"Newbie" drone. What's the Best Buy ?

[maltloaf]

Hi all,

I have fancied a drone for a while but have been put off by the near £1k price tags on anything that looks even a bit useful.

Spotted that Jessops have 10% off today and thought I'd take another look and was surprised to see that a Dji phantom 3 standard kit is as low as £420 these days which would certainly be "in budget" for me.

So my question for you fine gadget freaks is would this be a decent drone for me to try ? Is there anything that I'd be drastically missing that is on better ones ? Any others that I should consider ?

The feature that really excites me would be a follow me mode and a loop around a target mode. Can I get these in my budget ?

Cheers,

Malty

[BigBird]

Me and a couple of mates each bought a phantom 3 from Jessops last month. Came with 2 free Sandisk extreem 64gig micro sd cards which retail at £60 each with Jessops, although can be found for half that on Amazon. Also bought a second battery which was £90 instead of £120 when bought with the drone.

Depends what you want to do with the drone. The Phantom 3 is basically a flying camera, a very good one I may add. Not much use if you intend to throw it around doing acrobatics or race it though because it wasn't made for that. It is probably the easiest drone to fly and if you are unsure what you are doing when flying it you can just do nothing and the drone will just hover where it is until you decide what you want to do next. (">

[consoles]

I've had the Phantom 2-3 and now the 4 pro and the 3 is defiantly a good starter drone, excellent videos and very easy to fly, though I would say try and learn to fly it without the gps as this will get you out of any sticky moments you may have.

big open field get a few hours under your belt and you will be very confortable flying it in more tricky areas.
most of these videos I made with the P3
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...DWKEuaNrOyS-Ov

[maltloaf]

Thanks guys,

Seems like a decent starting point then. I knew dji were the big names in the industry but I didn't know if anyone had overtaken them forcing the price drops.

I'm away for a few days and will have a hunt around for a deal when I get back.

Cheers,

Malty

[fanni]

Funny I've been looking at drones lately thinking mmmm I need one .

afte seeing the mavic pro I really need one. We're going out to New York in march so might pick one up.

[reverend]

Xiaomi are doing drones now which I was tempted by - they do a 1080p and a 4k version and they're both available from places like Gearbest:

https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/25/xiaomi-mi-drone/

[maltloaf]

How does the phantom 2 vision compare to the others ? I have been offered one locally for £200 Ono . I know it's likely not in the same league as the 3 but I'm wondering if it will do what I want? Anyone had one or know how they compare?

Cheers,

Malty

[consoles]

I didnt like the 2 nowhere near as stable as the 3 if you can hold out for a decent 3pro
the camera is also fixed whereas 3-4 are remote

[maltloaf]

what do you mean by fixed sorry ? as in it just points in one direction so doesn't move.

I don't think i want to stretch to a 3 pro, it's likely to be a new 3 standard if this 2 is no good.

[consoles]

yer the camera is fixed in one position so if your wanting it to record stuff you have to move the quad around to get the right shot, also they dont have a gimbal so video is very shakey.

[maltloaf]

Thanks for that. The specs list says this...

Tilting Range of Gimbal 0°-60°

http://www.dji.com/phantom-2-vision

What is that referring to ? Is that the tiltable nature of the aircraft itself then ??

Excuse my dumbness, I'm just trying to understand.

cheers

[consoles]

basically its locked in place bit like a go pro case with a plastic bolt, you can have it tilted but cannot be moved during flight so fixed in place.

actually looking at the link thats a revision of the model i had. looks like it does tilt via remote, still no Gimbal so video will be shakey etc

[maltloaf]

Cool thanks for clearing that up. I might make him a silly low offer and use it as a stepping stone model if he accepts. If not it'll be a P3 standard I think, which I've seen about for just under £400 new.

[consoles]

knowing what I know having owned them I would def go for the p3 rather than spunking out for the P2 only to want to upgrade within weeks lol

[maltloaf]

I hear what you're saying bud it's just £400 against £200 (and this one has extras like spare batteries etc).

If my surface pro or nexus sell in the bst I'll just splash out on the new one...

[maltloaf]

He's gone quiet on me so I guess he wasn't impressed with my offer lol.

Anyway, I have found a chinese site that says they ship from a uk warehouse and are a good £80 cheaper than anyone else after a discount code.

Has anyone used rcmoment.com and their uk warehouse ? Are they ok and how long did stuff take to arrive ?

I would just buy in my local jessops but their 10% off code expired on Sunday night and as a result it's gone back up to £450. It's roughly £360 from rcmoment.com !

any other distributors I could look at ?

Thanks,

malty

[{{909}}]

There was a new drone shown here in China from Tencent called the Ying, the specs werent mind blowing with just 15 minutes of battery but it folds up just like the Mavic and costs about $300.

The Xiaomi drone would be the one I'd go for if it hadn't disappeared off the face of the planet.

[maltloaf]

I did have a brief search for the xiaomi mi drone when it was mentioned but couldn't see stock anywhere and decided it possibly hadn't reached market yet.

I'll have a little look for the other one you mentioned. Thanks

[maltloaf]

Had a phantom 3 advanced with backpack and a spare battery come up for sale locally. The guy is asking £550 and has told me he'll take £530 as long as it's before Friday as he needs the cash to go towards a car he's buying.

Seems like a decent deal to me but I couldn't help myself and offered him £450 leaving it open in case he changed his mind.

How does this sound ? should I stop being a tight wad and pay the £530 ?

cheers,

malty

[Ashley]

Had a phantom 3 advanced with backpack and a spare battery come up for sale locally. The guy is asking £550 and has told me he'll take £530 as long as it's before Friday as he needs the cash to go towards a car he's buying.

Seems like a decent deal to me but I couldn't help myself and offered him £450 leaving it open in case he changed his mind.

How does this sound ? should I stop being a tight wad and pay the £530 ?

cheers,

malty

There's no harm in asking, if he rejects it offer a little more.