Imagine that with your drone you could do everything at once!!
Get spectacular recordings, watch it fly for as long as possible without having to stop every time to charge the battery, watch it fall while learning to control it without worrying about how many pieces were broken and finally get that feeling of going “ON board” first hand, everything at the best possible price.
Wouldn’t that be great?
The truth is that nowadays, most of the stories we can find out related to drones only talk about how difficult and expensive they are to fly and repair and how people wait hours to charge their batteries in exchange for just a few minutes of piloting and lets not talk about the stories of those drones in which we invest a good amount of money only to see them disappear without never being able to recover it again. Been there done that!
Certainly, today the technology that is used for these devices has improved a lot since it begginings and it is possible to have several advantages simultaneously in the drone we select.
Isn´t that what we all want actually?
Everything will depend on being clear on what we want to get from our drone, this was one of the mistakes I made and It eventually ended up costing me more money. While no one wants to sacrifice maneuverability for video resolution or resistance for price, we must be clear on which aspects we want the most to be the highlights in our purchase in order to have the best chance of ending having fun with the correct drone.
In my case I have clear what I want! Eventhough my wife thinks I don’t most of the time! And that is the possibility to fly for as much time as possible while I get the best images in the most natural and accurated ways, this is because I use my drone while I practice mountain races and I really enjoy stopping at certain points along the way and letting my drone fly to make sure I understand perfectly the location, get pictures of the best possible routes and return to the competition!
DJI Mavic pro
My best selection in this regard, maneuverability and great video quality is what I get from this drone, it’s really built for adventure situations, not larger than 8 inches long and 3.5 inches deep and able to fly over the area for more than 20 minutes without interruption, lightweight, shock resistant and with 4K / 30fps recording capacity.
Oh yes! I can control it from my smartphone and providing gesture recognition so I can simply put the remote control in my camel bag and it will follow me up and down the mountain!
There are also some other important factors to consider that for some reason are always mentioned last, and I have preferred to mention at the this point so that we do not go through the situation of having selected the ideal drone and we are ready to hit the BUY BUTTON, only to find out that we have to go back to review if this aspect we were not aware of is or is not included within the characteristics of our drone.
Main Concerns When Buy a Drone
- Make sure that your drone has included the possibility of autodetect when the battery is beyond the middle of it life and that It can starts its way back at that time, this function is already included in a large number of drones in the market and can actually saves us money! I wanna run the mountains not after my drone!
- You will crash! I repeat it, you will crash your drone although the publicity will make you believe that you will not, then make sure you understand if your drone model has spare parts available in the market both costs and quick delivering so you do not get stuck without being able to fly your drone again for a while just when you started to master it.
- Have you heard of the FAA drone laws? If not, it’s time for you to get informed because for these fun gadgets there are regulations that not knowing and complying could put you in serious trouble, from what areas I can “pilot” them? How high can I take them? And even if one should or not register them. A war warned in advance won´t kill any soldier!
- The famous battery! While this is a never-ending race, and companies are still in the constant pursuit of perpetual duration, today there are great differences in duration between the batteries that are available in the market, check well the specification of your drone in this sense, after all, those minutes that we spent piloting are those that we will remember and enjoy the most.
Different Drones For Different Occasions
Then, as I know that not everyone wants to fly their drone while competing on a mountain, I test different drones in several other situations and here I leave you with the the 3 most common situations:
The best drone to just have fun at a “pro” level!!
The best drone for serious footage!!
And the best drone to protect our bank account, and get the room we need to master our flying skills!
The best drone just for fun in my opinión (which does not mean that with the other options you could not have fun too), is the Hubsan H502S FPV X4 Desire. It costs around 170$.
We could compare this drone to a flight simulator for a real aircraft in the sense of the experience that you will get from it. The price, in this specific case, does not mean that you will have to deal with little stability or bad quality video, you can even enjoy the “follow me” mode and transfer your recordings to recording cards directly to the drone.
It includes a camera with a resolution of 720p HD and 4.3 inch LCD screen resolution with a duration of almost a quarter of an hour and a weight so light that can reach distances of 150 meters!
For those who want to make professional recordings my recommendation is the Yuneec Typhoon H drone, 1.299$. The reasons? Dedicated touchscreen so you can watch and control live video, different modes such as “follow me” mode and “selfie mode” and dual “pilot mode”. A terrific 360 degrees swiveling 4K camera, retractable landing gear and obstacle avoidance, AWESOME pick! I really enjoyed testing this drone!
And finally, the best drone to protect your bank account AND “getting real” is undoubtedly the DJI Phantom 3 Standard, simply because you’ll find what you need now while having almost no limits. To have fun and grow as a “pilot” as there is durability, easy maneuverability and very good recording options all at the same time. The price is around 500$. Also, a built in WI-FI, smart safety features, customizable remote control and even 3-axis stabilization gimbal!
So, there you go. I hope I helped at least one of you. If you have anything to add, please, let me know in the comments below.
