Drones

[threebag]

Thinking about buying a drone for a gift. Do any of you have one? What are the pros and cons with them? Looking for one that uses a camera for video and pics. Been seeing a few on some sale sights. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

My brother has one and it takes awesome pics/ Has the follow me feature too.

[threebag]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

My brother has one and it takes awesome pics/ Has the follow me feature too.

Sweet, what’s the “follow me” exactly?

[Buehler445]

DJI is the market leader. Probably don’t want to drop Mavic or Phantom money on a christmas present but they’re out there. There are a million knockoffs. I don’t know a whole lot with regards to tech specs. My nephew got a tiny cheap crap one and it flew like 2 minutes before the battery needed charged. Definitely avoid the bottom of the market.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by threebag02

Sweet, what’s the “follow me” exactly?

I’m guessing you engage it and it stays that distance from you.l as you move.

[jjjayb]

I have the original Mavic and it's fantastic. It's small so easy to take with you but it's very capable. Great distance. Great flight time. Plenty of smart flight modes.

[srvy]

DJI and Parrot have some well-reguarded drones for the hobbyist. Id look at the DJI Mavic personally.

The photogrammetry department where I work has 5 crews that go all over the country doing mapping surveys using drones now. We still retain a pilot and aircraft for aerial photography but its cut down his workload greatly. It still requires a surveyor on the ground to tie the mapping to horizontal and vertical control points on the ground in various points of the map.
Its pretty interesting work and if I was a younger man I would have gotten into this in a heartbeat. The drones they use varies to the job some require very high end high dollar drones and cameras to 4000 dollar DJI. They even have a drone for ponds and lakes.

[dj56dt58]

start of getting a cheap one if you don't have experience.

[ModSocks]

I got a drone (more of a toy, but still) for my son last year. Gets up there pretty high, nice camera on it etc.

It entertained us for about an hour and it's been collecting dust ever since.

[ghak99]

I regret not getting one that bombs people.

Taking pictures of the ground and looking for cows gets really boring after about 10 minutes.

[threebag]

I like to get the best bang for my buck around $500-$700ish. My son likes outdoors, thinks he is going to have an outdoor show when he gets older. Hunts, fishes, and loves to explore. Plan on checking shit out and pulling the trigger soon. Thanks

[threebag]

Originally Posted by dj56dt58

start of getting a cheap one if you don't have experience.

We’ve had our share of cheap ones every year. My boy is old enough now I hope that he won’t bang the hell out of a quality unit. It will be the first with camera and video. I just don’t know much about them myself. He rips the shit out of the box and takes off, hopefully, he will be more responsible with one with camera/video.

[srvy]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

I got a drone (more of a toy, but still) for my son last year. Gets up there pretty high, nice camera on it etc.

It entertained us for about an hour and it's been collecting dust ever since.

I think this is the norm. There really is just so much you can do with these things as a hobbyist. They has instituted so many regulations now and have neutered the spying aspect. Weirdos were using these at beaches and swimming pools sort of a peeping Tom look in bedroom windows thingy.

I have seen videos on youtube runners and hikers using them to record runs and hikes. I just don't see why I guess they have reasons. To industry they are invaluable as a hobbyist radio aircraft and drown flight folks is a very specific community.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by threebag02

I like to get the best bang for my buck around $500-$700ish. My son likes outdoors, thinks he is going to have an outdoor show when he gets older. Hunts, fishes, and loves to explore. Plan on checking shit out and pulling the trigger soon. Thanks

If you’re in that price range dji is probably where you need to be

[prhom]

Originally Posted by srvy

DJI and Parrot have some well-reguarded drones for the hobbyist. Id look at the DJI Mavic personally.

The photogrammetry department where I work has 5 crews that go all over the country doing mapping surveys using drones now. We still retain a pilot and aircraft for aerial photography but its cut down his workload greatly. It still requires a surveyor on the ground to tie the mapping to horizontal and vertical control points on the ground in various points of the map.
Its pretty interesting work and if I was a younger man I would have gotten into this in a heartbeat. The drones they use varies to the job some require very high end high dollar drones and cameras to 4000 dollar DJI. They even have a drone for ponds and lakes.

The company I work for has a fixed wing eBee drone for doing photogrammetry. It’s really cool as you just plan out the flight path and off it goes. The resolution in the finished photo mosaic product is amazing and the precision for topo is second only to lidar. Our only issue have been hawks and eagles. We were trying to cover a project in Mexico this week and had it go down again, but I’m pretty sure someone shot it down this time. Took a few days to find all of the pieces...