DJI Mavic Pro
We were so excited for this drone that we used it for our October giveaway. Then again for December. Then we went to LA for a hands-on experience.DJI is a long trusted name in the consumer camera drone space, with popular rigs you’ll see throughout this article, monster professional camera rigs and now one of the smallest and most capable drones we’ve ever seen, the Mavic Pro.
Packing a 4K camera, 27 minutes of flight time to go up to 8 miles at a max speed of 40 mph and a 16,404 foot service ceiling, you’ll have no issues violating any number of FAA drone flight regulations. The remote has a range of about 4.3 miles as well, so you should have no problems with connectivity while it is in the legal line-of-sight flight range.
Video capture runs at 30 fps for 4K shooting, up to 96fps for 1080p capture. Still images are possible as well, 4000 x 3000 pixels of resolution are captured from the 12MP sensor. Stability is the name of the game as well, DJI has top notch gimbals, including this 3-axis stabilizer.
Smart features include obstacle avoidance, gesture mode, ActiveTrack, TapFly and of course, you can fire the live view from the camera back to your supported phone or tablet.
Despite offering a similar, if less capable flying experience to the older DJI Phantom 4, the Mavic Pro is much lighter and folds down into one of the most compact drones on the market. If you’ve got big pockets, you’re ready to hit the road.
The DJI Mavic Pro may not be the best camera drone around either, nor the best racer or an affordable toy class unit, but in terms of overall usability, convenience and bang for the buck, you’ll be hard pressed to find better at the going price of $999.
DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro+
Built on the same iconicquadcopter frame as the reamining DJI Phantom, line , a design emulated by many competitors, the Phantom 4 Pro is a rreceently announced drone that takes putting a camera in the sky very serious. Packing a full 1-inch camera sensor for 4K video capture and 20MP stills, the Phantom 4 Pro packs high speeds, 5-direction collision avoidance and stable flight into a familiar package.
In addition to the enhancements over the Phantom 4previous , there is a new controller available as well, packing it’s own 5.5-inch display in the Phantom 4 Pro+ package. Save your phone battery, fly using this 1000 knit brightness touch panel for up to 30 minutes of air time and collision avoidance up to 31 mph. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro+ for $1449 and $1799 today.
Yuneec Typhoon H
Another drone with multiple configurations available, the Yuneec Typhoon H 4K is likely the option for you. The Typhoon H Pro is a lot more expensive and packs some intense camera rigging, the 4K is the competitor to the more popular drones on our list today.
Breaking our little quad-rotor rule, Yuneec has packed 6 motors on the Typhoon H, making for very stable flight and it even has retractable landing gear. 4K video recording with a 360 degree swivel gimbal and over 20 minutes of flight time make for a drone that compares nicely to the Phantom 4. The Yuneec Typhoon H 4K for $1299 onMarket today.
Autel Robotics X-Star Premium
Autel Robotics is an interesting company with a different approach to drones. That is, they look to pack the same sort of features and flight capabilities into a much more affordable package than some of the other players on our list today. We would be remiss to say that the X-Star and X-Star Premium do not look and act like a certain competitor, but we will forgive that early start approach for the modularity that they have on the go now.
We met with Autel at CES in 2017, we were impressed with their prototype fixed-wing (airplane) style fliers, but perhaps more excited for their new camera modules coming to the X-Star Premium. Large CMOS sensors, Flir infrared and 360 cams are all in the pipeline, turning the X-Star into a toy, commercial drone or camera drone all with a quick replacement of the camera. The Autel Robotics X-Star Premium for $780 onMarket , and stay tuned for more coverage of the drone.
Walkera F210 3D
As far as an out-of-the-box solution goes in the racing world, the Walkera F210 3D is one of the best drones you’ll find today. It packs both normal and night vision cameras, a sturdy build, simple customizations and a lot of thoughtful longevity features. Not saying it won’t break if you crash it, but they’ve done what they can to protect core components and make the rest easy to replace.
Best of all, you can tweak the flight characteristics directly, adjusting the flight controller to your specifications. The F210 3D is lightweight, we hear it is extremely agile, particularly in those demanding corners of technical courses, and is fast enough to keep up on the longstriaghts .
We can’t guarantee you’ll win races with the Walkera F210 3D, but if any ready to fly drone purchase was going to get you there, this may be it. The Walkera F210 3D for $348 onMarket .
DJI Phantom 4
One of the more popular and familiar drones around, the DJI Phantom series is a fairly tall drone design, with a hanging camera gimbal in the center. As one of the most advanced drones on the market, the Phantom 4 offers 4K video on a 12MP sensor, 22+ minutes of flight time, 4 mile control range, subject tracking and more.
Despite our recent recommendation that the Phantom 4 is not entirely worth its going price, it is still a superb drone. Stay tuned, however, as the newly announced Phantom 4 Advanced has a very good chanceat bumping the standard Phantom 4 from this list. Especially since the Phantom 4 is set for discontinuation on April 30, 2017.
The DJI Phantom 4 for $1299 with extra batteries, carrying case and more or just grab the plain flying package, the base Phantom 4 for $899 from Market today.
Parrot Bebop 2
This is the update to the familiar Parrot Bebop 1, a light-weight drone from Parrot in France. Like the Parrot Bebop 1 before it, the Bebop 2 is a simpler drone design, packing everything but the arms and propellers into a cylinder, not unlike an airplane. The nose of the craft is a 14MP camera with fisheye lens for 1080p video capture. Fly by Android, iOS or Windows app, or grab the optional WiFi extending remote to get up to 2 km range. GPS auto-home mode will get your drone back to you, as long as it’s still airborne.
We’ve had the chance to review this lightweight drone, check out what John Velasco had to say about the Parrot Bebop 2.
You can get the Parrot Bebop 2 for about $385 by itself, or bundle with the controller and more for $619 from Amazon.
Hubsan X4 H107L
Getting into the ‘toy’ range here, the Hubsan X4 H107L is a fairly entry level drone great for those learning to fly or that are not in need of a robust machine to take to the skies. Also great for those with very little time on their hands, this little drone has no camera, cannot carry the GoPro and has battery enough for about 5-10 minutes of flight, depending on how you push it.
As a seemingly pointless drone as compared to the powerful camera and racing rigs on our list, we all have to start somewhere, and the Hubsan X4 for $33 on Amazon sounds like a smart price to do so.
Syma X5C
Sticking to toy caliber drones, the Syma X5C is a solid offering for the beginning drone enthusiast. 8 minutes of flight can be had while flipping, spinning and capturing a bit of video on the 720p camera. Thereis even bright LED lights for night flight. Rather, check your local laws for night flight rules, but hey, there’s bright lights, so, it’s up to you.
Grab the basic model for about $40, or bump up to the explorer kit, with replacement parts and extra batteries for $69 on Amazon today.
DJI Inspire 2
I’m not going to lie, the spec list on this drone is longer than the spec list of my DSLR andcar combined. Let’s shorten that down for you: on the DJI Inspire 2 (a professional drone) you get a selection of available cameras up to the highly capable 5.2K X5S camera mounted to an even more capable gimbal. Powerful motors provide speeds up to 58 mph across the ground with image and collision avoidance active, and about 13 mph in vertical lift. This is a big, heavy drone with now two hot swappable batteries, balancing out to about 27 minutes of flight.
The fact of the matter is, there is a very good chance that the best drone footage you’re going to see from here on out will be shot on the Inspire 2. DJI Demonstrated that live in front of us, and have a movie to share. I can ramble about how fun the event was, but the important part is that this is perhaps the most stable and capable drone you’ll find. With a going price of $3000 for the drone, or $6000 with remote, high end camera and accessories, it better be good.
Coming soon: Yuneec Typhoon H520
As we were playing with the Yuneec Typhoon H520 at CES 2017, it became apparent to us that Yuneec is a serious player in the drone space, driven to provide top notch flying products. As well, they are on par with the top drone camera players on the market. The H520 swaps through Yuneec’s available camera modules with zoom lenses, infrared and more.
Orange for safety, the Typhoon H520 offers the best features found in the retail focused Typhoon H, they look and act similarly in the sky, but the H520 is tailored for commercial use with improved controls and connectivity for the next generation CGO-series cameras.
Coming very soon: Yuneec Tornado H920 Plus
Yuneec produces relatively large drones, with the Recently announced Tornado H920 Plus being one of the largest. This isn’t just for posterity, they’ve made it as large as they felt it needed to be to take your expensive camera into the sky for smooth, secure and stable video capture.
The H920 Plus is a recent update to the H920, a solid offering in itself, but the new rig offers a new camera option and better flight controls. It is so new, unfortunately, that it is not yet up for sale. For now, check out the original Yuneec Tornado H920 for $3500 on Amazon today.
Coming soon: DJI M200 series
Recently announced, and not yet up for sale, DJI has an intriguing new drone on their hands. The Matrice line of commercial and professional grade drones has long been the workhorse of DJI’s quad and multi-rotor drones, leaving many niceties to the retail drones like the Phantom and Inspire 2. Imagine combining the very best that the Inspire 2 has to offer into a heavy-duty configurable machine, that’s the M200 series.
All the best flight modes and safety features, heavy lifting with multiple camera options and configurations. We’re talking about mounting a camera on top to face upward, for things like bridge inspection. We’re also talking about hanging two cameras on the bottom, to shoot infrared and high-zoom at the same time. Sound hard to operate, no worries, one pilot can control the cameras while the second controls the drone through the dedicated FPV camera, just like the Inspire 2.
This may be priced out of range for most of us, but as far as commercial use goes, this drone is as sleek, powerful and feature rich as we’ve seen yet.
We were so excited for this drone that we used it for our October giveaway. Then again for December. Then we went to LA for a hands-on experience.
Packing a 4K camera, 27 minutes of flight time to go up to 8 miles at a max speed of 40 mph and a 16,404 foot service ceiling, you’ll have no issues violating any number of FAA drone flight regulations. The remote has a range of about 4.3 miles as well, so you should have no problems with connectivity while it is in the legal line-of-sight flight range.
Video capture runs at 30 fps for 4K shooting, up to 96
Smart features include obstacle avoidance, gesture mode, ActiveTrack, TapFly and of course, you can fire the live view from the camera back to your supported phone or tablet.
Despite offering a similar, if less capable flying experience to the older DJI Phantom 4, the Mavic Pro is much lighter and folds down into one of the most compact drones on the market. If you’ve got big pockets, you’re ready to hit the road.
The DJI Mavic Pro may not be the best camera drone around either, nor the best racer or an affordable toy class unit, but in terms of overall usability, convenience and bang for the buck, you’ll be hard pressed to find better at the going price of $999.
DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro+
Built on the same iconic
In addition to the enhancements over the Phantom 4
Another drone with multiple configurations available, the Yuneec Typhoon H 4K is likely the option for you. The Typhoon H Pro is a lot more expensive and packs some intense camera rigging, the 4K is the competitor to the more popular drones on our list today.
Breaking our little quad-rotor rule, Yuneec has packed 6 motors on the Typhoon H, making for very stable flight and it even has retractable landing gear. 4K video recording with a 360 degree swivel gimbal and over 20 minutes of flight time make for a drone that compares nicely to the Phantom 4. The Yuneec Typhoon H 4K for $1299 on
We met with Autel at CES in 2017, we were impressed with their prototype fixed-wing (airplane) style fliers, but perhaps more excited for their new camera modules coming to the X-Star Premium. Large CMOS sensors, Flir infrared and 360 cams are all in the pipeline, turning the X-Star into a toy, commercial drone or camera drone all with a quick replacement of the camera. The Autel Robotics X-Star Premium for $780 on
Walkera F210 3D
As far as an out-of-the-box solution goes in the racing world, the Walkera F210 3D is one of the best drones you’ll find today. It packs both normal and night vision cameras, a sturdy build, simple customizations and a lot of thoughtful longevity features. Not saying it won’t break if you crash it, but they’ve done what they can to protect core components and make the rest easy to replace.
Best of all, you can tweak the flight characteristics directly, adjusting the flight controller to your specifications. The F210 3D is lightweight, we hear it is extremely agile, particularly in those demanding corners of technical courses, and is fast enough to keep up on the long
We can’t guarantee you’ll win races with the Walkera F210 3D, but if any ready to fly drone purchase was going to get you there, this may be it. The Walkera F210 3D for $348 on
DJI Phantom 4
One of the more popular and familiar drones around, the DJI Phantom series is a fairly tall drone design, with a hanging camera gimbal in the center. As one of the most advanced drones on the market, the Phantom 4 offers 4K video on a 12MP sensor, 22+ minutes of flight time, 4 mile control range, subject tracking and more.
Despite our recent recommendation that the Phantom 4 is not entirely worth its going price, it is still a superb drone. Stay tuned, however, as the newly announced Phantom 4 Advanced has a very good chance
The DJI Phantom 4 for $1299 with extra batteries, carrying case and more or just grab the plain flying package, the base Phantom 4 for $899 from Market today.
Parrot Bebop 2
This is the update to the familiar Parrot Bebop 1, a light-weight drone from Parrot in France. Like the Parrot Bebop 1 before it, the Bebop 2 is a simpler drone design, packing everything but the arms and propellers into a cylinder, not unlike an airplane. The nose of the craft is a 14MP camera with fisheye lens for 1080p video capture. Fly by Android, iOS or Windows app, or grab the optional WiFi extending remote to get up to 2 km range. GPS auto-home mode will get your drone back to you, as long as it’s still airborne.
We’ve had the chance to review this lightweight drone, check out what John Velasco had to say about the Parrot Bebop 2.
You can get the Parrot Bebop 2 for about $385 by itself, or bundle with the controller and more for $619 from Amazon.
Getting into the ‘toy’ range here, the Hubsan X4 H107L is a fairly entry level drone great for those learning to fly or that are not in need of a robust machine to take to the skies. Also great for those with very little time on their hands, this little drone has no camera, cannot carry the GoPro and has battery enough for about 5-10 minutes of flight, depending on how you push it.
As a seemingly pointless drone as compared to the powerful camera and racing rigs on our list, we all have to start somewhere, and the Hubsan X4 for $33 on Amazon sounds like a smart price to do so.
Syma X5C
Sticking to toy caliber drones, the Syma X5C is a solid offering for the beginning drone enthusiast. 8 minutes of flight can be had while flipping, spinning and capturing a bit of video on the 720p camera. There
Grab the basic model for about $40, or bump up to the explorer kit, with replacement parts and extra batteries for $69 on Amazon today.
DJI Inspire 2
I’m not going to lie, the spec list on this drone is longer than the spec list of my DSLR and
The fact of the matter is, there is a very good chance that the best drone footage you’re going to see from here on out will be shot on the Inspire 2. DJI Demonstrated that live in front of us, and have a movie to share. I can ramble about how fun the event was, but the important part is that this is perhaps the most stable and capable drone you’ll find. With a going price of $3000 for the drone, or $6000 with remote, high end camera and accessories, it better be good.
Coming soon: Yuneec Typhoon H520
As we were playing with the Yuneec Typhoon H520 at CES 2017, it became apparent to us that Yuneec is a serious player in the drone space, driven to provide top notch flying products. As well, they are on par with the top drone camera players on the market. The H520 swaps through Yuneec’s available camera modules with zoom lenses, infrared and more.
Orange for safety, the Typhoon H520 offers the best features found in the retail focused Typhoon H, they look and act similarly in the sky, but the H520 is tailored for commercial use with improved controls and connectivity for the next generation CGO-series cameras.
Coming very soon: Yuneec Tornado H920 Plus
Yuneec produces relatively large drones, with the Recently announced Tornado H920 Plus being one of the largest. This isn’t just for posterity, they’ve made it as large as they felt it needed to be to take your expensive camera into the sky for smooth, secure and stable video capture.
The H920 Plus is a recent update to the H920, a solid offering in itself, but the new rig offers a new camera option and better flight controls. It is so new, unfortunately, that it is not yet up for sale. For now, check out the original Yuneec Tornado H920 for $3500 on Amazon today.
Coming soon: DJI M200 series
Recently announced, and not yet up for sale, DJI has an intriguing new drone on their hands. The Matrice line of commercial and professional grade drones has long been the workhorse of DJI’s quad and multi-rotor drones, leaving many niceties to the retail drones like the Phantom and Inspire 2. Imagine combining the very best that the Inspire 2 has to offer into a heavy-duty configurable machine, that’s the M200 series.
All the best flight modes and safety features, heavy lifting with multiple camera options and configurations. We’re talking about mounting a camera on top to face upward, for things like bridge inspection. We’re also talking about hanging two cameras on the bottom, to shoot infrared and high-zoom at the same time. Sound hard to operate, no worries, one pilot can control the cameras while the second controls the drone through the dedicated FPV camera, just like the Inspire 2.
This may be priced out of range for most of us, but as far as commercial use goes, this drone is as sleek, powerful and feature rich as we’ve seen yet.
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