Quadcopters anyone?

Yep. I'm having similar results out of mine also. I've got 3 batteries and like you I'm getting anywhere from 20-21 of "usable" flight time. Wish I could fly it today but we are under a wind advisory all day. At 20-25mph wind I'm just not willing to risk putting it up and getting very far away with it. I know it will most likely handle it just fine but I'm not willing to risk it.

 

I was going to go with the Mavic but wanted that little better camera so I stuck with the Phantom 4 since I shoot a lot of video with it. Love the stability and portability of the Mavic though.

 

I agree that the camera on the P4 is slightly better but any variations can corrected in post. The portability is what sold me on it and the camera (with the correct settings) works perfectly.

Here is a video that shows exactly what can be accomplished with the Mavic. I think you'd be hard pressed to notice much difference between the two.

 

Cool shot. Was that a bear running across the tracks? I agree with that to a certain extent. Probably not enough that most people would even notice which is very true. It was more the sharpness of stuff off in the distance that I liked from the P4 over the Mavic. Probably not even enough to give up the portability that you get with the Mavic but I paid $899 for the P4 brand new and got it about 2 months before the Mavic came out. Don't think its worth trading it for me but I'd probably jump on the Mavic train if they were both out and I redone it over I'd say!

Edit: If I would read your title I would see that it was a moose lol. I like how you put the train horn in (Since the drone doesn't record sound) Good work.

 

Oh.. That wasn't my video. It was from a member on the DJI forums. I can't take credit for it though I wish I could. He had some really good camera work.

 

Gotcha, yeah it's not very often you get wildlife in a shot like that. Looks good

 

Personally why I'm sold is the portability. You can hike with a packed away Mavic and no one would know any better until you unfold it. A Phantom? No way, that giant cube of a case would give you away.

 

Honestly that was one of the reasons that I sold my Inspire 1. The camera is obviously better on the Inspire but after I finish the footage in post (either with Final Cut Pro X or Adobe Premiere Pro) I doubt you would see much difference at all. Once you get the camera settings set to "your" liking it makes working in post much easier. The footage looks nearly the same afterwards.
But the portability is a huge bonus to me. I just leave my bag in the trunk and if I see something interesting I can have it up in a couple mins as opposed to the Inspire where I'd have to essentially plan my day around what I wanted to shoot and hope the weather would cooperate.

 

Was able to get out and about today and make a "Snow Day" of it. Still very new at this and finding that the two learning curves of flying AND editing/shooting video are proving to be rather -- time consuming!! New to the dji Phantom 4 and really loving it. Here is the effort from today......

https://youtu.be/nvv1PsByLpQ

 

Shot this for a buddy of mine
https://youtu.be/pXo8VbfUPrY

 

Anddddd another lol

https://youtu.be/VMqMqP72aKQ

 

Got my miniquad built and a maiden out of the way in the house lol. Gonna rip!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSDHo_UgxbS/

 

Nice job. I'd torn the shit out of your walls with that thing lol.

 

May I make a constructive criticism about the video? The video (and area) you shot is beautiful. Ideally you want to make a single shot of whatever you are trying to shoot without any camera movements. Example: A "passover" of your vehicle and then cut to another scene. A side shot at an angle either moving toward or away from the vehicle (or subject) with very little to no camera movement. The straight up shot was a nice shot. Ideally you want to keep that shot but transition into another shot before stopping the craft with that left in the video. The shot of the front of the truck could have been done with actually holding the drone and not flying it therefore no "drift" from the drone would be included in that shot. What I mean by this is since the drone has an actual built in 3 axis gimbal you can still hand hold the drone as a camera and the gimbal will do the rest. No side to side motion will be detected from drift caused by propwash and minor deviations in movement of the drone. I do shots like this quite often when I want to get a ground shot with no drift. And one last thing. "Most" of the times you will want to keep your shots between 5-10 sec (there are exceptions of course). Anything more and the viewer loses interest in the shot.

Please don't take this as anything but constructive criticism as the video was beautiful. Just trying to give some helpful hints on improving the quality of the video.

I "personally" do a lot of backward "revealing" shots as those tend to be very dramatic. Of course you don't want to use too many of those shots in your / my videos as they also can be overused and annoying after a while to the viewer.

Ideally you should have a shot in mind before taking off. Make a few passes with that shot in mind and keep the best one. Then move on to your next shot. Rinse and repeat.

 

Thank you! Thanks for taking the time to watch the video and taking the time to offer some very good feedback. Although not new to photography, I am new to droning and video editing and finding a bit of a curve to both which is why I posted the video and happily got some feedback. I never thought about using the drone handheld to get a shot of interest...thanks!! As well, many good ideas, some of which I was aware of and I hope come with experience, and some I learned about from your post. Yes, the backwards reveal is something I am working on as well as more creative use of gimbal.

Great feedback and have always felt the offering of constructive feedback is a great way to share for you and a great way to learn for me. Take care and happy wheeling!!!

 

No problem. I'm always improving every time I go out and shoot. I learn something most every time I put it in the air. If you do a handheld shot with your drone just have the drone activated (obviously no prop rotation as that would hurt like hell lol). The gimbal will still do it's thing and all you need to do is hold the drone and walk smoothly with it to get the shot you would like to get. Like I said before. I make multiple shots of the same thing. One shot will always be the best shot. Pick that one and include it in your video.

This guy gives some pretty good advice on getting some good shots with your drone. I watch a lot of videos and learn something new each time and try to implement some of the things that I've learned. At 4:55 in the video is what I was talking about when holding the drone. Notice how none of his shots are over 10 secs long.

 

My footage is the opposite of cinimatic but damn is it fun to fly!!! It riiiiips!

https://youtu.be/7lafCjz9Vb0

 

I almost get sick watching that that manevour so quick. Does look really fun to drive

 

Drones and Tacoma's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH1N8VVlwsk

 

Getting better but still need to get smoother on the sticks to get footage smoothed out. This quad is FUN! Camera is Hero5 Session. Pic below is what it looks like.

Now i just need software to put an edit together so you dont have to listen to the props lol.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv5NqUWQ2eM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncY_nW_mN1A