Best FPV drone under $150?

[Lord_Karango17]

So I have a 4ch helicopter I got around 5 years ago collecting dust in the cupboard, and I thought I would give it a new lease on life by trying to get some sort of camera on it for some areal footage. Right now the battery is a bit shot and does not deliver enough current to get the heli off the ground, let alone with a camera payload.

 

In case a new battery is still not enough for the payload, I was wondering what are some good FPV drones for under $150. I plan on doing some hiking in some scenic location in the upcoming months, and would love to have something to get some areal footage. I dont want to spend too much on it since it wont be something I will use terribly often, but would still like some decent camera quality (I can deal with anything better than the garbage quality from my htc one m7)

[iCrushDreams]

I've heard mixed things about this one here, and it's a bit out of your budget, but it looks like it's a somewhat good value. I'm not sure what else out there for $150 and below can get acceptable camera quality at all and isn't trash.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FS7SU7K/

[Lord_Karango17]

3 minutes ago, iCrushDreams said:

I've heard mixed things about this one here, and it's a bit out of your budget, but it looks like it's a somewhat good value. I'm not sure what else out there for $150 and below can get acceptable camera quality at all and isn't trash.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FS7SU7K/

Yeah, I figured it would be hard to get good quality at that budget. Also I'm noticing a lot of the lower priced offerings do not come with gimbals (understandable I suppose), that would further hurt video quality, since the drone's movement will mess up the video...

[ShadowCaptain]

8 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

SNIP

That is a lot to ask for $150 especially ig you want FPV and a gimbal

 

cheapest drone I would want to film with is the phantom 4 standard which is $450

[iCrushDreams]

2 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

That is a lot to ask for $150 especially ig you want FPV and a gimbal

 

cheapest drone I would want to film with is the phantom 4 standard which is $450

Yeah I'd have to agree with this.

 

I went drone shopping a few months ago and walked in with a $200 budget. I checked nearly everywhere and all the reviews I could find and my general consensus was that most drones cheaper than the DJI Phantom lineup either had trash cameras or were trash in general :\

 

Needless to say I am not going to be a drone owner any time soon

[Lord_Karango17]

2 minutes ago, iCrushDreams said:

Yeah I'd have to agree with this.

 

I went drone shopping a few months ago and walked in with a $200 budget. I checked nearly everywhere and all the reviews I could find and my general consensus was that most drones cheaper than the DJI Phantom lineup either had trash cameras or were trash in general :\

 

Needless to say I am not going to be a drone owner any time soon

Yeah, thats what I feared... I might try looking if I can find any used.

I'd like to not spend that much, since I wont be using it too often, but there is no point in getting something that looks like trash either.

[ShadowCaptain]

3 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

Yeah, thats what I feared... I might try looking if I can find any used.

I'd like to not spend that much, since I wont be using it too often, but there is no point in getting something that looks like trash either.

yeah sadly "not using it much" isnt really under the control of the people making them

 

I plan on getting a phantom myself, its pretty good value and while its not something I would use daily, the footage it does take is so unique that its worth it for its limited use

[iCrushDreams]

5 minutes ago, ShadowCaptain said:

yeah sadly "not using it much" isnt really under the control of the people making them

 

I plan on getting a phantom myself, its pretty good value and while its not something I would use daily, the footage it does take is so unique that its worth it for its limited use

I agree with you on it having really good footage and worth it even if you don't use it often, but I can't justify an upwards of $500 purchase for something like that when I have improvements I could make to other things I use much more often :\

[Lord_Karango17]

4 minutes ago, iCrushDreams said:

I agree with you on it having really good footage and worth it even if you don't use it often, but I can't justify an upwards of $500 purchase for something like that when I have improvements I could make to other things I use much more often :\

Yeah on the same boat here... Cheapest offering from DJI is the phantom 3 standard at $500, and I suspect the footage wont be stellar with the sensor just capable of 1080p...

[iCrushDreams]

4 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

Yeah on the same boat here... Cheapest offering from DJI is the phantom 3 standard at $500, and I suspect the footage wont be stellar with the sensor just capable of 1080p...

I'd be cool with 1080p (and yes I'm aware it's a large area so it will look worse) as long as it's good 1080p. Not that Chinese 1080p that looks like a potato but writes the video file as 1080p, an actual 1080p sensor.

 

If I had a drone, I wouldn't be too stressed about getting the most amazing postable shots. I'd just marvel at how cool it is to get any shots at all where you can see the ground below from a high up distance and it looks neat.

 

I can't seem to understand how people enjoy those drones that don't have any cameras or anything attached them. I could understand that one rolling drone that Parrot made, because that's for indoor use and it does cool tricks that people can mess around with. However, as far as drones that are meant to go up in the skies and fly around, I can't seem to grasp how somebody could be entertained by seeing their $200 flying watermelon dance around and do nothing. It just doesn't seem fun to me.

[ShadowCaptain]

15 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

Yeah on the same boat here... Cheapest offering from DJI is the phantom 3 standard at $500, and I suspect the footage wont be stellar with the sensor just capable of 1080p...

Huh? that makes no sense, a Canon C100 only shoots 1080p... does that make it shit?

 

Resolution is not the be all of video quality

 

also the phantom 3 standard shoots at 2.7k!!!!!

 

 

 

 

[Lord_Karango17]

@ShadowCaptain @iCrushDreams

So after looking around on finn.no (2nd hand site in Norway) I came across a Phantom 2 vision for around $250. I understand that this version does not have a gimbal, so I've been trying to find video samples to see how much it shows up during shooting.

The seller did state that the FPV isnt working properly, and there is just a black screen on the app during flight, however the video functionality works, and gets saved to the sd card. I looked up the issue, and some people say that its a hardware issue with the wifi chip that transmits the video feed back to the controller, so that sounds concerning (sending it to the US for repairs will be very expensive) 

I was just wondering if you guys think thats a good price for the video quality of the phantom 2?

[ShadowCaptain]

25 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

@ShadowCaptain @iCrushDreams

So after looking around on finn.no (2nd hand site in Norway) I came across a Phantom 2 vision for around $250. I understand that this version does not have a gimbal, so I've been trying to find video samples to see how much it shows up during shooting.

The seller did state that the FPV isnt working properly, and there is just a black screen on the app during flight, however the video functionality works, and gets saved to the sd card. I looked up the issue, and some people say that its a hardware issue with the wifi chip that transmits the video feed back to the controller, so that sounds concerning (sending it to the US for repairs will be very expensive) 

I was just wondering if you guys think thats a good price for the video quality of the phantom 2?

the quality is okish, but no gimbal = shakey

 

 

 

[Hackentosher]

You can't get an fpv quad for less than 350~ check my description. You could put one of the fpv modules people are making tiny whoops with, but there so popular, it's hard to find them in Stock. Check around hobby king and ready made rc. 

 

By the way, when you say Fpv, that implies ripping it between tress with a mini quad. It's fun as shit, but it's hard. It has a steep learning curve, but if you've flown a 4ch helicopter you'll have a good start. I had the same background and experience with 4ch helicopters and toy quads, now I have am Armattan f1-6 with red bottoms and a broken video transmitter (ordering a new one when I get back from vacation). After skimming over your posts in this thread, it looks like you want an ap quad, not an fpv quad. Just an overworded clarification

 

[Lord_Karango17]

28 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

snip

 

Yeah, I just realized that I was implying drone racing when I said FPV... My bad.

What I'm more into is getting cool areal photos/ videos when I go hiking, because I've seen some videos taken around the Norwegian fjords, and they are hella nice...

I have not gone through your whole doc, but so far its very informative

[Hackentosher]

2 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

Yeah, I just realized that I was implying drone racing when I said FPV... My bad.

What I'm more into is getting cool areal photos/ videos when I go hiking, because I've seen some videos taken around the Norwegian fjords, and they are hella nice...

Bruh, you should seriously consider racing/acro quads. Check out Mr Steele, skitzo fpv, and rotor riot on YouTube. That's what i do, just need to fix my quad and get an HD action camera.  

[GoldenBE]

You could get a syma x5c which is only around 50 dollars including a couple spare batteries and a charger on Aliexpress.

I do own one myself, it flies great. It doesn't have FPV and camera quality isn't great but it's still decent for the price.

PS: it's a pretty popular drone and replacement parts are easy to find and very cheap.

[Lord_Karango17]

32 minutes ago, GoldenBE said:

You could get a syma x5c which is only around 50 dollars including a couple spare batteries and a charger on Aliexpress.

I do own one myself, it flies great. It doesn't have FPV and camera quality isn't great but it's still decent for the price.

PS: it's a pretty popular drone and replacement parts are easy to find and very cheap.

Yeah, thats the kind of stuff I'm able to find in local stores here as well. I might get something of that caliber to see weather I even want to put down larger investments for better quality.

[GoldenBE]

2 minutes ago, Lord_Karango17 said:

Yeah, thats the kind of stuff I'm able to find in local stores here as well. I might get something of that caliber to see weather I even want to put down larger investments for better quality.

That's what I did, and I think I can sell it used without losing any money because someone is selling a used one without all the extra parts and it's more expensive than I have paid for the new one. Make sure to get it on Aliexpress it costs twice as much on most local webstores.