Starter Drones For Simple Photography

soliliquy_shade · June 30, 2023

Hi, everyone

I was just given the opportunity to make a little money through drone-based photography. It would be for shots of properties after renovations (all permissions, approvals, legality stuff would be handled by the company contracting me (important note: I am in Southern California)). I need some advice and options for what to get, or even make (I wouldn't mind getting a kit and building it myself).

Requirements:

-Decent camera

-An actual controller, not just direct phone-control

-On-board storage of images and footage (this is a major one)

-Non-app controlled, but negotiable, however it cannot require an internet connection

-Not gigantic, it needs to pack away quickly and nicely

The person contracting me is willing to cover any costs with getting started (cheapo training drone and the actual one for photoshoots), but obviously nothing that breaks the bank. I spent some time looking some up, but it's a little confusing. So far, the one linked below seems to be the best for what I want and need, and anything not in my requirements are okay enough.

Potensic ATOM SE ($290usd)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFWS4N4T?tag=georiot-us-default-20&th=1&ascsubtag=trd-us-1439793530514989600-20&geniuslink=true

Thanks in advance,

Solil

Kilrah · June 30, 2023

Note that you need to get a license to do that in the US. Once you've made that investment it's be silly to get some no-name piece of junk, a DJI Mini2 or 3 isn't much more expensive.

soliliquy_shade · June 30, 2023

1 hour ago, Kilrah said:

Note that you need to get a license to do that in the US.

As mentioned above, permissions, approvals, and legal stuff is being handled. On a related note, in September 2023, all DJI brand drones are becoming more tightly controlled, and will require even more licensing, which is why I'm likely going to steer clear of them.

Kilrah · June 30, 2023

As far as I know the requirement that comes in force in September is Remote ID, which... the later DJI drones support, but something like what you pointed doesn't.

artuc · March 24

On 7/1/2023 at 3:23 AM, soliliquy_shade said:

I need some advice and options for what to get, or even make (I wouldn't mind getting a kit and building it myself).

Wouldn't do this for commercial use only as a side hobby.

Still never really flew my DIY one, turned into this huge arms race of flight controllers where when I went to work on it I got comms passthrough working for my ESC but the next firmware broke it and then my flight controller was dropped entirely, you'd switch firmware and one thing or another would be broken.

Lot of sussing and experimenting, I managed to get serial data going for the receiver but it wouldn't send telemetry back even though theoretically capable.

Really good for building knowledge of all the fundamentals but wouldn't want to be chasing parts, tuning and figuring out compatibility for something you do as a day job where you need it to just work.