Drones (photography)

[carolina_corpsman]

Has anyone had any experience with drones, specifically in terms of photography?

I am in the process of building a home and my dad gave me a drone for Christmas with the idea of taking pictures/videos of the build process. The issue is that it’s a fairly basic drone with a pretty bad camera. I have trouble because there is no wide angle and in order to get the whole build you have to fly high and then the wind blows it off course.

Looking for a fairly cheap ($250 max) drone that takes decent pictures and videos, maybe one that can hold altitude or follow a pre planned flight to record the build site.

Any ideas or suggestions ( or other forums to look at?)

 

[kingofnerf]

I monkeyed around with a basic quad-rotor drone from Radio Shack (no camera) a few years ago and then I put it down like a child does with a Christmas gift.

The DJI Mavic has been the gold standard in camera drones for a while now.

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You can spend all day watching the demo videos on DJI's website. Use the scroll button on your mouse to go through the slides, too.

They are expensive, but the obstacle avoidance, programmable flight patterns and Return Home buttons are like spell check; they make you look smarter than you really are. You can focus on getting great shots without having to be a human version of R2D2.

Back around 2009, I bought an expensive Canon Rebel digital camera and later added an $800 telephoto lens to my kit. I took great pics for a few years before running out of stuff to take pictures of. Now the current more-expensive smartphone cameras are just as good or better than my old digital camera.

After looking at the DJI stuff, I am seriously thinking about getting a Mavic 3 to take videos of stuff I have already shot. I would imagine USC uses DJI drones for the neat video footage we have seen in recent years.

True, DJI drones are more expensive, but what if you put a couple of cheaper ones in some tree limbs you can't get to?

The integrated video displays are already there on the remote control units and the VR goggles are about $650 if you want to go that route.

The immersive drones for simulated flight use the VR goggles and a wireless joystick. Cool stuff, man.

Drone pics and videos are the next big thing.

 

[kingofnerf]

Decent price on a DJI Mini-2 with controller at Walmart for $449.

 

[kingofnerf]

DJI Avata immersive drone from Crutchfield for $629 without controller.

Accessories for same.

The accessories are out of stock, maybe due to supply chain issues.

 

[carolina_corpsman]

Yeah, I’ve seen that one, pretty cool, I don’t know if I really wanna sink $500 into this hobby just yet but I considered it. I tried to fly my little drone today to get some pictures of the footers from above but it was so windy I nearly lost the dam thing in the road and I was a few hundred feet away from it.

 

[kingofnerf]

DJI Mavic Mini for $599 at Walmart.

The controller for this lower-end model look like it allows a smartphone that runs the app to attach directly to the controller.

The more pricey models have a 10 kilometer range. Probably a dedicated transceiver on the controller as opposed to a cell phone with an app running on it. Not sure what the range would be on this one.

 

[kingofnerf]

Yeah, I’ve seen that one, pretty cool, I don’t know if I really wanna sink $500 into this hobby just yet but I considered it. I tried to fly my little drone today to get some pictures of the footers from above but it was so windy I nearly lost the dam thing in the road and I was a few hundred feet away from it.

My thought is the pricier drones are heavier to handle the high scale winds like you would encounter at the beach better.