A local company puts on a significant Christmas light display at their factory grounds.
mstc and I took a ride there yesterday and flew some packs through the displays. Quite a fun place to fly and the first time that either of us flew at true night.
This is my first video on my new runcam thumb 4k.

So this is like the best video I've seen in a while, in a cine type style. Trippy as FK, but very good visually. You should ask Botgrinder to review it and/or submit it to the Rotor Riot review videos thing they occasionally do. It's easily at that level. Not to mention that bit around 2:00 when you start flying in and around the tree. I think Bot would really get off on that.

You have a serious set for flying in the dark in such close proximity, this assumes you aren't using the WS camera/VTX that uses something akin to light amplication techniques when rendering. I think it's the Pro version of the last batch, also the most expensive one, but for quality night flying, probably worth it's weight/cost. If this was done with analog, I salute you. Last time I flew in the dark i couldn't see enough for it to be safe.

I would rep you more than once, but it doesn't allow that.

Also quick tip, if you unfk/unmangle the link, ie, remove the youtu.be bit and just copy the full link when you play it, it will let people see the video without having to go to youtube.

Thanks so much for the kind words, and the correction on the link!
This hobby has opened up so much for me and I've truly enjoyed my time in so far. So much more to learn and practice, which keeps me coming back every day.

The rig was an hdzero crux35 which gave me really incredible visibility. It was an almost no moon night. The thumb pro is closer to what the naked eye sees, but the hdzero runcam was doing a marvelous job with the ambient light and I didn't have any problems avoiding branch snags.

Excellent job. You flew so close to the lights, I was only talking about weaving through the branches, didn't realize you actually did it. Super flying!!! Definitely have to bring the right plugs next time so I can ride along. Do you have some screenshots to give us an idea what you see with HDzero.
For the record, those trees were only partially wrapped in lights, meaning there were plenty of drone snagging branches or parts of branches hiding in the dark.

Your Thumb Pro footage also looks great, I only have crummy dvr footage. Thanks again @fpvme what a wonderful spot.

Great videos guys! I didn't know you lived in the town of Griswald.

mstc get's de-rep'd for putting Christmas music on it.

But his video is very good as well, including at least one attempt at a rewind, that impressed me.

All I don't want for Christmas is any more Christmas music.

You got saucier out there than I expected mstc, more tricks than I risked! But yes, mariah is a faux pas

I hate trying to post pictures on this website, but I have two side by side still images of my hdz dvr vs the runcam.

Instead here is some raw dvr footage from the hdzero goggles of flying through the trees.

I felt really confident out there with the image, but a lot of that is of course owed to the ambient light all around.

@Pathfinder where's your Christmas spirit 

@Drumgod I believe the Griswolds are in your part of town... send us some footage please

@fpvme not sure your fpv feed was any clearer, but you definitely did a much better job navigating in the dark... and that is not Mariah...

Happy holiday everyone!

I wonder where the small nuclear reactor is at that place, that powers all those lights.

Someone called me the Grinch the other year and were even more shocked when I said "and?". It's just one of those parts of the year i find pointless, Easter being the other one. If I'm lucky it will be dry on Christmas day and I can go out and find somewhere to fly for an hour.

Haha, guess my Christmas music ID skills need some work.

Ordered that hdmi mini to hdmi mini cord, so hopefully next time we fly we can run the tablet screen.

@pathfinder when you have young kids or work in the retail sector, Christmas takes on a different meaning. We used to make goods for a department store in the US and were told something ridiculous like 90% of their annual sales are done in the Christmas month, the rest of the year they are just shelling out hundreds of millions in operating expenses waiting for Christmas. And they are one of the few still operating profitably...  
And I still remember the day my son learned Santa wasn't real, the heart dropping disappointment and his guilty parents had perpetuated a lie... 

@fpvme yeah and I need to figure out why the WS goggles didn't connect up, last time I think I used the exact same cable/monitor and it just lit up.

Omg - those colored lights in the videos look amazing! Perfect even

There’s a park here in town that does something similar, but I don’t dare fly a quad there - tons of people each night walking thru the wonderland.

I did fly my Mini 2 around the perimeter looking in once, but did not get any of those cool shots you guys got. And the Mini 2 isn’t known for its low light capabilities.

Hmm. The golf course down the road *does* have a fairly large display along the road frontage. Nothing like that company though. I'll have to scope it out. I may be able to park in the adjacent church's lot and shoot over. I have two Crux35s running now, so I can fly the peanut cam again.

(10-Dec-2023, 05:03 PM)QuadFlyer68 Wrote: Omg - those colored lights in the videos look amazing!  Perfect even

There’s a park here in town that does something similar,  but I don’t dare fly a quad there - tons of people each night walking thru the wonderland.

I did fly my Mini 2 around the perimeter looking in once,  but did not get any of those cool shots you guys got.  And the Mini 2 isn’t known for its low light capabilities.

I was very hesitant too and told @fpvme I might only fly my Mini from a distance. Though the factory's website does explicitly ask visitors to stay in their vehicles, but of course there were some walking with their dogs and we stayed away from them. I was probably more worried about snagging a ghost branch/wire and having to ask @fpvme to get out of the car with me and search the grounds on foot in the dark.
Also my first experience flying from inside a car (parked of course), we stayed close enough I didn't notice any video degradation 

Thought the video FOV was set a little too wide for the lights, so loaded a cropped version... and replaced the music with Les Patineurs for those susceptible to Christmas tunes, although I think Samantha was a good match