Yotsie,
It's been a while now since this thread ended and I was wondering if you could give us a review of the Video Ray? I know some folks interested in purchasing an ROV and Video Ray is one of the brands they are considering. Any insight/feedback would be most appreciated!
Thanks!
Rick
Rick,
We've had it since February and have nothing but good things to report.
The only "con", if you could call it that, was we tried to use in an irrigation canal to locate a submerged vehicle. The ROV did fine until we tried to turn it, then it would tumble with the current. Now, I know we were trying to use it in an environment for which is was not designed, but I do have to say this, flying it in fast moving water (2800-3000 CFM) it did fine and had an excellent picture until it tumbled.
All of our members are quite comfortable flying it. The ease in which it can be set up and deployed (under five mins.) makes it one of the first tools deployed, if the circumstances call for it.
Video Quality is excellent and the controls to function the camera are easy to learn and work with while flying. Video Ray supplies all the necessary connectors to record both audio and video onto a laptop computer. The audio comes from the control console, so be careful about what you say if you use this function.
One other accessory I would recommend, that we did not purchase, is the manipulator arm. We have had several occasions were this would come in handy and did not have it.
I would also strongly suggest the TDS (tether deployment system) as this has made handling and management of the tether much easier.
Customer service with Video Ray is excellent. They called at least twice a month for the first three or four months we had it to see if there were any questions or problems. They were very patient with us the first week we had it, because we were calling them just about daily with questions.
If I had to do it all over again, I would still go with the Video Ray. We will stick with our Pro III GTO.
