My first drone

[macoman]

Look what I ordered... first drone... I am planning to make videos on the mountains and lakes around NE Pennsylvania

[macoman]

Update: Returning this product... it felled down to the ground from seven meters. Battery fully charged. I will get the money back and buy a Mota Giga 8000.

[Baba_Ji]

25 minutes ago, macoman said:

Update: Returning this product... it felled down to the ground from seven meters. Battery fully charged. I will get the money back and buy a Mota Giga 8000.

that one might fall down too

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I would never upgrade away from the Phantom series, nothing has touched them within the price range.  But please do share any pics or vids, I love that the ability to shoot these types of shots are now in the hands of enthusiasts

 

[macoman]

44 minutes ago, Baba_Ji said:

that one might fall down too

The Mota Giga are professional grade series drones... I doubt it will do the same.

[macoman]

50 minutes ago, Nik Louch said:

I would never upgrade away from the Phantom series, nothing has touched them within the price range.  But please do share any pics or vids, I love that the ability to shoot these types of shots are now in the hands of enthusiasts

 

You know that is true that they are great but the only thing I do not afford is the high price. The Phantom 4 cost like $1,300 dollars. I will publish some pics and also a video when the drone felled down to his death soon...

[macoman]

Another thing that I didn't like about this drone is that the battery took a great amount of force to trying to pull it out. The build quality is pretty good but the battery is not.

[HawkMan]

Ask for recommendations BEFORE buying these things.

 

While phantoms are great, and all, they certainly not your best bang for the buck product as they're very over priced, and for many there are products that offer just as good end result for a fraction of the price. 

 

This upair thing, is a complete unknown brand I wouldn't recommend. probably sold across a million different names. The moto Giga thing also seems to be a similar situation, certainly no brand I've heard of, and it looks like a bog standard knockoff versions, and certainly does not look like a "professional grade" drone. 

 

A drone I myself have considered, is the Quanum Nova Pro (yes it is also sold under another name, however that model has a different flight controller and not the same GPS and compass system). granted if you equip it with all the optional accessories it can get pricy as well, but you get a solid drone to start with. it can be expanded, used standardized batteries so no reason to get expensive special batteries.  And most importantly, it comes with a APM flight controller(sure a pixhawk based one would have been better but it'd also push the price higher) meaning it has a more powerful flight controller than DJI capable of doing more stuff, while already configured for you. also unlike DJI you won't suddenly be grounded because you forgot to upgrade the firmware and because DJI decided that make everywhere within 500km of you into a no fly zone that you can't override... While I have considered buying last gen DJIs on sales a few times and would have when I had the money, I no longer have no intention of any such thing after they started with the no fly zone nonsense. I know the regulations and where and when I can fly, they "assume" and go by a better safe than sorry standard that means they mark a ridiculous amount of land as no fly. 

 

The Horizon Hobby Blade Chroma is also an absolutely excellent RTF cinematography drone. in fact with the price cut and the model that comes with the gimbal, it probably comes in cheaper than the Nova pro with gimbal, so I'd probably go for that then, I used the price for the one with the ST109 not the DX4 radio as a basis here. you save a bit for the DX4 version, but you probably want a slightly more capable radio for a drone like this. though it'll fly and do all the stuff you want just fine so... 

 

a lot of drones are based on the same internal electronics and software though, so they often do the same thing, the difference tends to be the quality of the software and production quality of the drone itself. For cheaper RTF drones, the brands I'd reccomend are: Horizon/Blade, Yuneec(The blade series are made with yuneec, and used the same gimbal/camera for those that came with a gimbal and camera) and Quanum Nova Pro(not the cheaper lower end Quanums) 

[macoman]

37 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Ask for recommendations BEFORE buying these things.

 

While phantoms are great, and all, they certainly not your best bang for the buck product as they're very over priced, and for many there are products that offer just as good end result for a fraction of the price. 

 

This upair thing, is a complete unknown brand I wouldn't recommend. probably sold across a million different names. The moto Giga thing also seems to be a similar situation, certainly no brand I've heard of, and it looks like a bog standard knockoff versions, and certainly does not look like a "professional grade" drone. 

 

A drone I myself have considered, is the Quanum Nova Pro (yes it is also sold under another name, however that model has a different flight controller and not the same GPS and compass system). granted if you equip it with all the optional accessories it can get pricy as well, but you get a solid drone to start with. it can be expanded, used standardized batteries so no reason to get expensive special batteries.  And most importantly, it comes with a APM flight controller(sure a pixhawk based one would have been better but it'd also push the price higher) meaning it has a more powerful flight controller than DJI capable of doing more stuff, while already configured for you. also unlike DJI you won't suddenly be grounded because you forgot to upgrade the firmware and because DJI decided that make everywhere within 500km of you into a no fly zone that you can't override... While I have considered buying last gen DJIs on sales a few times and would have when I had the money, I no longer have no intention of any such thing after they started with the no fly zone nonsense. I know the regulations and where and when I can fly, they "assume" and go by a better safe than sorry standard that means they mark a ridiculous amount of land as no fly. 

 

The Horizon Hobby Blade Chroma is also an absolutely excellent RTF cinematography drone. in fact with the price cut and the model that comes with the gimbal, it probably comes in cheaper than the Nova pro with gimbal, so I'd probably go for that then, I used the price for the one with the ST109 not the DX4 radio as a basis here. you save a bit for the DX4 version, but you probably want a slightly more capable radio for a drone like this. though it'll fly and do all the stuff you want just fine so... 

 

a lot of drones are based on the same internal electronics and software though, so they often do the same thing, the difference tends to be the quality of the software and production quality of the drone itself. For cheaper RTF drones, the brands I'd reccomend are: Horizon/Blade, Yuneec(The blade series are made with yuneec, and used the same gimbal/camera for those that came with a gimbal and camera) and Quanum Nova Pro(not the cheaper lower end Quanums) 

Thanks for the awesome details and recommendations... I will certainly check it out and learn more about it. Thanks again.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

I don't find DJI equipment pricey, and it seems a lot more competent than many "toys" on the market.

[HawkMan]

None of the brands I listed are in any ways classed as Toy's and are just as capable as DJI for a lot less. What some are missing is live video transfer including, or they have SD video instead of HD for the live feed. 

 

So as such DJI is definitely pricey, sure it may be worth it, but after they have started to block of 50% of the world as a no fly zone for no good reason, I wouldn't even necessarily find that true. Sure they're good product, but if you need a drone for filming, there are cheaper alternatives that provide just as good quality, and in some cases better and more capable software with less limitations. 

 

DJI has been able to maintain a high price mostly because of lightbridge, Connex might help alleviate this issue, but we really need a third player to properly push the price as Connex seems to put themselves at the same price instead leveraging size features and latency over lightbridge. 

[macoman]

 

 

This is what I was able to recorded before his dead

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 9/18/2016 at 6:50 PM, HawkMan said:

None of the brands I listed are in any ways classed as Toy's and are just as capable as DJI for a lot less. What some are missing is live video transfer including, or they have SD video instead of HD for the live feed. 

 

So as such DJI is definitely pricey, sure it may be worth it, but after they have started to block of 50% of the world as a no fly zone for no good reason, I wouldn't even necessarily find that true. Sure they're good product, but if you need a drone for filming, there are cheaper alternatives that provide just as good quality, and in some cases better and more capable software with less limitations. 

 

DJI has been able to maintain a high price mostly because of lightbridge, Connex might help alleviate this issue, but we really need a third player to properly push the price as Connex seems to put themselves at the same price instead leveraging size features and latency over lightbridge. 

Without live transfer, it's certainly nowhere near as capable.  

[Circaflex]

50 minutes ago, macoman said:

 

 

This is what I was able to recorded before his dead

Looked pretty cool, thanks for sharing. I enjoy drone videos, it gives you the opportunity to view different scenery you might not have been able to otherwise.

[HawkMan]

7 hours ago, Nik Louch said:

Without live transfer, it's certainly nowhere near as capable.  

With SD they do the same job though. 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

6 hours ago, HawkMan said:

With SD they do the same job though. 

Apologies, I misunderstood.

[+BudMan MVC]

Are you looking to just take pics and video with the thing?  If so didn't gopro just release their drone karma?  I think it starts shipping next month

[macoman]

On 9/20/2016 at 11:31 AM, BudMan said:

Are you looking to just take pics and video with the thing?  If so didn't gopro just release their drone karma?  I think it starts shipping next month

They do but at $799 without camera is kind of expensive toy for me.

[+BudMan MVC]

from my understanding and the basic research I did when was looking to get one, if you want anything good your going to have to drop some $ or they are just "toys"  Part of the reason I didn't get one couldn't get it through the budget committee at the time (wife)..

[TAZMINATOR]

See if you look around and find the drone with swappable batteries. That you can swap the batteries then fly it back up for more video length time. Just like RC cars/trucks do.

[Hum]

I'm hunting for Bigfoot with my drone

 

Edited September 21, 2016 by Hum

[TAZMINATOR]

1 minute ago, Hum said:

I'm hunting for Bigfoot with my drone

 

 

Good luck.

 

[HawkMan]

34 minutes ago, BudMan said:

from my understanding and the basic research I did when was looking to get one, if you want anything good your going to have to drop some $ or they are just "toys"  Part of the reason I didn't get one couldn't get it through the budget committee at the time (wife)..

I gave several cheaper alternatives that are not toys. 

[HawkMan]

28 minutes ago, TAZMINATOR said:

See if you look around and find the drone with swappable batteries. That you can swap the batteries then fly it back up for more video length time. Just like RC cars/trucks do.

They all have swappable batteries, but a lot of them use proprietary packages for the batteries so you have to buy expensive first party ones. 

 

The Quanum one uses regular batteries with XT 60 plugs, not entirely sure what the Blade one uses, but Horizon typically likes to use regular batteries on their stuff with EC5 or whatever they're called plugs. 

 

For all these you can et fairly cheap batteries as long as you make sure the C rating is high enough though. 

[+BudMan MVC]

What do you consider cheaper?  So the horizon blades, right - they start at $349 it seems

http://www.horizonhobby.com/storefronts/stores/chroma-sale?clickpath=multirotor_staticespot2_09012016

 

My point was your not picking up a drone for $100 and going to get something your going to enjoy..  Did the OP even say what he spent or what his budget is?

 

Seems $289, so yeah $349 is near that ball park but I think his came with camera.  I don't show those at $349 coming with camera.  We are the same page here.  While you can get a drone for reasonable money.. Depending on your budget..  Its going to be more than a couple hundred bucks when all said and done, ie my $ comment.

 

Your suggests seem like good ones, and clearly you know more than me on the subject.  In the research I did when looking to get something decent your going to pay.  To me all in for $289 is not the price point for something good.  Looks like what he got had camera and live streaming, etc.