Drones

snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
I'd like to ask that this thread remain debate free with respect to "shooting them down". Please start your own thread on that. Thanks.:mosh:

I think a drone is in my future. It will be my first drone. Would like to hear some of your experiences with drones you own or have owned. Considering a Phantom 3 standard as my first. I don't need crazy distance just close proximity to me and most importantly safe from crash and loss since I will be a beginner. Also, very budget conscious so need to stay $700 or less. Looking to buy for my own personal use and possibly for my son's use in his video production. Would also like to hear about getting certified/legal. I realize that those with drones might not be forthcoming with a lot of info because more people out there with them can be detrimental to livelihood. If you prefer not to post in this thread but would like to offer some info then I welcome PMs.
 

newdeerhunter011

Eight Pointer
i've got a phantom 3 standard and its a good beginner drone. very easy to fly. lands itself on the ground by pushing a button and hovers in place using GPS. only complaint i have is the range isn't that great buts its good enough IMO. takes great photos and videos. price has come down a lot on them since i got mine i think its a pretty good deal for $400.
 
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partspimp

Old Mossy Horns
I love my dji phantom pro...4k camera is unreal. 2 mile flight radius.
 
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snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
i've got a phantom 3 standard and its a good beginner drone. very easy to fly. lands itself on the ground by pushing a button and hovers in place using GPS. only complaint i have is the range isn't that great buts its good enough IMO. takes great photos and videos. price has come down a lot on them since i got mine i think its a pretty good deal for $400.

What kind of range does it have?
 

willch

Twelve Pointer
^^^^ dedpends on the terrain.. I have the Phantom standard as well and it's very easy to fly but in the neighborhood I dont fly it but about a 1/4 mile or so. I'd like to carry it out to the farm on some flat land and see the difference but haven't done that yet however I believe it has about a 1-2 mile range. I didn't bother getting certified and unless your using to make $ I wouldn't bother. Keep it under 400 feet and you should be good to go.
 
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Excursion

Ten Pointer
I have a Yuneec Typhoon H and love it. Everything so far is awesome. Its pricey but my company bought it for me. FYI: If you guys are going to "get paid" to fly one you better have a license. That is a direct quote from the Unmanned Aircraft director at the FAA.
 

Smitty010203

Twelve Pointer
I have a phantom 3 pro and heres the deal.

Your first choice isnt a bad one at all. You wont be able to fly the 3 standard as far as the pro, however, you will probably be to nervous to push the limits anyway.

The other thing is. You are going to crash it. Its inevitable. The very second you treat it like a toy, and at some point you will get comfortable with it and have fun, you will crash it.

The other reason your choice is a good one. 4k video is too much right now, yes it is badarse, but still. Unless you already are setup to edit and view that stuff its probably more than you really need. Most computers cant handle editing it. Takes forever to upload. And barely anyone has 4k tvs right now. I mean people do, but you know what I mean. The good thing about 4k right now, and this goes for any video equipment, is that with 4k, you have the abilitly to significantly crop your video in post production and still achieve 1080p definition..

Get the standard... At the very least you will figure out if you like it. I would also get a hard backpack case off ebay or somewhere. Maybe wait on the extra battery until you play around with the 1 that comes with it first. You might be surprised how long 20 minutes of flight time really last. And they dont take thattt long to charge. Mine charges in maybe 1 hour. And extra batteries are over a hundred bucks.

Oh and dont worry about all the licensing and training unless its for a business. The only thing you HAVE to do is register your drone with the FAA, and put your FAA number on the drone. I would also recommend putting you cell phone number on it too. I used label maker for mine. Definitely still figure out all the laws, like max flight altitude which I believe is 400'. No fly zones around hospitals and airports etc etc. If you out in the country and you use common sense its not a big deal. The Faa isnt going to come guns blazing to your house if you break 400'. I may or may not know a guy who got his over 1,000' in the air one time. :p

So far mine has been ran over by a husqvarna riding mower, been rebuilt by yours truly, and gone scuba diving 5' deep in a pond for about 15 minutes. It still works to this day haha.
 
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sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I've seen a few in action, but don't know much about them. What kind of camera is on them? Do you control the camera from the remote, or do you just turn the video on and it runs the whole time?

Kinda like other expensive toys, I'd like to have a buddy with one. It could be very useful for getting selective footage and maybe even some aerial stills for framing.
 

Wildlifer

Old Mossy Horns
I've seen a few in action, but don't know much about them. What kind of camera is on them? Do you control the camera from the remote, or do you just turn the video on and it runs the whole time?

Kinda like other expensive toys, I'd like to have a buddy with one. It could be very useful for getting selective footage and maybe even some aerial stills for framing.

Camera is on a gimbal, some have on board camera or give you the option to use a gopro.
 

GSOHunter

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
I have a phantom 3 pro and heres the deal.

Your first choice isnt a bad one at all. You wont be able to fly the 3 standard as far as the pro, however, you will probably be to nervous to push the limits anyway.

The other thing is. You are going to crash it. Its inevitable. The very second you treat it like a toy, and at some point you will get comfortable with it and have fun, you will crash it.

The other reason your choice is a good one. 4k video is too much right now, yes it is badarse, but still. Unless you already are setup to edit and view that stuff its probably more than you really need. Most computers cant handle editing it. Takes forever to upload. And barely anyone has 4k tvs right now. I mean people do, but you know what I mean. The good thing about 4k right now, and this goes for any video equipment, is that with 4k, you have the abilitly to significantly crop your video in post production and still achieve 1080p definition..

Get the standard... At the very least you will figure out if you like it. I would also get a hard backpack case off ebay or somewhere. Maybe wait on the extra battery until you play around with the 1 that comes with it first. You might be surprised how long 20 minutes of flight time really last. And they dont take thattt long to charge. Mine charges in maybe 1 hour. And extra batteries are over a hundred bucks.

Oh and dont worry about all the licensing and training unless its for a business. The only thing you HAVE to do is register your drone with the FAA, and put your FAA number on the drone. I would also recommend putting you cell phone number on it too. I used label maker for mine. Definitely still figure out all the laws, like max flight altitude which I believe is 400'. No fly zones around hospitals and airports etc etc. If you out in the country and you use common sense its not a big deal. The Faa isnt going to come guns blazing to your house if you break 400'. I may or may not know a guy who got his over 1,000' in the air one time. :p

So far mine has been ran over by a husqvarna riding mower, been rebuilt by yours truly, and gone scuba diving 5' deep in a pond for about 15 minutes. It still works to this day haha.

I believe the 400' is a strong recommendation and not a law.
 

hawkman

Eight Pointer
I believe the earlier DJI Phantoms came with a GoPro, had the option to get one with it, or you could put one on yourself. Now, they come with the proprietary camera. I, too, am considering the Phantom 3 (Pro). I think you can get them for 7-800 but once you had a spare battery or two, hard case, etc., you'll over 1k pretty quick. That's partly what's holding me back. That, and I have a lot of stuff I want to buy right now...

I don't know much about the Mavic, but I did see a youtube comparison of it and a Phantom (3 or 4, not sure). The guy did an interesting test where he had the drone hover over a spot on the ground at 4 to 5 feet in the air. He used a leaf blower from a few feet away and blasted it to see how well it would hold it's position. They both did amazingly well! The Mavic was better in this test and I think it's because it's side profile is much slimmer than the Phantom. (You'll see when you take a look at the two.). I'll post a link here: [URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D01BMCexPRI[/URL] [[Edit: why is the link not a live link? Is that not possible here? Can I use normal html tags to do it?]]

here's the thing I have a question about that came about while watching the video - and I have not researched it: Later in the video, the guy does some video and photo comparisons and when he does, he shows em side by side. The Mavic pic or vid always has a note that the vid/pic is "after sharpening" or "after post-processing". What is it about the Mavic that [seems to] require post-processing. Is it because it shoots in a RAW format for videos or some video type live AVCHD that requires post-processing to show as a jpg or put in an mp4? I don't know. While I shoot in RAW a lot with my photography, I don't need another thing that requires much editing. I already don't use my GoPro much b/c of what I perceive to be a hassle.
 
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aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Wife mentioned last week that she'd be interested in having a drone to take overhead pictures of her garden, so I ordered a Phantom 3 Standard model drone from Amazon. Supposedly they usually sell for around $600 - 700 dollars, but right now are priced at $450. The reviews I've read have been mostly positive, so that'll be our new "toy" for this Spring.....
 

Songdoghunter

Twelve Pointer
I Have 2 of the Phantom 3 Pro's and they are absolutely great. The Phantom's lock onto the US and GLONASS satellites so most anytime I fly, I get 16 or so locks. I've flown mine 2 miles on multiple occasions with the range extender. The fail safe return home feature and auto land are great as well. With the LITCHI APP, you can upload pre defined waypoints and the Phantom will fly the course you mapped out.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Picked up a Phantom 3 Standard a week or so ago, and have to admit its a lot of fun flying it. A bit of a learning curve, but thats part of the fun! Took this photo over our house at 300 feet.

 

nhn2a

Ten Pointer
I've got a Phantom 3 Standard as well. I love it but probably don't fly it as much as I expected to. The range is great for me. I can cover almost my entire 25 acre property from one spot with it. My recommendation is before you ever fly it, read the entire manual and use the flight simulators they provide.

I made a bad assumption when I first flew mine that it was similar to the Parrot Drones. They stabilize themselves by using sensors to measure the distance to nearby objects when indoors. The Phantoms only use GPS which indoors will cause it to drift significantly. My drone started to drift near my son who was watching nearby and out of instinct I threw out my hand to block it thus shaving the skin off my knuckle and resulting in my first of many crashes. It has some serious power behind the propeller so don't underestimate the damage they can cause.

I do have to say they are surprisingly durable.
 

gremcat

Twelve Pointer
Got my son the Yuneec Breeze to start with. The Magic or similar had dual person flight mode which seems cool. One person flies the other films. If he gets better with the Breeze we will go from there. It's cheap, takes great pics and is self piloting making it easy for newbies like us. I heard DJI CS was non-existent so went right to Yuneec.
 

snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
Picked up a Phantom 4 yesterday and have been messing with it. I'm hoping I will eventually get over the paranoid feeling that I am going to crash it. Open to any tips on usage.
 

NCST8GUY

Frozen H20 Guy
I've always thought you should practice lifiting off, and doing a 360 around yourself, then land. Then figure 8's. Once you've mastered that, repeat using the camera instead of your eyes on the drone.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
The thing I've found is that the problem comes after you've flown it a while and get over confident. THEN the "accident" happens.......
 

g3trappernc

Twelve Pointer
One of my neighbors is a college student at NCA&T and actually built his own as part of a class project using a 3-D printer....Fairly easy to fly with a bit of practice. My son, who has mild autism did great with it.
 

snakeskinner

Twelve Pointer
Bringing this back up because I have looked at permits. I have my knowledge test certificate but when I looked at the commercial permit it said I needed an airman certificate or a sponsor. What's the deal with that? What about the exemptions.
I will be using mine to make money so I need the permit.
 

Songdoghunter

Twelve Pointer
1. Take and pass the 12 topic Aeronautical Knowledge Test on Unmanned Aircraft Systems...2.Complete FAA Form 8710-13 for remote pilot certificate via IACRA..3.They will email you a temporary certificate until your hard copy is received.
 
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