Good Drones for Cruisers?

[Boosted]

I know about the RC vehicles, not camera setups. Purpose made video kits for drones would be separate. I imagine a military video kit would be cool. You know, something with automatic target tracking and infrared is available but the cost would be high. Some of the higher end drones probably have those capabilities...

[SteveG58]

The dji Spark does 1080 and is just great (with remote control.) And at half the price of the mavic you only feel half as bad when you loose It!

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by SteveG58

The dji Spark does 1080 and is just great (with remote control.) And at half the price of the mavic you only feel half as bad when you loose It!

Spark is nice, but I returned mine to get a Mavic. The spark doesn’t have enough speed or flight time if you want to try to get shots of your own boat under sail. Great if you just want to launch and retrieve from the same place.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by Boosted

I don’t understand why people don’t think of building one...compare it to building a computer. If you buy an Alienware then you have 1/2 the computer you could of had if you built your own.

I’ve built about 8 RC vehicles ranging from professional to beater and there was always a substantial difference between mine and ready made out of the box sold RC’s.

If you’re up for it I can guarantee that you will have a lot of fun building one! It’s very addictive because you’re building it and the customization you’re able to do is unreal!

The hardware is easy, but unless you are a software developer how are you going to get all the features of something like the mavic pro in such a user friendly package?

[SteveG58]

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

Spark is nice, but I returned mine to get a Mavic. The spark doesn’t have enough speed or flight time if you want to try to get shots of your own boat under sail. Great if you just want to launch and retrieve from the same place.

Agreed! The Mavic does tick all the boxes!

[Thalas]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Did you experience the same video quality problems with your Mavic that others reported? Is the Mavic Pro a different model?

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about those gripes. One guy compared the images to a $50k Arri Alexa that Records in Pro Res 4444. Well, duh. It's absolute apples to oranges.

How are you using this drone? Personal footage for memories? A vlog on youtube? Go look at a bunch of youtube videos and see if you like the quality for your uses. Both Delos and La Vagabode get great results with the Mavic (people are liking the results so much they pay them $10k/week for content). And they choose the Mavic over the Phantom because they often take the drone on hikes and that is where SIZE MATTERS. Larger drones take an entire backpack to themselves. The Mavic sits in my upper pocket of my backpack.

I shoot on a Sony A7sII when traveling which puts out a gorgeous picture with insane dynamic range for a $3k camera, but use a GoPro for action and a Mavic for air and they all mesh well in editing. Good enough for professional broadcast? Maybe... maybe not. But for anything less, the quality is great and the practicality is fantastic.

There's debate about recording in 4k vs 2k, but lots of good youtube videos to educate you on that too where again... you can see for yourself. Buy polar filters for shooting in the day, learn basic rules (like your shutter speed being twice your frame rate) and best settings for different conditions and you'll get great results.

If time isn't critical, I would to buy wait until March as there are rumors that the Mavic Pro 2.0 will be released. I'm hoping for a 1' sensor and 100Mbps rate which would make this drone just about perfect.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by Thalas

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about those gripes. One guy compared the images to a $50k Arri Alexa that Records in Pro Res 4444. Well, duh. It's absolute apples to oranges.



How are you using this drone? Personal footage for memories? A vlog on youtube? Go look at a bunch of youtube videos and see if you like the quality for your uses. Both Delos and La Vagabode get great results with the Mavic (people are liking the results so much they pay them $10k/week for content). And they choose the Mavic over the Phantom because they often take the drone on hikes and that is where SIZE MATTERS. Larger drones take an entire backpack to themselves. The Mavic sits in my upper pocket of my backpack.



I shoot on a Sony A7sII when traveling which puts out a gorgeous picture with insane dynamic range for a $3k camera, but use a GoPro for action and a Mavic for air and they all mesh well in editing. Good enough for professional broadcast? Maybe... maybe not. But for anything less, the quality is great and the practicality is fantastic.



There's debate about recording in 4k vs 2k, but lots of good youtube videos to educate you on that too where again... you can see for yourself. Buy polar filters for shooting in the day, learn basic rules (like your shutter speed being twice your frame rate) and best settings for different conditions and you'll get great results.



If time isn't critical, I would to buy wait until March as there are rumors that the Mavic Pro 2.0 will be released. I'm hoping for a 1' sensor and 100Mbps rate which would make this drone just about perfect.

Thalas, you make some great points about the end-use of the video. There is no need to waste money on higher quality video in every situation. Delos posts mostly 1080P video that is poorly exposed and I love it all. Can't get enough.
You posted a beautiful Corfu 4K video from a Mavic Pro that contained blurry trees and blurry buildings, yet it was still compelling to watch. All the 4K effort was simply a waste due to the compression bitrate, as my posted still frame crop showed from that video. "So what", says the masses. "Can't see it". Fair enough.

Now, for those few who wish to go beyond blurry trees and achieve a higher level of image quality for their drone efforts while sailing... well this forum is the perfect place to learn.:

We have a guy with a huge collection of drones, GTom, and we have only begun to hear his views. I hope he gives us more of his opinion of all of his drones, because he is the one guy who could compare so many with first hand experience. I'd love to hear more about his Inspire.

We have a Mavic Pro user, mikedefieslife, who sees compression issues with his drone images. His quality demands might be higher than most, but a first hand account is not to be ignored so quickly.

We also have imaging professionals here who can explain the lengthy technical details that might be of use to those amateurs who wish to get the best picture quality they can because of all the time and expense and headaches they invested to get drone shots from a boat. If you come home from Corfu with blurry trees, your friends will still applaud, but you might regret that you didn't do your homework first.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by cyan

Thalas, you make some great points about the end-use of the video. There is no need to waste money on higher quality video in every situation. Delos posts mostly 1080P video that is poorly exposed and I love it all. Can't get enough.
You posted a beautiful Corfu 4K video from a Mavic Pro that contained blurry trees and blurry buildings, yet it was still compelling to watch. All the 4K effort was simply a waste due to the compression bitrate, as my posted still frame crop showed from that video. "So what", says the masses. "Can't see it". Fair enough.

Now, for those few who wish to go beyond blurry trees and achieve a higher level of image quality for their drone efforts while sailing... well this forum is the perfect place to learn.:

We have a guy with a huge collection of drones, GTom, and we have only begun to hear his views. I hope he gives us more of his opinion of all of his drones, because he is the one guy who could compare so many with first hand experience. I'd love to hear more about his Inspire.

We have a Mavic Pro user, mikedefieslife, who sees compression issues with his drone images. His quality demands might be higher than most, but a first hand account is not to be ignored so quickly.

We also have imaging professionals here who can explain the lengthy technical details that might be of use to those amateurs who wish to get the best picture quality they can because of all the time and expense and headaches they invested to get drone shots from a boat. If you come home from Corfu with blurry trees, your friends will still applaud, but you might regret that you didn't do your homework first.

Thanks to everyone for all the useful comments.

I don't think I expect the output from my drone to be of top broadcast quality, but on the other hand I see clearly and don't like the blurry trees in the previously posted videos.

I don't like editing 4K video -- huge PITA. I love the 1080p video output from my full frame Sony A7R, especially using adapted Leica M lenses, although the bitrate is only 28mbs. So I guess I'm not the most demanding customer here.

[GTom]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Thanks to everyone for all the useful comments.

I don't think I expect the output from my drone to be of top broadcast quality, but on the other hand I see clearly and don't like the blurry trees in the previously posted videos.

I don't like editing 4K video -- huge PITA. I love the 1080p video output from my full frame Sony A7R, especially using adapted Leica M lenses, although the bitrate is only 28mbs. So I guess I'm not the most demanding customer here.

I know it's not a direct scale-up, but 4k is 4xfullHD, thus 28mbps in fullHD shouldn't be any worse than 100mbps at 4k.

As for processing: can be done on recent workstations. However a 10-core PC with 2 top graphic cards is not really a boaty stuff.

[SailFastTri]

Like anything in life -- you can focus on the good or the bad, and it's largely choice. Budgets and compromises always play a role in purchase decisions, whether it's the boat or the drone. The sunset moment looks the same whether you're on a super-yacht or a beater classic plastic.

"Be there and F8" is a quote that's bandied about among many photographers circles. The first time I heard it was from the late John Eisberg (some of you may remember him). He had complemented me on a photo I had posted of a boatyard during near-white-out snowfall. I thanked him and expressed that I felt especially honored (because he was a professional photographer of outstanding ability) and that it was just a snapshot using a compact POS with 3x zoom.

He used that expression I quoted above, and stated that it's not always about the technical quality -- content and composure are just as important. He went on to write that some of his best shots weren't the best technical quality.

So, for most if us who aren't shooting for the big screen.... technical perfection may not be important.

[weavis]

Here is my take on a production.

1080 is good enough for me. I STILL want the best 1080 it can be. That involves lenses and post production, stabilisers and all the tricks I know...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by SailFastTri

Like anything in life -- you can focus on the good or the bad, and it's largely choice. Budgets and compromises always play a role in purchase decisions, whether it's the boat or the drone. The sunset moment looks the same whether you're on a super-yacht or a beater classic plastic.

"Be there and F8" is a quote that's bandied about among many photographers circles. The first time I heard it was from the late John Eisberg (some of you may remember him). He had complemented me on a photo I had posted of a boatyard during near-white-out snowfall. I thanked him and expressed that I felt especially honored (because he was a professional photographer of outstanding ability) and that it was just a snapshot using a compact POS with 3x zoom.

He used that expression I quoted above, and stated that it's not always about the technical quality -- content and composure are just as important. He went on to write that some of his best shots weren't the best technical quality.

So, for most if us who aren't shooting for the big screen.... technical perfection may not be important.

Technical perfection and artistic value have relatively little to do with one another. Good feature films have been made on smartphone cameras.

But still some of us may want to be able to reproduce very well some scene we've seen. I certainly agree that chasing after technical perfection may be a waste of time and money for most of us, but chasing after technically good may be a different matter.

I can see the point of good 4k video from a drone, shown on a 4k monitor (which I have). But I don't think I will be chasing after that at this point when it takes unusual amounts of computer power to process, is hard to store, and is beyond the capabilities of good drones like the Mavic.

[Neziak]

Anybody hand launch and caught a Mavic Air yet? Would be interested to hear about the experience when compared to the larger Mavic Pro.

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Neziak

Anybody hand launch and caught a Mavic Air yet? Would be interested to hear about the experience when compared to the larger Mavic Pro.

The promo videos show hand catching it, using gesture control similar to the Spark.

The Mavic Pro can also be hand caught, but you need to turn off the obstacle avoidance vision first. (The "Crusing Off Duty" video linked above showed the wrong way to do it. There are a few vids on YouTube that show how to hand catch a Mavic Pro. Regardless, it's not something I'd attempt on a boat without practice on land first.)

Edit: Landing on a moving platform is something else again. The boat would need to be stationary, or slow drift at most.

[theway]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The DJI Mavic Pro, reasonable price, folding so good for storing on a boat, and well reviewed.

But is this suitable? Fast enough to keep up with a boat under sail? Enough range to not get lost at sea? Apparently no drones are actually waterproof, so if you get them in the water, they're dead.

I would be grateful for shared knowledge.

I have the Phantom 3 and the Mavic Pro on the Pearson 323. The Phantom takes up a lot of room but gets used a lot more. It’s fast enough, video quality good enough and it’s way cheaper should it fall in the water. The mavic to me is about portability so I take it on land trips, where water isn’t a factor. Here’s a vid I made with mostly the Phantom 3, I usually only use 720p https://vimeo.com/232578791

To answer your mavic questions

Yes, fast enough for any sailboat, it’s 40mph fast so unless you’re on a Cup boat....

Yes, good range there are limits on it to prevent it getting lost... it also has a return to home function which works best if the take of point doesn’t move... it will actually return and land if you let it, but not a good idea on a boat. I manually catch it from the air (but take off from deck) I only fly at anchor or when becalmed or very very light winds.

No, not waterproof as you said so the mavic is not so suitable, but with skill and caution you can keep it out if the water. But that waterproof splash drone seems really cool. But you can buy 5 phantoms at that price... (I actually have 2 Phantoms and 1 Mavic)

austin