I plan to use it mostly while out mounting biking for a bit of ‘follow me’ and spotlight footage, panoramas of nice places and just general nice bits of countryside. I’m also hoping to use it to record some indoor and outdoor sports activity and maybe canoeing.
I have the most impatient partner in the world so I’d need to be able to launch, get a dronie and pack away in the shortest possible time (a minute would be too long). Ideally it wouldn’t need a controller. If it needs more than a couple of button presses we’ll be moving on before it’s got off the ground.
If I’m out on my own then I’d be happy to attach a controller and take the time to do a little more complicated flying.
From what I’ve read (and watched) so far options seem to be the Neo, Flip and X1 Pro. They all seem to have pros and cons with the biggest one being they are all quite noisy. I’ve seen reviews for and against all of them.
Budget is around £500 (ideally less) but could be stretched to the X1 Pro but not as far as a ProMax.
Top of my list at the moment is the Flip as it seems to have all the features I think I want in a package that is still portable.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Maybe I should wait for the Neo 2 to arrive.
IMHO, this is not for you, at least not when out with your partner. Why?
Before you can take off, you need to do the following:
Check Weather, check for flight restrictions where you are going to fly, pre flight checks on the aircraft and take-off area, after getting out the aircraft and doing the checks, it needs time to get a GPS lock and will require a controller initially at least in most cases, this all takes time!
While some of these can be done in advance, many cannot! to try and miss them out would unlikely end well! I doubt I’ve included all the necessary steps to be ready for a flight, but I think you get the idea, it’s not just rock up somewhere and within less than a minute be flying!
My apologies if this appears harsh, but from your description, it required an honest answer…
OP doesn’t need a drone, a Go-Pro or something similar that will be instantly “on” so him and significant other don’t wait for the drone to fire-up would suit him (and his usage examples) a lot better I reckon.
For what I’ve got in mind it definitely needs to be hands free. I wouldn’t want to be riding off-road without both hands on the handlebars. The sports I do needs both hands too.
I’ve got a Go-Pro type camera which is fine for what it does but I’d like to be able to get the different perspectives that I’ve seen from drone footage on youtube. Maybe it’s a hangover from too many computer games but I’d like to play around with the third-person perspective that I’ve seen..
I think in that scenario of wanting something to get up quickly, track, and do fly arounds, the DJI Neo would be pretty cool. It’ll work off the phone, straight out of the palm of your hand and will track you amongst other things. And the bonus is its very good value. £169. Ideal for sports etc.
Check out the DJI website.
Plus, while it’ll do the sorts of party tricks that are ideal for vlogging and you can fly it off your phone, you can drastically improve it’s capabilities with different RC units and use it as an fpv, with goggs, but of course the more of that you get into the less of a pocket/handbag drone it becomes and the more it costs.
This makes it a great beginner drone, especially for those on a budget (who isn’t) becuase you can improve it as you can afford better controllers. My only reservation about it is it’s low wind-resistance…
Not disagreeing that phone control is shit! I was pointing out that it can be flown off your phone if needed, not suggesting that this is an advisable way to use the drone, Chris. About 100’ is probably sufficient for most vlogging flights, and with such a small drone is not far off the limit of VLOS anyway!
The Neo in “autonomous” mode is really quick to use and it can fit in a pocket when on your bike. Fine for close up work, dronies, circles and follow me. It doesn’t like wind much though. It also isn’t any good for being over water without a proper controller as the downward facing sensors get confused by water and people have had a few crashes trying to go over water.
I tried on my bike on a road ones and it struggled to track me all the way and stopped and hovered when it lost me but I haven’t tried much more since.
But it was also only £250 with an N3 controller that you use with your phone.
I use a neo for mountain biking - example attached
But it’s not a sub one min setup for sure. The boot up takes around 30 seconds maybe a bit longer then getting it up in the air as others have said needs gps etc so a good sub 5 mins to just get airborne - but it’s great and gives you the options to use a controller for other types of flying so very flexible
Thanks. That’s pretty much what I’ve got in mind. We got the emtb’s in the summer and are loving getting out on them.
The Neo would seem like an obvious choice but for just a little more money the Flip seems to have much better image quality, longer battery life and is meant to be a little better in the wind. It’s also meant to be faster than the Neo as I’ve seen people say the Neo struggles to keep up with cycling.
I have a flip for very similar reasons you’ve listed. There are the three modes you can use.
Autonomous works well for follow and spotlight. I haven’t used it on a bike personally but used it for walking and sports like tennis. It works well. I did have an occasion using dronie where it lost me and then was hovering in the air about 10m. I had a panic and luckily managed to connect my phone and bring it down. I had visions of staying under it for 25 minutes waiting to catch it when the battery ran out. 30-60 seconds to get up and running with this. You can launch from your palm.
Connecting via the phone is good for all the features, and gives you 50m range for manual control. Using your phone and autonomous modes don’t use GPS so you do not have return to home etc (though if you are on the move that will be no good for you anyway). 60-90 seconds to get up and running with this, again launch from your palm.
Lastly you can connect it to the controller. This does take more time, you will wait for the satellites, but you have much more control. 2-5 minutes depending on location. Again launch from your palm.
Due to the propeller guards the flip is on the nosier side, but it seems normal to me now. Use common sense, check the weather apps and monitor the area you are in. Be mindful of the terrain and people around you. If you’re cycling through forest the flip can detect something ahead like a branch and will stop, but you do have the option turn off the front sensing brake. Also the wind does play a part and some gusts can make it fly on an angle that can make you uncomfortable due to its design. I’ve flown level 5 winds with a controller, I would never attempt it autonomous or just connected to the phone.
All in all I really like the flip. It’s very versatile. It’s not the best if you want a traditional drone for those long ranging shots (though it can do it), but for a more close up vlogging type drone that can get close to the action it’s great.
Difficult idea as they are not just take out a bag and throw it up.
Pre flight checks
Waiting for GPS
(You need a screen controller to save time attaching a phone/tablet).
If you partner is capable of flying then is there anyway to involve them.
I am not going to pry on the impatient side of things but if you get a larger tablet maybe they could be interested in your flight giving you that extra time.
Our drones are DJI and the mini pro series are good.
Thanks for the info.
I’d be interested to see how well the Flip could track a tennis player with the sudden changes of direction. The sport I’d be filming has similar movement in it.
Update : I couldn’t resist a good deal on a used Hoverair X1. I’ll play with it for a while and see what happens. Happy with the first results and ‘pocket to flying’ in under 30 seconds is good enough for now.
