For something completely different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7BHo66hVnk

Loved it! What a splendid place for eavesdropping! I wonder how much these things cost, how long a time can it fly, etc.

Thank you Rickster, great video! *Wow*

A friend of mine has a very simple set up that he must keep in view so he can aim it, and not to far. The high end models will fly for quite awhile, but the difficulty lies in dealing with any winds or updrafts, the more $$ you spend, the farther you can fly it. Using radio signal to send the video feed back to the controller allows one to correctly aim the heli cam and steer it when out of view. Then it starts getting expensive. But, entry level models are pretty cheap if you already have the cam. I bet pretty soon we'll see them flying along the upper reaches of High Ex etc..

I bet pretty soon we'll see them flying along the upper reaches of High Ex etc.

And near bedroom windows as well.

It wasn't me, I swear!

That was freakin' awesome!

makes me want a go pro camera!

See how far camera-in-drone technology has come.

I watched this clip on drone technology in full on NOVA last week, very impressive technologies. Consider, this is just the stuff that has been veted for the general public, imagine what the industry/gov/military are not sharing.
How about using photos of this high res for online climbing guidebooks. The beta would be limitless. Every hold, every gear placement...... no challenge at all.

Check this out. http://www.xrez.com/yose_proj/yose_deepzoom/index.html
Use the zoom controls on the left side of the screen. Zoom into the view from Lower Cathedral Rock's View of El Capitan. Continue to zoom into pitches 8-10 of The Nose below Dolt Tower, or up the route to the top of Boot Flake. And, these are old images from 2008!

i saw a drone aircraft equipped with hd camera which transmits info to your computer/device behind the register at barnes and noble on ulster ave for $ 299.00

Dronesight - a climb accomplished with no falls and without learning any "beta" for the moves involved, but where the climber has seen a Betamax video of the route in which the video was shot from angles other than those that would be seen on a ground-up onsight ascent. Distinguished from flashing a route in that the climber received no human interpretation of the route, either by receiving advice or by seeing a climber on the route.

Met the Xrez guys while hiking back to Namche Bazaar this year - they were up to some pretty cool stuff involving mounting full-frame HD SLRs to helis at Everest BC. End product will be basically 3d models of the Khumbu and other valleys - eliminating need for filming on location.

Smart guys, and supercool.

Fotovult, this photo from a Brashears team. Big panorama, hi res, photo of the Khumbu valley looking directly up glacier past Pumori to the Lhotse South Face, Everest in the back left side. If you use the control panel you can zoom in and count the members of the various guided hordes ascending the face, climbers in the Khumbu Ice Fall and if you rotate around behind the camera location you can get another close view of some type of permanent structure complex on a moraine. You can even count the tents in Base Camp. Extrordinary photo.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/Gigapans/EBC_Pumori_050112_8bit_FLAT/EBC_Pumori_050112_8bit_FLAT.html

Wow. Amazing photo. In a quick look I found about 45 climbers on the lower sections.

Pretty awesome exposure and great stitch. I looked into a gigapan rig for a job, unfortunately didn't pan out but would be a sweet toy to add to the arsenal.

These guys know their stuff, working with programming to account for exposure changes over time down to the 1000th of a second to keep an even exposure over the whole image. Some of these gigapans are thousands of images stitched, pretty wild stuff.