So I got me a little drone…..

It’s always the libertarian ones who have paid road tax and have a right to drive their 4×4 round town at 30 mph (because 20 mph is a socialist conspiracy) who then get on their high horses about stuff like this drone.

Sorry to be grumpy but leave it in the city. No place in the countryside . Noise.

I live “in the countryside” so I’d be obliged if all you city-dwellers could stay there and not spoil my environment.

Meh – small drones are pretty quiet. Once a few metres away the noise is barely perceptible – certainly no worse than the constant drone of an e-bike.

I would get bored with a drone.

I’ve had several and yes, this happens. It’s not just flying (and controlling) it, it’s the editing of footage, getting decent shots in the first place…

My youngest niece (via my sister) has asked for one at Christmas (the elder niece already has a basic drone) and I know it’ll end up exactly that way. A fun toy for a day. Too much hassle after that (assuming she hasn’t crashed it into a tree).

But to drive a 2 tonne car at 20 mph you have to have passed a test and paid to be using that road.

Paid your road tax, you mean ?

I posted about a Neo a couple of weeks ago, daughter wanted one to film her on her horse, I quite fancied it for quick holiday snaps and occasional follow me on the bike / walking

Most comments I received where, it won’t go fast enough, its too loud and will scare a horse

Guess what, it keeps up on general bike rides and the horse couldn’t give a toss about it buzzing above him

I don’t want a “proper” drone, too much faff getting it out and setting it up and I’ll get bored, this I stick in my jacket pocket and its on and in the air in seconds, not much more hassle than whipping a phone out to take a selfie, and thats how we will, as a family, mostly use it. I didnt buy it to film me on the bike, bike footage is boring as hell but the fact it can follow you is a big bonus, and despite having no collision detection I have had it follow me down a singletrack ‘blue’ trail (Snibston) quite easily, it got a bit confused by switchbacks but less severe corners it did great

Great bit of kit, got mine for £150, have since bought an extra couple of batteries and will pick up a controller 2nd hand at some point. At £120 from Currys its an absolute steal

I don’t want a “proper” drone, too much faff getting it out and setting it up and I’ll get bored, this I stick in my jacket pocket and its on and in the air in seconds, not much more hassle than whipping a phone out to take a selfie

That is, I think, this drone’s selling point… Quick snap, then away again!

DrP

but at the time I felt it was a safe action.

I don’t doubt you did – and as I said, never believed otherwise. But still (imho only – I’m not the drone police!) not the right decision.

 I had fun, no one died, my kids and parents liked it. That’s a win for me!

Absolutely! And why not. It’s all a novelty right now. But not long from now…..that’ll probably change. It’s no different really from the Gopro phenomenon – at some point relatively early in their ownership most people realise their riding is not that exciting, even to them! And you don’t know quite what the footage is for. Imo (again, only imo) unless you are doing some god like riding/parkour/dragon wrestling….and that really isn’t me….using the rider/runner/swimmer/kayaker as the metaphorical vehicle to  take the watcher through the landscape. The Landscape is the star….so you need to find the right landscape and use the voyager to provide scale and context. And boringly, if you want to just go for a ride where you want, when you want – light is important too. The stars don’t often align. The good news is the drone is so much better placed than the Gopro to provide a variety of angles for B roll and variable angles and therefore less tedious footage. Good luck – it can be fun.

Good little review of the Neo,

I recently bought a £1k DJI Mini 4 Pro – bought through the business to take aerial shots of the solar farms I work on.

Used it once for that and once out on the bike in the three months or so I’ve owned it. Both sets of footage were rubbish, lost interest in going to the effort of taking it out and setting it up. Similar to the GoPro Hero 9 Black I bought a couple of years ago – generally just put that in a pocket MTB’ing and use it for stills

My GoPro is mainly used for stills too, but I shoot video. It’s easier than trying to find that one perfect moment when I’m riding along. It’s also a bit more robust and easier to handle than trying to whip out my mobile phone, especially while riding. I have it attached to a little (floating) selfie stick.

Used the drone this weekend to zip around an indoor roller disco party (daughter’s 10th!)..

Was fun flying in a huge gym/basketball court chasing kids on skates!

The protected props of the neo are great..skimmed the wall a few times!

Just need to edit that footage..prob just gonna grab some stills from the vid footage too…

Also just enjoying flying the thing around still…even when not filming!

DrP

What do you use to edit the footage from this (and indeed GoPros).  I’m picking my NEO up from Curry’s later so will need to get the ID sorted etc before capturing footage,

I’ve been using davinci resolve….

It’s free, and fairly easy to pick up.

Check a few YouTube videos on the basics.

I haven’t even touched the colour correction ‘tab’ yet… Just the cut, edit, and launch tabs…

DrP

How far from the phone can you go ?… Still curious.

I did post this in the PSA thread, but if you are thinking about getting one this is the cheapest they’ve been:

DJI neo for £109

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4072955

£119 checkout price, plus £10 off if you sign up to the newsletter

https://competitions.argos.co.uk/marketing_sign_up/thankyou.aspx

Free collection or free 2 day delivery. Only a fiver for same day delivery if you are in a hurry

Similar discount on the  fly more if you want a controller and spare batteries:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/4166218

How far from the phone can you go ?… Still curious.

It is a limitation of the phone so no precise figure. Somewhere around 30m, maybe 50m.

The big issue is that if you lose signal the drone stays where it is and there is no way to get it back without getting nearer to it and reconnecting. Fine in a field, less fun over the sea

I just had a professional drone survey done of the roofs at work. Haven’t seen the results yet, but the machine itself was awesome, a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise. Had a high accuracy positional device on it, (took off and auto returned home on the roller cover on a Hilux bed, prob just over 1m2) and does 3d imaging.

Although he was flying FPV with the controller which looked very smooth, the drone itself was surprisingly mobile, (to the point of looking uncontrolled) but has a proper gimbal so the images should be rock steady. Didn’t even need to fly it himself for the most part, just plotted a course on google maps, and off it went.

Think I want one now!

You need to look at videos of the DJI agricultural drones (eg t40), 50Kg payload for spraying, just enter the field boundary and how much you want to spray, and off it goes. Hot swap batteries mean you can fly all day.

I watched this earlier today. Looks like a drone swarm practice for an event?

The big issue is that if you lose signal the drone stays where it is and there is no way to get it back without getting nearer to it and reconnecting. Fine in a field, less fun over the sea

big net? In about ten minutes gravity will take over…