Camera Drones
I've seen a few posts with some great pictures from a drone. Mostly on this site. If a beginner wanted to purchase a decent, Relative cheap one, what drone would you suggest?
Forum Discussion
Depends on what you mean by "great pictures," "decent" and "relative cheap" because you are buying a camera as well as an aircraft. The camera itself could be anything from a $40 webcam to $4000 production video camera, and that price might be before buying lenses.
Starting out, probably the best approach is a complete package: aircraft, camera, radio control system.
The BeBop at $500 is a good start for "let's go up and see what's out there." It holds cost down by skipping conventional radio control. It uses the smartphone you are presumed to already have as the controller, setting up peer to peer WiFi as a limited operating range 2-way radio. The camera this is not pointable (you point the aircraft) and has a 180-degree fisheye view. That may or may not mean "great pictures" for you.
$1300 Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon puts a decent 4K video camera on gimbals into a quad-copter chassis with a fairly high performance radio control system (for greater operating range). Q500+ Typhoon at $1050 has a HD video camera, fixed focus with 110 degree field of view. The camera is gimbal mounted pointability and some stability, but it is not like having a gyroscope. There are also Typhoon models to carry a GoPro, if you already have that ($250-400) action camera.
Next step up, minimum pro expectations on video quality, will be about $4500-8000. Yuneec's Tornado line is an example, aircraft with about 2000 meter operating range carrying a HD video cam with a focusing zoom lens. Still not gyro stabilized, that's in the 5-6 figure price range. At this level, the camera probably represents 1/4 to 1/2 the cost of a system, the bare aircraft with the capability to lift a lightweight semi-pro camera and gimbal costing around $2500, $3500 with a controller. Then it is a matter of do you install $500 worth of camera and mount, or $4000 camera, or whatever in between.
Many others out there, these have become respected in the photographic community.
FWIW, once you get up past the "carry my GoPro" class, the most frequently carried camera is Panasonic's Lumix GH4, for 4K video quality, weather resistance, and remote-controllability. A GH4 body costs about $1300, lenses start at about $180 and go up into the $1000 range, which isn't bad considering Nikon and Canon lenses can run as high as 10X that. Yuneec sells a gimbal specifically for this camera.
Starting out, probably the best approach is a complete package: aircraft, camera, radio control system.
The BeBop at $500 is a good start for "let's go up and see what's out there." It holds cost down by skipping conventional radio control. It uses the smartphone you are presumed to already have as the controller, setting up peer to peer WiFi as a limited operating range 2-way radio. The camera this is not pointable (you point the aircraft) and has a 180-degree fisheye view. That may or may not mean "great pictures" for you.
$1300 Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon puts a decent 4K video camera on gimbals into a quad-copter chassis with a fairly high performance radio control system (for greater operating range). Q500+ Typhoon at $1050 has a HD video camera, fixed focus with 110 degree field of view. The camera is gimbal mounted pointability and some stability, but it is not like having a gyroscope. There are also Typhoon models to carry a GoPro, if you already have that ($250-400) action camera.
Next step up, minimum pro expectations on video quality, will be about $4500-8000. Yuneec's Tornado line is an example, aircraft with about 2000 meter operating range carrying a HD video cam with a focusing zoom lens. Still not gyro stabilized, that's in the 5-6 figure price range. At this level, the camera probably represents 1/4 to 1/2 the cost of a system, the bare aircraft with the capability to lift a lightweight semi-pro camera and gimbal costing around $2500, $3500 with a controller. Then it is a matter of do you install $500 worth of camera and mount, or $4000 camera, or whatever in between.
Many others out there, these have become respected in the photographic community.
FWIW, once you get up past the "carry my GoPro" class, the most frequently carried camera is Panasonic's Lumix GH4, for 4K video quality, weather resistance, and remote-controllability. A GH4 body costs about $1300, lenses start at about $180 and go up into the $1000 range, which isn't bad considering Nikon and Canon lenses can run as high as 10X that. Yuneec sells a gimbal specifically for this camera.
