Camera drone

[Burgerman]

I did drones for decades. Before DJI existed, before you could just buy one...

Then along comes the law and basically screwed me over meaning all my quads, helis, planes etc needed all sorts of legal certification and bullshit and so have sat unused for a few years.

A small exeption existed. Anything sub 250 grammes. Well in the past they were short flights, not very good. But unlike the big fast stuff which you now get prison sentences for flying over cars, people, houses and businesses these tiny ones are exempt.

But now they are not bad. But not cheap. I am about to but a sub 250g DJI mini pro 4.
Its dummy proof. It is crash proof. Its got 20km range. Its got 4K 60 and 100 fps and stabilised footage. It does endless tricks, and is tiny and self contained. Ideal for wheelchair use!

https://www.dji.com/uk/mini-4-pro?site= ... nding_page


youtu.be/Txe_jp-2O5k

[martin007]

For how small it is, it has a good price...
Do all drones weighing less than 250 grams not require pilot meat in the UK?

[Burgerman]

You have to register. And cant fly in places like airports...
Other than that you can fly in busy cities, over people or traffic or homes etc. So all the usual rules dont really apply. Now that the sub 250 gram ones are 90% as good as the older heavier ones apart from speed, its debatable if we even need those anymore.

[martin007]

Does registering involve paying money?

In Spain to fly that drone you would need a pilot's license.
The license is not expensive, but it costs something.
Once you have the license, you can register and use the toy.

[Burgerman]

11 UK POUNDS...
Not for one drone for my helis, planes etc.

[martin007]

I understand.
In Spain the pilot's license for that drone will cost approximately 100 €
That's what I think.

[Burgerman]

I would find that somewhat surprising! Why? All administered by THE CAA for the UK.

https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/individual

Inc prices scroll down.

[Burgerman]

Spanish, like all things EU seems more complicated and no prices. ???
https://www.seguridadaerea.gob.es/es/am ... drones-uas


I just did it online in 3 total mins today on the UK site.

[Burgerman]

Ordered...
New camera drone tomorrow!

Now I am skint again...
YOLO

[Burgerman]

This thing is very organised...

Heres a screen shot from what I see on the screen as i fly it. Well some of it at least.

It records two video streams.
1. a clean 4k video, on a memory card in the air as it flys. At 25, 30, 50, 60, 0r 100 fps. At 1080p it does 200 frames per sec.
2.on the transmitter vit records the screen and shows this real time as you fly.

See below.
1. top left shows N (normal with a 3d bubble of anti crash "fence" all around it. (So you cant hit tree branches, people, etc.) or C for cinematic (slow/smooth) or s for sport. With much faster and no protection against collision.

2. Shows what its doing, (ready to take off, landing, return to home etc)

3. in a round ring, battery level, currently 91%, and estimated flight time remaining.

4. Radio Control signal strength

5. protection (proximity) sensor activity and number of sattelites etc.

6. wiggly S on its side, for programming waypoints in.

7. Image histogram.

8. GPS map - can be full screen.

9. meters per sec up/down and height. Next to it distance from take off, and speed in meters per sec.

10. Camera settingsw, shutteer speed, f number, ISO, EV etc that you choose. Or auto.

11. Right side middle is vid on, or zoom, or focus etc.

There are a couple of sticks that are the usual yaw, roll, pitch, throttle and two sliders annd two extra buttons on the back for mapping stuff and working camera angle, return to home, flight modes etc. All in all took 2 flights and I am sorted!

[Williamclark77]

You'll enjoy that drone. I've had quite a few. I currently have the Mavic 3 with the Hasselblad camera. Video and picture quality are far better than anything but professional level camera systems just a few years ago.

https://www.willsjunk.com/CoolStuff/Aerial

[Burgerman]

Those pics are amazing.

Its true that it is photographically way better than I expected. And its idiot proof!

I am used to a 2.5kg drone, no gimble, that is fast. About 4x as fast as the new one. But thats not really surprising when you consider that its 249 grammes! And it gets longer flights too.

But the law is now so severe that I dare not fly my heavy/fast drones any longer anyway. But you are right. Photographically we dont really need anything better. Its already pretty good movie wise at 4k 100fps if you want. Not quite up to my Z8 for still images yet! But then that thing is too expensive to risk at 400 feet anyway.

I am amazed here isnt more here hat are into these things. Its something you can do from a chair without a fight. Even landing it back on my hand.

[Williamclark77]

I used to fly the big ones too. The heaviest and fastest I had started out as a Graupner Hornet. Tricopter. Fpv. Silly how fast. So much heavier than it looked. I lack the finger control to really fly the fast racing drones safely. I had modified the controller to where I flew it like a joystick.

These dji drones are idiot proof. I don't know all of the rules and regulations 100% around them. I don't do anything stupid. I've only crashed this one once. Well, it crashed itself doing the follow me. It lost the subject, turned toward a tree, and went kamikaze into it. Nothing hurt but propellers and I'm still using them with the tips broken.

The dji Fly app was disabled for several weeks. They got caught uploading sensitive photos and videos to the Chinese Government. It's back fixed now. Many of the drones were a paperweight for a while unless you bought third party flight software. Mine was one, and unfortunately, no decent third party flight controller for mine. It's corrected now.

I'm still learning this one after having it over a year.

I use it for actual necessities as well. I check my roof and gutters with it, fly it into the woods to check things I can't get to, and using it daily now to check the progress of a pond I'm having built. I can't climb over the piles of dirt to check the progress or make sure the workers are doing what I say. So, I fly it in to check.

[Burgerman]

Thats great.

This little one now has sensors on all sides, front, rear, top, underneath... You cant actually fly it into anything! Trees, people, whatever. You can send it blind through a wood. It wont crash. And all super stable. Somewhat different to my race drone. That does only what its told. If you relax it crashes. Much like my 3d helis. These are the exact opposite. They are Ai controlled camera platforms. You just guide it now and again its GPS/SENSORS/COMPASS/etc really do all the flying. You tell it where to go. With 46 minute flight time! Truly idiot proof.

[Williamclark77]

The sensors will miss things like power lines or tiny tree branches occasionally and hit them. I have to turn the safety off to fly it very low or down trails.

Another very useful thing I just used mine for this week: When building something like a pond you need to pull level lines or use a tram to set the height of the dam and spillway. Not easy to do from a chair and expensive to have done. After fighting with a borrowed $$$ laser tram for several hours I thought hmmm, I have a better tool for this.

After turning all of the safety features and collision avoidance off and setting it up in the slow cine mode I flew it to the spillway. I set the camera at 0 degrees to be level, lined it up with the water height, then flew around the perimeter at that height. After several hundred feet and going back and forth it was still within 2 inches. Just as accurate as a tram or line levels and took 15 minutes, not three hours.

[Burgerman]

Very clever. Yes wires worry me a bit. Not only the sensors miss them but I do too. They hide againts the background.