Recommendation on buying a Drone

[McGirr]

I am looking at buying a drone for aerial videos and pics. There are some great places around here that I would like aerial videos of. Also will be using one on the Kimberley Trip.

I read up about the phantom models but not sure. I want one out of the box as I have not got the knowledge to build one. A good remote etc.

Mark

[D4D]

I'd suggest the DJI Phantom 3, same as Firefox purchased. Ready to go out of the box and good flying for novices. Only issue is $$$.

[Spada]

I'd suggest the DJI Phantom 3, same as Firefox purchased. Ready to go out of the box and good flying for novices. Only issue is $$$.

That's the one at the top of my wishlist. Make sure you get extra batteries.

[grantxx]

Sorry Spada for not getting mine up at Queen Mary for you to have a good look at ,

I have DJI Phantom 3 Professional, complete novice and it is a pretty dam good out of the box, great camera, easy to fly, very stable, just follow instructions start low in the open and work from there. Watch out for eagles, hawks or any predatory birds they really do dislike them and will attack so evasive flying is a must to learn.

Can not recommend them high enough, awesome quality

[Bad Scott]

3D print ya own

[GGV8Cruza]

Lets keep this a serious post and on track. All off topic drone related remarks will be removed

GG

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

[Jackdawg]

Bugger, got my hopes up with the title, was thinking I could get rid of a couple of the drones at work - until I saw you want a flying one 

[plusnq]

Bugger, got my hopes up with the title, was thinking I could get rid of a couple of the drones at work - until I saw you want a flying one 

Now if you take them to the top of the building and .........

 

[McGirr]

I'd suggest the DJI Phantom 3, same as Firefox purchased. Ready to go out of the box and good flying for novices. Only issue is $$$.

Yes I am looking at that one. It's not cheap but I want to get some great shots of places we go to in the future from the air. Happy for recommendations but please let's not turn this thread into off topic comments.

Mark

[quote author=grantxx link=topic=45720.msg773003#msg773003 date=1447050928

I have DJI Phantom 3 Professional, complete novice and it is a pretty dam good out of the box, great camera, easy to fly, very stable, just follow instructions start low in the open and work from there. Watch out for eagles, hawks or any predatory birds they really do dislike them and will attack so evasive flying is a must to learn.

Can not recommend them high enough, awesome quality
[/quote]

That's what I like to hear.

Mark

[macca]

Thinking of getting a Phantom 3 myself
, been doing plenty of research on them. They look pretty user friendly and you can set max altitude and a geo fence while you are learning
There is a heap of YouTube clips showing their capabilities

[McGirr]

Where is the best place to buy the Phantom 3.

Mark

[grantxx]

Some video off the camera, this is no editing in the quality apart from adding music and only filmed in 1080, camera can do 4k, plus this has been reduced in quality for size.

https://youtu.be/_tw4mpXwd6o

[Jaysea]

I have been eyeing of the Phantom 3 as well but I think the bank manager wont approve the purchase. 

I would love to see what these are like when they are released in the new year

https://www.lily.camera/

[grantxx]

Where is the best place to buy the Phantom 3.

Mark

I got mine from these guys, http://www.riseabove.com.au/ overall pretty good service, Australian business in Sydney, and if it plays up they can repair under warranty, they do know there stuff. Just confirm what you want is in stock when ordering, if not get a firm delivery date, they ship all over Oz, they did muck me around a bit quoting delivery times and not sending, but I do think they were under the pump when it came out and got swamped with orders.

Make sure you get the the extra battery, the hard cases and back packs are very handy, but I bought a hard case from Bunnings for $60, fits everything. Plenty of cases on Ebay as well much cheaper, I could not see the value in $330 or more for a case.

[McGirr]

After seeing the footage from All4Adventure at the Cape, they are a must have. It adds so much more to the normal video when filming places.

Will keep an eye out for that model also Jaysea.

Mark

[Ben.Archer]

I would love to see what these are like when they are released in the new year

https://www.lily.camera/

Looks interesting, but shows the market is becoming mainstream when you start to get it fragmenting into the "Anyone can use photographic units" such as this designed for the average mum and dad and the units such as the Phantom that actually need to be flown.

I just wonder where the liability lies with those autonomous units such as the lilly if the collide with someone/thing.  They have no controller so you can't directly control their movement and I can't see any mention of a sensor in the specs so how does it avoid trees, or other objects?

[alnjan]

Looks interesting, but shows the market is becoming mainstream when you start to get it fragmenting into the "Anyone can use photographic units" such as this designed for the average mum and dad and the units such as the Phantom that actually need to be flown.

I just wonder where the liability lies with those autonomous units such as the lilly if the collide with someone/thing.  They have no controller so you can't directly control their movement and I can't see any mention of a sensor in the specs so how does it avoid trees, or other objects?

It doesn't have any avoidance system so if it hits something really it comes back to the user.  But then I guess it is like cruise control with people setting it and basically walking away expecting the cruise to guide them to their intended destination.  For those that have common sense you would only use the Lilly in open spaces.  I did read somewhere that in future units Lilly are looking at avoidance systems.

[Bird]

So about 2grand with control???

[dales133]

I want one to but not that bad.
They were miles cheaper in bangkok when i was there recently...genuine ones too.
Plus the usual copies

[scarpsD40]

I want one to but not that bad.
They were miles cheaper in bangkok when i was there recently...genuine ones too.
Plus the usual copies

here's the one I picked up in Hong Kong a year or so ago. I thought the camoflage on this one would make it less conspicuous.

[dales133]

Lol.
Has it been hit up by a magpie yet ? ?

[Lobster]

You should have a look at https://www.lily.camera/

It looks sweet.

[yogi]

Personally I would steer clear of anything you can't physically control your self (that included ones you fly with an iphone ect). The technology is not here yet for truly autonomus flight, to really to do that sort of thing unless you plan on using it somewhere there are no trees, power poles or anything above ground level ..... lol .... and the cameras are only so so ... with no image stabilization. So if the plan is to use the video / images for retail purposes then you start looking at the Phantom 3 Pro as a starting point and go up from there .... the commercial units will cost you more for the camera let alone the quad / hexacopter.

I got mine from JustHobbies

yogi

[stiffbreeze]

Completely biased towards the Phantom drones as we love ours.

We got a Phantom 3 Pro off the DJI website along with the hard case and a whole bunch of extras when the $AUD was much higher (so cost a lot less). The conversion rate ain't so good now. Website says there's a shop in WA (Elk Fish Robotics) that sells em.
http://store.dji.com/phantom/phantom-3

You can also buy it from Amazon.com but you just need to make sure that you select international shipping to find the sellers that do actually post stuff to Australia (there's plenty who don't). Also worth buying SD cards from Amazon as well - tons cheaper than buying locally.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_shipping_option-_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aphantom+3+professional%2Cp_n_shipping_option-bin%3A3242350011&keywords=phantom+3+professional&ie=UTF8&qid=1447136177&rnid=2944662011

Brilliant quality, stabilisation and hover mode is so good/easy let alone the range and how easy it is to fly and capture amazing footage straight away. Plus the ability to see what the camera sees on your phone/tablet connected to the remote control allows you to really control the footage you want to get. Depending on the quality of video you want, you might want to compare the Advanced to the Professional. Same camera/drone but the Pro can shoot 4K whereas the Advanced is 2.7K.

We got the Pro for business purposes and need the high quality footage for inspections and aerial photography. My brother owns the Advanced and finds that it works brilliantly for recording footage of his farm to send for external crop reviews and various farm stuff. Prior to that, he had a 'twister quattro x' that has a camera on it but found that the quality wasn't as good and a lot harder to fly/control. Plus a few others before that which all suffered a horrible gravity-led death. 

Good luck with it! Plenty of different types out there, DJI is just one of the market leaders at the mo and in my opinion, bloody awesome.

[Markoutback]

Highly recommended the Dji phantom I have the phantom 2 and is tough as I have chased kangaroos and heared the cows with mine. Smashed into fences trees and it has dropped out of the sky a couple of times as well. It just keeps going. I will be upgrading to the phantom 3 for work next year.