Totally agree. I don't want to be a pilot. I want the shot. I don't have the Top Gear crew. It's just me.

It wasn't that long ago you needed one expert to fly the drone, one expert to fly the camera and several thousand dollars worth of video relay links.

If the Lily works as promised, this is huge. How many aerial shots per show do you need?

Retrofitting this LED with an appropriate cooler into an old baby fresnel light would be cool (literally). The Mole Teenie 4.5" LED goes for $1500. Ugh. It would not require building the frame and would have the spot/flood lens, light stand socket and barn door capability already there. A good battery could run it for hours.

As usual, the real problem is light quality. Many LEDs tend to be green and are insufficient in red, leading to poor skin tones. The LED engineer at the Mole booth at NAB2013 told me they worked very hard to develop a tiny mineral red filter to put over the LED to make sure the reds stay true throughout its long life and not fade.

This 100w LED says it is 6500 kelvin. Nothing about CRI spectral output.

Still, a terrific project.

As an owner of this Konova stabilizing bar, I can only say it's terrific. I use a single one on both my Konova K5-80 and our Kessler Cineslider.

We had the heavy Cineslider on a Sachtler tripod and no matter what, the move sagged and jiggled at the end. I tried jamming a light stand under one end. Couple of things wrong with this: the stand is probably too tall and it doesn't actually attach to the slider, just pushes up in a vain attempt to hold it. Then there's the problem of even small location adjustments. Moving two pods or a pod/lightstand combo is a royal pain. And tripod legs are everywhere.

This simple stabilizer bar creates a very strong triangle structure. As it's one with the tripod, it's easy to move and completely out of the way.

Features:
1. The attachment (upper) end has a 1/4-20 screw with large red knurled knob and an unthreaded post that slips into the 3/8-16 threaded socket. The post is in a slot so it adjusts relative to the 1/4-20 screw. So, it really only attaches to sliders that have 1/4-20 holes at the ends. Most sliders seem to have both a 3/8-16 and a 1/4-20 threaded hole, usually within an inch of each other, at both ends and the middle. This arm is designed to attach so the plate cannot rotate. Easier to see than explain. But well engineered.

2. Rubberized ball joints are at both ends of the arm. This allows you to tilt and even pan the main tripod's head a bit without torquing the arm.

3. The arm telescopes for optimum positioning.

4. The tripod leg clamp at the bottom opens to at least 1-1/2" -- I have not found a tripod it cannot grip. Works fine on all our Sachtlers and my carbon Manfrotto with 75mm 504HD head. The Manfrotto is a very lightweight tripod and head holding up the K5-80cm Konova. The stabilizer arm makes it completely solid. I also have the MasterPan accessory kit and the marvelous Nitsan 2kg Flywheel smoothenizer attached. ( http://konovaphoto.com/best-selling/nitsan-fly-wheel.html ) Having a 2kg hunk of rotating iron on one end can really throw the rig out of balance. The stabilizer arm holds the weight up.

5. Toolless design is compact and travels easily in the case with the slider so I don't forget it.

If you want to rig something up, go for it. I can attest that Konova has done the engineering right. It's a perfect piece of gear.

Does this bring back memories. As a freshman in college in 1970 taking a photography class, I wanted to shoot a closeup portrait of a beautiful girl and I wanted to make sure her pupils were wide. Don't remember why, exactly. Just thought she looked more attractive somehow. (I was a freshman. What did I know about girls?) I informed my subject that we were working in a very dim studio because I wanted her pupils to open. She said, "You aren't supposed to notice that unless you're in love."

It's a shame that something as nice as open pupils is more associated with drug abuse than love.

Aside from drugs, pupils also dilate to get a better view (allow more light in) of something you're interested in. What's better than staring into the eyes of an attractive woman?

And while open pupils would be easier to see in closeups, in the age of HD and 4K -- and eyes being the very definition of whether the shot is in focus or not -- the diameter of the pupils could definitely be a subtle cue to the viewer. Would you prefer beady eyes -- the stock in trade of the bad guy?

Tape is good for smooth floors, but expensive and you have to throw the tape away when done.

If you are covering cable on carpet, you might look at a reusable option called Safcord Cable Housing that is a 30-foot x 4-inch nylon fabric with velcro along both edges that sticks to the carpet. No adhesive. Reusable. $119. Available at Amazon at higher cost.

http://www.universalpart.com/Safcord-Cable-Housing,-4in.-X-30ft.-Gray-81...

Another tape option is called Tunnel Tape that comes 3" or 4" wide and has adhesive only alone the edges so it comes off the cables easier. a 40-yard roll of the 4" is $40. 3" is $30.

www.amazon.com/Marian-Black-Tunnel-Tape-yards/dp/B00BSXAD8C/ref=sr_1_1?i...

The most amazing flip-out monitor I've ever seen was on our old Sony HVE-Z1U HDV camcorder. It was clearly viewable with direct sunlight hitting it. How Sony did that is a mystery because subsequent viewfinders were not as good.

If it was some sort of surface treatment or filtering, I wish I could buy that system to put on my DP4, which completely washes out in daylight, thus requiring the eyepiece or marginally useful sunhood. Would be nice for my GH4 flip-out monitor as well. Camera and monitor manufacturers seem to think we only use their tools indoors.