I want a drone....help!

Yeah, a sub 250 is the easy way to grab shots wherever people may be - the trade off is stability but, if you go for the latest DJI mini, not picture really as it does a really good job from what I've seen, got very close to pulling the trigger on one myself!

Here's a Hoverair following a cyclist through a forest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTLpNaWyosU
It doesn't have an obstacle avoidance function but in this instance it seems to have no trouble avoiding trees, perhaps because it's close to the owner. It doesn't have a controller but it has the ability to follow someone. This FAQ explains: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hover-x1-pocket-sized-self-flying-camera#/faq Perhaps it could fly itself in town without hitting lamp posts, buildings, buses etc ?

Here's one filming a skater in a city https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_4OeBJUSHA

Battery life is 11 mins. Enough for some interesting bike journeys in London?

A bonus for cyclists is that it folds in half and fits into a jersey pocket...

Perhaps pedestrians would be unbothered by it, as it's so small (125g) and the propellers are inside a cage.

It uses the palm of your hand for take off and landing.

The trouble with buses, lorries, etc is that they are moving too

The DJI mini is obviously a bit bigger but it's not massive. It isn't the sight of it that people notice, it's the noise. The propellers are way louder than I expected.

Nice one, thank you.

Drone dredge!

I need to get one for work, I'll be supporting a young woman to make her own films. We've got a couple of phones with tripods to cover most shots but wanna get aerial. What's the best bang for buck drone on the market right now?

Around the AU$1k/£500 budget. Needs to be 4k, what else do I need it to do? Never used one before.

DJi and find something that fits the budget? Not sure what the laws are like in your region (presume not uk by Aus dollar?) but you may need to factor in licensing and training as well (certainly need to in the UK for any camera equipped drone).

If you were uk based I’ve got a DJI Mavic Mini/air that I’m not using I’d let go for cheap but not sure if it does 4K (but does come under the weight limit for some restrictions and training requirements

I've just been looking at the DJI Mini 4 Pro, just found one for $1100 which seems like a pretty good price. Would prefer the Fly More version but that's quite a bit more money.

That's a lovely offer but I'm a long way away! We're gonna go out drone window shopping tomorrow to see what other deals are out there.

I need to check the regs but I think the mini comes under the Aussie weight restriction.

Flymore bundles 100% worth it. Makes it a “I’ll grab some quick shots as I’ve got 15 mins battery” to “let me get it done right and enjoy it” so if you can stretch to it then well worth it. Also look second hand, there’s always some knocking around camera shops here from people that used them for a bit then let them sit in a draw as the excitement waned so some good deals could be had depending what your local camera scene is like

Thanks for that! I also wanna grab a handheld phone stabiliser thing, any tips? I was just gonna grab something cheap off AliExpress.

Only used the DJI osmo but was pretty impressed with that, worked well and app is pretty slick too should you want it. Else take a look at the dji pocket. It’s an all in one system but might come out cheaper vs the gimbal.

I picked up the DJi osmo too and it’s really good, chews through the phone battery but it’s unlikely you use it for hours.
On the drone tip, factor in a good few days practising because you don’t want to be flying these things anywhere near people unless you’re 100% in control.

Great, that's two votes for the Osmo, that's exactly what I was looking at just now. Thanks, folks.

Redredge - been looking at a drone for a bit now too, here in UK you can find DJI-refurbished Mini 3 Pros for decent prices, that would be worth a look.

The Mini 4k and Mini 3 (non Pro) are very decent too and can produce amazing footage (the 3 moreso than the 4k, especially in lower light), but don't offer any customisation in sharpening/saturation/denoise settings which the Pro models do. I'd say this might only really matter if you're going to put the footage through a proper editing/grading workflow, but if the whole thing is shot on phones, it might be more or less moot as you won't have any control on those on the rest of the footage either. Then again, this doesn't mean the result will look bad in this day and age and appropriate for a lot of applications.

With Black Friday coming up, you might get the 4k for a steal (think last year they got down to close to £200 here) which is hard to look past.

According to laws, the Minis might be the only options that make sense - in Europe or UK that's definitely the case as you effectively can't fly anything bigger anywhere not remote without permits and consents, at least in principle.

We use Osmos for social content at work and Ronins for camerawork and they all work very well - TL;DR stick to DJI and you can hardly do any wrong.

Hello! I think I've settled on the Mini 3 Pro, it seems to have everything I could need and obstacle avoidance, which seems quite handy.

I've found a lightly used one not too far away for only A$300, gonna contact the guy tonight to make sure it's legit and take it from there. Anything I should look out for? Should I worry that it might be fake? Any buying tips greatly appreciated. 🙃

And where would be a good place to find a Black Friday deal on a new one?

Not sure on exchange, but 300A sounds really cheap, so unless you can test it/get it in person I'd be skeptic...

Unfortunately the Mini 3 Pro was discontinued a while back, probably to boost sales of the more expensive Pro 4 which offers little more, so doubt it will be on any Black Friday deals, thought I certainly wish it would!

If you’re looking for a drone, I’ve got a Mavic Mini fly more combo I’d let go for cheap. Not used it this summer at all and so it’s probably time to pass it on to someone who will.

Yes, I paid £209 for the 4k version.

So after much reflection I don't think I can justify the expense of the Mini 4 Pro. I think the Neo will suffice, caged propellers negate the need for collision detection and it comes with Follow Me functionality, those were the two main things I wanted to cover. Would have preferred a higher frame rate and bigger sensor and battery but beggars can't be etc.

I did a drone.

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Does it do animal tracking?

I did think about that but this guy is never out of our sight so...

Would you be able to do that with a cat somehow?

I was just thinking some drone footage tracking a dog as it runs after a thrown ball might be fun. If I had a drone like that and a dog that wasn't fussed by the noise (not sure if they are?) I'd experiment somewhere.

He'll probably tear it to pieces thinking it's a bird! Planning to take it to the beach tomorrow to catch some surfers hitting the waves, came up with a little idea for a reel with my client. Looking forward to seeing what we come up with!

I want to know if I'm crazy to think about getting a £50 drone for my 6yo.

Are there ones that will survive multiple savage crashes?

Are there ones for £50?

Would be for use in a park.
Cheers.

My experience, and this was with the kids when they were younger, is that cheaper drones are much harder to fly. I bought a £30 from Maplins about 8 years ago, and I struggled to control it and the kids, who were 7 and 4 then, absolutely could not. It was fairly robust, but we regularly had to repair it.

We bought a better one - a Ryze Trello - for £100 and that was so much better for them. It has auto take off and land, is controlled by an app, has pre-programmed acrobatic manoeuvres and a camera that gives you a pilot's eye view of it flying. You can also use it to take pics and videos, which they loved. I bought a spares kit, but have not really had to use it that much.