Is this a dumb idea?

[G Randy Brown]

I just ordered a Insta360 One X2 which is waterproof up to 33 feet.
I'm thinking about buying these floats and tethering the camera to my MA2 with about 10 feet of fishing line to get some underwater shots out in a lake...has anyone tried it or is it just a bad idea?
Thanks,
Randy

 

[GadgetGuy]

I just ordered a Insta360 One X2 which is waterproof up to 33 feet.
I'm thinking about buying these floats and tethering the camera to my MA2 with about 10 feet of fishing line to get some underwater shots out in a lake...has anyone tried it or is it just a bad idea?
Thanks,
Randy

Try it, and let us know how it works!

 

[Jet skier]

I just ordered a Insta360 One X2 which is waterproof up to 33 feet.
I'm thinking about buying these floats and tethering the camera to my MA2 with about 10 feet of fishing line to get some underwater shots out in a lake...has anyone tried it or is it just a bad idea?
Thanks,
Randy

I would have never thought of that but it sounds very interesting I would do it , you will probably need to attach a Weight a foot or so below the camera

 

[G Randy Brown]

Oh good, so maybe not a bad idea at all!
Jet skier, would the weight be to make sure the camera sinks?

 

[Cymruflyer]

You may well get splashes of water up onto your camera and ingested into the air intakes of the drone. Plus, if the camera under the water gets snagged on something submerged, how are you going to get your costly investment back to shore?

 

[Jet skier]

Oh good, so maybe not a bad idea at all!
Jet skier, would the weight be to make sure the camera sinks?

The wait is to help keep the whole line and camera vertical. You will still have to move the drone rather slowly to keep everything vertical and like the other guy said try to avoid weeds

 

[Jet skier]

It might be wise to invest in one of those release gadgets for your drone in case I camera or weight did get caught on weeds you could release the line to save the drone and then go swimming to recover the camera

 

[G Randy Brown]

You may well get splashes of water up onto your camera and ingested into the air intakes of the drone. Plus, if the camera under the water gets snagged on something submerged, how are you going to get your costly investment back to shore?

Thank you, these are the kind of points I was hoping to be brought up to help determine if it would be worth the risk or not.

You may well get splashes of water up onto your camera and ingested into the air intakes of the drone.

How could that happen if the camera is 10 feet away from the MA2?

Plus, if the camera under the water gets snagged on something submerged, how are you going to get your costly investment back to shore?

The lake(s) I plan on doing this in are deep and clear up to several feet.
I doubt that I would need to lower the camera more than a foot or 2 and I would be monitoring what the camera sees via an app on my phone.

Again, I appreciate anyone's challenging scenarios...I thought maybe it would be a bad idea because I've never seen it done before but that it also might be worth the risk and enable capturing some interesting footage.
My biggest concern I've come up with thus far is if the MA2 takes a dive for whatever reason if it was far off shore...how would I fish it out of the lake without a boat (I can swim but really wouldn't want to be in that predicament).
That said, I know people fly over water all the time and they seem to all agree that it's safe as long as you don't fly too close to the water...I'd like to think 10 feet is enuf.

 

[G Randy Brown]

The wait is to help keep the whole line and camera vertical. You will still have to move the drone rather slowly to keep everything vertical and like the other guy said try to avoid weeds

The camera weighs 5.3 oz...I would think if I go slow (ie 1 mph or less) it would stay vertical?

 

[G Randy Brown]

It might be wise to invest in one of those release gadgets for your drone in case I camera or weight did get caught on weeds you could release the line to save the drone and then go swimming to recover the camera

If it ever did get hung up on something, rather than release/lose the camera I think I would land the drone (using the floats I was going to buy) and find a way to get out to save them both.

 

[Jet skier]

Thank you, these are the kind of points I was hoping to be brought up to help determine if it would be worth the risk or not.

You may well get splashes of water up onto your camera and ingested into the air intakes of the drone.

How could that happen if the camera is 10 feet away from the MA2?

Plus, if the camera under the water gets snagged on something submerged, how are you going to get your costly investment back to shore?

The lake(s) I plan on doing this in are deep and clear up to several feet.
I doubt that I would need to lower the camera more than a foot or 2 and I would be monitoring what the camera sees via an app on my phone.

Again, I appreciate anyone's challenging scenarios...I thought maybe it would be a bad idea because I've never seen it done before but that it also might be worth the risk and enable capturing some interesting footage.
My biggest concern I've come up with thus far is if the MA2 takes a dive for whatever reason if it was far off shore...how would I fish it out of the lake without a boat (I can swim but really wouldn't want to be in that predicament).
That said, I know people fly over water all the time and they seem to all agree that it's safe as long as you don't fly too close to the water...I'd like to think 10 feet is enuf.

I fly over water all the time there’s really not much risk unless you are skimming very low over the water at a high rate of speed the drone can dip up and down a little bit that’s pretty dangerous but flying the drone slowly 10 feet or higher over the water no problem but I would probably invest in that release gadget unless you’re positive there’s no weeds to snack on

 

[Jet skier]

The camera weighs 5.3 oz...I would think if I go slow (ie 1 mph or less)
You might have to experiment a little bit maybe just a small weight would be adequate or no weight at all

 

[Cymruflyer]

Thank you, these are the kind of points I was hoping to be brought up to help determine if it would be worth the risk or not.

You may well get splashes of water up onto your camera and ingested into the air intakes of the drone.

How could that happen if the camera is 10 feet away from the MA2?

Plus, if the camera under the water gets snagged on something submerged, how are you going to get your costly investment back to shore?

The lake(s) I plan on doing this in are deep and clear up to several feet.
I doubt that I would need to lower the camera more than a foot or 2 and I would be monitoring what the camera sees via an app on my phone.

Again, I appreciate anyone's challenging scenarios...I thought maybe it would be a bad idea because I've never seen it done before but that it also might be worth the risk and enable capturing some interesting footage.
My biggest concern I've come up with thus far is if the MA2 takes a dive for whatever reason if it was far off shore...how would I fish it out of the lake without a boat (I can swim but really wouldn't want to be in that predicament).
That said, I know people fly over water all the time and they seem to all agree that it's safe as long as you don't fly too close to the water...I'd like to think 10 feet is enuf.

Ahhh... in your first post you did not state that you intended to fly the drone. I saw the floats and assumed you were going to try and taxi on water to pull the camera. If you were flying there would be no chance of water splashing on the camera or ingesting through air intakes.

With that said, I think you are about to throw a tone of hard earned money into that lake. Try dragging that camera under the water with a piece of string, along a boat dock. The camera will spin around plus as soon as you move forward, the camera will just move up to the surface and bounce around there, due to the drag of its size through the water. Adding a weight will help, as long as you are dragging very slowly. With that said, how are you going to A.) lift all that weight and B.) be sure you can fly slow enough to stop the camera moving to the surface from the resistance/drag that will affect it, as you move the drone forward.

Another thing to consider is the large amount of drag of the total weight plus the water resistance as you move forward with something submerged, as it affects the flying characteristics of the drone and affects the added loading on the motors. Worst case scenario, you lose the whole lot and you are out all that money. Best case scenario, you spend a tiny bit of money to rent a kayak and tow the camera along as you paddle forward, with your drone safely at home, to fly another day. In my mind, it is simply not worth the risk, when you can just tow it with a row boat or kayak.

One last thing here, you said you would be monitoring what your submerged camera is seeing on your phone. So what are you using to fly the drone to see what is happening on the surface? So if I have this correct, you are going to use just two arms and one set of eyes, to both fly the drone, watch the drone itself, plus hold another phone and watch the 360 camera on that and control the drone using the controller, ALL AT THE SAME TIME???? Good luck with doing all that. Right now you have a drone and money in the bank. Soon you wont have a drone or the camera you wish to buy and there will be no money in the bank. Rent that Kayak and save a ton of money.

 

[G Randy Brown]

I fly over water all the time there’s really not much risk unless you are skimming very low over the water at a high rate of speed the drone can dip up and down a little bit that’s pretty dangerous but flying the drone slowly 10 feet or higher over the water no problem but I would probably invest in that release gadget unless you’re positive there’s no weeds to snack on

"but I would probably invest in that release gadget unless you’re positive there’s no weeds to snack on"

I would be monitoring/looking str8 down with MA2 to see what is below the surface before lowering (if the water is not clear enuf to see a few feet down I wouldn't want that footage anyway).
The reason I rejected the release gadget is I wouldn't want to lose the $400 camera and according to my logic I wouldn't need to if I could simply land the MA2 on the water and retrieve (somehow) later.
Actually the lakes I'm thinking about shooting, I probably wouldn't need to venture out more than 10 to 20 feet from the shore so worse case scenario I would be getting wet...not fun in a cold alpine lake but doable I think.

 

[Jet skier]

You could put a fluorescent colored float attached to the line above the camera if you were here released the line the camera would be floating visibly. Just make sure you have the drone insured which you probably do anyway I know the Mavic two theories can comfortably pull up to 3/4 pound I’m not sure what the air to load capacity is I would look that up sounds like fun to me if I lived on a lake I would do it but to each his own. Make sure everything is insured that’s what insurance is for

 

[Jet skier]

I’m not sure I would trust the floats on the drone I’ve seen too many YouTube videos it ended up badly

 

[G Randy Brown]

Ahhh... in your first post you did not state that you intended to fly the drone. I saw the floats and assumed you were going to try and taxi on water to pull the camera. If you were flying there would be no chance of water splashing on the camera or ingesting through air intakes.

With that said, I think you are about to throw a tone of hard earned money into that lake. Try dragging that camera under the water with a piece of string, along a boat dock. The camera will spin around plus as soon as you move forward, the camera will just move up to the surface and bounce around there, due to the drag of its size through the water. Adding a weight will help, as long as you are dragging very slowly. With that said, how are you going to A.) lift all that weight and B.) be sure you can fly slow enough to stop the camera moving to the surface from the resistance/drag that will affect it, as you move the drone forward.

Another thing to consider is the large amount of drag of the total weight plus the water resistance as you move forward with something submerged, as it affects the flying characteristics of the drone and affects the added loading on the motors. Worst case scenario, you lose the whole lot and you are out all that money. Best case scenario, you spend a tiny bit of money to rent a kayak and tow the camera along as you paddle forward, with your drone safely at home, to fly another day. In my mind, it is simply not worth the risk, when you can just tow it with a row boat or kayak.

One last thing here, you said you would be monitoring what your submerged camera is seeing on your phone. So what are you using to fly the drone to see what is happening on the surface? So if I have this correct, you are going to use just two arms and one set of eyes, to both fly the drone, watch the drone itself, plus hold another phone and watch the 360 camera on that and control the drone using the controller, ALL AT THE SAME TIME???? Good luck with doing all that. Right now you have a drone and money in the bank. Soon you wont have a drone or the camera you wish to buy and there will be no money in the bank. Rent that Kayak and save a ton of money.

Of course the camera would spin around a lot if I tried to drag/tow it thru the water but I don't plan on dragging it thru the water...I'm talking about lowering the camera str8 down, give it time to quit moving and record for a couple of minutes (long enuf to give me time to choose my angles in post) and then move to another spot and repeat.
Regarding monitoring, I have 3 devices I can use (2 phones and a 10" tablet) that I wouldn't be holding onto...they would be laying on a music stand I bought specifically for the tablet (with a Hoodman) enabling me to hold only the controller while sitting in a camping chair (very comfortably).

 

[G Randy Brown]

I’m not sure I would trust the floats on the drone I’ve seen too many YouTube videos it ended up badly

I would definitely do some testing before flying out over a lake...and yes the MA2 is insured for $1000 thru State Farm ($60 year) even if it's stolen and not recoverable.

 

[G Randy Brown]

Any arguments here?
As I mentioned, the weight of the camera is 5.3 oz or 151 grams and the float device is 161 grams totaling 211 grams plus whatever this gadget without the bolt weighs (to tie the fishing line to).
A google search shows a cargo weight for the MA2 is 500g so I would think that's not an issue I should be concerned with?
Thanks and I hope yall will throw any more what if scenarios at me if u think of one as I really don't want to lose my drone or the camera ?

 

[KB9Radio]

I just ordered a Insta360 One X2 which is waterproof up to 33 feet.
I'm thinking about buying these floats and tethering the camera to my MA2 with about 10 feet of fishing line to get some underwater shots out in a lake...has anyone tried it or is it just a bad idea?
Thanks,
Randy

Sounds like an interesting idea. I do have those floats, and they work pretty good. The only problem is you have to remove it every time you need to change batteries. It will keep the battery from coming out though. Mine is a M2Z so having enough power is not a problem.