Drone Recommendations

[Roy14]

My wife is transitioning out of TV news reporting into videography, primarily weddings and similar ceremonies. Her professional experience with shooting and editing news stories makes for an easy jump, but one thing she’s new to is drone videography, which I’ve been pushing her to add to her portfolio offerings. I’m looking for some guidance on what a good option would be, both the drone itself and a mounted camera. This is partially for selfish reasons because I’d love to send one up to investigate far flung corners of our property to look around when I’m stuck watching our newborn and can’t just go look myself. Who’s got some good experience and thoughts?

 

[KOPBET]

She'll need to apply for a license and pass an FAA exam, register the drone. Self study or pay for a prep class.

 

[conditionzero]

Are you looking for a platform to mount a DSLR or other large payload?

 

[Roy14]

She'll need to apply for a license and pass an FAA exam, register the drone. Self study or pay for a prep class.

Are you looking for a platform to mount a DSLR or other large payload?

Hadn’t considered mounting a DSLR, though I guess that’s an option? I thought a go pro style was probably the only option available.

 

[HoLeChit]

A lot of this depends on your budget. I use a a DJI Mavic 2 Pro, will be using it to do roof inspections soon. Works great, easy to use, easy to fly. cost me about 1600, which includes two extra batteries, multi battery charger, car charger, extra parts, etc. I might be wrong on the price, I don't remember. While its a great basic drone, and works well for what I need, I wouldnt suggest it for videography. The gimbal is just up/down and tilt, there's no left/right tracking, which can make complex video a challenge.
https://www.dji.com/mavic-2?site=brandsite&from=nav
If she wants to do professional wedding stuff and all that, I would suggest something a bit nicer, like the Inspire 2. You can fit custom cameras and the whole nine yards, the gimbals track really nice, and the motor outriggers actually move out of the way of the camera field of view.
https://www.dji.com/inspire-2?site=brandsite&from=landing_page
The Matrice Series is just overkill, and runs in the upwards of $16-20k.

 

[HoLeChit]

Also, using a drone for commercial purposes requires she pass the FAA Part 107 test, as mentioned above. Its no slouch, but with the right prep and classes she won't have a problem. I used Drone Launch Academy, and passed with a 98%. If I remember right purchasing the course also gives you lifetime access to the coursework, which will be handy in a few years when she has to recertify.

https://courses.dronelaunchacademy.com/?_ga=2.86794392.1020017442.1625606846-451911725.1625606846

 

[Roy14]

The Inspire shows $3300 starting? That’s steep but probably doable. There’s definitely no chance of me dropping the price of a new base model car on the Matrice you mentioned. Lol

 

[HoLeChit]

The Inspire shows $3300 starting? That’s steep but probably doable. There’s definitely no chance of me dropping the price of a new base model car on the Matrice you mentioned. Lol

I wanna say that $3300 is just the basic drone, no camera. I believe the basic drone/most kits only come with two batteries. The Inspire 2 requires two batteries to fly, so if she wants more uptime than 27 minutes, she will need at least two more batteries. The batteries are def not cheap either.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...14_01_inspire2_x5s_standard_kit.html/overview

 

[HoLeChit]

But, at the end of the day, $5-7K to add a whole slew of capabilities to your business is not a terrible investment in my opinion. Theres also companies that will hire you to photograph construction sights, create aerial 3d models, inspect crops/pipelines/power lines. Drone pilots in the real estate market are in big demand. The possibilities are endless, and the industry is exploding right now.

Drone deploy is a big software solutions provider with drones, just browsing the website can give you an idea of what drones can be capable of and other ideas to get income coming in to soften the blow of buying new equipment. https://www.dronedeploy.com/product...63xsIkCB4kvY_VOJsaWrO37RP3ufa7fRoCl6UQAvD_BwE
I recently signed up with a aerial inspection provider to become a contractor, and the VP of operations has already text me twice from his personal number asking if I can get the training done so that I can start catching jobs in my area.

 

[Roy14]

I think it would be worth it in that range, and my wanting one only helps the matter. I know they had to do training on using them at work in case a dedicated photog wasn’t out on location with them, but I’m not sure if it was FAA training or not.