Help me pick a drone

I need a drone. Are any of you enthusiasts or know anything about them?

My work as a theater technical director could really benefit from having one. First, I document all of my work (set building) photographically in detail. Sometimes the photos lack continuity. To me, I look at the photo and say, "oh yeah, that was backstage right where the portal meets the leg," but to anyone else it looks like "is that a piece of wood with a screw?" So a drone would be fantastic for making a video portfolio of my work; fly the drone left and right up front, maybe an up-and-over shot, and some scene change shots.

Secondly, it would be fantastic for promotional things. Our larger productions we sometimes do TV spots, and shooting some action of set construction, rehearsals, etc would be much better than what we have now. (which is the office manager's camcorder from 2001 on a tripod.

Since I have zero experience with them, here are things I can think of off the top of my head that would be good features to have:

1- easy to fly (see "zero experience" above)
2- stability for quality, non-shaky shots
3- relatively small size for navigating around nooks and crannys (which I know may be in contradiction to #2) Let's say 12-18" diameter unless there is no way to get stability at that size.
4- camera needs to be very good, especially if we're using it for TV spots. I don't need 4k, but definitely HD. I actually have a couple HD "keychain" cameras that say they are HD, but they really aren't. At least not in the quality of the image product. They might have the pixels, but contrast and color looks more like a security camera.
5- runtime doesn't need to be extreme. I'll be shooting 20-30 sequences of under a minute during a 6 hour rehearsal. That's a guess. So, either a good solid 30-minute run time, OR one that has a couple rechargable packs so I can swap out and charge the spare, OR one that uses disposable batteries that I can change if needed. Much like a wedding, you only get one chance to shoot something sometimes so I don't have the luxury of just putting it on a charger for a half hour.
6- budget is hard to say since I don't know what I can get for my money, but I gotta think a person should be able to do this for $250?

I'd say dji, but then you said $250. They typically seem to be among the best/easier to get in the air quickly and easily with decent cameras.

Government surplus auctions

Yeah, I would have said dji mavic, but it's most of the way to a challenge car. This is closer to your price range: https://m.dji.com/product/phantom-3-standard-refurbished-unit?gclid=CjwKEAjwwOvABRC08aedoZ_lnTMSJACs_cbuT7laHiRArm3zWQZ6QwsGG8fVYFIwzLj8cf8imiyE9BoCILPw_wcB And super easy to fly. You don't even really fly them, just tell them what you want them to do.

Joey

Up your budget just a bit and get that refurb deal Joey put up, or look on craigslist. I paid 450 for a phantom 3 advanced which has a 2.7k camera and will do everything on your list.

I can say that the DJI Phantom lineup should meet all your needs except cost. It's crazy easy to fly, very stable, and the camera is quite good.

Ill add to what everyone else said DJI Phantom. Lots should be coming up used wiht the MAvic just being released...

I do have a cheap Syma one, it will carry a go pro, but is not going to get you as nice of a shot as a DJI, no gps, no altitude hold, etc. But ~$80 plus a mount for the go pro.

This is about $80, Syma X8C (newer models are out now and possibly cheaper)

You can build something like this close to your budget, but not made for stable video, made for fast, will do about 90mph....

Syma is the right answer. Check out this one. Headless mode makes flight easy to learn. Altitude hold makes it easy to take good shots without worrying about keeping the drone hovering - it does it on its own. 8mp camera isnt terrible. If you have a go-pro or some other higher res mini camera, it should be able to hoist it, but that will decrease battery life.

https://amzn.com/B01HBCEB2C

captdownshift wrote: Government surplus auctions

I thought he wanted to film the set, not blow it up?

The new GoPro drone seems to be getting good reviews also, but it's also considerably more than $250...

Yeah, as much as I would love a GoPro, that pretty much triples the budget. Just seems like many drones come with a decent camera for less than go-pro money.

Looks like the DJI has a lot of popularity. I'll check them out.

Will the GPS be of any value to me inside a theater?

In reply to curtis73:

GPS probably won't do you any good.

Dose.

Dose drone

java230 wrote: Ill add to what everyone else said DJI Phantom. Lots should be coming up used wiht the MAvic just being released... I do have a cheap Syma one, it will carry a go pro, but is not going to get you as nice of a shot as a DJI, no gps, no altitude hold, etc. But ~$80 plus a mount for the go pro. This is about $80, Syma X8C (newer models are out now and possibly cheaper) You can build something like this close to your budget, but not made for stable video, made for fast, will do about 90mph....

I have a couple race drones. Difficult to fly, but awesome. I use a runcam, similar to a GoPro but without the tax. Man they are awesome. So much fun I'm loosing some interest in cars!

TinyWhoop makes little quads that are well reviewed. Unfortunately they are so popular they are always sold out.

Woody wrote: Dose. Dose drone

Hover?

Tiny whoop was such a popular mod on the inductrix that blade, the makers of the inductrix, made a factory version.

graysonhobby.com/inductrix-fpv-rtf-blade-blh8700-inductrix-rtf-ultra-micro-quadcopter-drone.html?utm_source=google_shopping

I've flown them, and it's about the easiest to fly quad I've ever flown, that you still actually control yourself.

pheller wrote: TinyWhoop makes little quads that are well reviewed. Unfortunately they are so popular they are always sold out.

In reply to joey48442:

Yeah im still int he "learning" phase, but holy E36 M3, 5s packs are insane!

Tinywhoop wont carry a decent camera. The FPV cameras are not going to produce a good video, they are old school analog.

As to go pros, you can buy a china knock off for $40 now.... and they are decent video quality too.

Aliexpress

Nothing to add, other than the fact that I want to name my future drone business "Berekeley Heights".

Be careful with your throwing hand!

I'm watching this since My kids really want one and I think I could do some great aerial photolgraphy of farmland here with one.

In reply to java230:

Holy crap! What are you running 5s? Everyone I fly with runs 3 or 4s

A couple fun vids I posted Drone

And another Drone

I stumbled on a drone site last year when looking around Christmas shopping. I kept seeing everyone talking about Bangood a direct from China online store. I haven't ordered anything from them but they have a USA warehouse and the prices seem to be better than Amazon or eBay. I do know a guy at work who swears by Bangood but I cannot speak for lack of experience. They also sell knock-off /clones of GoPro's too. I would like to have a drone so I will keep watching this thread to see others opinions. After I posted this I went to the website and watched a video and learned about Aerial mode where the drone follows you! Crazy as well you know.

Banggood has done well by me. I bought a racer 250, shipped from china. Only took about 10 days which seemed fair from China.

In reply to joey48442:

It's a QAV 210, 2205 2300kv ZMX motors, SP acro fc running beta flight, I do mostly 4s though!