drones (of photo/video kind)

[UtwigMU]

Hi, has anyone got any experience with photo/video drones?

We would like to take some aerial shots of company, so we're thinking whether to buy a drone or hire someone. Some girl who is modelling in Tokyo pinged me. She has a drone and she paid 800-ish for it and said you need time before you learn handling.

[Brian Ellis]

I would say hire an experienced owner to do it for you. The learning curve takes time and you need a machine with a commandable gimbal, which I doubt whether you will find for €800.

[Marshmallowman]

You might be suprised at how easy they can be with all the stabilisation stuff they come with now... almost video game easy to fly

start here

http://hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/index.asp

multirotors/FPV
From what I have heard try for a hex rotor if its in your budget... the guys I know started with quads..and immedialety wanted a hex model.
(more rotors, more stabilty and reliabilty)

though it might get quicker results hiring a pro it won't be as much fun (having said that a lot of "pros" are very amateur)

They had a competion a while back on that site, the winning multi rotor lifted 4 cartons of beer...

[Greebe]

They are easier to fly than you may think. Onboard accellometer type gyro is used for stability control to compensate for the negative dihedril. This maintains horizontal orientation AND can be set to begginners mode which compensates for the extreme control movememts typical of inexperienced pilots. This later part saves $$$.

Hire a pro, simply put if you don't have R/C experience, the learning curve is steeper than you think. If you want to get into this hobby, save yourself some headache and ALOT of money and invest in a R/C flight simulator. I use Reflex XTR. It works well but doesn't have quads in it's model lineup. It's an older version 2 or 3 "dongle" versions ago. Very pricey to upgrade. Have thousands of hours in various aircraft practicing my smash landings without digging into the wallet. Even then if I go for more than a few weeks hands off the controls I hit the simulator first. Amazing how quick you lose the touch and it is all about the thumbs.

I normally fly 3D brushless stunt planes, so I'm accustomed to the extreme maneuvers. Purchased my JR Pro X-378 (heli) for $250 from a guy on ebay that killed two heli's in three months, with nearly $3k spent on instant rubble before he got out. This 7ch radio was designed to handle sailplanes, regular or delta type aircraft, and heli's. The heli version is only different in where switch positions are.

Newer versions are even better, look at Futaba stuff, the best.

Friend at our flying club put me onto a quad a few years ago before they were coined incorrectly as "drones", they are not. This lead to a design I like that has 8 rotors and designed as a stable lifting platform for full size DSLRs. I would never buy an almost assembled kit that come even semi complete, especially if the radio was part of the package.

A friend of mine started www.iSensys.com after Hurricane Katrina and offered his services to local, state and federal goverments to search for survivors. His designs are far superior to quads. A real stand up guy, excellent heli pilot.

[Marshmallowman]

Yes a sim is great idea...I "good" free starting one is FMS. I think you can get quad copter addons for it as well.
I even have usb to rc controller dongle so you can use RC controller to fly the sim..... though I am still crap and crash a lot.