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Reuters to use robotic DSLRs for Olympics coverage

Jul 5, 2012 at 17:06:27 GMT

OTHER NEWS REUTERS

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Two photographers for international news agency Reuters are taking robotically-controlled DSLRs to the London Olympics, which starts later this month. Fabrizio Bensch and Pawel Kopczynski are rigging the cameras into fully-articulating mounts, which they will be able to control remotely by computer, using a joystick. As well as camera orientation, they will also be able to zoom the lenses attached to the cameras and - of course - trigger exposure.

In the 19th Century, Reuters pioneered the use of telegraphy in news coverage. In a blog post on reuters.com, Bensch says that he and Kopczynski have been working on this new robotic technology since 2009, with the aim of 'making impossible things possible; just like the athletes at the Olympic games'. They've already trialed the robotic rigs at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea and at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Istanbul earlier this year.

Click here to read Bensch's blog post on reuters.com

Via Petapixel

Comments

Total comments: 105

Top cameras for top news agency

0 upvotes

Just hope the robots have got permission to take pictures - otherwise they will probably get arrested by the Olympic Stasi and thrown out!

0 upvotes

coolness!
I wonder what nikon are thinking!...

1 upvote

all things could be easier with the use of newer technologies and knowledge and also with the practical use of knowledge, which is also great courage to be a traditional manufacturer to offer an innovative product of ordinary users who are accustomed to something ... the problem is that technical progress in all fields not as fast, so for example to USB 2.0, yet we will probably meet in the new cameras, etc.

0 upvotes

probably would be a great difference if the only way to deal with a data transfer rate and shoot the image would be stored in performance data and computing systems, Google or IBM instead of the SD card and then processed up here ... true, they probably now don't have a dedicated graphics processor with photographic software for processing raw data from the sensor cameras ...

0 upvotes

This is old technology..nothing new here.

2 upvotes

the sign of things to come?

".....siri, can I get 12 frames of the girl, three close ups, shallow DOF, 5 mid lengths and 4 full lengths, darkish zone IV backgrounds with a warmish tone, and slightly high contrast...heck give me a set of BW variations like Corbijn...all at 6000 pix on the shortest side. i'll have a folder of 16 bit PSDs and one as JPGs...thanks....and don't forget the pizza order before the pizza delivery closes....BTW, make sure your facial recognition is set for mysterious, sensual...".....who knows?

Comment edited 47 seconds after posting

3 upvotes

Noting beats the real thing.. capturing the moment...feeling the excitement, hearing the roar as the competitors race to the finish line, with your finger on the trigger, bursting away dozens of shots, as the roar of the crowd drowns out out the shutter sound...capturing the moments of joy, sadness, tears of the winners and losers.. no robot cam can do that. Robotics is good if you can't physically be there yourself, but nothing beats the real thing. Good luck to them but I betcha, it will be the ones with their gear waiting patiently then pouncing to get the best shots. Speaking of lenses, take notice of how many Canon lenses are used over Nikon. Doesn't that tell you something? When I was a PJ at the Beijing Olympics, I saw more white lenses than black. I asked a guy who had five Canon lenses, why is Canon so popular. His reply was short and sweet: performance and sharpness.

4 upvotes

Next thing will be inserting cameras into the balls and pucks and then attaching Hero cameras to the athleles. A few years from now all the spectators will be live-via-remote on their smart phones and the athletes will be competing in front of a hundred remote operated cameras. Pretty scary.

2 upvotes

No big deal. The REAL Next BIG thing: photos taken by Optimus Prime. Cheers! :D

6 upvotes

Saves getting through the traffic on the day I guess.

0 upvotes

Obviously you haven't yet seen the
runbots that sprint alongside Usain Bolt, And
the birdbots for overhead views, the rowbots...

Comment edited 3 times, last edit 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

I agree .... it's NOT robotic at all, and it's not a new concept. Still, it is very interesting.

5 upvotes

this is not really new, we have had quite mature technologies for this sort of functionality in the broadcast television sector for decades now ... for some examples, see:
http://www.grassvalley.com/products/hdc_robotic
http://www.youtube.com/vintenradameconair
http://www.telemetricsinc.com/about-us

2 upvotes

this technology already achieved on video cameras using jimmy jib,
just like playing with car remote controls,
even flying drone nowadays already has video live
to view from the drone positions

if they can make the cameras flying,
and can be manuever based on programmed positions,
can be regroup with several flying cameras and make a formation,
that would be interesting

remote control robot with DSLR to take pictures ?
even a flying drone already doing it

0 upvotes

We're nearly there :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdZAIt7OrPs&feature=youtu.be

There's more here :
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/07/were-so-screwed-quadricopters.php

Quite impressive stuff to be honest.

0 upvotes

The term 'robotic' assumes that the machine is able to make its own decisions and act on them, in response to human and/or environmental stimuli, doesn't it?

Judging from the text, the photographers are entirely responsible for controlling and operating the cameras.

So, what's "robotic" about a remote controlled, fully articulated camera mount?

3 upvotes

Maybe R2D2 and C3PO are controlling those cameras ?

0 upvotes

I think they are events that happen so fast, this technology improves the capture of these. dawn and see. I like whatever is better.

0 upvotes

A couple of interesting thoughts... if you were to sync all the remote cameras at an event you could do some of those Matrix bullet-dodge sequences. You could also combine images taken from different points of view at the same time to compile image-overlay-3D models with 123D Catch. The images of the rigs is more interesting to me than the images of the events.

2 upvotes

Inevitable.

But regulation should step in, or chaos and anarchy will rule the cosmos.

In an urban setting, one cannot just plop advertisement billboards anywhere they like. They are regulated by the powers that be.

Probably the same with remote photography.

In a stadium or arena, those powers are the property owners.

In a sky space, it might be the Civil Aviation authority.

Media helicopters hover over Olympic venues day and night. In due time they might just be RC drones.

Comment edited 44 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

Also:

1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2) A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

3 upvotes

You forgot one rule:

0) A robot may not harm the humanity as a whole, even if doing so is in conflict with rule 1 (you may kill a person if it is good for humanity to do so).

0 upvotes

You forgot this one:

4) A robot photographer must argue ceaselessly on forums about the benefits and drawbacks of mirrorless cameras, whether Canon or Nikon is better, and whether pixel-peeping is a bad thing and robots should just get out there and take some damn pictures already, as long as such an action does not conflict with the First, Second or Third laws.

4 upvotes

Remember those stories you used to read of now-famous photographers who blagged their way into some event and got shots that started their careers?

Never again.

Comment edited 21 seconds after posting

1 upvote

Good luck blagging your way into any major event in post-7/7 London...

1 upvote

REUTERS NEWSFLASH 5 JULY 2012 LONDON UK --

Chaotic scene today at the Men's 100-meter trials when three Canikon Mark25 airborne 4K vidcam drones collided in mid-air, falling onto pre-race favorite Usain Bolt (Jamaica) as he took his place in the starting blocks.

The 25-year-old Bolt, a three-time Olympic champion, was carried off the track on a stretcher as his teammates watched anxiously.

"Cha!" exclaimed fellow sprinter Yohan Blake. "Zeen?"

Bolt was expected to recover by tomorrow's re-scheduled preliminary race.
-- 30--

2 upvotes

Windows XP driven, yea! ;)

0 upvotes

Reuters is now pioneering the complete downsizing of the need for multiple photographers. Just one guy, 20 cameras and a joystick!

Comment edited 3 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

... and the guy is in an office somewhere where rent is cheap, not at the event.

0 upvotes

You're pretty mis-informed. Photographers have been shooting multiple cameras located in multiple locations, wirelessly, for years. Keep in mind that it still takes a human to set up all these cameras, and to trigger them at the right moment, just like it's always been. You also have to keep in mind that most of these cameras are positioned in locations where you couldn't put a human anyways! Do you really think that there are photographers hanging off the rafters, or tucked behind basketball backboards who are now going to be replaced by these remote cameras! LOL! No! These remote cameras now allow photographers to shoot from locations and at angles that would never accommodate a human being. The main difference, now, is that these cameras are now mounted on robotic mounts that allow panned/tilted movement to follow the action, whereas before they used to be stationary.

Also, you still need photogs onsite. Things can, and do, go wrong. These cameras are only a supplement.

Comment edited 3 times, last edit 14 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

T3 IS SO INFORMED HOTT DAMMNE

0 upvotes

Great idea, if I had one of those I could have sent it down the beach and I wouldn't have missed the sunset.

1 upvote

If I had a robotic camera at the beach, I wouldn't be photographing sunsets and I'm old. (humor)

5 upvotes

All that work -- to shoot JPEG.

0 upvotes

If the image looks good, the format doesn't really matter. No one looks at a great sports image and says, "But was it shot in RAW?" LOL. Your statement is a clear sign that, for some people, photography is more about the technical rather than the artistic. It's like looking back at a great Cartier-Bresson image, and just complaining about the image grain.

4 upvotes

Oh LOL. T3‘s posts are a clear sign that it is a robot trying to pass off as a human turd.

0 upvotes

Just like me. LOL!

0 upvotes

@T3. I know, these people only care about the gear. I think they should stick an iphone on the rig just to show it's about the art and not the gear.

0 upvotes

shouldn't they be using Olympus cameras for the Olympics? 8^)

2 upvotes

Olympus ran out of funds to buy in after the corruption scandal...

0 upvotes

My thoughts exactly!

0 upvotes

Zeus wasn't pleased with the scandal, perhaps. :)

1 upvote

Are we having a laugh...?

0 upvotes

next will be robotic athletes.

1 upvote

Double amputee South African runner Oscar Pistorius, 25, will compete at London 2012 alongside athletes with no disability.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-05/blade-runner-to-make-olympic-history/4113226?section=sport

2 upvotes

Just imagine
internet forums with computer generated news
and forum bots replying to eachother instead of human beings.

Future is coming,
but it will not be a good one.

Comment edited 2 times, last edit 1 minute after posting

1 upvote

@Dimitri Khoz: Actually, as I am aware, it's already going on in many social networking sites, especially in Facebook and Twitter. Fortunately Dpreview forums are not targeted, yet.

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

We've already got a robotic football world cup :)
(which the Dutch team won ... :D)

There's one advantage : no more drug testing ... (unless you need to distinguish between fembots and male bots ;))

0 upvotes

TV broadcasters have been using robotic cameras for several years now. E.g., there is no way you could get a camera and cameraman on a wire, panning across a sports field - at least, not safely and cost effectively, while it's quite common with remotely controlled cameras. It's a welcome evolution but, like all developments, it will have its downsides. For instance, cameras can take pictures really fast, but then photo editors are flooded with a constant stream of photographs and have to scramble to select the best ones, provide the metadata and send them to subscribers. The great danger is a gain in technical quality and wow factor, but a loss of editorial quality, as photographers have less time to work on the great picture, just snapping hundreds and counting on the editor to select the good one.

0 upvotes

I for one think this is positive: Saves a few humans from having to go through Heathrow!

3 upvotes

There is one good thing about Heathrow - you might buy
a bottle of rare single malt there!

1 upvote

Amazing. Earlier, some clever invidual posted that the D800 had "spanked" the 5D3 and it crossed my mind that DPR might want to sponsor an event where cameras are attached to robots and they battle for supremacy. But the idea of cameras on robots seemed too silly....

0 upvotes

1Dx : )
not Nikon D4.....i wonder why....

0 upvotes

no wonder ...the 1D X is the better camera ...that's why ..please look here: http://www.tipa.com/english/award-details.php?iId=3045&sAward=Best%20Digital+SLR+Professional

1 upvote

Hummm, seems a little odd to give an award to a camera that has had no official release.

Comment edited 6 minutes after posting

1 upvote

Canon is the official sponsor? Nothing other than Canon is allowed to be shown in news relating to Olympics?

1 upvote

D4 is remotely placed in space..used by NASA , looking for potential incoming asteroid disaster during the olympics

0 upvotes

Wow, I'd say that's a massive risk for a largely untested camera, a year late after massive design and production issues. No way would I put my eggs in that dodgy basket....

0 upvotes

<rant>
Yawn, Another olympics story. Boring Boring BORING. Unfortunately I live in the UK where we're getting these dreary corporate games shoved down our throats every day, along with dismal tennis and cricket.
It's a pity that this rubbish is even polluting DPReview.
</rant>
Must get out with my shiny new D800 more.

0 upvotes

<common sense>It's a photography story. We are a photography website</common sense>

;)

12 upvotes

Everyone should know how to comment with XML markup like this poster :)

1 upvote

<body>Yes, Finnur.</body>

<footer>But you did not use any markup yourself!</footer>

0 upvotes

<sarcasm>Yeah, that wouldn't get at all annoying.</sarcasm> :)

0 upvotes

I've done alot of aerial photography from a helicopter and I've used a remote controled model helicopter. Actually going up in the helipcopter is way more fun than using the RC platform.

Making great pictures is only part of the reason I got into photography...the other is that the act of taking photographs is so much fun.

The willingness and ability to be in he right place at the right time is one of the reasons we are hired as photographers. But now they are going to hire a technician to mount the camera and the photographer does not even have to be on the scene to take the shot...he could be locked away in a mobile vehicle far away from the location like the TV crews.

That takes all the fun out of it.

Comment edited 41 seconds after posting

4 upvotes

I agree. Today's photography is more about equipment than vision. It is less a craft, and more a technology.

1 upvote

It is up to the consumer to want / demand more art. In any commercial medium, art for art's sake won't live indefinitely if the buyer does not care.

1 upvote

Dvlee, have you in mind trying with a parrot AirDrone V2, this new model can record HD video and stills, may be not any good quality for your work, but hey, it is a great tool to add a flyby over the wedding inside the church or later on the meal passing along the tables.... would be very very funny to record it as it passes near the wow faces of the people!

0 upvotes

New name for photographer’s ….Artificial intelligence Scene Operators… nice!!!.... the word photographer was getting to general anyways :)

0 upvotes

What's next Paparazzo with US Army Drones mounted with Canon Robotic cameras?

0 upvotes

Samsung will copy this and call it the "smart" camera...Hahaha

4 upvotes

Those robots are trying to look cool using Canon 1D's and "L" series lenses. Couldn't they have chosen a less cool system? :)

1 upvote

No, there is no less cool system they could have chosen. ;)

7 upvotes

Does it apply as a "robotic" rig or should it be (at least partly) autonomous to qualify as such?

Computer controlled rigs (cranes, dollies tripods and so on) have been used in the film industry for quite a while now. The novelty seems to be in the application, not the technology.

Comment edited 11 minutes after posting

1 upvote

Add the right program in the PC side and voila! You have cameras that detects action, follow and zoom on it, and fire automatically too in response to "visual events" (when the action pass this line, etc).

You have apps. for mobiles that make a shoot when it detects movement in some area of the frame, this is just more complex but same idea.

Comment edited 1 minute after posting

0 upvotes

Next -- robot cameras with 'decisive moment' AI software!

Why not? Your point 'n shoot will already take a picture when it 'sees' a cat or dog... and can process a pile of snaps to come up with the 'best portrait.'

Brave new world! Sort of.

2 upvotes

With 4K video cams,it's not necessary to take a picture at the decisive moment, a still quality high resolution image can be extracted from the video recording. The decisive moment will take place in the editing.

I don't even like to use fast frame rate on my DSLR...too much work downloading and editing. Imagine going through three seconds of action at 30 FPS???

0 upvotes

You would use a different kind of program that plays through the video at any speed you want and when you found a good still image you can simply fine tune at slower speeds or even frame by frame to find the best one. Even if it is shot at 3000fps it will work just as well if the software is good and the hardware capable of driving it.

0 upvotes

This is just a matter of time really, in 20 years cellphones like the nokia 808 could be shooting uncompressed 200mp at 3000fps.

1 upvote

@malcom82:
>This is just a matter of time really, in 20 years cellphones
>like the nokia 808 could be shooting uncompressed
>200mp at 3000fps.

Malcom, that's at least 600 GIGABYTES per Second!

Comment edited 20 seconds after posting

1 upvote

>Malcom, that's at least 600 GIGABYTES per Second!

And your point....?
Things that seem crazy today are tomorrow's ho hum

1 upvote

Already is happening - case in point Sony IPT-DS1 Party-shot
You can see some vids of it in action such as

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfbzQB-yGhs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZXgFhPWacU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t9RNQvbEmU&feature=related

I think they discontinued it but the writing is on the wall. The type of photography where a photographer just takes a bunch of grab shots and then picks 5-10% best ones that "came out nice" can be replaced by a robot. It will be kind of like AE and AF - yes "we" can do better with manual control of them but not all of us all the time. If you pull together a fashion shoot and drive the artistic direction, that's one thing. If you just grab shots, you may find yourself replaced by a gizmo, which with each generation gets better and eventually becomes good enough for most viewers in most situations.

1 upvote

I can't wait for them to attach cameras to the athletes - it might slow 'em down a bit, but think about the possibilities. e.g. beach volleyball. What happens if two rival news agencies put robot cameras next to each other? Will they fight?

9 upvotes

"What happens if two rival news agencies put robot cameras next to each other? Will they fight?"
ROFL

0 upvotes

While photography the start of a road race, I noticed quite few runners with those small action video cams strapeed to their chests.

0 upvotes

lol, made me laugh. but i hope you're kidding- maybe as a show game they could attach gopros, but definitely not DSLRs, and definitely not during olympic performances. i would hate to be an athlete training all my life just to have to perform less than my full potential just so people can get a new angle, even if everyone else has them on too.

0 upvotes

Here I am reading about something that I was aspiring to become...a photographer for the Olympics...and now robots and computers come to replace me!...now all I really need is a robot to feed me Cheerios!

4 upvotes

So will they be able to shoot video with these cameras as well?

0 upvotes

Are robots cheaper than imported photographers from China?

Looks like the industry is dying. :-(

0 upvotes

If you read the blog you'll see that these cameras are going to be positioned in places that human photographers would be unable to access. But kudos for twisting this into a 'cheap imports from China' story - I'm impressed ;)

15 upvotes

That rail could have been a catwalk and someone could have worked directly from there. I feel sometimes that there is a gratuitous excess of technology being used for tasks that could be easily done by humans. But I guess it's easier for the photographer to sit at a chair and move a joystick than staying all day on the catwalk. Then they could remote control them from home and not even go to the games, FWIW...

0 upvotes

Sorry Dimitry, I meant to reply to Barney Bitton, but of course posts made by DP employees do not have a REPLY button. This way they can have the final word on anything :)

0 upvotes

Wow. Such overly negative reaction here. The robotics are not replacing anyone in this situation. The photog's job is still required for "creative" control. Maybe a catwalk would be too large, awkward or dangerous to the athletes in this instance. You could build a catwalk over top of an NFL playing field too but you still wouldn't get the pics or video that the SkyCam provides. I for one am curious to see what comes of this.

0 upvotes

The reason the camera was installed in a robotic apparatus is to make the photographer have an advantage of another angle while shooting on another. A lot of sports photographers don't shoot just one or two cameras, but a lot of cameras with them. A lot of their buck-ups are placed in different positions and angle and are all fitted with wireless shutter release. The use of this robotic apparatus is to help a photographer to take more better photos and be more productive, not to become a lazy one and just sit and wait. Yes, we can put a photographer in a cat walk on top and shoot there, but, that's just it, only one angle and position.

2 upvotes

@ Francesco - the only posts that have a 'reply' button are those that begin a comment thread. Me being an admin doesn't have anything to do with it - to identify who you're replying to, use '@ barney' or something similar :)

1 upvote

Cool! (For lack of a more creative word.)

1 upvote

Why not us?

0 upvotes

That thing is not to replace the photographer, but to give the photographer additional creative vantage point without the need to run to another position to shoot. Just like for sports photographers covering the foot ball, they remotely place a camera just behind the goal's net for a creative and additional vantage point.

1 upvote

...and the star of the show is of course.....TA DAAAA... 1D X from Canon ..the BEST DIGITAL SLR Professional currently ! Great choice Reuters!

3 upvotes

1DX - the top choice of robotic gearheads!

4 upvotes

Maybe Canon 1DX is Official Robotics-controlled DLSR of the Olympics.

1 upvote

I assume they're set to manual focus with a robotic hand to turn the focus ring bypassing the Canon 'AF'... And turn them off when the light requires ISO800 or above.

0 upvotes

So this is where all the 1D X have gone.

12 upvotes

there's one in stock on amazon, if you have about 7K to burn

0 upvotes

Canon!

1 upvote

Total comments: 105


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