Who needs a drone for cool aerial shots when an eagle can do an even better job?
OK, taking on responsibility for a bird of prey in order to satisfy your desire for dramatic drone shots does seem a little extreme, so we’ll ditch that idea.
Instead, sit back and enjoy the spectacular results achieved by an eagle when it flew around a sports stadium in Mexico with a GoPro action camera strapped to its belly.
With the recently released Hero7 tipping the scales at just 0.25 pounds, this mighty bird will have hardly felt the weight of GoPro’s latest camera, though it may have wondered what the heck it was doing flying around Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca.
Produced by GoPro, the video (above) is designed to show off the Hero7 Black’s “HyperSmooth” technology, its new electronic stabilization system for silky smooth shots.
GoPro says HyperSmooth uses “advanced scene analysis” for gimbal-like results, and declares it the best in-camera video stabilization technology currently on the market. Certainly, Digital Trends’ hands-on experience with the Hero7 Black appears to back up the company’s claims, and the eagle’s video doesn’t look half bad, either.
Watch as it circles the stadium several times to whoops of joy from the gathered crowd. As it approaches its handler, you’ll see a few camera wobbles as the eagle adjusts its flight path with a few vigorous wing flaps, but overall the Hero7 seems to handle the conditions with ease.
A more impressive demonstration of the anti-shake technology comes in another Hero7 Black video (below) posted by GoPro on Tuesday, October 30.
It shows British mountain biker Brendan Fairclough taking on a challenging course at the Red Bull Rampage in Utah’s Zion National Park. The footage is astonishingly smooth — some might even say it works a little too well as the fluidity removes much of the drama from what is clearly a very rocky ride.
If you’re interested in getting the Hero7 Black on the basis of its HyperSmooth technology, then be sure to first check out GoPro’s information page telling you more about how it works. But if you just like watching videos shot by birds of prey, then check out this one showing an exhilarating descent from the world’s tallest building.
