But when you start googling you get the same answer all over:

1. Balance your propellers
2. Balance your motors

But I did that:

And I still had vibrations, blurry stills and jelly-looking video. After a lot of trial and error found the solution.

It doesn’t matter how much you balance your props if they’re the wrong props. You need high quality very stiff props for aerial photography (AP). So, on the same quad, with perfectly balanced props I had lots of vibrations with one set of props and no vibrations with another.

I have had best results with Gaui props and Graupner E-props.

In addition to this I made a dampening system. First I tried to mount the camera directly on a small plate that was mounted on the quad with rubber dampers. That din’t work very well:

(Dampers = red)

Then I made a long extra board under the quad. Mounted it to the quad using four rubber dampeners and mounted both the camera and the battery on that one. Wow! No vibrations with any of my cameras!

(Dampers = red)

Update:
And this is how video looks like if you don’t limit the vibrations.

Just finished my build. It flies like it’s on rails. With plenty of power. And it’s silent and nearly vibration free.

It folds in the best possible way so that it is easy to carry in a bag or suitcase.

I’ll post videos later.

Update:
A video and a story about how I got rid of vibrations.

It carries my GoPro with clear jello-free images. But I still need to do some work on the smallest vibrations if I want to film with my Canon S100.

Frame:
X468 Traveller Quad

Motors:
T-Motors 2216 900KV

ESC:
Turnigy Plush 25A

Flight Controllers:
Dji Naza
OpenPilot CopterControl
(Testing both)

Power Distribution:
100A from GLB

Arms:
250 mm carbon from GLB

Motor mounts:
Alu from GLB

Props:
Graupner 9×5 and Gaui 8×4.5

Mounting of the round arms done with parts of a square alu rod from GLB.

Landing gear is made of parts from Kites and fun things.
4 – APA Type “B” Leading Edge Connectors
60″ .25″ fiberglass or carbon tube
6 – Stand off holders – Size Medium

Radio:
Futaba 8U running FrSky 2.4 GHz

I’ve installed a CopterControl board from OpenPilot in my home brew Quadcopter.

It’s pretty impressive stuff.

The camera is a 808 HD. And the build log is in Norwegian: Part 1 and Part 2. Here is the Google Translate version: Part 1 Google Translate and Part 2 Google Translate.

Link to video on YouTube.

Now I just need to buy a GoPro HD Hero 2. I’ve already ordered a stabilizing mount.

Cost and flight time

$200,- for the quad (frame, motors, speed controllers etc)
$100,- for the Copter Control Board
$25,- for a 2500 mAh battery giving 10 minutes for flight time
$70,- for a second hand Futaba 8U radio

Build time: approx 10 hours

Time spent learning how this stuff works, learning to fly, waiting for parts from china: don’t know…

And Matjaž has some nice stills taken from an RC plane as well. If that’s not enough you can also have a look at some nice footage here.