Guys
First let me declare an interest; I own three Cineflex and I’m the distributor for Australasia and SE Asia. Now that we’ve got that out of the way…..
1. Southerncanuk has been incredibly helpful to me and is the guru on how to mount cameras on helicopters. If he hasn’t hung it then it probably can’t be hung.
2. Yes, a Cineflex has a snout. Yes, there has been an issue with the snout drooping in the event of a total power failure, but this is now resolved and the default parking position in that event will now be “snout up”.
3. Yes, a Cineflex has a snout….because it’s got a long lens and you can’t beat the path of light (or not since Einstein so far!). It’s my understanding (but I stand to be corrected here, or at least better informed by those who have hands-on experience) that any of the gimbal systems that don’t have a snout use a system of prime lenses that revolve into position in front of the CMOS. Thus they don’t actually zoom but instead go to pre-set steps of focal length. Apart from being rather an agricultural optical effect, this apparently results in the central focus of attention jumping to another point on the monitor during the switch over. I understand from those who’ve done it that this can make it very difficult to visually re-acquire the target you were looking at when you flicked the switch?
4. It’s my belief that the IR sensors on all three cameras are pretty much identical in capability these days. I believe all three systems mentioned have a 640 x 512 IR sensor.
5. In making an overall judgement on a surveillance package it’s worth bearing in mind that all HD cameras deal with low light conditions much more effectively than SD. So, for example, it would be normal to use the HD EO camera to read a car number plate from 2,000’ over a dimly lit urban area. IR cameras are good for searching for warm bodies in cold woods or water but they form part of a package and shouldn’t usually be assessed in isolation, other than in very specific circumstances.
6. To date I’m not aware of anybody having carried out a genuine side by side comparison of the three products. If anybody is game, and prepared to openly share the results on this forum, I will fly a Cineflex to anywhere in the world to achieve a certified head to head fly-off that we can all rely on.
I hope I haven’t broken any forum rules here. I genuinely want to know the answer to these questions from an operator’s perspective and not have to rely on the manufacturers’ blurb.
Cheers to all
JerryG