Whcih Drone! Phantom2 / F550 or Something Else, Sorry!

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Hi All

Sorry to post this as I hate posting questions like this but I still cant decide what to purchase and want an expert opinion having read countless articles on this now (which still leaves me a complete novice in this field!). Really appreciate any thoughts and help!

My situation is I run a production company and one idea we discussed was offering Arial filming. I don't want to start with a £7k drone and send it up with another £20k of kit and crash it so looking at something to get started but more to have a play first and maybe offer filming to some of our good clients via the GoPro as an extra rather than anything else. I ideally want to spend say £1.5k and then buy the GoPro Hero4 on top. If its successful then down the line we will look to fly something bigger with decent camera.

After a lot of reading, I was going to go for a DJI F550, Zenmuse H3-3D Gimbal, Naza M V2, iPad Ground station, iOSD MiniKit, the Immersion 5.8Ghz 600mw Video Link, BlackPearl FPV monitor, a Futaba T8J transmitter, 4 Batteries, Charger and the accessories like batteries, Ariels, Camera Mounting Kit etc.

However after popping into a local shop for bit more information and to see what these are like I left with more options than that! I was told I will need a BNUC license which will cost maybe £1000-£2000 but no one seems to mention that. Whilst I don't want to film commercially to start with, I do eventually want to offer that, and to test with our close clients. If this is critical to have now or something to get later and why isn't this advertised more or is this something that the CAA would prefer you have and is more an option? (the official website wouldn't even connect earlier for information on it!)

It was also suggested I may be better of learning on a Phantom2 with Gimbal as its easier to learn on and it has better flight time. Is it a lot easier to use? I thought the flight control software was very similar and therefore apart from being more nimble would be similar to learn on? The price difference when factoring it all together isn't massively difference although the Phantom is preassembled, whereas the F550 isnt. I am quite technical and stripped lenses, used to fit high end AV kit etc but is assembly a step to far and is it a lot more difficult to learn to fly? Also the Phantom2 is more compact and ready to fly but the F550 take more time to build however is more stable and could probably take a bit more kit easily should I want to use a slightly heavier camera?

Finally he suggested another option coming out is the Align 480 which he mentioned looks really good, can carry a decent payload and may be a better option but may be out of my budget, especially given the cost of the Gimbal at £1000.

Someone please help me choose! What would you get? Anyone flown or own both? Really appreciate the help!
 
If you are only wanting to fly a Gopro you don't need something as big as the 550 and the Align M480 would be a huge overkill.
Align have said they are also bringing out two smaller models by the end of the year that should be worth looking into.
 
I have both. The F550 is a nice platform to fly as long as you dont want to fly more than ten minutes at a time.... it has very crappy flight times.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. Could a F550 take 3 GoPros ok? One on a Gimbal but presuming it couldnt support multiple gimbals and GoPros?
 
I fly a Phantom and I'm most of the way to finishing my F550. I don't think you should be considering an F550 until you can competently fly a quad.The hex is a big beast, and you don't want to crash almost 2 grand through inexperience.

I can't see any way you could get 3 GoPros onto a 550, and certainly not 3 gimbals -for a start, I can't imagine the electronics or control requirements involved. Three words: weight, weight, and weight.
 
GoPros only weigh 74g each. If you can't fit them on a 550, you've got a problem.

I mean, what does that need? A 223g gimbal, with all 3 on board? That's not even a particularly big gimbal. A lot of goPro ones can handle that. All you'd need is a modified camera arm.
 

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