Quadcopters anyone?

That's pretty cool if you are just going for the fun factor. Video footage? Not so much. But if you want a good video editing software for your videos I would just use GoPro's software since it is decent at rendering video and you can remove the sound of the props and replace it with music or whatever you choose. Oh... and it's free.
Not really sure of the route you are taking here? Are you just having fun with a fast quad or do you want quality footage? If quality footage is the goal then you will have to go a different direction. If a fun / fast quad is the goal you are on the right track.

 

DJI flight bores me which is why i built this. With the faa uav book only getting thicker i think the DJI stuff is going to get increasingly tougher to fly in most places due to factory imbedded geo-fences (there's an area near where i live that phantoms will not fly into and its over national forest in class G airspace, not an airstrip like youd think) and transponders (for law enforcement to read from a device and know who the drone belongs to as well as altitude and flight log) that are likely going to be required on commercially available drones. Bla bla my .02.

I built this for a mix of fun fast and good video of that type of flight and to be able to fly where I want as long as it falls within part 107 guidlines. Sure it's no dji gimbal smooth but if I wanted that i could add a gimbal.

 

Gotcha

I've owned an Inspire 1 and now a Mavic Pro. Luckily the places I film are not near any areas that cause me issues with FAA regs. I did go to DC a few weeks ago but if I would have taken the drone it wouldn't even have left the ground once it figured out where it was. I understand (and respect that) so I just left it at home.

 

It is tough to fight the urge to fly in places that are no go zones! But i like being a free man and not endangering anyone so I comply

We use an inspire 1 and a sensefly ebee for land surveying (orthophotos and building 3d surfaces) so ive got experience with an inspire as well. They are a rad quad especially with the zm5 cam! I remember you saying you got rid of your inspire for the mavic for portability and your still liking the quality of footage youre getting? How does the mavic do in wind compared to the inspire?

 

got all of the parts together and built my 550 3 years ago, but never got around to setting up all of the electronics. tinkered with it for the first time since building it, a couple of days ago. not far away from having it in the air......just hard to find the time

 

Nice @colinb17 that thing looks like a payload master!

 

thanks, the carbon fiber landing gear and substructure are meant to support an SLR sized gimbal and camera.

 

The Mavic does surprisingly well in wind. That said... I obviously doesn't handle heavy wind as well as the Inspire due to it's size and at flights around 300' or above I quite often get wind velocity warnings though no ill effects on the footage or drone movement. I just take into account how far it is away, battery life to get back, and not flying above 400'. As far as footage goes it is similar to the Inspire 1. I'll certainly not say it is better but what I gain in portability more than makes up for what little image degradation that I can easily correct in post. The only difference that I changed between the Inspire 1 footage and the Mavic is I record in 2.7k rather than 4k to prevent image stutter. At 60fps and the ability to crop the image if I didn't tell you which craft I shot it from you'd be hard pressed to know the difference. I've been happy with the Mavic so far as I can throw it up at a moment's notice instead of planning out my shots way ahead of time.

 

Sounds like the mavic is a winner man!

 

Heh, I almost lost my Mavic to ridge winds the other day. Pushed full throttle forwards, still moving backwards. Finally climbed as high as I could, went forward past my location, and then landed it in a safe place.

 

loosing, or thinking you're gonna lose a rig gives you that sinking feeling that you never really get used to.

I lost a phantom in a lake years ago. had a cell go bad in a fully charged battery about 2 minutes into a flight. gave me a low voltage warning, and then dropped like a rock.

 

It is a nice craft. It has a lot of built in functions that the Inspire didn't have such as terrain mode, point of interest, tap to fly, etc... The main mode I use quite often is tripod mode which will not let the craft go over 2mph. Great for low shots and extremely steady. Also great for panning shots even at elevation as you get no shutter roll effect (especially at 60 fps). That said... It is not a Inspire which is by nature more stable due to the size of the Inspire. But I find myself doing things with the Mavic that I would have never attempted with the Inspire. Obstacle avoidance is a nice feature. Would be nice to have rear obstacle avoidance also since I do a lot of "reveal" shots but I'm usually flying backwards and up at the same time to get that shot so it's kind of a non issue. Is the Mavic perfect? No. But it is a huge step forward in a short period of time considering how far drones have come in the past few years.

I'd love to have a Inspire 2 as it has a BUNCH of nice features built into it. But the cost of entry to get everything you would want to start would be around 5K and I just don't need one that bad. Plus if I lose the Mavic... sure it will suck but I've only got $1200 in it. If I lost a Inspire 2 that would make me ill as I couldn't afford to just replace it as easily. Plus I could buy 4 Mavic's set up the way I have mine for the cost of One Inspire 2.

Winds can be tricky no doubt. Wind speed at ground level might be just fine but at 300' or close to a ridge where updrafts can be an issue is when things get interesting to say the least lol.

 

I look at owning a drone much like owning a motorcycle. It's not a matter of if your are going to crash... just a matter of when.

 

Truth. I crashed today even lol. Gotta get back on the horse right away! Luckily the miniquad is tough.

 

Question for you dji phantom 3 pro guys, with the new update allowing follow me is there a way to also have it circling like point of interest mod while it's following something?

 

Also any trick making the drone hover and keep focus of a non moving target?

 

Well that's surprising. While I have no problem with registering my drones I can see both sides of the argument. Drones are here to stay and with that said they will keep on becoming more and more popular. People will continue to do stupid things with drones and eventually something is going to happen.

This is just "my" opinion. The FAA fell short with the drone registration program partly because it was put into place in a pretty short period of time. Drones "could" be considered model aircraft but we all know that we don't fly them like model aircraft. We fly them in spaces where most people would never take a model plane. I don't have the answer as to what the FAA needs to do to keep the airspace safe for everyone but I do know some action needs to be taken. I fly mine responsibly partly because I have so much money in mine and partly because I don't want to have a malfunction and hurt someone or someone's property. I fear this ruling (if I'm reading it correctly) will only embolden people to do more stupid things with drones since no FAA requirement is needed. I'll continue to keep my numbers on my drones and my card with me as the places I fly are far away from the public and any airspace that an actual aircraft will occupy.

But I fear we'll see more of this in the future

 

Eh, there's not a huge difference between a quad and any other RC vtol. Except ease of use.

 

I agree. Except where people are flying them. A radio controlled helicopter without a camera is most likely not going to be flying over the streets of New York or some stadium etc... Some drone flyers will do just that to get the shot without regard of what could potentially happen during a failure.

 

Yep. Gives us all a bad name.