Drones/UAV's/Quadcopters

[Mister Pink]

Anyone flying drones?

 

I'm just so happy for the 4K video quality. DJI bought Hasselblad and are using a 1" sensor for the Mavic 2. We can also now change aperture manually which removes the necessity of ND filters although I will buy an ND filter. You can also shoot in DLog, so you can get a nice flat image for when you want to color correct and grade. I will need to save for some added batteries. Although 30mins flight time is a big advancement, it's still quite short, especially if you only have one battery and you travel very far go get nice shots. 

 

So anyone here flying drones? Big or small. Any filmmakers using them? What's the airspace like where you live and does it restrict you? 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by Mister Pink

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

I myself have a few the biggest and most expensive one is the DJI Phantom 3 which I am actually planning on selling as I really don't get to fly it as much as I would like too so and there are too many wires and trees in my neighborhood to fly it safely and the local state park has rules forbidding flying them so in order for me to fly it I have to drive about 30 minutes away so it's not that much fun but I do have a smaller drone that I picked up for about a $100.

 

The Holy Stone HS160 Shadow FPV RC Drone 

 it's a nifty little thing too it's small enough that it can fit into the back pocket of your jeans and the arms fold into the body so it doesn't stick out but it is a little tricky at first to figure out but it a quick learn as my 8yr old was able to learn it in about 15 minutes of playing with it and soon enough it became hers and she played with it so much this summer she wore the batteries so much I had to purchase new batteries as the ones that came with it wouldn't even hold a charge anymore.

 

I do like the look of the new DJI Mavic drone though because of the small sleek design of how small they are I actually bought the P3 sight unseen from Best Buy off the recommendation from a buddy of money I wasn;t aware of how big it actually was had I known had big it was I don't know if I would've actually bought it but then again I don't regret it because I did get some great videos and had a lot of fun making videos with it.

 

I just wish my city wasn't so strict with the flying of it, I think I might pick up model airplanes or helos since those aren't banned but drones aren't figure that one out

Edited September 14, 2018 by AiraCobra

[Mister Pink]

Nice! What sort of flight time do you get from the $100 drone? Any other features on it worth noting? I would love to pick up a cheaper one, just f*ck about with or to take around with me for fun. 

 

Also, the Phantom 3 is nice. I was seriously thinking of getting one from the Phantom range. I like the relative safety of the frame of the Phantom offers, especially for landing on uneven surfaces. 

 

Mavic 2 arrived today but the weather is too rough to try test it out, so I just updated the firmware and familiarized myself with the controls somewhat. I'm dying to test it out but all I can do is just sit there and look at it!

 

Edit: Finally got to fly her today. Winds were a bit gusty - 30kph/18mph (storm Ali is approaching) but it was OK. Managed to have some nice flight time. Was my first time ever flying a drone. It felt really intuitive (thanks videogames). For some reason, though I didn't get a live feed. I managed to take some photos as it has 8gb internal storage (ordered a 64gb micro SD today) and they showed up as cached images in the DJI app. Other than that I just got a blank/black screen. Not sure why.  I'm using Android and I heard DJI are very Apple friendly. However, I refuse to use Apple products these days. 

Edited September 18, 2018 by Mister Pink

[HaRdSTyLe_83]

On 9/12/2018 at 3:23 PM, Mister Pinkerton said:

So anyone here flying drones? Big or small. Any filmmakers using them? What's the airspace like where you live and does it restrict you?

 

the only drone i have is a navigator 2, just a toy that was a gift, i mostly use it in my room when im bored and want to scare the living sh*t out of my cat, or around the house. since its considered a toy, no restrictions apart from flying under 30mts

 

i would like to buy a spark or mavik air but after starting to read the restrictions  i just said nahhh, not for me.... it started fine, you just need to register the drone if over 200g and insure if over 900g, you can fly up to 120mt with no special request, seems fine i guess, its something that could endanger other people and one needs to be responsible. but then there are other restrictions depending on the zone.

IDK why but my area is one of the "under military jurisdiction"  humm? yeah there is an air force base but its like 30Km away.

you can still fly, but you need to send a request 10 days before each day you want to fly with it.

 

not to mention if you want to record etc you also need to ask for permition to another department etc...

 

i understand that there are alot of crazy stupid people out there flying near airports, above huge crowds etc, i just wanted something to take pictures when im out with the family or vacations etc so ill stick with just my Canon.

 

 

Blue = you can fly with no special request

red = cant fly

yellow = natural park need some special request (didnt read much about that)

orange = under military jurisdiction, need special request

 

most of the areas in orange are just small villages with alot of deserted/woodland area yet there are more restrictions then in the areas around the airports

Edited January 9, 2019 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[Mister Pink]

Sounds like it's a little strict (in some aspects) in Portugal, all right. I've been to Lisbon before, great city, awesome people too.

 

I didn't have to register my drone but I will shortly. I think these scares of idiots flying near airports is worrying airport authorities, so they are clamping down a bit - and rightly so. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it's someone that's anti-drone, deliberately flying drones near airports to get them banned or restricted - but bordering on conspiracy theories there!    It's just a pity some idiots ruin it for the rest of us. 

 

Even with that map, I know at first glance it seems restrictive but it's actually quite good for a European city. I imagine out to the west a bit near Cais Cais is quite free too? I'm very surprised the blue comes right in to the airport. In my city (western Europe) there's a 5km radial ban around any aerodrome which I think is reasonable. However, I live in a small city and the airport is relatively close so it restricts me a bit as it's all controlled airspace. That means 15m is the max height. However, when I get my license I can get an exemption. 

 

I think doing the safety course before I got my drone has definitely made me more safety conscious and respectful of other people. Safety is a priority for me so I'm only flying in very risk-averse environments. Haven't had the chance to do much over the last 2 months due to weather but will again soon. 

Edited January 17, 2019 by Mister Pinkerton

[HaRdSTyLe_83]

that is the thing i dont understand.... you can fly near the airport up to 30mt (the first blue box) or 60mt (the second blue box) with no special request whatsoever, yet on the outskirts of the capital, where it is mostly small villages with nothing in between you cant. Its like its been made so tourists can come and take pictures of capital

[Misumi]

We had a couple storms roll in a few days ago and I heard some noises coming from the roof. So I bought a cheap $50 drone from Amazon with a camera on it. My genius plan was to fly it over the house so I could record any possible damages via the drone camera.

 

It came this morning, and I practiced flying it for about 10 minutes. I finally took it outside the house to record the roof. I ended up crashing it on top of my neighbors roof 15 seconds later. I didn't get any footage of my roof. Right now I'm split between laughing my ass off and being annoyed that I just wasted $50.

 

I feel like buying another one though.

[Mister Pink]

On 1/20/2019 at 4:55 AM, Noale said:

We had a couple storms roll in a few days ago and I heard some noises coming from the roof. So I bought a cheap $50 drone from Amazon with a camera on it. My genius plan was to fly it over the house so I could record any possible damages via the drone camera.

 

It came this morning, and I practiced flying it for about 10 minutes. I finally took it outside the house to record the roof. I ended up crashing it on top of my neighbors roof 15 seconds later. I didn't get any footage of my roof. Right now I'm split between laughing my ass off and being annoyed that I just wasted $50.

 

I feel like buying another one though.

Buy another one, ya dingus!

 

Seriously though, that's a real pity. Sounds like a very good use for a drone. I love hearing how people have their own uses for tech/drones. It's really exciting. I hope your neightbour wasn't upset (if they even know about it! :P) 

[Misumi]

 My neighbor doesn't know. They're gonna inspect their roof one day and find a dead drone and start dreaming up conspiracies. 

[HaRdSTyLe_83]

13 minutes ago, Noale said:

 My neighbor doesn't know. They're gonna inspect their roof one day and find a dead drone and start dreaming up conspiracies. 

 

LMAO, you need to send a new drone to tow it

 

first time i took mine outside i had already played with it alot inside so i was a bit to confident of my skills, i took off from the palm of my hand, straight from the 1st floor balcony , it was a bit windy and by the time my hand reached the controller it was already a couple of meters away, i only had the time to press the landing button before it ran away.

it doesn't have the weight nor the power, not to mention it doesnt have all the thing real drones have like sensors etc to keep it stable in the same spot

[Misumi]

It rained hard again yesterday. If the crash didn't kill the drone. The storm definitely killed it. It probably blew the drone over to another roof too. Who knows any more.

 

RIP drone. We had a good time for those 10 minutes we had together.

 

It was one of those tiny drones from Amazon that fits in the palm of your hand. And it was still a little windy outside when I flew it. So it was hard to control. It wasn't powerful enough to even hover in one spot. 

 

If I get another drone, I'll probably go for a bigger one.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Noale

[Mister Pink]

Mavic have just released the Mavic Mini. 

 

 

At around $400, it's a quarter of the price of my Mavic 2. And in some ways I wish I started on a less expensive device as I'm almost (can't be too much) overly cautious. :P

 

I really like this drone. It's so small. I mean the Mavic 2 pro fits in my bad very snuggly. Folded up, it's about the size of large camera lens, so fits in the camera bag really easily. I can just see this being so handy for indoor shoots too. I'm going to pick one up when I can. 

 

 

 

[JareCzech]

Hi, I would like to buy some badass drone someday in the future. Do you have some recommendations? I would like to see it in VR, so I can feel like I am flying, that was always my dream. I dont have budget.

[Mister Pink]

On 11/17/2019 at 11:43 PM, JareCzech said:

Hi, I would like to buy some badass drone someday in the future. Do you have some recommendations? I would like to see it in VR, so I can feel like I am flying, that was always my dream. I dont have budget.

Sorry, I'm only seeing this now. 

 

I'm only familiar with the one and only drone I've flown. I would highly recommend Mavic products though. They do market at the higher end but you can feel that in the build quality of their products. They are inspired by Apple greatly and I know that may not be the proudest thing, but it terms of design and actual build quality of the smart batteries, the app, the compatibility with only (mostly) high-end phones and hardware. (except Xiaomi)

 

If you are on no/low-budget you may consider a freestyle/racing drone. They have a camera and usually they have a first-person-view function. Here's one for around 90$ which is about 2,061.71 CZK. 

 

You can do more stunts with this type of drone. 

 

 

[jpm1]

been digging a lot that question recently. but finally after having watched dozens of Youtube videos, i gave up. i came to the conclusion that the ratio price/performance wasn't good enough. the bebop 2 is affordable but the 30 fps make the videos quite average. the only one that had descent video is the Mavic mini, but 400€ is really expensive for what it offers, 2k  @ 60 fps. of course you can go for more expensive, but then the prices jump up to 1000€. and it seems that where i live in France the bill explodes because you need to own security stuff for homologation, like parachutes. so yeah, but for 3000€ i prefer to own a 125 cc dirt bike, and have lot of fun with it

but i keep an eye on this. because i live in a very scenic region. and the day i'll grab a thing with a descent performance price ratio, i'll make some cool videos

Edited January 20, 2020 by jpm1

[Mister Pink]

On 1/20/2020 at 11:27 PM, jpm1 said:

been digging a lot that question recently. but finally after having watched dozens of Youtube videos, i gave up. i came to the conclusion that the ratio price/performance wasn't good enough. the bebop 2 is affordable but the 30 fps make the videos quite average. the only one that had descent video is the Mavic mini, but 400€ is really expensive for what it offers, 2k  @ 60 fps. of course you can go for more expensive, but then the prices jump up to 1000€. and it seems that where i live in France the bill explodes because you need to own security stuff for homologation, like parachutes. so yeah, but for 3000€ i prefer to own a 125 cc dirt bike, and have lot of fun with it

but i keep an eye on this. because i live in a very scenic region. and the day i'll grab a thing with a descent performance price ratio, i'll make some cool videos

Sorry, just seeing this now. 

 

And I think €400 is great in terms of the technology, relatively speaking. Remember to get steady shots like this 10 or two years ago, you were talking about hiring a helicopter to get these views. €400 is nothing!   Is there any particular reason you need more frame rate than 30fps? I mean the motion is so smooth and give the illusion of slow when high up that often people mistaken some of my shots for slo-mo. I get if you need 60fps to do slo-mo but I think 2K at 60fps is more than people need, unless you want to get in to commercial work. Statistically speaking, nobody is going to watching your content on a 2k monitor or larger. The'll be watching on tablets, mobile phones etc. 

 

Keep an eye Xiaomi. They make excellent phones and they also do drones. They make good budget alternatives. My self and a few friends/family bought Xiaomi phones due to their amazing specs and low price. Haven't had one problem with them. Nobody has. In fact, the Mavic 2 Pro likes high-end phones, Samsungs, iPhones and one of the few non iPhone/Samsungs listed as compatible officially was Xiaomi (two Chinese companies, makes sense but also the specs were there).

 

And don't forget, resolution does not equate to quality of image. I have 2 Canon SLRS. One has a much better 1080p image than the other. Same when I had a "4K" video in my old Samsung phone. It wasn't great looking at all, but somehow they can get this "4K" feature as a selling point. My point is that I would prefer to use nice, quality 1080p footage over bad 4K. I suspect you know about this all ready. I'm just pointing it out in case anyone else is reading. 

 

Here's a Xiaomi drone for around €500 or less and it's 4K.  

 

 

You can get it for €450 on eGlobalCentral

Edited March 23, 2020 by Mister Pink