need advice on getting into the drone scene

[coonasty]

found this wonderful forum the other day and wow there is so much information to absorb on here.

posting in this sub, being that i think i want to start off small and move up from there. i have a hero 4 black that im thinking of going with the stock phantom 2 v2.0 with the h3-3d gimbal. as a videographer im looking to add some great looking aerial footage to my portfolio to attract more clientele.

was thinking about jumping all in on the inspire1 but im worried about the supposed problems its having. probably want to wait on having a fully tricked out phantom 2 as well i think. im guessing i can add better antennas and fpv and all that stuff to the phantom later on as i become more comfortable with flying. also is it possible to fly the stock phantom 2 indoors? can you become comfortable enough with the manual controls to get some cool shots indoors?

can get this stock for less than $1000 and hopefully pretty much start flying right? should i worry about CES and some replacement or better starter model coming out in a few weeks?

TIA

 

[ThePhantom]

Buy it if it works for your needs. I bought the FS100 3 months before the FS700 was announced and I did not regret it at all since I was using it to create video and getting paid to do so. With regards to the Phantom 2. Yes you can fly it indoors, though I would suggest you practice "a lot" (with emphasis) before trying manual mode. However, it will not perform as well as the Inspire indoors based on what I have seen on what the Inspire can do (those extra sensors on the inspire really help). I have a Phantom 2 v2 /H33D /. Hero 4 Black and I can fly it inside a small garage for 1 car with tool box shelves on 3 sides (and my P2 has issues). With a lot of practice, you can make it work, but if indoors will be your main goal, I'd get the Inspire.

 

[coonasty]

flying indoors will be fairly rare but i was more inquiring if it can be done.

mostly want to learn flying/shooting and eventually upgrade to one of the big boys. but i want to get some good footage while at it. im thinking with the hero4 black i can really get some good aerial videos, edit them up and use to bring in more business.

whats the deal with the batteries for this thing? im seeing people losing their minds over the batteries are all bad and dont last very long? should i stay away from dji b/c of this?

 

[Meta4]

1. Be aware that people with problems bring these up on the forum - this doesn't mean that every Phantom owner has the same problems. It's unlikely you'll get a bad battery.
2. You mentioned flying indoors in manual mode. You don't mean manual mode - this is something quite different and quite difficult, even outdoors. Hardly anyone flies in manual mode because it's very easy to crash your machine.
If you were to fly the Phantom indoors you would use atti mode which gives all the hitech assistance except for GPS. In atti mode the Phantom will hold height but not position. It won't stop when you centre the sticks but will continue to drift unless you provide additional input. Outdoors this isn't too hard - if there are no obstacles. But you need to practice outdoors before trying inside.

 

[nhoover]

I found indoor flying to be more challenging than I expected. You're in ATTI mode which means that you will keep "sliding" in the direction you're moving even once you re-center the stick. Not a problem as long as you don't try flying fast. Here's my first attempt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6zqG2NN1oQ

I finally got tired of the weak video quality from my P2V+ and ordered a P2 V2 to fly my Hero 4 Silver - with all the FPV stuff.

The batteries are not as good as they should be: they are expensive and don't last all that long. You should get 50 flights or more though if you treat them well. You won't get an actual 25 minutes of flying time, especially if you have a GoPro and gimbal and VTX etc etc on board.