Help Please- Drone Shopping

[Julian]

$1,000 for the basic system, $1,500 for the deluxe. Not bad for what they promise. Still, I’d wait until it starts to ship before I place my order.

i wouldn’t be too concerned about the company’s being relatively new since they successfully developed and shipped a similar product before.

Is anyone interested in purchasing a barely used DJI mavic pro, spark, 1 gen 3D goggles and lots extras for $1,500?



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They have been shipping already (since 2019 I think)....they are just 45 behind in orders right now. There are, of course, less flattering reviews of it.

 

[jthackman]

just got my first drone...picked up a dji mini 2 yesterday after i finally seeing bro-in-laws pics/vids from our boat in august.
hoping it'll get some use when we take camper and boat out.

briefly looking through this thread, i'm curious how overbearing the restrictions will be around here as we've been taking the boat and camper to lake grapevine frequently, which is very close to dfw airport. bro-in-laws drone is a mavic pro and his images were taken right by the dam at prob 150' up with no issues or warnings.

i played with it briefly in the back yard yesterday tormenting my dogs, they really want it.

 

[Julian]

just got my first drone...picked up a dji mini 2 yesterday after i finally seeing bro-in-laws pics/vids from our boat in august.
hoping it'll get some use when we take camper and boat out.

briefly looking through this thread, i'm curious how overbearing the restrictions will be around here as we've been taking the boat and camper to lake grapevine frequently, which is very close to dfw airport. bro-in-laws drone is a mavic pro and his images were taken right by the dam at prob 150' up with no issues or warnings.

i played with it briefly in the back yard yesterday tormenting my dogs, they really want it.

The mini is very appealing. Just wish it had a higher still image than 10mp. Its still on my list for sure...much less of an investment! I keep askikg myself....are you ever going to need high resolution images off this thing??? Answer is probably not.

 

[Julian]

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro with Smart Controller..... anyone want to talk me out of it?

 

[HangOutdoors]

The control, pictures and video are excellent we use it for out door aerial footage of parks and trails for our Outdoor Information Systems. Although it has become a PITA with some of the new regulations around here. It is the only drones I have flown so nothing to compare it to. None the less, I would like to take some footage out over the water and of the kids and stuff, but the DJI Mavic 2 is not waterproof. With my luck it would probably go down. Have been looking at some of the waterproof ones like the Splash or Aqua RC or Parrot, but have no experience with them. Reading reviews and such atm.

Funny story, the first DJI I go at least a few years ago I was working on flying it from the driveway. Called the family out to check it out. Working between the controller and my cell phone. Was going up pretty high with it then something happened and it took off. My ass has never ran so fast. Kids were rotfl. Lost site of it. Never found it. To this day, any time I pack one of the drone's, I always here "Are you sure you won't lose this one? Do you know what you are doing?"

They do sell this which is supposed to cover water landing, but if you can't recover the drone not sure how that would work out. Don't know of anyone whom has used it for a watered drone.

DJI Care Refresh - Support - DJI

 

[HangOutdoors]

Was looking into this. The Egg. Has pontoons that you can add so land and takeoff from water as well as it flies in the rain. Records sound. Does anyone have any experience with it? I guess the image Quality isn't as good as the DJI.
PowerEgg X | PowerVision Robot Official Website | Innovate The Future powervisoin

 

[Mully262]

I've owned the Spark and currently have the Mavic 2. The Spark was nice, smaller in size so easy to stow and go. Battery life was alright, getting 10 to 15 minutes out of it.

The Mavic 2 is a significant upgrade. Better battery and also able to set up flight patterns. I seriously tend to get bored on a single flight. The flight can be 30 minutes. If the remote disconnects, it will continue the route. Both have RTH (return to home) in the even you lose connectivity. As long as it is properly set up, there is low risk on a significant crash.

Bigger than the actual drone is studying up on current FAA rules.

Between the two drones, I have over 200 flights spanning 330 miles and 28.5 hours total flight time. I've had only one incident. The Spark went rogue and wouldn't RTH. Fortunately it landed in a driveway 5 blocks away and I recovered it safely. Kept flying it after that, so it was a one off. I assume some sort of interference with RF and GPS signal.

 

[ifly4fun]

I put my name on the list for a skydio.

 

[Ronnie]

Once upon a time a flew these (pre drone RC helicopters, no camera, Return to home, self landing or hovering, and there were a limited number of channels so only a few people could fly at a time. Some of the guys had turbine powered copters ). They were much more difficult to fly and repair. I got rid of them all when the first DJI phantom was released but while flying them I realized the secret to flying better, more comfortably was to start all flights accepting that I may lose the $1k+ helicopter any time it’s in the air or damage it heavily. Once I accepted this fast forward flight and some 3D/acrobatic flying became a lot easier.

Unless I’m racing my drone against someone else which I rarely did with my son, I found flying drones boring, sometimes m/ a lot of times you just have to hover and/or rotate in the hover to get good footage. I’m on the fence about getting back into drones with the skydio, I just don’t have the time or inclination to fly, film, edit and post anymore.

Here are a few links to videos I took years ago. From the food ol days. Even at my peak I would spend 15 minutes to produce every minute of posted video.

 

[fatboyroy]

I've owned the Spark and currently have the Mavic 2. The Spark was nice, smaller in size so easy to stow and go. Battery life was alright, getting 10 to 15 minutes out of it.

The Mavic 2 is a significant upgrade. Better battery and also able to set up flight patterns. I seriously tend to get bored on a single flight. The flight can be 30 minutes. If the remote disconnects, it will continue the route. Both have RTH (return to home) in the even you lose connectivity. As long as it is properly set up, there is low risk on a significant crash.

Bigger than the actual drone is studying up on current FAA rules.

Between the two drones, I have over 200 flights spanning 330 miles and 28.5 hours total flight time. I've had only one incident. The Spark went rogue and wouldn't RTH. Fortunately it landed in a driveway 5 blocks away and I recovered it safely. Kept flying it after that, so it was a one off. I assume some sort of interference with RF and GPS signal.

Just to add in case someone is drone newbie here, when flying from a boat which is not stationary, I would not recommend losing signal and rely on RTH function it could end up in the water. So once it started to go back and you regain signal, you need to take over to manual flight control and land it back to mothership lol

 

[HangOutdoors]

I put my name on the list for a skydio.

The skydio looks amazing, especially with its self flying ability.

 

[Mully262]

Just to add in case someone is drone newbie here, when flying from a boat which is not stationary, I would not recommend losing signal and rely on RTH function it could end up in the water. So once it started to go back and you regain signal, you need to take over to manual flight control and land it back to mothership lol

Great point! Droning while boating, no matter your skill level, is a daring proposition. I'd actually recommend setting your RTH location on the show if possible for that very point.

 

[Bdog]

If anyone is considering buying one I’d hold off DJI is announcing a new one on March 2nd. They always have significant leaps in tech. I’m a fan. DJI New Products - DJI

 

[Julian]

Will be interesting to see what they come out with. It will be a FPV drone (but they already have that capability), so will it be a whole to airframe and goggles, or just a modification of existing?

Skydio looks interesting, but after watching lots of videos, it is focused on autonomous flight not manual flying. So if you want to get the shot just right, skydio isn't the bird for that job. So each drone has its sweet spot. DJI has really focused on manual flight, Skydio on autonomous, Autel on video quality.

@Ronnie I totally get what you are saying - this is an expensive and time consuming hobby. I've been going back and forth with:

• Do I get a replacement for my gopro karma paper weight? #goprosucks by the way for not providing ANY way to reload SW to their drones and a basic lack of support on their product.
• If I get one, what are my use cases - for me, its wanting good quality stills, autonomous flight for tracking a boat (yes scary and risky), and a stable platform from a company that is in the business for the long term!
• I've looked at the small models like the mini - but no autonomous flight
• So I've really narrowed it down to the Mavic 2 Pro - expensive, but I don't think I'd have buyers remorse from it not being able to do something.....FPV looks like fun.....but I'm not ready for that yet....maybe down the road? I'm hoping this new drone will drop the prices a little on the Pro....but I'm not holding my breath!

 

[fatboyroy]

If anyone is considering buying one I’d hold off DJI is announcing a new one on March 2nd. They always have significant leaps in tech. I’m a fan. DJI New Products - DJI

I been flying FPV (racing drone) before DJI get into it. It is not easy and you will have to spend lots of time to practice and pay for broken parts (auto-level is not enable to do those kind of stuff, its all manual control). But once you get pass that, its more fun than cinematic drone.

 

[Five Faces]

I'm very close to pulling the trigger on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro with Smart Controller..... anyone want to talk me out of it?

I don't want to talk you out of it, but are you aware of the new drone registration rules in the Bahamas? I was watching a recent video on "Out On The Reef" YouTube channel and his drone was taken by customs which was returned upon checking out of the country (also a new requirement). I was going to bring mine for the June Bimini rendezvous, but I'm starting to wonder if it is worth the trouble. I haven't yet started investigating what it takes to get it registered there.

 

[Julian]

I don't want to talk you out of it, but are you aware of the new drone registration rules in the Bahamas? I was watching a recent video on "Out On The Reef" YouTube channel and his drone was taken by customs which was returned upon checking out of the country (also a new requirement). I was going to bring mine for the June Bimini rendezvous, but I'm starting to wonder if it is worth the trouble. I haven't yet started investigating what it takes to get it registered there.

I registered and got permission in the past, it was super easy and was just something I did via email to the Bahamas "FAA"....hopefully it is still this easy.

 

[Julian]

I pulled the trigger and went all in with DJI..... just ordered:

• DJI Mavic 2 Pro
• Smart Controller
• Fly More kit

Should arrive tomorrow.....

 

[mkbcaptain]

I pulled the trigger and went all in with DJI..... just ordered:

• DJI Mavic 2 Pro
• Smart Controller
• Fly More kit

Should arrive tomorrow.....

I have the same setup! Well 6 actually if you count my work ones .
my advise, NEVER PUT IN SPORT MODE.
I’ve seen two crash and lost forever because guys were goofing with it in sport mode. In regular flying modes the thing is dang near impossible to crash.
one guy deep-sixed his in the bottom of a lake showing off for some girls. Ouch!!!

 

[Ronnie]

I have not flown my DJI drones in a while but as I recall sport mode is the only way I could get the Mavic to go fast enough to almost keep up with my boat at WOT.