A quadcopter's-eye view of Niagara Falls

A DJI Phantom quadcopter and a GoPro camera have been used to capture stunning overhead footage of the world's most famous waterfall.

On the border between Ontario, Canada, and New York, US, the three waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls combined have the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world — over 168,000 cubic metres per minute.

The largest of the three falls is Horseshoe Falls, which is the most powerful waterfall on the North American continent. Although the falls are a fantastic source of hydroelectric power, they're also incredibly beautiful.

Of course, seeing them from the air is not something that many people get to do, so YouTube user Questpact decided that footage of the falls would make a wonderful entry into the DJI Phantom Video Contest.

The biggest condition of entry is that the video has to be shot from a DJI Phantom quadcopter, so Questpact strapped a GoPro to his trusty Phantom and headed off to Horseshoe Falls for a quadcopter's-eye view of the 51-metre-high waterfall.

He used a Fat Shark FPV linked to the GoPro to see the feed as the camera recorded, and a gimbal to keep the camera steady, with spare batteries on hand to keep the Phantom — which typically has about 10-15 minutes of flight time, less with the camera, FPV antenna and gimbal on board — returning to the air.

In this way, he managed to capture about 20 minutes of footage, which he cut down to a stunning five-minute video. Although it was a cloudy day when he filmed, we think that worked to his advantage, producing some really stunning moments when the sun breaks through the clouds.

Via petapixel.com