The General Drone-Related Thread

Jase said:
What sort of distance did you go wth that one, I know the Mavic has a range of 7KM or whatever but I'm only just getting used to it and not pushed it.
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Mine does feet :LOL: - perhaps 3000 at farthest in that, I'll sometimes go to twice that and with Mavic the connection is practically flawless, though previous Phantom 3 was not bad.
Most times I don't go much more than 1500 feet though, you are mostly after an overvew of different perspective on something pretty close by.
 
Jase said:
I know the Mavic has a range of 7KM or whatever but I'm only just getting used to it and not pushed it.

On the below video I went about 1700M, I was planning to fly to the big lake but chickened out... next time!!! :)
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How far away is the limit of visibility? With something as small as a Mavic it must surely be very hard to see at even 1700m, let alone much further.....
 
StewartR said:
How far away is the limit of visibility? With something as small as a Mavic it must surely be very hard to see at even 1700m, let alone much further.....
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How good's your eyesight? :)

If you are actually looking for an answer then it is diffuclt to to say, for instance on that day I was flying from an elevated position (mountains) and you can actually see it very far away against a blue sky or white clouds. In other instances at ground level it would be easy to loose sight of it against trees or something just a couple/few hundred metres away.

Also unless you're flying it around your garden then the chances are you will be using the screen and then when you look up its a case of finding where it is.
 
Against the sky the Mavic can be better than Phantoms to see, due to being dark.
Being able to see it is of little value so long as you know where it is.
You can't easily see which way it's pointing even 100 feet away but it's easy to know that on the app.
 
Nod said:
Even if 90% of "drone" incidents are inaccurately reported, that still leaves 7 last year - at Heathrow alone.

I'd love one but can see them being banned or very tightly regulated in the not too distant future so have held off spending the cash!
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That's what I had looked at before, the Air Prox stuff. 20 or so in the London FIR and only 6 at Heathrow total. That may just be surface data, I'm not going to analize it all :)
 
Shot in d-log which will always need some contrast adjustment by levels, ,and usually saturation.
This was style all on zero so not much needed..
 
Stunning mate. I need to get out with my p4p just can't find the time
 
I've just got a Mavic, really liking the kit so far, especially like it for its compact size.
 
I finally got some of the PolarPro ND filters for the Mavic, I had a quick flight to try them out yesterday and really pleased with them.

The below is the test footage straight from camera on "normal" not edited, I quite like the extra saturation it gave (using an ND16) :

 
Anyone finding that they are using their drone as much if not more than their camera equipment?

I'm trying to keep a keen interest in both but the drone is so much fun.. The Mavic is so small I just keep it in the car wherever I go, tonight the light on a local castle was really nice so I had a quick flight over it. I didn't have much time and it was quite windy (app warning about high winds) but I was pleased with the results... on my books to go back on a less windy day !

 
Jase said:
Anyone finding that they are using their drone as much if not more than their camera equipment?

I'm trying to keep a keen interest in both but the drone is so much fun.. The Mavic is so small I just keep it in the car wherever I go, tonight the light on a local castle was really nice so I had a quick flight over it. I didn't have much time and it was quite windy (app warning about high winds) but I was pleased with the results... on my books to go back on a less windy day !

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Yeah, not just the Mavic, the FPV wing too, I just like to fly

(y)
 
That's an interesting place to revisit, not just the ruin but the tidal creek which looks hard to access any other way.

I think once you've got to grips with getting the best from it you'll probably use it more as a tool with other video and photo sources.
At first there's a lot to learn and it is time consuming dealing with the footage - even if not actually used you generally need review it which can take longer than flying and recording.
It makes a good excuse to revist favourite places and discover new ones - an incentivefor avoiding the obvious honeypot spots as you generaly don't want to fly there for one reason or another.
 
4wd said:
That's an interesting place to revisit, not just the ruin but the tidal creek which looks hard to access any other way.

I think once you've got to grips with getting the best from it you'll probably use it more as a tool with other video and photo sources.
At first there's a lot to learn and it is time consuming dealing with the footage - even if not actually used you generally need review it which can take longer than flying and recording.
It makes a good excuse to revist favourite places and discover new ones - an incentivefor avoiding the obvious honeypot spots as you generaly don't want to fly there for one reason or another.
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Luckily it's on my doorstep so I'll just go back when the conditions are good.

Actually it's funny you say about using it with other video and photo bits as when I got there I setup my camera to do a timelapse which I thought would be pretty cool with it but the clouds disappeared within minutes and was left with a boring sky which doesnt really make much of a timelapse lol

And I'm enjoying video more, wish my D810 recorded in 4K and I'm holding off buying a second camera for another month or so in the hope that Nikon announce the D820/850, if not I'll probably pick up something like a Sony 6300/6500 for the sumer.
 
Yes same here, I've leart a lot of new stuff just from dealing with the drone files.
I bought a Hero 4 as a result of increased interest, and got to grips with Adobe Premiere which I had a while but had me slightly baffled.
I also have a Drift Ghost HD which now benefits my somewhat improved editing ability.
 
Has anyone else with a drone had issue with birds? I've had a couple of occasions now when birds have come close to hitting the drone or yesterday when seagulls intentionally attacked it! frightends the life out of me when the drone does an emergency avoidance especially over water... I caught yesterdays encounter on video (from 6:50 minutes in)



My mate who flies at the same time with a Phantom hasn't had a problem... think I'll paint some big teeth to the front, lol
 
They're going to be worse just now due to nesting.
Pigeons seem to like flocking together and hardly look where they are going so can blunder into you.
Seagulls generally stay fairly low but they have an aggressive streak at best of times.
 
4wd said:
They're going to be worse just now due to nesting.
Pigeons seem to like flocking together and hardly look where they are going so can blunder into you.
Seagulls generally stay fairly low but they have an aggressive streak at best of times.
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I was thinking that flying a bit higher may be a better option in places like this, it's the one thing that worries me with the drone.

I've had the problem before but it's the first time I've got it on video, that one Seagull did a flypast, turned around and flew straight at the drone again... I was just thinking if it was a bigger drone would they be as aggressive..

At least I know the collision avoidance works!
 
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Doesn't come with a traditional controller does it? Looks like it's an expensive option.
 
Jase said:
Has anyone else with a drone had issue with birds? I've had a couple of occasions now when birds have come close to hitting the drone or yesterday when seagulls intentionally attacked
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I've just had this pointed out to me ....

I had to "rescue" a drone sometime ago.

A "Professional" company was doing an aerial survey on a landfill site that I was doing the bird control on.
(Actually it hit the news, but not the rescue bit... funny that ;) )

To be fair to the guys they did come and see me first, concerned about the birds that I had blocked out, on the edge of the bund.
I said don't worry the birds are bomb proof, you crack on, I'll keep an eye on the birds, if they get stressed in any way, I'll put them away..

The drone was about a meter x meter. and quickly in the air..
I was half watching to see how the scavenging gulls would re-act, and mused that a "Company" drone maybe fun..
Within a couple of minutes, there were black backs, and black headed gulls mobbing the drone :D

Eventually I put Donut ( Gyr x Saker) up to rescue the drone from the gulls, but not before I had a little chuckle at their expense, of course..
 
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