[Closed] Recommended me a beginner's drone

What kind of budget are you thinking? What do you want to achieve? I'm a bit out of touch with the drone world but my experience is that stuff like RTH on lower end stuff is really not to be trusted.

I'm not really expecting to be called into film the next James bond film, more take a nice photo/passable video of the boat in an anchorage or the canoe out on a loch type thing .

It looks lik the DJI mavik air would be the money no object one to go for, However thete is the high probability of either drowing it on it's first flight / flying it once then never using it again.  Therefore not willing to drop £1k on it.

Less than £150 (perhaps £200) would be where I'm at. It could turn out to be the same as the GoPro I bought then used once and never edited the footage for....

The thing is a cheap drone is much, much harder to fly compared to something expensive. You need zero skill to fly a DJI Mavic Air (for example), but a lot to fly a much cheaper ebay drone. It really depends on what your long term aims are. If you want to take good photos, I'd just commit to something expensive. You'll have no problem flying it, so long as you know your left from your right, and up and down.

edit, just seen your reply. You will not crash it. Start somewhere with no trees and learn the basics. Have a look for re-condition DJI stuff, plus a new one will be released today, so should be a load of second hand Mavics around.

DJI are very good and cost effective at repairs.

Don't let it out you off.

Start with a "toy" quadcopter. There are quite a few videos on YouTube that take you through the basics of flight.

You can pick up something like a Syma X5C-1 for £18 (for non-camera version)

https://www.banggood.com/search/syma.html?sbc=1

Selling a dji spark if you’re interested. Email me for details.

2nd hand Spark might be ideal. A lot of folk (me inc) bought one as it was the best of that type at the time of launch but realised a mavic air was what they really wanted all along when it came out.

I nearly came to grief grief flying my spark from a kayak. A tiny splash of salt water landed on the controller and knocked it out (since repaired) a very nervous 15mins paddling underneath it until it decided to land.

Return to handset. I think it is now a thing with the spark. Wasn’t when it first came out. Will check. Pretty useless feature to be honest. The only time rth is of use is when the drone has lost contact with the controller and therefore you have lost control of the drone. In that scenario return to handset is of no use whatsoever!

You need zero skill to fly a DJI Mavic Air (for example), but a lot to fly a much cheaper ebay drone.

Not sure I’d 100% agree. Yes much harder to physically fly but a spark/mavic opens you up to flying ‘cinematographicly’. Flying one well enough to make great film is a different skill but equally demanding as the skill of flying a cheap toy without crashing.

There was a really cheap Spark deal at Scan posted on HUKD a couple of weeks ago, gutted to have missed out! Will be keeping my eyes peeled for another one.

Mavic Air is dead easy to fly. I would get their insurance on it though, seen one taken out by a bird within 15 seconds of taking off.

The sensors underneath (to stop it crashing) also struggle with water so probably worth attaching some sort of buoyancy aid for fishing it back out if you dunk it.

I don't think the Mavic Air has return to controller. This keeps coming up on the DJI forums, it also depends on a good GPS signal on your phone, which, according to some, isn't also present.

Convert, yes, there is a difference between flying and shooting a good video, but the mechanics of flying something like a DJI drone is pretty simple. A bigger problem is that people think they're a toy. There's a lot to learn before your first flight.

I guess it depends what you mean by wanting to try it out, as it all comes down to cost.

Wanting to try it out and drop £600-1000? Get a DJI Mavic air, either 2nd hand or new, and in the 'fly more' variety.

Wanting to try it out and drop £400 odd quid? Get a 2nd hand DJI spark, again with a 'fly more' package.

Wanting to try it out and drop £75-100? Get a Ryse Tello. Has the techand support of DJI, and the guts are by intel.

Convert, yes, there is a difference between flying and shooting a good video, but the mechanics of flying something like a DJI drone is pretty simple. A bigger problem is that people think they’re a toy. There’s a lot to learn before your first flight.

This. I spent a good while doing a bit of digging before I sent my Spark into the air for the first time. Particularly finding out that the Highlands of Scotland, in its entirety, is a restricted flight zone. Why you say? Well having a jet scream over my head at terrifyingly low altitude just outside Ullapool re-inforced the flight rules! Eeek!

There was a guy on here a while back who put up some vids using his new Xiaomi Mi Drone. Looked really good, but a bit above budget I think.

Here you go:  https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/xiaomi-mi-drone/

and if you follow the link & look at his blog, there's plenty of vids.

I looked at getting one of these a while back: 

It seems pretty good, but not sure if it's got a return to handset feature. Plenty of reviews out there:

https://www.firstquadcopter.com/reviews/visuo-xs809hw-quadcopter-review/

http://www.drone-maniac.com/test-visuo-xs809hw/

Id avoid a spark like the plague. The hardware is amazing, the software utter utter crap. I'm now on my 3rd one, first one had a mind of its own, 2nd one refused to sync to numerous phones (including the guy in the shop who sold me it), the 3rd is unopened in a cupboard somewhere. No idea if it works or not, probably not. But if it does by the time you have managed to go through the faff of connecting it, you get ten min flight time at best.

When my first one did work it was great as a camera, but features like active tracking were hopeless. Honestly save your money, it'll be a novelty purchase that will end up gathering dust.

Id avoid a spark like the plague. The hardware is amazing, the software utter utter crap. I’m now on my 3rd one, first one had a mind of its own, 2nd one refused to sync to numerous phones (including the guy in the shop who sold me it), the 3rd is unopened in a cupboard somewhere. No idea if it works or not, probably not. But if it does by the time you have managed to go through the faff of connecting it, you get ten min flight time at best.

I'd respectfully give the other side of the coin to this. The spark I have was bought 2nd hand, has never had issues syncing with my phone (OP3) and can be out of the bag and in the air in less than a minute. It's range has been great (but albeit I've been flying it in some pretty remote places), and never had issues with RTH, or other software glitches which would affect things like active tracking, panoramas etc.

Faultless for me so far, but just watch how windy it gets when you're flying, as it can get caught and shifted pretty easily. Flight time, yeah, its pretty low, and 10-12 mins sounds about right if its dealing with wind, or sport mode. I have three batteries now though, so that quickly becomes a non-issue.

My Spark too has been faultless (apart from user error issues like the sal****er above). iOS which might help - android owners seemed to have more issues. I thought for the money it is/was pretty remarkable but would switch for an air in a heartbeat.

There was a guy on here a while back who put up some vids using his new Xiaomi Mi Drone. Looked really good, but a bit above budget I think.

Here you go: <span class="skimlinks-unlinked"> https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/xiaomi-mi-drone</span>/

and if you follow the link & look at his blog, there’s plenty of vids.

Yeah that was me. I was really impressed with it, got some great quality footage (within its limitations) and it was pretty keenly priced too. I say 'was' because last time I took it out, capturing a glorious sunset over the North Devon coast it suddenly decided that it wanted to try its hand at being a submarine.

I glanced at the screen to check composition, saw it was disconnected, looked up again and couldn't see the drone. That was the last I saw of it. I suspect it was either a battery eject (does happen, but I was always really careful to make sure it was in properly so I'm not sure) or it just had a bit of a moment and decided to keep flying out to sea until the battery ran out. Either way I'm now droneless, and as such I wouldn't really recommend the Xiaomi. But if you find one in the sea near Coombe Martin let me know, I wouldn't mind the memory card back.

Fair enough, but all my issues were also experienced by loads of folks on the forum.

As for range.. Advertised 1km with the additional controller.. Don't make me laugh, mine went about 150 meters tops.

I would agree however that the hardware itself is remarkable... Tiny but can fly in a decent wind as well.

As for range.. Advertised 1km with the additional controller.. Don’t make me laugh, mine went about

I think that the issue there is the marketing is global but the tech has to comply to where you are flying. Assume you are in the EU area? Therefore Wi-fi signal strength allowed is an issue for the spark (and the air). They don’t have ocusync (spelling?) which is the one thing that would put me off upgrading to the Air. Take yours to the States and it would up its transmission power and you might easily get that range.  However - you are meant to fly visual line of sight. You’d need to have better eyesight than me to fly somethings as small as the spark vlos at more than 300m so it’s a bit moot- and I’ve got better than 20/20. The vast majority of filming I do with mine is when it’s less than 20m from me - actually less than a couple of metres from me more often than not.  The more you use drones to film the more you realise that they do their best work close using it like a flying dolly, especially in  tripod mode. Big high or distance shots are a novelty that most with an once of creativity get bored of pretty quickly.

We've got a couple of P4P+ and Inspire 2 etc.

We run them on their own monitors - crystal sky etc. They're much better and more stable with DJIs own monitor.

Don't rule out "like new" returns on Amazon.

Just got a P4P+ Obsidian for £970. That particular product has been flawless.

Thanks all - that Ryze Tello mentioned above looks just the ticket for payday toy buying.

Cheers!

I have a tello. Its strictly indoor only unless there is absolutely no wind and it can't fly over water as the optical sensors don't like it. Max height is 10m but you can get an app to derestrict it. Camera is suprisingly good for a 99 quid drone. Very easy to fly but a bit boring. I'll prob sell mine as there isn't much you can do with them after the novelty wears off........

@Winston - thanks that changes my mind then. Being able to fly outdoors / over water is kinda important to what I'm after.

Yes it was for me too. the first time I used the tello on a local river to try getting some kayak shots I lost control once it was over the river and try as I might I couldn't get it to respond. Luckily it drifted into a tree before it came down and we retrived it. however since then i've used it outside a few times and it becomes uncontrollable in wind over a few mph. Its just too small and light to cope.

I've also tried some of the cheaper but heavier drones that mates have got from ebay etc for around 100 quid and whilst you can get them up to a reasonable height they are much harder to fly and would be impossible from a kayak- plus the cameras are rubbish

i've come to the conclusion that just like action cams, you get what you pay for!

Just clocked the Mavic 2 drones got launched today. Way out of your budget but it means there will be a glut of owners of smaller and less capable DJI drones on the 2nd hand market in the next few weeks.