Drone Pics

[GetCarter]

Some from the weekend (Outer Hebrides) - and yes, the colours are true!











14C in November. Who'd of thought.

[GravelBen]

GetCarter said:

14C in November. Who'd of thought.

And in the meantime we've had snow in November in NZ!

[Efbe]

GetCarter said:

noell35 said:

GetCarter said:

Well quite, but there are loads out there. Photographically, much better to get a P3 than a new £200 drone.

Yes, without a doubt.
I love my spark, the portability is a huge bonus but they're still the best part of £500 with a controller which I think it's a necessity.

I certainly agree. The Spark's steering without the controller is far to 'vague'.

if anyone else is looking for a similar drone...

the parrot anafi is c£430 at the moment, with a controller included (can't believe DJI don't give you a controller!)
It's quality is supposedly on a par with the DJI Mavic Air at c£850 (fly more combo), though you'll probably want to get an extra battery for £89 as well.

[tenohfive]

Not sure this question merits it's own thread:

I think I've somehow and wholly inadvertently got the green light to (at some point) get a drone for photography from SWMBO. No time soon, probably 6 months or so into the future.

Can anyone recommend a cheap (£30-40 with spare batteries) drone to get some practice with? Right now I've got my eye on the Syma X5C as an entry drone to practice/crash/lose as a starter, is there anything else worth considering?

[Tuna]

tenohfive said:

Not sure this question merits it's own thread:

I think I've somehow and wholly inadvertently got the green light to (at some point) get a drone for photography from SWMBO. No time soon, probably 6 months or so into the future.

Can anyone recommend a cheap (£30-40 with spare batteries) drone to get some practice with? Right now I've got my eye on the Syma X5C as an entry drone to practice/crash/lose as a starter, is there anything else worth considering?

Cheap drones are nothing whatsoever like the full priced ones. They fly differently, the camera operates differently, flight times are radically different, range is different, controls are different. Buy it as a nice toy, but don't think you're learning much about pro-sumer drones (other than crashing - crashing happens to everyone).

[leggly]

tenohfive said:

Not sure this question merits it's own thread:

I think I've somehow and wholly inadvertently got the green light to (at some point) get a drone for photography from SWMBO. No time soon, probably 6 months or so into the future.

Can anyone recommend a cheap (£30-40 with spare batteries) drone to get some practice with? Right now I've got my eye on the Syma X5C as an entry drone to practice/crash/lose as a starter, is there anything else worth considering?

That’s not a bad choice to start with, get the crashing out of the way early with a cheap one. You can get extra batteries for the X5C for around £20 for four with a charger. Don’t expect any usable video or images from it, just enjoy playing and getting to grips with non gps flight. You’ll be amazed how easy it is fly your “good” one when you buy it.

[GetCarter]

I'd add that small drones are also MUCH harder to fly than decent sized ones. I started off with a £50 job and crashed it all the time.

But in nearly 4 years of owning 'grown up' drones, I've never crashed. You have to be a bit of a muppet to crash one.

[blueg33]

I bought a Yuneec Breeze for about £250 from eBay.

It flies well, it has a good controller and takes reasonable pics. Biggest downside is 15 min flight time, but I have a second battery. It's also not the fastest.

It takes vid at 4k, has an adjustable camera, gps, return to home, pre programmed flight modes.

Quick vid here, this is unedited and uses the built in image stabilization

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0EGYQNlHuI

and a pic

[leggly]

I ventured out and braved the cold this afternoon.
Dusk over Strathy Point by Squiffy1308, on Flickr

[blueg33]

Anyone got any decent pics of Gatwick................

[noell35]

[tenohfive]

leggly said:

That’s not a bad choice to start with, get the crashing out of the way early with a cheap one. You can get extra batteries for the X5C for around £20 for four with a charger. Don’t expect any usable video or images from it, just enjoy playing and getting to grips with non gps flight. You’ll be amazed how easy it is fly your “good” one when you buy it.

GetCarter said:

I'd add that small drones are also MUCH harder to fly than decent sized ones. I started off with a £50 job and crashed it all the time.

But in nearly 4 years of owning 'grown up' drones, I've never crashed. You have to be a bit of a muppet to crash one.

I've got through one battery so far with the X5SC-1 (I've got 4 more but the kid had other toys to play with) and I love it. It's easier than I expected to control, the battery life was well inline with my expectations and I was pleasantly surprised with the camera - 720p and I counted 24fps, in easy daylight conditions but for social media and messing about it's more than enough. It feels like a lot of toy for £35.

So, with 10 minutes flight time I'm now starting to eye up something much much better. Not because the X5SC1 is bad, but because I'm well aware that a lot more money buys a much better capture. The only difficulty will be working out whether something small and portable that I can take on endurance events into the back end of beyond (Spark or similar?) will leave me wonting when used for less extreme scenarios.

[GetCarter]

If you do get a Spark, make sure you buy the controller, as steering accurately with a phone is much, much harder.

Also, unless things have changed, Spark doesn't do RAW - which is why I got rid of mine.

Mavic pro 2 or air (depending on budget) might be a good compromise?

[Tuna]

There's a strong case for buying second hand. Plenty of drones get flown a couple of times then left in the drawer. Get a new/extra battery for it and you'd be good to go.

[GetCarter]

Tuna said:

There's a strong case for buying second hand. Plenty of drones get flown a couple of times then left in the drawer. Get a new/extra battery for it and you'd be good to go.

+1 ... and yes, buy a new battery, as that's the first thing that'll let you down.

I have 2 fairly old and used (but still perfectly working) batteries from my DJI Phantom P3 pro (plus a few other useful bits - charger, props etc) - if anyone wants them for free, I just need a postal address and £15 to cover postage. (PayPal)

First post here gets.

Say 'ME' here and then PM me an address.

(You need a P3 mind... don't want to see them on eBay!)

[blueg33]

[227bhp]

One of mine from last week:

[ST565NP]

227bhp said:

One of mine from last week:

Gatwick, right ?

[GetCarter]

[buzzer]

first time out with my drone on Clee Hill...