Pardon my ignorance - but what can I do with this?

...And you propose this is much cheaper than buying a multicopter as-is?

I order 'multiwii' controller: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250947544755
it has accelerometer, and based on 'arduino'.

I've been wanting a copter for so long!

Interesting ebay shop with parts

http://stores.ebay.com/rcmodelpart/Multi-Copter-Parts-/_i.html?rt=nc&_dmd=1&_fsub=3042342011&_sc=1&_sid=747353821&_sop=1&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14&_vc=1

Tilt unit
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Controlable-Tilt-Unit-LOTUSRC-T580-Quadcopter-T580MPAN-Quadricopter-/380388916665?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5890f23db9

Ready things
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ready-fly-quadcopter-Remote-controller-and-batteries-included-/120826416565?pt=Radio_Control_Vehicles&hash=item1c21d0cdb5
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-T580P-Quadcopter-RTF-flight-photography-player-Quadricopter-EMS-/250948780096?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a6db68040

I think they could fly GF3 with pancakes without problems.

Those quads can't fly with GH2. Maybe some with much powerfull motors and bigger propellers.
I have this like Oktokopter https://www.mikrocontroller.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=80&products_id=586&zenid=c43e06b6e7bd5f76ed69751ce6ce8ba1

It's weight about 1.2kg but when I add GH2 (650g), 4S 6000mAh battery (600g), camera mount (500g), video transmiter and some other small electronics this Okto weight more than 3kg.
With all this payload it can fly max 10min.

@robbie75vr
Can you list what makes up a complete kit and recommendations? Thanks

Drones are easy to fly for an experienced rc pilot, hard to fly for a novice, very hard to be flow safely for a very experienced rc pilot with a good understanding of electronics/soldering/mechanic/build skills/mantainance skills.... (long list). I fly since 1990 and believe me I saw many many auto declared expert pilot making incredible damages or injuries to themself or others.

These are not toys, you need a licence to operate video transmission and you need to understand perfectly how to set it up, how to fix vibration issues, how to manage batteries, chargers, complex radio controllers .. Its not a list that will put you in the market. It takes one year to learn the basic stuff, two years to begin shooting decent footage.

My suggestion is to start with light copters and fly for a season in a open field, make an rc insurance at a flying field (and fly there, not in your car park, fly with an expert pilot that will teach you with a trainer radio connected to your radio (double controls..), it takes a second to crash it on a car and cut a hole on the top, or crash on someone and kill him.

For beginner RTF (ready to fly) copters you can see GAUI copters website, they are low price, fly well, no need to be very expert to begin, and can fly a gopro or small cameras like Pana LX5 or similar. for video transmission there are many shops, in USA you have www.rangevideo.com offering a wide range. These are no PRO copters but it very good to learn the piloting, and low mantainance costs.. For PRO copters if you start from zero expect about 6k to 30k $ depending on the setup, but do not start with these if you have no experience, you'll crash it in less than a minute. Other pro classic helicopters machines are available at www.photoshipone.com (very high end).

The main forum for these machines is rcgroups, this is the specific forum category: http://www.rcgroups.com/multi-rotor-helis-659/ , my nickname there is zaGURUinzaSKY.

>Also you need lots of money, besides an controller you need a lots of other stuff!!

Like money to replace your crashed cameras and quad copters :-)

@Vitaliy_Kiselev
there are 3 danger factors to consider:

1- quality of electronics, you can do everything right but sometime components burn and you have a falling rock from the sky (I recently made 3k € damage on a 15 seconds flight for a component fail, high end component, not toy)

2- quality of assembly, most of the crashes depend on the quality of assembly quality, not easy stuff thrust me.

3. quality of pilot, you can have a perfect copter but you gotta know how to fly it, example: you are a perfect pilot with a perfect copter, flying on the side of a road, a DHL van stops in front of you asking for direction, you loose eye contact with the copter and maybe radio contact too, 10 seconds and you can kill someone.... there are many situations like these that requires simple experience to be avoided, that's why I suggest to go step by step.

There are already sensors that control the copter's attitude/altitude/gps position, they are still not 100% safe, they have a considerable cost and sometime they fail, causing crash. So many precautions have to be considered while flying. It's all about the safety standard you want when you fly over your customer.. if you want high standard it's very difficult, if you fly by yourself to shoot in open fields then it's easier, but remember a crash can cause explosion and fire of LIPO batteries, suppose you crash the copter in a forest and you need 10 minutes to reach the helicopter.. that would be a bad situation.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev

no that's the problem, you can't imagine without experience.

Nothing it's 100% safe , but there is a lot of difference flying 95% safe or 10% safe... a difference that depends from the factors I mentioned above. sometime that 10% difference is the difference from freeman to jail. Go and try out yourself ;-)

Copters are "flybywire", you don't fly the copter, you tell it where to go. Crashes are 99% components malfunctions, not piloting errors. If you fly beyond visual range then it's a different story, you can crash also because of video downlink failures, midair collision with real airplanes, paragliders, birds, trees...

Electronics can also fly back home the copter in case of signal losss, but they don't see obstacles in the back home path, this is a limitation for many reason..

The point is that UAV drones are not totally legal in many countries, if the mass start thinking that flying uav drones safely is easy, we'll have an exponential increase of accidents and laws will be even more restrictive, so I try to share the correct message and protect my work category. So I advise people, don't think it's a toy you fly in the sky without consequences, it's serious stuff when you fly cameras out of a flying field, you can do it, it's a lot of fun and very creative but it's not a weekend hobby.

It's like laser pointer, it was a toy when first came out, then some people started to laser pilots in final approach and now it's illegal, the world is full of retards... Now laser are sold under specific licence for specific use. Drones should be the same in my opinion, you can potentially do any terrorism act with a drone and severe injures to people, even kill for a stupid mistake. A rc helicopter blade will made your car's door in 5 slices before stopping.

@Vitaliy

equipment doesn't make you cinematographer nor photographer, it's a start point, buying a Red Epic doesn't make you Peter Jackson so competitors won't grow up as fast as mushrooms in a forest.. uav company will grow up quickly because there are tons of beginners crashing stuff and buying again and again...

About safety topics, it's not too late, the aerial photographers community have some self regulation documents, we discuss about safety online a lot, main manufacturers limits via software the max distance flyable based on what kind of licence you buy, dividing the helicopter market in hobby use and pro use.. electronic will be always safer obviously and I can only be happy about that, manufacturers design products side by side with us, that's also good. (if only Panasonic would do the same with us...)

I already have many competitors as photographer, less as video makers, even less with aerial video operator, when this market will be saturated I'll probably be already in a different new market.. doesn't matter ;-) and it's good to have competitors, you increase your product quality, optimize the job ! plus if there is nobody you are probably in the wrong business.

About terrorism, well I'm not expert about that but I know what these toys can do, and it's much more than what you can do with a car but has no sense to explain this in a public forum and I rather close this topic here.