"So this camera falls out of an airplane and..."

I just saw this a couple of minutes ago. Loved it!

Ha.. that is classic!!! Surprised the camera didn't shatter or break. The fact it was still recording is cool!!!

That was great. How long until the camera mfg. tries to capitalize on this?

What's with all the crazy uses of cameras lately? The bird who stole one, the camera egg, and now this?

I like it though.

Absolutely love it, thanks for posting that!

Is the video being posted by the farmer who found it or the folks on the plane? I would also have to wonder about whether this was faked.... a camera deliberately dropped and recovered from a open field (perhaps with a small drogue to keep it from going too fast) and then that footage spliced into some with the pig. I find the coincidence of a camera dropped from a plane and surviving to land in a cute pig pen just a bit too neat....

I wanna know what kind of camera that is. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking, that one.

bradl said:

Looking at the description of the video, the farmer found the camera in his pig pin 8 months after it was dropped out of the plane. So the farmer posted the video. The question really becomes whether the camera was deliberately dropped or not. I'm thinking not deliberate, because of how nonchalant and cocky the people were in the plane. As far as it landing in the pig pen, I would say that that was completely coincidental, and lucky; the mud and slop in the pin is definitely a lot softer than cold hard ground or concrete, so that camera is lucky to still work after all that time, let alone the farmer finally discovering it.

But damn.. whatever the manufacturer was that made that camera better make that pig their mascot!

BL.

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Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me a farmer took 10 minutes out of his/her busy day to watch the video, and post it to youtube?

Let alone a farmer that has the internet!!!!!!

bradl said:

But damn.. whatever the manufacturer was that made that camera better make that pig their mascot!.

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It is allegedly one of those GoPro Hero models you see strapped to the noggin of every skateboarder and bungee-jumper in all of Christendom.

I'd imagine some careful analysis could work out whether or not the video was faked: How long it took to hit the ground after falling from the plane? Did it reach true terminal velocity? If so, what sort of G-forces would it undergo splashing down in a pigsty - and is it plausible that a camera - even a ruggedized one like the GoPro could not only survive, but keep on recording with nary a hitch?

Call me a little skeptical at this point. I don't see why the camera should have stopped spinning of its own accord as it fell. Unless it happened to have some sort of aerodynamic device (a ballute of some sort?) there doesn't seem to be any rational explanation for that part of the descent.

bradl said:

And regardless of object, all objects fall at a speed of 32ft/second.

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Thats the acceleration of an object falling in a vacuum. (Which is why Felix Baumgartner broke sound barrier in free fall.)

The camera was falling for roughly 30 seconds - and obviously being relatively light and unaerodynamic, its terminal velocity is much less than, say, a free falling human. So, it suggests it fell from about 5000 feet - which would be about right for a skydiving plane, and matches up with the apparent altitude seen at the beginning of the video.

Apparently the weird video effect is the result of the (fast) frame rate of the GoPro matching the rotation of the camera as it fell. That I find too much of a coincidence: if the GoPro has a 60 cycle frame rate - what are the odds that its spiral to the ground exactly matches that frequency so closely?

Other questions: Fortunate the camera happened to land right side up (not lens down in the pig poop). And did Mr Porker have come over right away to investigate? And why did the finder of this camera wait months before posting it?

It is certainly possible the footage is the result of some careful editing: i.e.. Take the footage from a falling camera, and add it to that of one carefully placed on a pig sty.

What I found interesting was the scrolling double image during the fall.

bradl said:

Now, I doubt the math there, because 6708.1m = 22,000ft. Not possible in that aircraft type (looking to be either a Piper or Cessna Caravan; their ceiling is too short), plus cabin air has to be pressurized above 13,000ft.

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I counted 27 seconds (the fall started at 13sec, ended at 40sec). So, according to this handy website's calculations the plane was about 11,500 - 12,000ft up.

bradl said:

And regardless of object, all objects fall at a speed of 32ft/second.

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You failed to take into account air resistance. There is something called terminal velocity where an falling object will no longer accelerate. Drop a feather and a marble at the same time, the marble hits the ground first because it is less affected by air resistance.

Breaking News: Manufacturer just releases indestructible camera!

Awful convenient for it to land lens side up to tape a pig slurping at it.

Hard to fake that. No chute or anything visible in the fall. Unless the whole thing is just a production...

Ha ha ha lol. I was laughing so hard when the pig went over to the camera and started licking it. Lol

Roric said:

What I found interesting was the scrolling double image during the fall.

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Precisely - can't have been a GoPro, and I don't know of any sort of camera other than one that records onto tape that would suffer that distortion. It's also highly unlikely that one with a tape mechanism would have survived that fall - even into mud, and certainly not carefully balanced lens-upwards.

I'm voting fake on this - but still entertaining.

Epic!

I vote REAL too.

rhett7660 said:

Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me a farmer took 10 minutes out of his/her busy day to watch the video, and post it to youtube?

Let alone a farmer that has the internet!!!!!!

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Now, now. Farming today is surprisingly high-tech. I mean, farmers have internet and even shoes, too. You'd be surprised.

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Parkin Pig said:

I don't know of any sort of camera other than one that records onto tape that would suffer that distortion

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Actually it was a classical rolling-shutter effect as the camera wheeled and spun during its fall. No tape need be involved.

sjinsjca said:

Now, now. Farming today is surprisingly high-tech. I mean, farmers have internet and even shoes, too. You'd be surprised.

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Actually it was a classical rolling-shutter effect as the camera wheeled and spun during its fall. No tape need be involved.

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Easy...... shoes too! I kid of course!

I somehow doubt this "fall" wasn't doctored.

The pig appears only a few seconds after the camera landed ? What are the odds of it landing right next to a pig ?

-t