I’ve been wanting one for awhile for this kind of thing…what is your setup?
I have an original DJI Mavic Pro. It’s a landmark in compact drones, but a few years old now (and it decided to crash itself into a tree on its own shortly after this photo was taken). Mine has been supplanted by the Mavic 2 series.
This one has a 12 mp camera, but a modest lens with limited dynamics and color depth. The newer Mavics and larger models have better image quality.
The consumer market is dominated by DJI, while smaller players include Parrot, Autel, and Yuneec. All of them are much easier to use than pre-drone RC aircraft, but not for everyone.
Considerations include:
- Substantial up-front costs (I wouldn’t buy anything cheaper than the $800 Mavic Air)
- High risk of (expected) damage and loss, per weather, bad landings, bird attacks, running out of batteries over water, automated systems that make wrong assumptions about immediate priorities, etc. I’ve crashed mine more than once, and most recently for no fault of my own.
- Requires registration and knowledge of complex usage laws (per a hobby tier and more advanced commercial/pro tier). The advanced tier is required for business use/photo sales, etc.
- Requires extreme focus on the task and environmental hazards when in use, as one can drop several pounds on one’s own head, a car, or another lawsuit-evoking object.
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What I really want is a Mavic 2 Pro, in the form-factor of the current Mavic Air, but retaining the 1" sensor-based camera and the more comprehensive object avoidance of the 2 Pro …
Maybe next year …
Won’t buy anything with less than a 1" sensor at this point, even for diving … the DR and low-light performance of the smaller sensors is too limiting.
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A long essay on my lessons learned with aerial drone photography
I don’t know your experience with photo drones–this is a basic write-up for general interest and posterity.
Weight is the enemy of anything that flies. This is why birds have lots of hollow spaces in their feathers and bones, and why the history of aircraft involves ever lighter construction and stronger materials. The skin of the U2 spy plane was so thin that one could dent it by hand. Drone photography involves a thousand compromises to (1) actually fly a significant time/distance, and (2) deliver quality images and videos.
Drone Weight and Size:
As with cars, weight affects the entire experience.
- Small racing drones are fast, have poor video, and basically update the RC sport. They are flying sports cars.
- Consumer portable camera drones represent a trade off in size versus quality, as few want to lug around a huge product. As with a car, the larger the more stable the flight and the less affected by wind, and the better able to carry a heavy camera and lens. The older DJI Phantom series are much larger than many people want.
- Professional drones often have 6 motors/propellers and can easily carry a full sized DSLR or pro video camera. They also fill a suitcase, cost many thousands of dollars, and can require a separate pilot and photographer.
Subject Matter and Content:
Interesting drone photo shoots involve a lot of time and a literal flight plan. One cannot fly in National Parks, over crowds/public events, near airports, or too close to sensitive government and military facilities. Given the number of nervous citizens and ill-informed law enforcement officers, flying a drone can lead to conflict and confrontation. So, an effective drone shoot can require hours of planning, research, and phone calls.
Site Planning:
- Research a region to find interesting-but-legal locations. This can be a rural or suburban park, a National Forest, or an abandoned (no people present) industrial area near a city.
- Create a field kit with the drone, spare batteries, many spare propellers, memory cards, a landing pad, a car charger, cables, clean towels, camera maintenance gear (e.g., lens wipes), often a linked cell phone, etc.
- Find a launch location that’s discreet but affords long (legal) line-of-sight flying.
- For the best privacy and options, arrive at a target location early in the morning on a dry, sunny day.
Flight Planning:
- A location that looks good on a map or overhead photo may be totally different in real life. For this reason my first flight is usually very simple: go straight up 200 to 400 feet (the legal maximum) and rotate the camera 360 degrees. Scout out objects of interest, note any dangers or no-go areas. Don’t scout below 150-200 feet, or risk encounters with birds and trees.
- Plan a target shoot based on the range of your drone. A 20 minute battery allows 5 minutes flying out, 10 minutes of shooting, and 5 minutes flying back. A 30 minute battery doubles the radius to 10 minutes out and back and quadruples the area of coverage.
- When at the target object, execute the flight moves necessary to get good stills and cinematic shots (e.g., a “dronie” is when the drone faces you and flies up and backward.) Swooping panoramas are fun, rising over a tree, hill, or building to reveal the background is fun, etc. Watch any reality nature show to see loads of drone aerial shots (e.g., Survivor, various Alaska shows, Naked and Afraid, etc.)
- Drones offer many automated photo modes, such as “follow me,” “circle object,” and hover-in-place time lapse. Practice these in a safe area with recovery potential (e.g., a grassy park), or risk losing your drone.
- Use the object avoidance sensors whenever possible. Save “sport mode” for wide open grassy fields, lakes, and deserts. I first tried sport mode next to a stand of trees–stopping took forever and that was my first crash.
Camera Considerations:
- A stabilized, 3-axis camera gimbal increases sharpness and makes video worthwhile. Cheap drones don’t have these.
- Bright sunlight is the most common shooting condition, so lens filters are common and often necessary for decent images.
- Drone cameras have to be light on smaller drones, as they’d throw of the balance and limit the flight time and range.
Considering all of the above, the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom (1/2.3" sensor) seems to be the current consumer sweet spot. The Mavic 2 Pro (1" sensor) has received mixed reviews and shows little difference in side-by-side comparisons. [Again, most shooting occurs in bright sunlight rather than dark conditions.] Both the Mavic 2s greatly outclass the Mavic Pro (1st generation). If buying today, I’d perhaps get the $1,650 combo of Mavic 2 Zoom and the new controller with integrated display. The old cell phone attachment system is a major pain. With an unlimited budget I’d choose the Mavic 2 Enterprise with its additional thermal camera–just because it would be interesting (e.g., can you spot wildlife with it?).
I’d personally avoid anything will less than ~30 minutes of flight time, as so much time is wasted in scene positioning and travel to targets. Then, one has to hover until the clouds pass or the target gets into position. So, no Mavic Air (21 minutes) for me. It’s an open question whether battery, sensor, lens, and stability technology will improve, or whether the physical limits are close.
Comparison images and video:
DJI site: https://www.dji.com/mavic-2
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An excellent post!
Since I’d not investigated specific products enough (this would be a “that’s kind of fun” thing for me more than anything else) to discover that DJI weren’t getting much benefit out of the 1" sensor (definitely not the case with the better compact cameras vs. the 1/2.3"-based units - clearly visible differences, even in daylight, with, say, an RX100 vs. an HX99), that does put a bit of a dampener on things.
Or at least delays any purchase even further.
My flight experience comes from, well, piloting real helicopters/aircraft as well as RC helicopters (not nearly as suitable as camera platforms). Lots of similar challenges there, though flight-time is a lot less restrictive with the real thing! And the way things are going with the the less-conscientious drone “pilots” causing issues that keep upping the bar on regulations and restrictions, it might not be long before drones have less access than an actual chopper.
Since my interest (beyond the novelty of it) is almost solely in stills photography from angles, and of locations, I cannot necessarily get any other way, I’ve mostly worked with a friend that builds his own drones (mostly for racing, but he has one big one as a camera platform).
Still, excellent info for those that are interested/new to it!
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My speculation is that either (1) the marketing team forced the engineers to squeeze a checklist item (large sensor) into an undersized and limited housing, or (2) placing a high quality camera on the end of the chassis leads to ‘springboard’ vibration that the stabilization system cannot overcome.
The older, larger 1" sensor camera on the Phantom drones is placed at the bottom middle of the device, not at the front end. Springboarding is less likely, the placement suggests random and neutral wobble.
Useful resolution on a moving and vibrating device is perhaps a function of overall weight, camera placement, the number of props, and the distance between the props.
Drones are in an ultra-growth period, much like PCs were in the 1980s and 1990s. Considering the risk of loss, high costs, and instant obsolescence, they attract those who enjoy the pain of the bleeding edge.
I think we’ve reached a plateau with drone regulations. First there were none, then the FAA claimed absolute authority and lost in court, then again there were no regulations, and now the FAA has clear and moderate regulations. Considering the inherent power and hazards, drone regulations are bound to exist. Drones can be used as a targeted blunt object, used to drop bombs, carry flying handguns, or disperse dangerous liquids, and are really effective for gathering intelligence at low cost over long distances.
Something about the challenge of drone photography grabbed me. I bought it as a novelty, but pulling off a great shot is a multi-step accomplishment. I also discovered at least a dozen parks and attractions in searching for good sites. In the past I’d never have even tried to look.
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Just checking in since I’ve been so scatterbrained in real life lately. Have been coordinating a move from WA to CA as a result of being picked up for a new job that’ll require me down there. On the plus side, it means I’ll finally be back with my family. Cons? Well, there’s the entire moving process which I’m convinced was engineered to be as ridiculously stressful as possible.
For instance, how do I convince myself that the movers can handle 400+ records safely? What audio gear do I relegate to storage vs attempt to fit into our temporary living accommodations? Add that we’re trying to buy a house in the process and I think you can start to build a pretty good picture of just how scatterbrained I’m getting right now…
Which is exactly why I’m really happy I “staged” my D30/Magni 3 at work. A little Jimmy Eat World on the 6XX is starting to cut through these massive layers of anxiety and I’ll take every shred of relief I can get my hands on right now.
The move’s in 3 days. If you’re a praying man, please try to focus some of that energy my way.
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Check Angie’s List for “Frisbee Experience” in their reviews.
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Nervous laughter
After taking a couple nights to sleep on it (the thought, not the records themselves…that would be painful), I came to the conclusion that I’m going to just take these records down the west coast myself. Thank God for those plastic drawers that fit into IKEA Expedit shelves since those covered the 3 remaining boxes-worth of albums that I didn’t already have carboard crates for. Just means I’ll be folding down the back seats of the SUV to make room for 'em and the wife can shoot me later.
The compromise is that I had to take most of my other pairs of headphones and box 'em up with extra padding. Going to have them sealed up before the movers get here so they don’t get to see what’s inside. Only things coming down with me now (aside from the records) are going to be the Monoprice THX Desktop and HD6XX.
No, shipping company, you shall not improve your frisbee experience at my expense…
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Last year, a dozen people at my work’s Summer Regional work some rather loud and flashy suits to the Awards Dinner. Apparently this got some traction from our home office, and another region is doing the same. So our instigator (not me) sent out mail encouraging all, and looking for double or triple the participation. I just ordered my Saturday Awards Dinner at the Beach suit.
It’s really just rattlesnakes. But they call it Rattlesnakes and Condoms. So you can toast “Two things I never F with”
If I were sorry for the lack of taste, I probably wouldn’t have ordered it.
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OH SWEET LAWD I’ve got my USB-C OTG cable in (thanks to Amazon same-day shipping).
Sat here scratching my head for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out why UAPP was only outputting to the phone’s speaker and not the Monolith 788…didn’t realize USB-OTG requires enabling in OnePlus’ settings. Felt a little dumb after figuring that out when I’d already done 3 cable swaps.
But it works! Anker, you sure make some sweet cheep cables that just do what they need to do when you need them to do it. Even if I’m really only going to need this for the next week or so, it’s definitely a nice-to-have. Head-Fi really has turned me into a bit of a brat…
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Anybody doing CanJam SoCal? My wife will be working that weekend, so it’d ironically be doing her a favor if I went so she can sleep for her night shifts.
Just curious to know if they have age restrictions…I’d have to have my 11 and 5-year old in tow. Secretly hoping I can get one or both of them in on the hobby 
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There are a bunch of us going… I think. I’m going to be there for Saturday but fly out that night.
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Based on the cost and that it’s a relatively short drive, I’ll try to make both days work. Hopefully I get a chance to run into those of you who are going…assuming I’m able to go. I asked in the HF event thread about it. I know my 11-year old will easily be able to behave himself since I’ve taken him to a synth meet in Seattle. More than confident my daughter will follow suit.
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Do you really think that both of them will behave for many hours over two days? If so, congrats on your parenting expertise!
I would think most kids would be bored out of their minds after an hour or two. And it would be hard to watch them when you are distracted with all the shiny toys.
Good luck. Sounds like a cool show!
Shane D
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I’m going to use it as a teaching moment in a sense. Worst case, I’m out a few bucks and we find something else to do together, but I have faith in them. They’re good kids.
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Cool and good luck! I hope it works for you. I wish we had any kind of show around here.
I am forced to live vicariously through you show goers.
Shane D
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Show?? I would like to have a store that stocks some kind of headphone other than Bose less than a 4 hour drive away 
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You and me both! I have two local shops, but they top out at like $399.00. The last thing I could buy locally was the Grado SR325E. After that I have ordered from MassDrop, dealer in Quebec and dealer in BC and using CAM (Canuck Audio Mart). There are no high end headphones, amps, DAC’s, etc. I have to research the hell out of everything and then buy online. And I only seem to have about a 40% success rate, in the long term.
Oh well, other than that, it is a nice place to live.
Shane D
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