I had been thinking about keeping things really simple for my first drone and stay in open category <250g to allow as much freedom as possible. Camera quality is generally very good and so the main downside sounds like it could be stability in modest wind.
Whikst I’m still confused with the difference between FPV Article 16 and a CAA CofC, it appears that with either of those authorisations i could eliminate a lot of the flying restrictions with respect to proximity to buildings and people for a larger drone (although I appreciate it still isn’t quite as flexible as <250g in flying over people)
My primary interest in flying is photography of landmarks, buildings, landscapes etc. I don’t need to fly near people per se, but the freedom to do so from time to time does make life easier in public areas.
So, on balance, should I look at a larger drone (say 1-2kg rather than 249g) and invest in obtaining A16 or CofC? Or is cheaper, smaller, keep it simple the best approach?
Sensor size is always a consideration and, until the Mini 3it appeared that the larger and more expensive aircraft were the ones to go for with the Inspire having a Micro four thirds, the S900 type of hex being capable of swinging an APS-C sized camera and the decent heavylift machines easily carrying a full frame DSLR.
But the Mini 3 seens to have the magic sub 250gram qualification along with good still camera performance and dynamic ranfe. Still only 8 bit cine though. It’s too early to know what foibles and failures the Mini 3 has,. wait a few months while the early adopters find the problems and DJI releases a series of firmware updates in an attempt to fix them
It will give you an idea of the quality attainable and most of these are taken with small form factor drones, ie sub 1kg.
As for stability my mavic 2 pro is rock solid in 25mph winds, and can cope with 35mph no problem. And i have flown it in 50-60 and got it back safely.
Yes there are some great shots in that thread. I didn’t think you were allowed to fly directly over roads etc. Does that mean that those directly looking down shots over roads and similar must be with a sub 250g drone?
