even smaller without reducing quality much with compacts that have more than 1000mm zooms and 1" sensors.

 

By this do you mean that the camera is small compared to the lens? A 600mm lens is about $12,000.00 so I would expect nice pictures.

[PeteF 1,044]

Well I would bet there are lots of pictures of members of your family on the internet, just they were taken by others. The difference between 30 minutes and an hour is huge in quad technology. It's like comparing a bike to a motorcycle, yea they both have two wheels but that is all they have in common. As for buzzing noise, well the weed wackier behind the stands makes the same noise. Since these birds typically have many lights on them you can actually see them further at night. That said there are also people with illegal guns that carry them in public. That said most quad owners are good people that will cause no harm just like most gun owners. I hope you aren't trying to take away more rights from us good drone owners just because there are some bad people.

 

No, just saying there is a time and place for everything.  Over a sporting event is not the place.  From the periphery, fine over the playing field NO.  Over someones private property is not the place.  Over a public beach, over a public gathering fine.  I would not have had a problem if the quad was over the stands or even if it was out in the outfield away from the players.  It was over the FIELD.

[Malice4you 627]

It is 7 something inches completely extended and way cheaper than $12k - http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonic_14_2p5_100-300_4-5p6/2

 

And you can easily go even smaller without reducing quality much with compacts that have more than 1000mm zooms and 1" sensors.

That's still a just a 300mm lens that the field of view is being cropped to what that of a 600mm lens would be on a film camera...and those hyperzoom compacts are not typically over 100mm...

 

 

 

 

I have taken some shots at 4,500+ feet using a true 800mm lens, or even 1120mm/1600mm (with a teleconverter), which are detailed enough to identify individuals or get a license plate number.  I've taken shots from 3 miles away which are clear enough to identify car models.  And these were a number of years ago with an 8.2MP camera body...  At these kinds of distances, the subject will never know they are being photographed...  Guess it's a good thing I don't do bad things with my cameras and lenses...

 

Point and shoot cameras, terrible as they may be, can have significant zoom ranges, are very inconspicuous, and would do the job for short to medium ranges.  Hell, some can even be mounted to a telescope, if you want some real reach.

 

Cell phones have cameras and video capabilities, and there are plenty of spy apps out there that can take stills, video, audio - completely inconspicuously.  When's the last time you paid any real attention to someone with a cell phone?

 

Google Glass.  Spy cameras.  Hidden cameras.  Trail cameras.  Drones.  Need I go on?  There are so many types of inexpensive ways to capture images without the subject ever knowing...  Bottom line...if someone with nefarious intentions wants a picture or video of you...they will get it. 

[Sandy 44]

You know , on this topic-there are things that you are allowed to do by law , but by doing so you join the ranks of "ignorant a$$holes"

 

Buzzing a kids ball game with your quad qualifies. As does hovering your drone over a neighbor's yard . It is distracting , obnoxious , and ignorant by definition . But , perfectly legal. People in general use to care about not being an a$$hole and had respect for each others privacy. Now , not so much.

Carry on.

[Sandy 44]

That's still a just a 300mm lens that the field of view is being cropped to what that of a 600mm lens would be on a film camera...and those hyperzoom compacts are not typically over 100mm...

No , it is a 300 mm lens , no matter what.

 

Your field of view changes depending which format of camera you put it on. The mm of the lens does not change or get cropped.

 

The only thing that makes that lens cheaper is the fact that it does not have a constant aperture.

 

It stops down as you zoom in . If you are someone who shoots in manual ( which most professionals do) it screws up your settings as you zoom in because it lets less light in and also changes your depth of field as you zoom. Very undesirable for pro photographers , but fine for the prosumer crowd ( a term invented by the Japanese to get people (usually parents) to spend more money on something that they will never learn to use properly )

 

The lens stopping down as you zoom in is usually not an issue for non photographers since they usually just have the camera on auto settings anyway and do not understand or care if the camera is totally slowing their shutter speed and/or upping the ISO significantly to compensate for the loss of light during zooming.

 

It's why most soccer moms with expensive cameras take blurry grainy pictures.

[Babyface Finster 45]

You know , on this topic-there are things that you are allowed to do by law , but by doing so you join the ranks of "ignorant a$$holes"

 

Buzzing a kids ball game with your quad qualifies. As does hovering your drone over a neighbor's yard . It is distracting , obnoxious , and ignorant by definition . But , perfectly legal. People in general use to care about not being an a$$hole and had respect for each others privacy. Now , not so much.

 

Carry on.

Well said. I can legally fire up my mower at 8am on a Saturday, but I don't. My neighbor has a newborn baby and I am capable of being considerate. It's a quality that is vanishing in this area.

 

There was a time that being an a-hole came with the very real risk of a punch in the face. That risk is largely gone thanks to a certain portion of the legal system. There's little to keep the "me me me!" segment of the general public in check. Sign of the times...

[Howard 538]

I agree most people should not fly quads over active fields, nor over active stands.  These things do fail and drop out of the sky and the vast majority of users cannot handle them in manual mode.

 

Speaking of manual mode, isn't that something used by photographers that are not able to master Aperture or Shutter speed mode    JUST KIDDING!  Sandra hit the nail on the head with the soccer moms that have cameras costing four figures that use them as point and shoot toys.  I laugh at them shooting in full auto (not even program) mode and then asking me why they can't get photos that look like mine.  Sort of like the novice shooter buying a $4,000 race gun and wondering why he still can't hit a Q target at 15 yards.

[Oleg 8]

While it is technically correct, it is not very useful in practice. "Everybody" has a point of reference to 35mm film camera lenses; even medium format lens manufactures add "Equivalent 35mm Focal Length" to specifications to make it easy to compare one to another between different formats. Of course world would be a much better place if somebody in the past thought about it for five minutes and come up with a measure that is based on size of field of view but it did not happen. Fisheye lenses would be difficult to define there though. And lenses that work for more than one format of cameras will be as hard to compare as it is now.

 

 

No , it is a 300 mm lens , no matter what.

Your field of view changes depending which format of camera you put it on. The mm of the lens does not change or get cropped.
 

[Oleg 8]

I have a different experience. I shoot in manual mode for many years and actually never even tried any other mode myself in my current batch of cameras. My kids once in a while ask to photograph something, so I switch cameras to auto mode for them. Every time I am surprised that results are near perfect even in challenging lighting scenarios. Digital cameras went a long way in this short amount of time.

 

I agree most people should not fly quads over active fields, nor over active stands.  These things do fail and drop out of the sky and the vast majority of users cannot handle them in manual mode.

 

Speaking of manual mode, isn't that something used by photographers that are not able to master Aperture or Shutter speed mode    JUST KIDDING!  Sandra hit the nail on the head with the soccer moms that have cameras costing four figures that use them as point and shoot toys.  I laugh at them shooting in full auto (not even program) mode and then asking me why they can't get photos that look like mine.  Sort of like the novice shooter buying a $4,000 race gun and wondering why he still can't hit a Q target at 15 yards.

[Sandy 44]

 "Equivalent 35mm Focal Length"

 

Right.  People tend to call lenses a different mm just because it is on a different sized sensor. Which is incorrect. We are saying the same thing , just differently. You are talking to someone who still carries a lens wheel , still uses depth of field charts , and still uses an incident light meter.  I also have to deal with so called competitors who are creating bokeh in post. Makes my teeth hurt . I get a little jerky over it sometimes. Sorry

[Howard 538]

Let's not even talk about those that tell you their P&S camera is so much better because it has a 10X zoom lens and don't get it how your 70-200 lens could be "better" as it is not even 3X

[Sandy 44]

I have a different experience. I shoot in manual mode for many years and actually never even tried any other mode myself in my current batch of cameras. My kids once in a while ask to photograph something, so I switch cameras to auto mode for them. Every time I am surprised that results are near perfect even in challenging lighting scenarios. Digital cameras went a long way in this short amount of time.

No auto mode on mine , closest Nikon puts on their pro cameras is Program . Keeps people from asking to use my camera that "takes good pictures" .Ouch.

 

 

[Howard 538]

Then there was that time at a party when the Soccer mom handed me her camera and asked me to take the group picture because I am such a good photographer.  Not knowing all the settings in her entry level Nikon Dslr I switch it from Auto to Aperture mode, raise the flash and set the compensation to -2/3rds stops and take a few pictures.  They came out like total crap.  Took me a while to figure out she had the darn auto ISO thingy turned on so even though I told the camera what I wanted to do it decided that ISO3200 would be a good thing to do  

[Sandy 44]

I shot a job at The Stone Pony once and had an engagement shoot the next morning. Had it on ISO 3200 for the concert , and that is what I still had it on the next a.m for the engagement shoot. It was bright out , but I still should have realized shutter speeds of 5,000 and up were not warranted. RE-SHOOT lol

[Celraysoda 7]

Only a matter of time when you must register your drone with the FAA and be assigned a tail number. Then Flo will offer you drone insurance.