Which Drone?

[Mark.]

Looking for recommendations, got some event's this year I'd like to get some footage of from the air and thinking a drone would be most suitable, it needs to be able to record to SD card, and have a decent amount of air time and range, and be able to be flown by a novice.

I did think about an outdoor helicopter with a built in camera I've seen but I'd first need to learn how to fly it properly - I figured a drone was probably easier (and safer) to get to grips with?

[horza]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hubsan-X4-H107C-LED-Mini...


Great fun.

You WILL get hooked.

This hobby can get expensive...

[Magic919]

DJI Phantom and a GoPro will do the job.

[HoHoHo]

Magic919 said:

DJI Phantom and a GoPro will do the job.

I should hope so at that cost

Looks like a nice piece of kit

[Mark.]

horza said:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hubsan-X4-H107C-LED-Mini...


Great fun.

You WILL get hooked.

This hobby can get expensive...

This looks good - will investigate further

[Mark.]

Magic919 said:

DJI Phantom and a GoPro will do the job.

This looks way out of my league right now

[horza]

Mark. said:

This looks good - will investigate further

Order spare batteries. A fully charged one will only provide around 5-6 minutes flight-time and they can take up to an hour to charge from a USB port.

5-6 minutes may not seem a lot but, believe me, your brain will be fried after just a few minutes flying this little thing!

Oh, and get spare props as well - they're easy to break / lose.

And get a micro SD card. It's not included.

And don't fly outdoors until you're reasonably confident - you will probably lose it!






Then get a Phantom or a DJI F450 or even something like a TBS Discovery. It's a whole new world of fascination and intrigue (and expense). Good though. Check out YouTube videos by searching for phrases like 'FPV flying' and there are some dedicated forums on such matters, such as fpvlab.com.

Enjoy!

[Mark.]

Thanks for the tips horza.

Am I right this is only a .3mp camera? Is that good enough for video these days?

[Mark.]

So the Hubsan x4 H107C has the 0.3mp, the x4 H109 had 1080p but looks like it's not out til end of Q1.

[horza]

The camera is alright in good light but terrible in bad light.

Also, as the camera is mounted directly to the quad, the resultant footage is quite shaky and on a quad this small there is a lot of movement as it's constantly adjusting its attitude in the air. It is more of a toy with the camera just being there for novelty value rather than a serious aerial filming platform.

I'd certainly get the X4 to hone my flying skills but if you're even half-serious about aerial filming you're going to have to get yourself something with a camera gimbal and a flight controller capable of altitude hold or GPS stabilisation.

You're probably into the £500 range here plus camera cost though you could certainly build something cheaper if you buy parts online from China. Bit of a minefield but there are lots of build threads on forums.

[Mark.]

Again, great input thanks.
I think aerial filming is a bit strong for what I have in mind, and my skills. I'm more thinking of just buzzing about a bit over small events so perhaps at this stage the cheaper one seems ideal.

Not sure the home procurement division would sign off £500 on a toy at this stage

[horza]

That H109 looks good if it's around the £200-£300 mark with FPV.

Also look at the H107D. It's got FPV using a screen on the transmitter and will accept an SD card for recording. It's around the £130 mark.

[HoHoHo]

horza said:

That H109 looks good if it's around the £200-£300 mark with FPV.

Also look at the H107D. It's got FPV using a screen on the transmitter and will accept an SD card for recording. It's around the £130 mark.

I've been out and bought the H107D and quite a nice bit of kit it is too.

Seems well built and comes ready to go with everything aside from the actual USB wall charger the supplied cable plugs into.

I can fly helicopters and if you can, it's easy to fly and very stable. Two options, easy and expert - expert allows you to alter the rates to 100%which I'll fiddle with once I can take it outside for a proper thrash around.

I have flown it outside briefly and it's quite breezy today, it seemed to handle the wind. I gave up simply because I've had an operation on my Achilles and should really be resting not buying and flying model drones!

The image on the screen is very clear and good quality however I'm not sure I'd be keen to fly using the screen inside the house but again flying outside will be different. Picture quality is very good and I've got a micro SD card to record video which seems to be acceptable quality. Some reviews suggest it's not brilliant but for the money paid it's fine, don't forget there's no sound of course.

Batteries take 30 minutes to charge and flight time should be about 6 minutes but I've not timed one yet. I did buy two additional batteries to allow some decent playing time.

I've put the protective blade thingy on whilst I'm flying indoors, anything to reduce the risk of damage is good by me!

Seems good value for money, I didn't expect to get something like this for just over £100.

One request, please don't start threads on interesting toys as I'll only end up spending more money!

Edited by HoHoHo on Wednesday 15th January 16:44

[RizzoTheRat]

If you fancy a home build take a look at the ArduCopter. Open source and pretty cheap control system that you build your own drone around.

Have a good look on youtube for video footage from various systems though, I fancied one until I realised just how much you need to spend to get stable aerial footage.

[Mark.]

Thanks for the heads up on the D will take a look.

Self build? Well I'd really like it to take off!