Drones and aerial photography

[gazza2006au]

Anyone here using drones for aerial photography of there boats? I bought this big beast a year ago but lost interest in drones i also bought a mjx bugs 3 but found the manual pilot easy to fly but i have been out of the RC industry a few years and my orientation is really poor now

These newer auto flying auto pilot done models seem the go for aerial photography, considering getting a parrot bebop 2 with auto follow me and auto return home

If u use yours over salt water how do they fair for long run?

I noticed Sydney is very anti drones they are blocked out of a lot of rivers and esturys b7t i see the hawkesbury river is ok to fly at

[Almako]

Have a Phantom 4 pro plus and am too afraid to fly from the boat. I'll use it on the beach but at $3k or whatever it was I paid for it I'm too chicken to lose it. Mostly fly fixed wing these days and the drone makes an appearance every now and then. Holding onto it mostly to take to Cape York this year but otherwise is shelved.

[Gon Fishun]

G'day Gary. I have had a Mavic pro for about 18 months now and it is great fun. Learning to understand all the techanogical stuff was the hard part. but you tube helped enormously. It has the auto follow along with a lot of other quirky operations. The auto return home is a blessing as it nearly ended up in the Bribie passage due to a low battery. Flying over water is fine as long as you watch what your doing and what voltage is left in the drone. About 25 mins flying time. I have been tempted to take it out in the boat but when the drone takes off it updates your gps, so when the boat drifts the landing spot is open water. It is possible to hand launch and catch but not taking the chance. The camera is great with excellent video and still pictures.

[ranmar850]

I've recieved, just today, a heap of drone footage from our recent trip out to the Montebellos. Mate took along a Mavic Pro he bought second hand. Still getting to grips with it, but still got some great footage, including boat following. Schools of fish, tiger shark eating a tuna, birdlife...i've got the job of editing it up, looking forward to it.
if you want to see some excellent fishing/boating/diving related drone footage, have a look at Brodie Moss on the YBS channel. Uses the drone a lot, just blows me away with quality. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSn...ZG1SyB8lSxWQGg The vast majority of it is shot around Exmouth WA, and the islands out in the gulf there. Some up at Dampier, odd bit at Coral bay.

[gazza2006au]

That 450 size drone i posted that i bought a year ago yesterday is a pre built model out of the USA it is quiet out dated on its gear its running really vintage gps etc.. that is no longer updated or supported it will need a new radio/receiver and battery i am contemplating getting it in the air just due to its big size
The old APM gps supports follow me which is what i want for the boats and being a 450 size drone it should be able to carry a decent battery pack
It already has the gizmos gps, set up for fpv, i would care a lot less if i dropped this big drone in the water however if it were a new $500 bebop 2 i would probably cry lol
Have been looking into putting floats on a drone that way i can use the follow me than when battery is low i can land it beside the boat drive over and pick it up would also be ideal for taking off outside of the boats so no damage to us or the either boat
I was looking at the DJI Spark another contender but they cost a lot more alot more than i can afford to land in salt water

[Dirtyfuzz]

I’m waiting for them to update the raymarine axiom to be enabled with the dji spark! It was originally marketed to be compatible and then all of a sudden only the mavic pro


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gazza2006au]

I really like the DJI Spark its tiny, long flight times, great flying options only watched videos on youtube but seems it is very user friendly but they are like $800 here at Office Works that is a fair wack especially if i lose it they are USD$299 in the USA

the Bebop 2 is $480 not as many boat following videos on youtube as the Spark but there are a few and 25min flight times

i got my drone out last night and blew the dust off it i thought i had the APM GPS but actually i have the good NAZA GPS only downside to this huge drone is it needs a whopping battery 5000 to 8000mah 3 cell for a 10 to 15mins flight about $50 a battery, i will need a transmitter TX and RX, the RX wires to the NAZA are missing and no screen for the FPV

one good point about the drone i have is its size if i put floats on it and i lose it should be able to see it floating

[catshark]

that footage of exmouth is stunning, wow wow wow, quality of definiton is out of this world, thanks for posting the link.

[gazza2006au]

I watched a bit of 2 of the movies and didnt see any drone action only hand held cameras on jetskis and about a island

[ranmar850]

You didn't watch enough, rare to have no drone footage. He started out doing features, 25 minutes or so, back when he was just putting stuff together he had recorded previously. titles like You, Me and the Sea, Breathe, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM5FyLcPhQ0&t=67s all part of what he called the Liquid Cinema series. Breathe, the one I've linked, probably has the most surfing in it, don't see that now. But lots of good drone. Then he got into it seriously, more short features more often. Puts out 1 or 2 a week of the short ones, the ones he calls the Lifestyle series.

[gazza2006au]

You didn't watch enough, rare to have no drone footage. He started out doing features, 25 minutes or so, back when he was just putting stuff together he had recorded previously. titles like You, Me and the Sea, Breathe, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM5FyLcPhQ0&t=67s all part of what he called the Liquid Cinema series. Breathe, the one I've linked, probably has the most surfing in it, don't see that now. But lots of good drone. Then he got into it seriously, more short features more often. Puts out 1 or 2 a week of the short ones, the ones he calls the Lifestyle series.

That video was awesome some great footage from the drone great footage all round u blokes looked like u had lots of fun, Top stuff

[gazza2006au]

Below is a video i just found of a guy testing the Parrot Bebop 1 on water hew blew some chip twice on two models landing on the water, i was looking at buying the Parrot Bebop 2 for $500 i am seriously reconsidering that idea now

i may buy a pre built drone one of the DIY kits that has been built that way it it gets wet i can just replace basic parts ie: receiver, ESC's, GPS bits etc.. rather than try source a new board for the Bebop drone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl6yiVOcuNo

[gazza2006au]

Found a bebop but i think old mate has a buyer not a bad deal considering the original model cost $800 this one is basic model only and version one that gets controlled by your phone, a bit of a rort tho u have to pay usd $30 for the app for a 5 year old drone

I was just about to punch a deal on a MJX BUGS model cant make up my mind which one i want tho

Bugs 2 gps
Bugs 3 pro gps
Bugs 5w gps

All have good features bugs 2 is upgradable to a huge battery for 25min flight time but its a basic drone, 3 and 5w get 15-18mins i think i need more flight time something around 30mins per battery would be fantastic so when the kingys are in big numbers i can hit gps hold position while i drop a bait and reel one in
Circle me is another good feature for when hooked up i can have the drone ever so slightly circle the boat while pulling a fish in it would be unreal
Ranmar how did your mate launch and retrieve the drone? My small boat is only 4.5m i would need to somehow land on the boat or hand catch it but thats hairy

[gazza2006au]

Was trying to source a Parrot Bebop 1 from the USA but out of 6 people selling them 1 guy replied saying his unsure if he would be able to ship a drone internationally like it was some top secret tom cruze shit or something lol i got gipped by that local bloke with the bebop the old line 'im away on holiday i'll get back to u on monday' trick monday comes and he says it was sold...
Was at the stage of buying a new MJX BUGS 5W when i thought i would check out facebook classifieds ran a DJI search and up came a DJI Spark for $200 seller didnt really understand the technical side of the drone he paid $700 for it plus bought 3 extra battries at $300 and a second controller, the seller was only 10mins drive from me and the facebook add was put up 1 hour before i seen it so i drove over having no clue about the complexity of these branded drones i just handed over the cash came home and done my research
Seems the owner who was a 17 year old kid speaking not the best english abused the drone looks like it was repeatedly crashed over and over chewed up and cracked blades scuffs to the body with scratches it wasnt untill i got home i noticed one bottom cover missing from under the motor a little bit of research and i notice the speed controller for that motor missing intirely from a crash obviously this.kid must have been raming a $700 drone strait into the ground, more money than sense i think
The kid couldnt bind either of the controllers to the drone also he kept 3 of 4 batterys the multi charger and one controller sneaky bugger lol but i knew i was possibly getting a good deal
I came home done some research and worked out how to unbind the wifi on the drone and unbind the controller than i had to work out how to link the controller to the phone for FPV and status once all that was sorted the app was up and linked to the controller the controller was linked to the drone however the app was saying in the live cockpit status battery was critically low and charger wasnt working (usb charger)

Fuzz if u get the Spark batteries cost $100 each and only last 15mins flight time plus the batteries have very high failure rate a lot of guys are updating using different batteries maybe something to consider before u buy one

[ranmar850]

Ranmar how did your mate launch and retrieve the drone? My small boat is only 4.5m i would need to somehow land on the boat or hand catch it but thats hairy

He was actually landing it on the deck of the Barcrusher, or grabbing it. Grabbing it is not easy with a Mavic, much easier with the Phantom. That footage I mentioned earlier is done, all edited up. I have addded music, very happy with the result. The soundtrack is licenced under Creative Commons, Atributable,non-commercial ,and I satisfy all that, but I did the creator the courtesy of asking as well. Still awaiting a reply--if he hasn't got back to me by tomorrow night, I'll post it anyway.