The General Drone-Related Thread

Nice one Andy, I enjoyed watching that, you were blessed with some great light and some really nice cloud interest and a great location, also nice for me as a Nikon user to see a Sony? in action as well.
 
Very nice indeed, Andy. Very different than the usual music filled drone video. Can I ask how you managed to get the ambient noise including tripod opening clicks and birds but no noise of the drone? Judicious audio editing in post perhaps?
 
So, first proper go with the Mavic Mini - had done a few brief flights locally in the last week but had the chance to go to Waterbeach Barracks today. This was a WW2 airfield and had Lancasters stationed there before being an army barracks after the war. Now about to be developed for housing.

I did have permission to fly, and the buildings I was close to were under my control the entire time which meant I could get some good, close (but not too close) shots.

1. Runway
C434201B-594E-4A40-B3C0-0CE5C88F95A0 by Simon Owens, on Flickr

2. Airfield
12B968C9-32A4-48AC-B903-B3E236E7207B by Simon Owens, on Flickr

3. Control Tower
7F3BAD11-94B7-4323-9FFE-9951AFCCE57F by Simon Owens, on Flickr

4. Hanger
93CECE1A-4845-4C40-AA63-C564FE62E7FA by Simon Owens, on Flickr

5. Above Hanger
0B95837B-2B1D-4634-A932-2850D9CFB359 by Simon Owens, on Flickr

6. Water Tower
CEB39601-731A-42C7-9830-2FCED935BF39 by Simon Owens, on Flickr
 
The quality looks pretty great for a 'baby' drone! Really not helping me resist buying one!

I'm reading up on the upcoming legislation and it's a tad unclear; despite the drone having 249g written on it, it has a maximum take off weight that exceeds 250g so will fall in to a higher category after December 2020?

I'm a bit unsure as to what I can/cannot do with it in the transition period and then after. I'd prefer not to be forced in to paying the price of the drone again to get a training course.
 
Doug said:
The quality looks pretty great for a 'baby' drone! Really not helping me resist buying one!

I'm reading up on the upcoming legislation and it's a tad unclear; despite the drone having 249g written on it, it has a maximum take off weight that exceeds 250g so will fall in to a higher category after December 2020?

I'm a bit unsure as to what I can/cannot do with it in the transition period and then after. I'd prefer not to be forced in to paying the price of the drone again to get a training course.
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I’ve just done s bit more research following your post. I found this on the website below:

https://www.heliguy.com/drone-train...d6ckZhaHRtS0paYmlyVTQxLUJYNVNLbUM0cTdDZjF2cGQ.

It seems adding anything (ND filter etc) to the Mavic Mini will take its maximum permissible weight into the over 250g sector. The big one seems to be flying near uninvolved persons which I think will occur in quite a few outside locations especially where landscape photography is concerned.

On one hand it will be annoying to pay for extra training (I gather it may be the A2 CofC course- £250 at heliguy) but on the other hand it should make flying drones safer and give you greater freedom. If you don’t have the A2 CofC then you seem to be limited to staying 150m away from everything (buildings, vehicles, people). That’s three times the current distance for people and buildings so it could be a bit limiting.

It’s the legacy part that’s the worry for any drone on the market now as it practically giving every drone a fixed life expectancy up to January 2023 when the transition period ends. When C2 drones come out you potentially seem to be able to get within 5m-30m of people. Whilst that sounds great for drone users that’s going to annoy other people as they will few that’s far too close. How much are C2 drones going to be too?

I have to say I’ve been one of those photographers that has previously been annoyed with drones buzzing around (especially when you’ve just seen a peregrine falcon flying around minutes earlier). I’m now moving towards the opposite side now seeing they open up a whole new area of photography, but like you im concerned what the new rules will actually mean.
 
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Edited the footage from the Mini I took at the weekend at Waterbeach (see earlier post for images) - first time filming so need to improve on a few jerky moments, as well as being able to multi task like ascend, move forward and change angle of gimbal at the same time! Great to be able to go along the old runway, and the areas near buildings were under my control as these.

Edited in iMovie so needed to put a blank 1 sec 4k clip in order to export at 2.7k!

View: https://youtu.be/vENaTenlMXc
 
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KitsuneAndy said:
Took the drone to a friends house who lives in the middle of the countryside where there was some lovely light, like @cambsno, I need to work on my multitasking!

Also, without the gimbal smoothness settings available yet it can be a bit jerky when raising / lowering it.

Shot at 30fps 2.7K, exported at 23.976fps 2.7k

View: https://vimeo.com/429064973/e48f0f55d1
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Great work, loved the mix of shots like fast low to ground (especially following paths) and then moving back, and most clips were just right in length (often people have clips that are too long and become boring).
 
cambsno said:
Great work, loved the mix of shots like fast low to ground (especially following paths) and then moving back, and most clips were just right in length (often people have clips that are too long and become boring).
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Thanks :)

I watched a lot of youtube videos about drone videos before starting haha

Am speaking with a local farmer about using his land to practice while doing my pfco, which will make things easier!
 
KitsuneAndy said:
Thanks :)

I watched a lot of youtube videos about drone videos before starting haha

Am speaking with a local farmer about using his land to practice while doing my pfco, which will make things easier!
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Is it better to do the pfco now or wait until the new regs come in... head is spinning trying to make sense of it all!
 
cambsno said:
Is it better to do the pfco now or wait until the new regs come in... head is spinning trying to make sense of it all!
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Pros and cons, if they new rules were coming in this July, I'd probably just get my A2 COFC, but as they're now not coming in until Jan 2021 at the earliest, I have some events I want to use it at later this year so no other option than the PFCO.

It does mean I'll have to convert it to a GVC down the line, but I won't have to do that immediately.
 
cambsno said:
Is it better to do the pfco now or wait until the new regs come in... head is spinning trying to make sense of it all!
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My understanding is that the CAA will allow PfCO's to be renewed indefinitely. However it's difficult to see they will allow 2 systems to run in parallel for ever. The other thing to consider is the time it would take you to get a PfCO. Under normal conditions the best you are going to do is 8 weeks from course date to actually getting you hands on the Permission 3 months is probably more normal and the CAA are on a go slow at the moment for obvious reasons. If you could do your PfCO you would probably get a couple of years use out of it before you had to swap over to the new system. If that doesn't work for you financially you might be better to just subcontract you 2 drone events and pick up the new system in the spring.
 
Does anyone use a lightmeter before shooting with their drone? Or do you rely on the drone sensor to provide the correct feedback to adjust?
 
Lensflare said:
Does anyone use a lightmeter before shooting with their drone? Or do you rely on the drone sensor to provide the correct feedback to adjust?
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Unless you're buying something like a Phantom 4 Pro, then you have a fixed aperture anyway and just have to swap ND filters to get the shutter speed you want (for video), and you have can have the screen display a histogram.

So it's easy enough to set at ground level using the histogram before you take off, not sure a lightmeter would save any time.
 
What video editing package is everyone using?

I've looked into it a bit but now get Pinnacle, Filmora and loads of others pop up on my FB feed.

Any decent free ones that export to 4k / 2.7k or will I have to dip into my wallet?
 
GreenNinja67 said:
What video editing package is everyone using?

I've looked into it a bit but now get Pinnacle, Filmora and loads of others pop up on my FB feed.

Any decent free ones that export to 4k / 2.7k or will I have to dip into my wallet?
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I use iMovie as it’s easy and included with my MacBook.
 
GreenNinja67 said:
What video editing package is everyone using?

I've looked into it a bit but now get Pinnacle, Filmora and loads of others pop up on my FB feed.

Any decent free ones that export to 4k / 2.7k or will I have to dip into my wallet?
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Davinci resolve. Hollywood uses it, and the free version does 90% of what anyone will ever need.
 
Thanks both,

Yes I've just moved from Mac back to Windows and I'm missing iMovie, I should have stipulated Windows,

I'll have a look at Davinci Resolve Tom, thanks.
 
Thanks so much for the feedback. I’m going to keep at it, and work on making them better with a bit of a story if at all possible.

For this one, I had a bit of fun getting up at 3am for sunrise at West Wittering, where I found the beach car park closed when I got there so had to replan rapidly. All the stills are shot with the drone too.

 
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Tobers said:
Thanks so much for the feedback. I’m going to keep at it, and work on making them better with a bit of a story if at all possible.

For this one, I had a bit of fun getting up at 3am for sunrise at West Wittering, where I found the beach car park closed when I got there so had to replan rapidly. All the stills are shot with the drone too.

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Your mad, there's only one 3 o'clock on my watch and the suns been up a while by then.
Can I be cheeky and ask what kit your using, obviously a Leica camera but drone and body cam ?
 
ChrisH said:
Your mad, there's only one 3 o'clock on my watch and the suns been up a while by then.
Can I be cheeky and ask what kit your using, obviously a Leica camera but drone and body cam ?
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Haha yes for sure. I use a Gopro8 and a Mavic Air 2.
 
KitsuneAndy said:
And threw this together

View: https://vimeo.com/431373717
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Great stuff, loved the shot in the last c.10 seconds, but overall liked the way you changed angles and views, some high looking down, some near the ground etc... I did like the way you changed the clip with a change in the music, but did find that some clips were maybe a tad short or long because of it but thats being very picky. Excellent for a fellow new pilot!
 
cambsno said:
Great stuff, loved the shot in the last c.10 seconds, but overall liked the way you changed angles and views, some high looking down, some near the ground etc... I did like the way you changed the clip with a change in the music, but did find that some clips were maybe a tad short or long because of it but thats being very picky. Excellent for a fellow new pilot!
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Thanks :)

I shot that last clip forwards and reversed it in post, no way I could've flown that backwards haha

And yep, I fully agree with some being too short, but I'm tight and didn't want to renew my subscription to any music services until I've got some wedding slideshows to do haha :)
 
cambsno said:
Stunning, especially no.3 - Wow! Does no.2 need a slight straighten?

Hoping to get to the coast this weekend - although shots like no.2 scare me, visions of it plummeting out the sky into the sea!
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Think it does now that you've pointed it out haha :)


These are FB downloads so compression has made the sky noisy in a couple of places. Shot in 48MP raw, but downsized to 3000px wide on output
 
After everyones' help to get me up and running I have done a couple of trial flights and taken a couple of pictures. The flying manually isn't so much of an issue as understanding the computerised aspects for me! I have managed to process a couple of pictures using the Darktable that was suggested. Heavens above is it complicated! It took me the best part of an hour to work out how to get a picture from the lightroom part of the program into the darkroom part of it - that was while trying to watch tutorials as I went along, our TV can get You tube I have been shown. We have only had it 5 years, I never knew! We only watch BBC or listen to the wireless.

A trout is played from a float tube..jpg

I think this was a jpeg, I can't remember. It was the first picture I took with the drone. My friend played the fish so I could get him lined up properly, so it was a directed shot, not a grabbed one. He had to be careful where he put the rod tip, the drone was only about 7 or 8 feet over his head - he uses a 9-foot rod. :LOL:


I can't post the second picture, it says it is too big, yet it is only 775kb..... sorry, I don't get that.
 
These are two flight for vidoe, again just practice flights to get the hang of how to angle the camera and control the drone. They are you tube links because I don't know how to put them on otherwise.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVw3a6BO3zc


I was only a couple of feet from the edge of the weir and tried to use the edge as a diagonal line to practice flying down. Estimating range in 3d isn't as easy as it looks! I have not used a radio controller for about 40 years, so my thumbs are out of practice, and out of synch, hence the thought processes required before I could change direction.
 
I hope this doesn't sound condescending, Simon - it's certainly not supposed to!

Well done for getting your head round the computer aspect of it. I have similar problems adapting to new things, be it software or hardware.

With regard to the picture size, IIRC the forum has a 350kB size limit. I use the quality slider in PhotoShop Elements to get the file size I need, with the Preview box ticked, the file size is shown.

Be a decent cover shot - plenty of copy space around the subject.
 
Then I thought I would fly through the canopy of the path. I don't know why the drone just refused to move. Despite watching about 200 hours of tutorial on the Mavic Air, I still can't work out why it wouldn't move and just refused to go up, down, forward or backwards. I was stood about 10 feet from it. In the end I caught it and came home to try to work out what setting I need - I had it set the same as for indoors I thought. Never mind. It is all lessons of some sort. I just walked with the drone still turned on to get something. Then when I got to the bridge flew it again... once more, under the bridge it just went on strike! So again I caught it by hand and gave up, before it decided to go swimming.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a_ZTUfNNDQ
 
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