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Anybody into these? I'm shopping for my 1st one. Prices have come down quite a bit lately and you can get some pretty amazing rigs for just a few hundred bucks. Looking at the FIMI X8-SE and DJI Mavic Mini at the moment. I've been in and out of RC since the 7th grade (mostly truggies), but these things are on another level.
Anybody have one?
I have the DJI Mavic Air and really enjoy it, although I haven't flied it in months. The only real complaint I have in that every time I get ready to fly it, I have to wait for the stupid geofencing to update in the software. I could probably disable it, if I did enough research. Anyhoo, it's lightweight, makes awesome videos, and pretty much flies itself.
I have a DJI Phantom 3 Pro and a cheaper "starter" done (Hubsan something). Honestly, I enjoyed them for a summer and two, but haven't touched them in years now. It gets old quick, unless you travel around a lot to cool places where you can get nice videos or something. :-)
One of these days, I'll probably mess with them again...
I definitely travel to cool (and sometimes weird) places on a regular basis. That's a lot of the motivation behind the want. Something I can stick in the backpack and flies below regulations = even better.Quote:
Originally Posted by jtrosky
Yeah, the DJI drones are very "restrictive" (I can only imagine that they are even more restrictive now than they were when I last flew mine), but the cheaper ones like the Hubsan are completely unrestricted. However, it's camera sucks compared to the DJI... There may or may not be ways to get around the restrictions with the DJI (I'm sure there are - depends on how far you want to go with it though).Quote:
Originally Posted by rob feature
The video/photo quality of the DJI drones are crazy-good. Super-smooth, high-res, movable cameras, etc.
What are the main difficulties and specificity of having a drone? I know there are some areas video and photo drones are prohibited, is it true?
I just finished my RePL <25kg Multirotor licence last week. Mind you, this is in Perth, Western Australia so I can operate under CASA regulations. Happy to answer any questions I can help with but bear in mind the FAA and CASA although similar do have their differences.
For what it's worth, the DJI Mavic Air 2 (especially with the Fly More Combo) is very hard to beat bang for buck.
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I'm not all up on the licensing requirements, but there are definitely areas where they are not permitted...restricted airspace, over roads, and many others. Drones under 250g fly under a lot of those restrictions, which is why the Mavic Mini is so attractive. A license and registration is required for drones over 249g where the lighter ones don't need to do that. I think there are also restrictions on dropping stuff, maybe picking up stuff, harassing folks and wildlife, etc. I'd imagine photography is prohibited in some spots.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alternater43
I'm fairly sure in North America and in Australia there is a 400ft AGL limit (Above Ground Level) that is applied. Ultralights and other smaller aircraft of the same category have a lower limit of 500ft so that provides enough of a safe seperation. Then of course there are limits around airfields which are controlled airspace if there is or is not someone in the tower. In Australia there is a law where you can not fly a drone within 30m or roughly 100ft of people not involved in the flight (imagine a column going straight up all the way to space) but I believe it is less in the USA. There are also restricted areas around all sorts of public sports events, military manoeuvres and airport take off and landing paths which extend beyond the general 3 nautical mile exclusion zone.
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Finally broke down & got myself a Mavic Mini. I hopped on the Microcenter website one afternoon & noticed that they had the fly more combo on sale for $250, so I ran down there & got me one.
I was a little disappointed after setup as I live in an authorization zone & had to figure out how to fly here. That was a PITA. And still every time I have to authorize, which is every 3 days, the drone fights me.
After that though, the bad marks stop. This is one hella cool toy. I might even stop short of that and call it a tool. Wanna check out something on the roof? Too easy. No ladders involved. Too lazy to get up & see if the trails are muddy? No problem mon.
I've been into RC for probably 40 years, but this stuff is on another level. The range is insane! The only limitation, assuming I keep radio line of sight, is the battery. This thing will run for miles and keep good signal. Flies well in the wind too. Images, considering this drone is under 250 grams, are off the chain. The gimbal works amazingly well. It returns seamless video as I'm flying.
I liked it so much after the 1st flight I went & bought another kit :happy:. Feels like the beginning of a long, awesome, expensive relationship :hug: