Like a lot of good things PerfectoPix started in a backyard. In 2006 Rory Paul was looking for a way to get aerial photographs without having to hire a plane or helicopter. Before the advent of drones as we know them today this was not an easy feat. You had a few options ranging from “kite photography” to lifting a film camera with an RC helicopter.
We chose to go another route and built system on a 16 foot helium blimp, with a gimbaled camera and video down link and remote camera trigger. At the time this was very niche and bespoke technology.
We learnt a lot about lighter than air aircraft and the challenges of using them for commercial photography from the wind to mold eating holes through your blimp. In 2007 transitioned to our first true autopilot powered fixed wing drone custom built for mapping. Along with the move to “drones” we made a geographic move to California for a few years and benefitted from great flying weather in the central valley.
Moving back to the mid west in 2012 we started experimenting with some of the first multi rotor drones to be produced and undertook some of the very first crop scouting flights using these relatively early examples of the technology.
