New to drones

[Thedronelife]

Hey everyone,

So as the title says, I’m new to drones.

I’m wanting to get a drone for when I go and travel. I’ve been looking into getting a DJI Phantom 4 Pro. Love the look of it, and the fact it has all the additional sensors. Also you can wear goggles that let you see what the drone sees.

Now being as that will be my first drone and it’s one of the most expensive ones I’ve seen.

Is there any pros and cons anyone knows about it? Hard to fly, bad battery, not for first time drone owners etc. appreciate any feedback.

 

[Meta4]

Is there any pros and cons anyone knows about it? Hard to fly, bad battery, not for first time drone owners etc. appreciate any feedback.

It's a fantastic machine. There's nothing in the sky to match it for the price.
Except the new DJI Mavic 2 pro that only came out a couple of weeks ago.
If travel and portability is important, you might like to check that out as well.

 

[Thedronelife]

It's a fantastic machine. There's nothing in the sky to match it for the price.
Except the new DJI Mavic 2 pro that only came out a couple of weeks ago.
If travel and portability is important, you might like to check that out as well.

For a newbie though, would it be better to start off with something cheaper/easier? Or is this perfect for anyone to be able to pick up and fly? I heard the more expensive the drone the easier it is to actually fly unlike RC cars and helicopters.

 

[Meta4]

For a newbie though, would it be better to start off with something cheaper/easier? Or is this perfect for anyone to be able to pick up and fly? I heard the more expensive the drone the easier it is to actually fly unlike RC cars and helicopters.

Some people recommend a cheap "trainer drone" but I can't see the point.
The cheap toy drone is going to be much more difficult to fly.
Your time and effort would be better employed learning how the Phantom is programmed and how everything on it works.

Here's my new flyer advice:
You'll find that it's much easier to fly than you imagine.
It takes about 5 minutes to learn - but a lot of practice and experience to become proficient.
Don't let the simplicity make you get too adventurous too early.
There are many things that can go wrong and you need to understand what they are and how to make sure they don't happen to you.

Do your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.
Be afraid, very afraid of trees, buildings etc. They are involved in most incidents.

Read up on return to home procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can resume control in an RTH situation.
Never launch or land on a steel or reinforced concrete surface.
If flying in a strong wind situation, never fly away downwind.

 

[Thedronelife]

Some people recommend a cheap "trainer drone" but I can't see the point.
The cheap toy drone is going to be much more difficult to fly.
Your time and effort would be better employed learning how the Phantom is programmed and how everything on it works.

Here's my new flyer advice:
You'll find that it's much easier to fly than you imagine.
It takes about 5 minutes to learn - but a lot of practice and experience to become proficient.
Don't let the simplicity make you get too adventurous too early.
There are many things that can go wrong and you need to understand what they are and how to make sure they don't happen to you.

Do your early flights in a large open area, well away from trees, buildings and obstacles.
Be afraid, very afraid of trees, buildings etc. They are involved in most incidents.

Read up on return to home procedures, practise using RTH and cancelling it so you understand how it works and how you can resume control in an RTH situation.
Never launch or land on a steel or reinforced concrete surface.
If flying in a strong wind situation, never fly away downwind.

Yeah that’s exactly why I thought. I could better invest my time in learning the new drone rather then get a cheap one and use even more money.

Also what are the wind strengths that are not recommended for flight? Over 60kmh? And do you use an app to check wind strength or just google?

ALLLLLSOOOO, just had a look at the Mavic 2 pro, the pictures it takes look amazing. Gonna have to do a huge amount of realsearch to decide between the two now.

 

[Meta4]

Also what are the wind strengths that are not recommended for flight? Over 60kmh? And do you use an app to check wind strength or just google?

I'm pretty good at judging windspeed (years of sailing) but Willyweather provides some good info in your part of the world.
You can also gauge wind by how it affects the drone's speed.
If I'm flying over the sea (like most of the time), I check live actual wind speeds recorded by ships in the area with Marinetraffic.com
Like this:
Vessel details for: APL LATVIA (Container Ship) - IMO 9532800, MMSI 636015912, Call Sign D5DM2 Registered in Liberia | AIS Marine Traffic
Down near the bottom left, you see the wind the ship is recording now.

It's not as simple as a fly/no fly wind speed.
The distance I want to fly and especially the direction are very important.
I don't mind a slow flight out going upwind because I'll have an easy return trip.
Doing the opposite can end badly.
I've flown several times in 22 knot winds, if I can find a sheltered launch point and I watch distance and direction.
Up to 15 knots is no issue (as long as I consider the wind direction for the return to home).

just had a look at the Mavic 2 pro, the pictures it takes look amazing. Gonna have to do a huge amount of realsearch to decide between the two now.

It's very hard to choose between them on photo quality.
They are both very good and any difference is very small.

 

[microlinux]

It's a great drone, but the Mavic/Mavic 2 series is a much more compact platform, if that matters. The P4P probably has the best camera in it's class, but that's overkill for a lot of people. Really depends on your use case. The Mavic 2 Pro camera is pretty close for most people.

They're all a piece of cake to fly in a literal sense (a child can do it), but it's extremely important to read and understand the manual. Understanding the many functions and how they behave in various scenarios will prevent most tears . . .

 

[Thedronelife]

It's a great drone, but the Mavic/Mavic 2 series is a much more compact platform, if that matters. The P4P probably has the best camera in it's class, but that's overkill for a lot of people. Really depends on your use case. The Mavic 2 Pro camera is pretty close for most people.

They're all a piece of cake to fly in a literal sense (a child can do it), but it's extremely important to read and understand the manual. Understanding the many functions and how they behave in various scenarios will prevent most tears . . .

Yeah I seen that the P4P can go 4K 60fps while the MV2 can only do 30fps.
Thing is, isn’t the MV2 lighter so it would get pushed around in the wind a little bit more then the P4P would?

But the fact it folds down is really useful and the camera being able to capture 48megapixel is really nice too.

 

[Fly Dawg]

Some people recommend a cheap "trainer drone" but I can't see the point.
The cheap toy drone is going to be much more difficult to fly.

This is where I completely disagree. The point for the trainer drone is primarily to introduce a new pilot to the format of controls at a very "cheap" price, also with these they teach you how to fly without GPS. The controls of all similar drones are the same, but without the cost of risking a $1000 price vs a $100 price to train and learn. Flying without GPS experience is invaluable. Do you disagree? And don't even mention that you can fly in ATTI mode with a Phantom for the same "training results" it is far different than that for the $100 investment as opposed to crashing a $1000 aircraft. JMO.

 

[Meta4]

This is where I completely disagree. The point for the trainer drone is primarily to introduce a new pilot to the format of controls at a very "cheap" price, also with these they teach you how to fly without GPS. The controls of all similar drones are the same, but without the cost of risking a $1000 price vs a $100 price to train and learn. Flying without GPS experience is invaluable. Do you disagree? And don't even mention that you can fly in ATTI mode with a Phantom for the same "training results" it is far different than that for the $100 investment as opposed to crashing a $1000 aircraft. JMO.

All the fears about crashing the Phantom disappear if you just do your early flying in a large, open area.
If there's nothing to hit, it's very difficult to get into trouble.
As I said, a new flyer would do better to put their effort into learning how the Phantom works than by learning how to fly something completely different.
It really only takes 5 minutes to learn to fly a Phantom but a new flyer has to put in time learning about all the things that can go wrong and how to ensure they don't.

 

[microlinux]

Yeah I seen that the P4P can go 4K 60fps while the MV2 can only do 30fps.
Thing is, isn’t the MV2 lighter so it would get pushed around in the wind a little bit more then the P4P would?.

The quality of the video doesn't seem quite up to par with the P4P on the M2P, but I don't think most people would notice.

The P4 series is more stable than the original Mavic series. The M2, however, is very close to a P4. Noticeable improvement over the original.

 

[Meta4]

But the fact it folds down is really useful and the camera being able to capture 48megapixel is really nice too.

Don't be fooled with the 48 megapixel thing.
That's for the Mavic 2 zoom which has a tiny 1/2.3-inch sensor that creates 12 megapixel images.
It creates a 48 MP image by stitching 9 overlapping images.
Anyone with any camera can create multi-megapixel images by stitching.
The M2 pro has the same 20 MP sensor as the Phantom 4 pro.

 

[MotorCycle-Man]

And lets add that State Farm has a nice insurance policy to cover the loss or damage to a Drone and Dji has a Care "Refresh" program and here's the links for that information DJI Care Refresh - comprehensive warranty for your DJI product

What You Need To Know About State Farm Drone Insurance

The Best of luck on your decision.

 

[African wildlife]

Our first and only drone was a P4P+. It’s brilliant. Reliable and with a very good camera for the price. And portable. Ours is used for work only, largely overseas in South Africa.

Take it slow at first and just let go of the remote control sticks if you get into trouble; the drone then just hovers thanks to GPS.

We did our homework and waited for years until the P4P had come up and been around for a while, choosing the P4P+ version for the extremely bright integrated screen. We’ve had no regrets whatsoever and would make the same decision again today without hesitation.

 

[Thedronelife]

Don't be fooled with the 48 megapixel thing.
That's for the Mavic 2 zoom which has a tiny 1/2.3-inch sensor that creates 12 megapixel images.
It creates a 48 MP image by stitching 9 overlapping images.
Anyone with any camera can create multi-megapixel images by stitching.
The M2 pro has the same 20 MP sensor as the Phantom 4 pro.

Oh wow I didn’t even think about that. ****. Okay that helps with my decision more.

 

[Nightwolf]

a child can do it

yet as told by my track record some adults can't

 

[Airforce1]

I would recommend to fly it first in beginner mode. All obstacle sensors are active. When not flying in beginner mode, the right and left side obstacle sensors are deactivated. Just so you're away of this.
Watch the tutorials on DJI's website in the video section

 

[Andy9]

You said 'for travel'. OK, but it is different if you travel by the car, by feet or by bike, etc.
If I take a car, there everything is OK with the P4P (I have it).
If I know that I'm going to be in the situation, where I can't carry a pretty big backpack, then it's the Mavic maybe better choice. I have the Mavic Air for such reasons.

Flying with these drones is really easy, but I think I know what 'Fly Dawg' wanted to point to. If you find yourself in the situation that the satellites 'fall' down and the drone turns into the so called ATTI mode (read the instructions (!!) how and when this happens) than you must know how to fly in such situation because the drone will not hoover at the place but it will drifting with the wind and you must be able to correct that. At cheap flying devices you need to do that constantly all the time as they don't have a GPS positioning. But you can easily do that with the Phantom too. Just switch from P to ATTI mode, but only at light wind. If no wind you can't see big difference.

 

[Wilbur]

As Andy9 mentioned, The Mavic is much easier to travel with (depending on how you're traveling). I have a Phantom 3 Standard and a Mavic Pro Platinum, and the size of the Mavic is SOOO much nicer. I personally would rather always have the more compact drone that does pretty much everything of the larger drone.