All things drones (UAVs)

The Garage
#1

I’ve been toying with the idea of buying or building a small drone for a while, something capable of holding a GoPro or 4K camera in a gimbal mount for a bit of low level aerial footage.

At this stage I’m only planning to use it for recreation and hopefully spend sub-$1000 (excluding the camera) just wondering whether any other AppleTalkers have played with them? Do you get much use out them? And Is the DJI Phantom 3 the pick of this category or am I better off with a custom kit?

(And yes I’m aware of all the regulations, being a fixed wing pilot means I qualify as a commercial drone operator by simply doing 5hrs flying and a flight test if I want to)

#2

Only drone I’ve owned and flown is the Parrot AR Drone. I still have mine but the battery’s pretty cactus.

DJI seem to be where the action is atm, especially in the photography/videography space. There’s rumours about GoPro releasing a drone in the future too.

Have a look at the This Week In Photo and TWIP Talks podcasts (check the show notes for anything drone related). Anything with Eric Chang (formerly of DJI) is a wealth of drone knowledge.

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#3

I bought a Phantom 3 advanced last year and have had an amazingly fun time with it! Flying is so intuitive and great fun and the quality of footage is incredible. Check out my Facebook page for some of what I’ve done: http://www.facebook.com/sunshinecoastaerials

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#4

And this is the video I am most proud of, all taken with the Phantom over several weeks last year :slight_smile:

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#5

That’s pretty impressive. Amazing to think that not all that long ago anything like that would have required a helicopter.

I got a couple of these little toys for my son (and me) for his birthday last week.

For so little cash they are awesome little toys, but not exactly in the class you’re looking at. I want to grab a few spare batteries so am thinking of getting the version with a camera for shits and giggles while I’m there. Again, not even close to what you want… but for US$32.61 :smiley:

#6

Incredible footage. Do you see much advantage of the Phantom 3 advanced over the standard? Or the professional over the advanced? There’s some reasonably priced pros around with the release of the phantom 4, if only I could justify it, they look insanely good.

I’ve accumulated 3 or 4 of the little gyro helicopters, they’re also incredibly good fun, even if it’s just dog fight between 2 of them.

#7

Forget the P3S (Standard), the camera is similar to the Advanced, but the range is nowhere near as good. I can get upwards of 2km range on mine, but the Standard is very limited because it uses Wifi instead of the far superior Lightbridge which are used on the Advanced and Pro models. There is no difference between the Advanced and Professional except the cameras. I would never have any use for 4K video (at least for the time being), so I couldn’t justify the extra $500 or so for the Professional.

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#9

Ended up with the Phantom 3 Advanced, pretty happy with it so far.

3200×1800

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#10

Great! Just make sure you’re aware of all the laws and regulations governing UAVs :slight_smile:

#11

Is that a photo of Werri Beach, Gerringong?

#12

Indeed it is.

#13

They are so impressive.

Not having the budget for something at at scale, I got my little one of these in the post today so will have to charge up the batteries and see what it can do.

:smiley:

Saw this today:

Anyone want to buy me a Birthday present??

#14

phantom 2’s and 3’s are getting ridiculously cheap at the moment, also a good way to learn how to actually fly them so you aren’t crashing brand spanking new ones with expensive cameras under them. I’ve crashed every phantom i’ve owned but thats with heavy use at all sorts of places all over the world.

Phantom 2 is a good upgrade over 1 for ease of use when it comes to batteries and charging etc

#15

I took my little H20C out for it’s maiden flight today, it looks like I got a fingerprint on it’s tiny lens (hopefully) but since I didn’t have anything to check the video with me I got this when I got home. My control is rubbish but I think I’ve learned quite a bit in the four short flights my batteries allowed so will do better next time.

The only problem is that this small taste has me wanting more and those cheaper 2’s and 3’s look very tempting… :wink:

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#16

It actually looks kind of cool with that blur on the lens, with a retro filter it would look great, especially given the subject matter!

#17

Haha, agreed. Almost like a mini-tilt-shift effect going on there.

#18

Where was this show? Did you get any better shots of the cars? The two-tone convertible beetle looks pretty cool.

#19

Albury: VITS

#20

beware the facebook groups with anything to do with UAV’s… post any picture with a person in it and you’ll get roasted about CASA rules. Those rules are worth a glance just so you know what you’re dealing with, but common sense is pretty much all that is required. The benefit of those tiny drones is that they aren’t likely to do much damage to man or beast if you crash it.

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#21

https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2016C00234/Html/Volume_3#_Toc445124813
well that’s a whole rabbit hole isn’t it…

On the upside, my little thing seems to be a “Micro UAV” and none of the regulations apply :smiley:
micro UAV means a UAV with a gross weight of 100 grams or less.
It’s small and wouldn’t hurt much at all if it fell on you as long as the blades weren’t spinning, while there are protective thingies they do sting a little if you shove your finger in there.

A Phantom would be a small UAV so there is a pile of stuff to read but my quick flicks seems to be that as long as you stay under 400 ft AGL and 30m away from people (and not over them) you don’t need approvals… which of course everyone does… right? :wink:

On a side note, apparently releasing a single helium balloon within 3 nautical miles (about 5.5km) of an aerodrome is an offence if you don’t have approval…