Adam passed me this still shot from the quadcopter. Not bad.

I've enjoyed playing with number one son's home made tricopter, but this week the "proper" flying camera arrived in the department. It's a Phantom Quadcopter. We took it for a flight today, launching it carefully from the middle of a deserted playing field near the university.

It is awesome. The camera stabilization is astonishing. The pictures are incredibly smooth and very high quality. The device uses global positioning to allow it to hover at one point above the ground. There was a fair bit of wind around, but the device was completely stable. Apparently it's very easy to control, although I lacked the nerve to have a go myself. And anyway, I was taking pictures.