A few years ago, U.K. wildlife photographer William Burrard-Lucas started building a series of remote controlled DSLR camera vehicles as a DIY project. Named the BeetleCam, it’s now better protected, has space for a GoPro, and is a commercially available product.
Continuing to improve on his ideas and invent new ways to observe wildlife, Burrard-Lucas developed a gyro-stabilized BeetleBot and a BeetleCopter, which filmed the above scenes (updated video) in the Serengeti, though they’re working on a quieter version. A note for sensitive kiddos: half of a fresh kill shown at 2m14s.
Below, a project update that shows all of his “camtraptions.”
And look! Lion cubs stealing cameras! Here’s one of the early teaser videos for an early version of the BeetleCam:
In the archives: more Africa and so much nature.
via spectrum.ieee.org.
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