Microstock Footage Forum > Video Equipment / Sofware / Technique

beginner drone with camera?

<< < (3/3)

dragonblade:
I recommend spending less than $100 on your first 'drone' and go for a cheap toy-grade quadcopter in the $30 - $80 range. And forget about cameras and filming when you're first starting out - learn how to fly first. Later on you can attach a light weight action camera or keychain camera when you get more comfortable with flying (check if the quad is powerful enough to lift it.) The cheap toy-grades quads like the Syma X5C-1 and FY326 Q7 are fully manual with no automation. They may be more challenging to fly initially than the more expensive drones but this will make you a better pilot with arguably quicker reflexes too. Spending time practising with a cheap quadcopter will develop your manual flying skills and will allow you to get out of sticky situations in the air and reduce the chance of flyaways. However, flyaways are always an ever-present risk when you're first starting out. I admit I had my share of flyways when I first got into quadcopters over 5 years ago (during the first year) but I haven't had any since.

Yea sure the expensive drones like those from DJI are great but the technology is not perfect. Things can go wrong like the GPS playing up and acting weird. Ive fooled around with a Phantom 2 a number of times and for the most part, it was reliable. However, one day in my backyard, it started drifting wildly all over the place in GPS mode, despite getting a good GPS lock (plenty of satellites detected.) The Phantom was about waist height and it was a dead flat calm still day without the slightest breeze so it wasn't the wind that was moving it around. It was pretty extreme drift. I was constantly having to counteract that drift with the sticks all the time (never a second's rest.) There were some verandah posts in very close proximity but I was easily able to avoid them and had 0 crashes / collisions because of all the practise I had flying cheap toy-grade quads during the previous few years. Basically, the Phantom was acting like a toy-grade quad on that particular day.

The DJI Mavic is certainly a popular choice these days. Though in my opinion, it has one major design flaw for beginners. And that is no user-selectable Atti mode. The vast majority of the time, it provides a safety net with it's default GPS mode. Though in instances when the GPS decides to quit for whatever reason, the Mavic automatically switches to Atti mode. The problem is that people who are completely new to drones have no manual flying skills and no previous experience with Atti mode. Yet Atti mode is forced upon them and in such situations, the newbie pilots are often overwhelmed and as a result panic and crash or experience a flyaway.

By the way, over time, when you get proficient with flying the cheap quads, you can always upgrade to a more expensive drone later on.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page