Helicopters/drones for filming

[Jesser04]

After doing more research after the fact... the refresh may not be the way to go for insurance it looks like State Farm will do a drone policy for around 60-70 a year with no deductible. I'm gonna call my insurance guy this morning if that's the case I will get it. That would hopefully cut the down time to a week or two tops.

 

[Skylinerider]

My new Mavic will be here on Wednesday. I crashed my Iris+ into a bell tower yesterday. The UAV is fine, but the gimbal is toast. I'll use the Iris+ for surveying and still shots and the Mavic for everything else.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Did you guys get your mavics directly from dji? I'd love to be able to get mine from best buy and get geek squad protection so I can swap it out at any best buy in the future.

 

[Skylinerider]

Did you guys get your mavics directly from dji? I'd love to be able to get mine from best buy and get geek squad protection so I can swap it out at any best buy in the future.

I ordered mine on Amazon, but the seller is actually DJI.

 

[spencurai]

The Mavic is the single greatest drone dollar for dollar to show up in the market for years...I have zero faith that anyone is going to challenge it for years. The machine vision object tracking is utterly insane and blows my mind every time I use it. The same systems amped up on the Inspire 2 have made getting incredible shots 1000x less stressful.

I usually order direct from DJI as I have no choice but to order on launch day to keep up with current tech.

Basically battery tech is improving at a snails pace so don't expect any breakthroughs to trickle down any time soon. Snag 2-3 spare batteries to keep you in the air for over an hour. You should also get the car charger as it charges faster than the wall charger.

If you're doing video you should pick up some polarpro ND filters to maintain 180shutter.

The "Follow Me" and "Active Track" are phenomenal. Active track, and it's various modes, are the single greatest tech to hit drones ever. Draw a box around what you want the camera to look at and it'll follow you around like a puppy and keep you in frame. If you're hiking up a hill the drone will follow you up the hill with terrain following...this thing is amazing.

If you're on a bicycle or on foot, this drone will differentiate and act accordingly...

if if you're in the market for a personal drone you would be a fool to consider anything else...the new frontier is intelligent drones...anyone can make a flying thing but making that flying thing intelligent has only been accomplished by a few companies and only successfully by DJI.

One more thing...I love my android devices but Apple devices work so much better...snag an iPad mini from the latest generation for the Mavic.

 

[Jesser04]

I got mine at the Apple Store.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I talked to my insurance agent, and Allstate doesn't have a policy to cover crash/damages to the drone. It sounds like the DJI care refresh is the way to go... Any other options out there for replacement/crash/repair? I wish I could do geek squad on it, but I don't think they offer a plan on it.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Thanks for all the great info everyone. I just pulled the trigger on a Mavic Pro. I ended up going with the regular mavic pro (not the fly more kit) and a couple accessories:

- a 5 in 1 charger (which charges all 3 batteries at once): http://amzn.to/2pp0ELq

- a 30" landing pad: http://amzn.to/2pBrMHx

- some small zip cases (we had these last week on our river trip in Moab and they worked great): http://amzn.to/2pQFYgT

- extended legs: http://amzn.to/2qxdlSc


I still need to order 2 more batteries, but they won't make it here in time before we leave. A HUGE thanks to Russ and all the Mavic owners who chimed in.

 

[Jesser04]

Everytime I go out this thing blows my mind. here is a little video of what I did tonight I need to figure out how to edit stuff what programs do you guys use?

https://youtu.be/xOpKAoXUmY8

 

[rholbrook]

From your first video to this one is a huge difference. Let's go fly

 

[Jesser04]

From your first video to this one is a huge difference. Let's go fly

I'm trying to get better film but it's hard this thing begs to be flown like a fighter jet. I order a polarized lens filter it will be here Friday. I couldn't bring myself to spend 50-60 on the whole set. ready when you are.

 

[Skylinerider]

I'm trying to get better film but it's hard this thing begs to be flown like a fighter jet. I order a polarized lens filter it will be here Friday. I couldn't bring myself to spend 50-60 on the whole set. ready when you are.

From what I've seen and read, using cinematic mode will slow down the Mavic and make the turns more smooth and buttery. Mine will be here tonight so I'll try it out if there's still light when I get it.

 

[sixstringsteve]

Mine just arrived. Super excited to fly this thing. Too bad I won't have time for a few more days...

I ended up ordering mine from Amazon and getting the DJI protective care since this is my first drone.

 

[sixstringsteve]

As someone who builds instruction/learning and manuals, my hat is off to DJI. The manual on the Mavic Pro is extremely well written and organized.

 

[Jesser04]

As someone who builds instruction/learning and manuals, my hat is off to DJI. The manual on the Mavic Pro is extremely well written and organized.

So have you got it in the air yet?

 

[frieed]

Mine just arrived. Super excited to fly this thing. Too bad I won't have time for a few more days...

I can't wait to see what this adds to your videos, Steve. They've been amazing for a long time now but the drone should take them to the next level.

 

[sixstringsteve]

yup, I've flown with it a bit. Two of my phones have dead USB ports, so they weren't connecting to the remote. Once I swapped to my wife's phone, it connected immediately. It's a lot of fun.

Nothing fancy, but here's my first published video from our campsite today:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BT16tvKgmcX/?taken-by=themoreweexplore

I need to tweak the settings so my gimbal moves slower, and I need to put it into cinematic mode. I'm in Santa Cruz, CA today and I only got a few quick shots of the cliffs and the beach. I'm looking forward to getting some more shots this week.

I still only have one battery. I was hoping to find one locally, since shipping is tricky on the road, but it looks like Best Buy is backlogged for a week.

 

[sixstringsteve]

I can't wait to see what this adds to your videos, Steve. They've been amazing for a long time now but the drone should take them to the next level.

Well, thank you for the kind words. We agree, the drone shots have the opportunity to really improve our story. We've had a lot of viewers request we get a drone lately. I've wanted one for a while, but they've been too big and complicated in the past. This one is just right for me.

My videos are getting less and less amazing lately as we try to strike the balance between daily life and creating good videos, but we're having fun. It's been a great way to record our adventures. We often go back and re-watch our videos to relive the moment, and it's been really enjoyable. The videos are more for us than anyone else, but we're glad others watch too.

 

[sixstringsteve]

So I crashed my mavic today...


...twice...


...into the same tree...




...5 minutes apart....


Yeah, I'm a slow learner. Miraculously, there was no damage to the drone. To be honest, I wish the camera had a wider angle lens. When shooting a subject, you have to pretty far away. That being said, I'm loving this thing.

 

[Greg]

You're lucky there was no damage! Some things to keep in mind when flying.... your perspective and distance from the Mavic with other objects around isn't always what it seems. Don't rely on the camera OR sensors for locating obstacles, especially when you're new to this. You have to calculate the risk versus reward for certain shots and decide if the high chance of crashing is worth it.

I would recommend you stay far away from trees, powerlines, houses, etc, etc, etc. Get up high over everything for your first couple weeks of flying, where you don't risk hitting anything. Get used to the controls first and then bring it down low and work on operating in tighter flying spaces.