Safari snapping BeetleCam gets stabilized (VIDEO)
posted Friday, March 14, 2014 at 1:27 PM EDT
A few years back, a pair of brothers from the UK designed a special, remote control rig for getting up close and personal with animals in the wild. Dubbed the BeetleCam, it allowed photographers to drive a set of wheels up to their subject, and not be worried about being mauled to death. Now the BeetleCam Hybrid has been announced, and thanks to a radical gyro-stabilization system, it can take smooth and stable images and video over the roughest terrain.
The Hybrid combines the stabilizing gimbal of a drone rig, with the remote control base of the original BeetleCam. The camera itself will remain steady and level across all manner of terrain, enabling photographers to get the shot even when moving over treacherous conditions. The gimbal can also be remote controlled for tilt and pan work.
The BeetleCam Hybrid has a range of 500m, and can hold cameras up to Canon 5D Mark III or Nikon D800 in size. If you want to buy one, you'll have to contact the manufacturers directly.
There are, of course, some caveats. For one, lions seem to have a particular predilection for gnawing on cameras. For another, don't disturb endangered species, it's generally a bad thing to do, and could land you in a lot of legal trouble.