I have a Phantom 3 pro and a Mavci, on the boat the Magic is hands down because of the portability and compact profile. Both have great cameras, great flight time, and are easy to learn to fly.
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Has anyone tried the DJI Spark? I like the price and the size.
The Spark claims you can land into and out of your hand. It also looks really easy to store.
I've had a DJI Phantom 3 for a while now. The Phantom takes up a whole locker shelf. And landing and taking off from a boat is not for the faint of heart. There's so much rigging. A puff of wind always appears at the wrong second. One of these days, my luck is going to run out.
Sometimes I take it into the beach but it's a production to load the dinghy, find a good beach, and so forth.
I realize the Spark has limited battery life but in my three years with the Phantom, I've never flown more than 10 minutes. How many minutes of video of your boat in a pretty anchorage do you need?
I also don't use it if there are a lot of boats around who would be annoyed by it buzzing by. A lot of people really dislike drones. I get their point. Sometimes I go around in the dinghy first to ask people if they mind and offer to email a shot of their boat.
So while it's a nice toy, I sure wouldn't spend a $1000 just for drone boat videos.
I really like my DJI Phantom 3 Pro, but you can get a used Phantom 4 for abour $300-$400 on eBay recently. The 4 includes tracking modes that will make your shots look like pro shots, especially the bread-and-butter sailboat shot: the orbit.
Pro tip 1: grab a polarizing filter for less than $50 and your jaw will drop. (especially around sunset, or shooting dolphins or bomies.
Pro tip 2: leave your drone in HD, NOT 4K mode. 4K requires a very high compression ratio, causing artifacts with lots of contrast and detail. IE your ocean shots or palm tree shots will be MUCH sharper in HD mode, versus watching blocking artifacts (edgy smearing) in 4K mode. (exception: switch it to 4K for a still)
Pro tip 3: nobody will ever complain about buzzing when you fly way far away from other people/boats. This is just being a good neighbor.
For retrieving on a boat underway I've wondered if a metal plate suspended from the bottom of the quadcopter and a strong magnet on a pole would be helpful.
Either that or something about the size of a golf ball on the end of a string hanging from the bottom so you can grab it.
Retrieving it underway seems to be the biggest issue.
Being realistic. Before parting with serious money and reliance on a super drone, learn to fly. Ive had maybe 16 drones in 4 years, mainly all the Chinese drones from $50 to $200. Each had specific abilities that I wanted to try out and see if needed. Do not think that the Chinese drones are cheap garbage, far from it. Fantastic is a word Id describe some of them...
Ive put a lot of hours into flying, and got to a place where I knew exactly what I needed in terms of capabilities and features to be useful to me.
Ever since Spain’s ruling of drone laws in 2015 kicked in, one can incur a fine of circa €400,000. Why? Spain deem the art of flying a drone to be dangerous, reminiscent of drones used in wars. To protect the nation from any incoming terrorist attack, various military forces are constantly watching the air for any suspicious activity. If your drone shows up, it could put the country on red alert and waste valuable governmental resources in preventing a false attack. And for those who think that Spain’s rules are a case of all bark, no bite: the Spanish government has collected almost €2 million from drone fines alone since 2015.
You are prohibited from flying the drone above stadiums, on the motorway, above any political building, beaches and cathedrals. Essentially, almost everything is out of bounds. You cannot take flight without having an actual license to use the drone and have to be, at the very least, 18 years of age to be legally able to fly it.
Flights conducted at low altitude are seen to be high-risk, since someone can be injured by the incoming drone. But also stray too high in the air and the military may be triggered into shooting it out of the air.
Those who stick to the strict rules and capture something exciting have to be wary of posting it online. If you upload it to video websites with monetisation and ad-revenue – such as Vimeo or YouTube – you are committing a crime. You cannot use the footage for commercial purposes since it officially belongs to the government of Spain. Your monetisation would be claimed immediately and you could risk prosecution if you fail to adhere to the rules.
So, how can you legally capture footage with a drone in Spain? It’s simple: stick to small areas that are not populated highly, don’t stick too close to the ground, yet don’t fly at an obscenely high altitude. You have to know your limitations. You could possibly fly around your back yard, garden or even a park. Anything more than that and Spain’s tough law system could crack down on you and, looking at their track record, there would be no issue in them doing so. Earlier this year, someone was fined €221,000 for failing to provide a license for the drone as well as breaking regulations and bringing the military into action.
Be sure to stay safe with your drone in Spain. We’d recommend not using it at all but, if you want to, stick to the guidelines and be sure not to stray away.
A lot of Europe is getting to be like this. Spain is the most aggressive so far. Some Scandanavian countries ban them altogether.
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The more I read about Spain, the less I want to visit it EVER. Sounds like hell for cruisers. No wonder that Delos didn't even think to visit Europe by boat.
It's hard to say nowadays where people have less freedom - in US or in Europe. Both over regulated to the point where things don't make any sense anymore.
Regarding the drones - Brian (Delos) had a lot of problems with splash drone, and finally crashed one into the mast. Since then - only DJI (Phantom and Mavic).
Saw one on a YouTube vid other day , “ hex h20 “ , looked designed for use on boats , had nice big floatation bags on the landing gear , bit expensive iirc , bulky and does not fold up ..Mavic Majic has got nice big landing gear which is easy to catch and or fit floatinon bags onto , but can not fold down and takes lots of space , the pro is more compact which is better for stowage , flies further / longer ( 30 mins / 3 miles out ) but not suitable for fitting floatation bags , new Mavic pro platinum now out , a little quieter , flies a little longer , looks a little better and costs a little more !!
The Mavic is a great little drone, but IMO the video quality is poor. 1080p is unusable (it's actually broken in the Mavic) so you have to shoot in either 2.7 or 4k, which is fine but you only get 60mbps. A decent compact camera will shoot video in 1080p at 50mbs so the Mavic is trying to cram 4 times as much information into a similar size.
This presents itself as a artefacts in busy scenes where the compression really takes its toll. You could say, well I don't care about video quality, but if that's the case then why are you buying a drone of this type?
Don't get me wrong the Mavic is a great little drone, but compare the footage with the Phantom 4 pro (which is too big to carry around, but good for launching from the boat), and you'll the difference in clarity is night and day.
Anyway, here's what my Mavic looked like after 2 weeks sitting on the sea bed in Spain.
I think parts of the drone are magnesium so just corroded away. I guess my Mavic was contributing to stray currents in the marina.
I hadn't flown it in a while so was a bit rusty when trying to land it on deck. This Rather than hand catch it which is what I've done before I turned off all sensors to get it to come back onto the boat, but then I just pulled down to land (which you can do when the sensors are on), and it bounced off the deck with enough force to then hit the boom and go overboard.
If I could have got in that day, no doubt it would have been fine for a while, but the water there was 10m deep and I can't free dive that far.
But yeah, shoved a spare battery in it and it fired up (after been clean out and dried), but without the avionics is pretty useless.
The more I read about Spain, the less I want to visit it EVER. Sounds like hell for cruisers. No wonder that Delos didn't even think to visit Europe by boat.
It's hard to say nowadays where people have less freedom - in US or in Europe. Both over regulated to the point where things don't make any sense anymore.
Regarding the drones - Brian (Delos) had a lot of problems with splash drone, and finally crashed one into the mast. Since then - only DJI (Phantom and Mavic).
Ha!
Spain is beautiful and a great cruising ground. With respect, Drone flying has very little to do with cruising. My best cruising ever is in Spanish waters.
__________________ - Never test how deep the water is with both feet -
10% of conflicts are due to different opinions. 90% by the tone of voice.
Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.
Ha!
Spain is beautiful and a great cruising ground. With respect, Drone flying has very little to do with cruising. My best cruising ever is in Spanish waters.
It's not just drones. I've read other stories here when cruisers were treated like sh**.
I'm sure it's beautiful place. But if foreigners, who might be not familiar with all local laws, get punished at full extent (even if no ANY harm was done), I'll be better visiting more friendly places.
It's not just drones. I've read other stories here when cruisers were treated like sh**.
I'm sure it's beautiful place. But if foreigners, who might be not familiar with all local laws, get punished at full extent (even no ANY harm was done), I'll be better visiting more friendly places.
I guess my experience is different. A lot of ex pats live here and no problems cruising. If your boat is insured and registered and your docs in order... good to go.
I meet up with a lot of Americans cruising and no problems...
__________________ - Never test how deep the water is with both feet -
10% of conflicts are due to different opinions. 90% by the tone of voice.
Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.
Ranchero.. maybe a good idea if you stay in the US of A coz cruisers have been beaten up, robbed, killed or treated like dirt just about everywhere in the world..
Just like the natives..
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Re: Good Drones for Cruisers?
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