Decent, cheap 1080p starter drone?

[digitalwanderer]

My wife saw a 720p drone for $50 at Costco yesterday and I talked her out of it because 720p, but was I wrong?

She wants to get one to try and get our kids to go off-roading with us. Let them use the drone to film the adventure, at least that's how she's trying to sell the kids on it. I just like the idea of a drone because they're freaking cool, but I know nothing about them.

Oh, also the drone at Costco had a run time of 15-20 minutes and a 3 hour recharge time...and it looked like a cheap piece of crap to me.

Any input? Someone here has to play with these things, what's a good beginner drone and what should I expect to shell out for a reasonable set up? What should I look for, what should I avoid?

I gotta get myself educated, sales are coming up!

 

[orangpelupa]

Uh... For the ease of use your wife imagined, you would need a drone with GPS auto attitude.


Even better if it also have ground based auto attitude, and muuuuuch better if it have good auto obstacle avoidance.

But things gets expensive fast (e.g. Skydio 2). But expensive drones also have true autonomous modes that basically can fly by itself, adjust camera angle by itself, etc. So all of you can enjoy the off road with just leaving the drone on auto.

Cheap drones... even with a whiff of wind, the drone will drift, and you'll get more panic than a picnic.

But if the kids are a trained RC pilots, then yes the cheap drones are good.

 

[AlphaWolf]

If you're spending less than $100 you're probably getting a poor camera regardless of the number of megapixels in the sensor. Don't get caught up too much in the megapixel number.

15-20min battery is typical for non commercial drones although 3hr charge seems on the high side.

 

[eastmen]

i have a dji that is like 4 years old with 1080p . I just never use it. It gets about 10 minutes of flight and takes a few hours for the batteries to recharge

 

[orangpelupa]

i have a dji that is like 4 years old with 1080p . I just never use it. It gets about 10 minutes of flight and takes a few hours for the batteries to recharge

That dji probably still way better than cheap random brand drone.

As that dji would have tons of auto attitude tech.

 

[eastmen]

That dji probably still way better than cheap random brand drone.

As that dji would have tons of auto attitude tech.

maybe , i would have to check . I won it in a work raffle .

 

[orangpelupa]

maybe , i would have to check . I won it in a work raffle .

Basically if it could stay in a location when there's a wind... Then it have quite good auto attitude thingy. So you can fly it relatively easy and calming.

.... and if you throw a ball at it it will auto recover and swing back to the original location... As long as it is flying high enough.

I have not tried it... Someone in YouTube (theverge?) throw a basket ball at a dji drone and it recovers just fine (as long as it have enough altitude).

Btw be careful with the blades. Older models have blades that kinda easy to be not tight enough or became waaaaaay too tight. I learnt it from personal experience hahaha