which Drone do you use?

not getting one soon, but one day.
The idea has always sounded cool

Which one do you use and why/how is it?

It seems like a great idea:
1: Get un-lost
2. Scout out areas
3. Fun
4. Land it on someone's camping table
5. YouTube yourself doing Tacoma Stuff. Million views. Sponsorships. Profit

unless it falls in the mountains

 

6. Annoy the crap out of other people trying to enjoy the outdoors

 

This thread is a much bigger deal than you're making it out to be.

 

They are definitely fun, just for the sake of the rest of us obey the rules when using one so everyone can continue to enjoy them.

That being said I have a DJI Mavic Air and am overall pretty happy with it, I use a 5th gen Ipad Mini with a tablet mount on the remote to fly it.

Pros:
Good video quality
Decent picture quality (In RAW mode, JPEG pictures aren't great)
Easy to set up and fly
Can be flown directly from your phone with no remote if needed but range is limited
~15 min flight time
Handles wind up to around 15 mph
Forward, downward, and rearward obstacle detection and collision avoidance
Flight speed up to about 18mph in normal mode 45mph in sport mode (collision avoidance disabled)

Cons:
Price
Radio range is somewhat limited (typically around 1/2 mi before signal starts to drop out)
Feet are very short, takeoff/landing pad or leg extensions are highly recommended
Often requires compass calibration at startup (although this takes less than a minute)
App can be buggy at times

 

They have their uses for work related stuff and recreation. But using them outdoors where other people are trying to find some solitude is immature and obnoxious. The internet doesn't need your drone video of a remote lake or viewpoint. People go out in the woods to get away from all that electronic shit. Don't be that guy, leave it at home

 

I'll chime in here. I have experience both professionally and recreationally with drones.

To start I own a DJI Mavic Mini. I bought it used and it's awesome. It's under 150g so I don't need to register it, it packs away small when traveling, and it's super light if I take it hiking. I went used as a 1st drone so I could 1. decide if I liked it, and 2. If I destroyed it I wouldn't be out $1000. This was a good decision.

Here is what I concluded about using it recreationally:
It's fun. You can get some great footage with angles not possible with a phone. There are however some caveats... NEVER use it around people you don't know. I take it with me almost everywhere and use it almost nowhere. I hike for the peace and so do others. I'm not going to disturb them with my loud drone. Even people 500' away can hear it plus drones make people nervous. Despite drone cameras not being able to capture details from high up, people always seem to think we are recording/spying on them. Next, ALWAYS respect the signs. I've been to many national forest areas that DO NOT allow drones. Even if DJI says it's a green fly zone, don't fly it. I'll even put the drone back in the car if I see the signs. They are usually posted on the information/map bulletin. There is a reason for these signs and you don't want to cause any issues if a ranger were to come yout way. Now if you're sure you can fly and no one is around, BE CAREFUL when using the drone. These things HURT when they hit you and can kill wildlife. I've seen hawks swoop in on drones before and that doesn't only suck for you, but also for the bird. Drones can also crash die to gusts of wind, trees, or bad piloting. Funny story, I hiked to a lake and when I confirmed I was alone in a non restricted zone, decided to get some footage with the drone. Well the good ol' DJI app managed to update my home point in the middle of the lake and due to bad satellite signal wouldn't let me change it. I ended up trying to land on a rock in the lake but it slid off and watched in horror as the drone fell in to the water. I had to do the swim of shame to rescue it. Surprisingly it still works, but the point still stands, be careful. Now the last bit, it's hard to take good drone footage! DJI has a few quick shots (which I highly recommend), but getting a good quality video while flying a drone is very difficult. It takes lots of practice and smooth controls to even get something decently passable. Of course this will come with practice so definitely take advantage of when you can use it and try to kill those batteries!

Using it professionally was fun too.
In college I worked with a company who landed planes in remote areas, usually on dirt airstrips. They needed a way to monitor these airstrips year-to-year to make sure pot holes or cracks were not developing. They currently sent people to walk the airstrip and measure things by hand but that left them with inconsistent and sometimes incomplete data. Our team came up with a solution using a DJI Mavic Pro to collect the data instead. The app we developed let you select 2 points on a map, one at the start of the runway and one at the end, enter the width and desired resolution, and then use that data to generate a flight plan which could then be uploaded to the drone. The flight plan created a grid and took images at a set intervals (depending on the resolution you wanted) where the images could be stitched together to create a super high resolution image if the airstrip. They could then save the flight plan and load it back on the drone to capture the exact same data next year. Then if they wanted to check the status of a developing crack they could just compare the 2 images. I thought it was pretty sweet! As far as I know they are still using the app. I could talk about the details forever but the point I want to make is during development we ran in to lots of nasty people. When we were testing the drone (with permission from the land owners) we would often have neighbors walk up to us and start threatening to call the police because we were "spying on them" (we weren't). So that's just something to think about.

Overall, would I recommend owning a drone? I suppose, but only if you're respectful with it and not a moron. I've run across some pretty obnoxious drone owners and the majority of people just aren't ready for the responsibility. And honestly your footage is not going to be any better then the next guys. As @b_r_o said, no one cares about YOUR drone footage.

Hope this long response helps.

 

I have a Skydio2. I like it in that it flys itself…just get it up in the air and identify the target to track and from what vantage point and it does the rest.

It can be controlled by phone, by beacon and joystick controller. I only use it to video myself on my bike and I use it commercially for side hustle work and I have a FAA Part 107 license.

I wish it had a better camera.