The General Drone-Related Thread

The spark is quite tempting. It's only 3300 CNY = £370. Plus a spare battery, exactly the money I'm willing to part with for photography drone. Shame the arms stick out, may be have to wait a few more months for another drone with folding arms.........

The lack of controller as standard is also bothersome, and I've read sports mode is only available with the controller. So without controller, it's essentially a selfi-drone: can't fly far, can't fly fast.
 
Cobra said:
Or did you mean you needed a translation to my post?
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GreenNinja67 said:
Yep
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School boy French is the best I can manage at this time of day (y)

Je devais "sauver" un drone il y a quelque temps.

Une entreprise «professionnelle» faisait une enquête aérienne sur un site d'enfouissement sur lequel je contrôlais l'oiseau.
(En fait, il a frappé les nouvelles, mais pas le morceau de sauvetage ... drôle cela;))

Pour être juste pour les gars, ils sont venus me voir d'abord, préoccupés par les oiseaux que j'ai bloqués, au bord du bund.
J'ai dit que vous ne vous inquiétez pas, les oiseaux sont à l'épreuve de la bombe, vous craquez, je surveillerai les oiseaux, s'ils sont stressés de quelque façon que ce soit, je les mettrai ...

Le drone était d'environ un mètre x mètre. Et rapidement dans l'air ..
Je surveillais à moitié pour voir comment les goélands balayants réagiraient et pensaient qu'un drone de la «compagnie» peut-être amusant ...
En quelques minutes, il y avait des dos noirs, et des goélands à tête noire mobbing le drone: D

Finalement, j'ai mis Donut (Gyr x Saker) pour sauver le drone des goélands, mais pas avant que j'eusse un petit rire à leurs frais, bien sûr ...
 
anyway, anyone knows if the drone camera can have Iive view on the controller? and if so whats the distance?
 
$499 or £519 for just the drone and don't pre-order from wex, their fly more bundle is wrong, that is what comes with the £519, the £699 gets a lot more
 
Compared to the Mavic Pro I'm now not sure it's such a good deal.

To make it a worthwhile purchase you need to spend the £699 on the More Fly kit as the £519 drone on it's own is severely limited.
 
It's mainly for family pictures so I can be in them too, it would've been good if they had a tripod mount and you could keep it handy on a peak design clip but we'll see how easy it is when I get it in 3 weeks hopefully
 
£129 more expensive here :( Though I did see some site offering it for £499 (didn't check the delivery charge etc)
 
Ian W said:
Harming checked, it's seems priced at around $500 elsewhere but £500+ here?
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If that's US$, then there are generally two reasons why stuff can appear to be more expensive than in the US.

The first is that UK prices generally include VAT, and US prices generally exclude Sales Tax. If you compare prices excluding tax, they're much closer; for example £500 including VAT is £417 excluding VAT, which is $533.

The second reason is that UK retailers have a greater tendency to milk the early adopters than retailers in other countries. I'm not sure how far this translates over from lenses to drones, but it's not uncommon for the UK price of a new design of lens to drop by 20% or more over the course of a few months after its launch. That doesn't happen in the US, for reasons which I don't understand.
 
I bought the Mavic Pro a few months back. Amazed by its capabilities for a small sensor. Always in my bag now. It goes wherever the camera goes!
 
Tori_T said:
If I'm reading this correctly, then it looks like DJI is planning to pretty much shut down any unregistered drones that attempt to update their firmware.

We thought you folks might want a heads-up on that.
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Not sure that is the case. There have been loads of rumors circulating that the firmware update is mandatory etc etc. Its not. You can choose to update the App. However if you do not update and then sign back in then your drone will be restricted. Once you update the APP and sign back in non of those restrictions apply.

I've always been signed into the DJI Go app ever since ive had the Mavic and I cannot see for what reason people wouldn't be. There is of course ways of getting around DJI's app and fly zone restrictions if you live in one etc etc, maybe its to stop those people who do that.
 
I'm ordering the Spark flymore bundle in the next few days in China, getting it in my hands mid-August when wife comes back. Will let you know.

I'll mainly use it to take photos. I don't want to sit for hours and edit videos on computers, so the extra axis stabilisation and 4k features of Mavic will be lost on me. But the main reason I chose it was for the hard-to-break shell and camera. There's a video of someone deliberately fly Spark at full sport mode speed into a wall and only the front sensor cover fall off. It's going to be as much as a toy as a photography equipment for me.
 
https://goo.gl/q9inEc

I wonder how many naughty drone reports are actually these.
Must have picked up at least a dozen either burst from exceeding CAA guidlines or part deflated and pathetically stuck in a hedge.

A lot of drone reports seem remarkably un-drone-like.
 
4wd said:
https://goo.gl/q9inEc

I wonder how many naughty drone reports are actually these.
Must have picked up at least a dozen either burst from exceeding CAA guidlines or part deflated and pathetically stuck in a hedge.

A lot of drone reports seem remarkably un-drone-like.
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I've seen more than 1 report from the media claiming it was a near-miss with a drone but when you look at the actual airprox report the pilot actually reported a drone or a balloon. You might have though if that was the happening then it would be classified as a UFO.

But then the media would have good day reporting that instead :)
 
Gotta love Biker Twist's comment on YouTube!
 
Just thought I'd say hi, I have just joined the ranks of the 'be-droned' Got my Mavic on Thursday, but am yet to take it out for a maiden flight (thanks to weather conditions and kids!) hoping to get out today and give it a go though.
 
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If you haven't updated firmware yet don't do it - you can ignore the red message about it more or less indefinitely.
They rushed out some changes and a few problems have been reported.
It's usually best to postpone any updating for a week or two at best of times.

Don't try first flight n a tight space - or worse indoors.
It flies very precise but first few times get well out in the open to get used to controls.
The risky period is after realising how 'easy' it is you get over-confident on subsequent flight.
 
4wd said:
If you haven't updated firmware yet don't do it - you can ignore the red message about it more or less indefinitely.
They rushed out some changes and a few problems have been reported.
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Ah, too late. What sort of problems have been reported?

I fully intend to take it to a nice, big (usually empty) park and keep it in beginner mode whilst I get used to it. I will be taking it very slowly as I get used to it though.
 
They just seem to be making everything more and more bloated, Android seems to have more problems than iOS but Android now has *interesting* 3rd party options developed for it.
It's mostly connection issues to the screen.
The controller stays in contact no need to panic but an app crash when you can barely see it is not fun.

One of the first things to try out is the RTH - so if things do get confusing you know how it works.
Press and Hold until it says engaged. You have to be a minimum distance away - might be 20m
 
Ok, thanks - I'm on IOS, so hopefully not as plagued by issues as the ndroid app seems to be, at least based on what I've read online.

Just completed my first flight, nothing special, but flew around a big, empty park for half an hour or so. Gave me a good sense of the controls and how the Mavic flys. Will need to play with the setting sthough, some of my footage is very jerky as I was panning. I'm wondering if that's to do with the shutter speed, because it was pretty bright out there and my basic grasp (and a bit of research) seems to suggest that too fast a speed will produce that sort of effect. Time for a set of ND filters then!

Overall, really enjoyed it, definitely gives a whole new view being in the air!
 
Default gimbal up-down is much too fast, the other controls are not bad.
For gradual movements it helps to rest your hand on the controller and gently press rather than directly move the sticks.
Most of the nicer video techniques require at least two movements combined which is where the skill comes in !
 
Ok, so a couple more flights in and I'm loving the Mavic, what a superb bit of kit! Still not taken any particularly shareable bits of film or images, but there's time for that. Its a completely different perspective from usual, I took it up this morning in a park near where I live and I genuinely had no idea how green the area is. Its gonna take a while to adjust to thinking about how to get good film and images from those new perspectives!

At the moment though I'm enjoying getting familiar with it and having a bit of a play - tried out sport mode and active track this morning. It don't half shift in sport mode and I was very impressed with active track, granted it was only following me as I walked but it was neat nonetheless.
 
Getting the best from the video can have you going round in circles.
None and D-cinelike styles are OK but both better with contrast and saturation on -1 I think.
D-Log is possibly best if you are reasonably handy editing/grading.
I am rather fond of Art mode again just now.
Started with that late last year, but moved to D-Log when they *fixed it* in February.

Key things - don't under-expose, it goes into automated Noise Reduction in darker areas, over expose slightly if anything and make it look darker if need be later when editing.
When light is going e.g. near sunset or really dull day set sharpening to +1
Auto white balance is quite good but it will shift about as you move, which can look odd and hard to change later.
it's usually best to set manually on sun/cloud or your own number - I like 7000.

 
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