Quadcopters anyone?

What I mean about range is that I tested my GoPro out by setting it on the bed of my truck and walked away to see when I would loose signal. I didn't get vary far, so I was judging the distance that the drone would fly with a signal from the GoPro. The distance that the drone does isn't as important as I would always keep it in sight. I was looking at the Yuneec typhoon G that would utilize my GoPro 4 Black. But after some research, I have noted that the DJI Phantom 3 Advance/Pro have a pretty good range. This is the reason I have come to you guys with more experience than I.

 

I started with the Phantom 2. By the time I was starting to get good at flying the Phantom 3 came out. I did the math and figured out for as much as I'd still need to pay for a gimbal for my GoPro and FPV I'd be in it for about the same price as a 3 and still have a worse camera and less technology. So I sold my 2 and got the 3.

Nice thing about the 3 is its setup fight out if the box. You don't have to deal with bulky FPV add one since they're already built in. Plus you can work the camera from the ground vs you can't really run wifi to stop or start the GoPro without having to add extra stuff (but others will know more on that).

The Inspire would have more range but I don't let mine get out of sight. So at the moment my P3P does everything I need it to.

I have no experience with their customer service. I have a local dealer so I stream any questions through them.

 

GoPro's WiFi was never intended to be used for long range. I've got 5 GoPros that I mount to the truck when we go off roading. I've had mixed results with the GoPro app. The reason I suggested the Phantom Pro is because it uses "Lightbridge" which allows for a long range transmission of video signal. The Lightbridge used on the Phantom Pro is good but does have "some" lag. The Lightbridge used on the Inspire has almost 0 lag. The price you pay.

I'm a big fan of GoPros and use them "almost" exclusively for pictures and videos shot on the ground. Though I did just order the DJI Osmo so that might change.

Couple of videos shot with GoPros only. I made these for myself so it's probably of little interest to anyone else.

Hit the gear to put them in HD. Don't know why youtube puts some automatically in HD and some you have to do manually?

https://youtu.be/Eo8Nlv2BKxU

https://youtu.be/Ex6tmmTp0ms


Yes.... I know I left the "titles" up too long.
https://youtu.be/kfGu99bDUlk


All shot with GoPro "camera" mode. Truck looks nothing like that now lol

https://youtu.be/XVVFuNMqjUc

 

That's much like I did. The Phantom is a very nice quad no doubt. Even though mine will fly 2km away I would never consider flying out that far (not even talking about the hazard it could be). If I'm honest the first time I put it in the air I was a nervous wreck. I've flown for quite some time but all I could think about was if I screw up I've just made a $3500 brick. Now that I've flown it for some time I'm much more comfortable with what it is going to do and what to do to correct it if it does something in the air that is not expected.

I use a iPad Mini 2 with a cellular connection which allows me to check weather, wind speed, etc... I also use it for a larger screen because the DJI Go app is pretty damn good. I've been really impressed with the quality of DJI products. Customer service, as you mentioned, is the only downfall I see with DJI but like you I deal with a local shop so I can run things by / through them.

 

Yeah, I shoot 4k also. I've got all my videos set to private since my youtube / gmail got hacked a couple years ago. I only post direct links.

 

Just playing around with the drone today since I wasn't able to get to down to the river since I had to eat lunch with my daughter at school. Not nearly as nice scenery as Lauren has. I still have to fine tune the gimble to a slower rate and I did two things wrong while throwing this together. I should have used the ND filter and I shouldn't have Protuned it. It washed it out but it's still kind of cool that there is a pond behind my house that I didn't know about.

Full screen it for a better view

 

So it was my birthday yesterday and decided to pull the trigger and get the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4k. Came with 2 batteries, a really nice case & the handheld Steady Grip.

 

VERY curious to hear your reviews of the Typhoon, both flying an picture-wise. I despise DJI customer service at this point.

Sure, this can be a plug for the show, but you can also see some of my quad work in this short bit. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/hWuHq8b841U
(It's also where I first crashed the quad 3' above the ground. smh)

 

It should arrive this Thursday, will charge up the batteries and let you all know how it goes. After watching ALOT of youtube videos, I was impressed with the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K. Picture quality was smooth and clear. I really like the looks of the Typhoon over the Phantom but that's only ascetics but one major advantage was the built in 5.5 touch screen. Don't need an other reason to kill my phone battery. Will see how it functions.

 

I'm interested in the review also. I dread the day that something goes wrong with mine (and it will) that I have to send mine in for service. When it works it works amazingly well and I'm happy with the Inspire 1. I do worry every time a new firmware update comes out whether it will take it properly or turn into a 7lb brick. So far so good but we shall see.

 

I was watching a youtube video yesterday, a guy JUST opened his Inspire 1, about 3 minutes into the flight, ran into a building, smashed it up pretty good. $3K paper weight. Hoping that never happens. Any of you guys get insurance on your drone. I've seen several different options for insurance and would like some input if anyone has got it or used their insurance.

 

I don't have it right now though I'm looking into it. Most of the crashes I've seen on YouTube have been pilot error. Not saying I won't make one but I tend to scout everything out long before I ever put it in the air. But yeah... Crashing is my biggest fear with so much invested.

 

Let's see, my three crashes in less than a year of ownership:
1) Hit a tree branch and broke camera - totally my fault as my face was buried in the monitor but I've since repaired the camera myself
2) After a firmware update the "follow me" decided not to work.... until it suddenly did and sent the quad uncontrollably into the top of a 45' tree
3) I'm still unsure. Hovering low, as I've done a million times, and it took off becoming unresponsive. Am wondering if the mist in the air frazzled electronics. No broken camera, though, thankfully.

At least the Inspire is more powerful and heavier to thwart any wind gusts. I shot in Utica, NY, and the wind was fierce. Looked like a drunk pilot from the footage. Totally unusable.

I've read that the Typhoon has distance issues, but then again, I don't exactly want the quad out of my sight. Looking forward to your flights!

 

While doing research on drones, The DJI Phantom 3 will fly the furthest that I have come across, 1 guy on youtube took his out over 1 mile but I don't intend on every letting a $1000 fly out of my site. I've seen a guy take a Typhoon up over 1500 ft. Lots of youtube videos on the Typhoon and I was impressed with what I saw these guys get so I will keep you all posted, only 2 more days, can't wait. I don't have any video editing software yet so might be raw footage. What software are you guys using, include pros & cons.

 

Can't wait, will be at home when I get off work.

 

Well I got my drone last night but it didn't arrive till 7pm so no flight time yet, hoping to get off work early and play with it.
The construction on this guy is amazing, built solid, the case is great, everything looks & feels like Quality.

 

I use Avid because everyone in my business does and it's the most professional if you ever want to get into editing. Apple's FCP would be next. iMovie is nicely basic and simple, then steps up would be Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas.

 

Ha! Yeah, definitely powerful and a pita w/ certain things. Funny watching the shift years ago as FCP was coming on strong due to it's low price. When it switched it lost a lot of reality tv, but at least Avid dropped its price to compete. Adobe is wonderful. How many systems do you know how to edit on (at least generally)? FCP and Avid for me, but am rusty with Apple now.

 

So I have flown the Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K 3 times using up both batteries on each flight, ok, got to buy more batteries, but I got about 20 min of flight time per battery mostly flying at rabbit speed. I've noticed that when you pan around to get a 360 view, it's best to put it in turtle mode so you don't turn around to fast. Everything was so easy to perform, right outta the box. I will try to post some videos tonight but got some Questions????
1. After I was done flying, I took the memory chip out, plugged into the computer and the footage looks GREAT at 4K setting. I was told the Microsoft has a video editing software already installed on my computer, so I tried it. everything was easy to learn but after I saved the video to watch it, it looked Awful. Can anyone tell me why? I was thinking the software doesn't support 4K but I'm not sure, Raw footage looks great, edits video doesn't.
2. How can I get the telemetry info to record also. I've seen it on Youtube but not sure how to do it.

 

Video says it's blocked

I have the same fear. I usually wait to update mine for that reason.

I use Adobe Premeire Elements. Version 14 I believe, whatever came out recently. It supports 4K which is nice.