Cheap drone recommendation for a newbie?

[stairtherefore]

Okay, I'm not holding out a lot of hope on this, but figured I'd post here and see if anyone had a recommendation I could pass along to a friend of a friend. I was told by my friend that her friend was interested in getting a starter drone, so I dropped him an email, with a couple of basic ideas.

He's interested in something that he can use to look for firewood, and has never flown a drone before. I pointed him towards some of the DJI drones, as they have excellent cameras, and will pretty much fly themselves, making them very good for new pilots.

He countered that he's looking for something in the $50 USD range, as he's not sure if he'll like flying drones, and wants something cheap in case he crashes (which, in my experience, is far more likely with a cheap drone, than with one that has decent electronics and firmware).

From what I've seen, $50 pretty much just buys a toy, and not something that would be useful for any kind of search or even amateur aerial photography.

However, I'm not afraid to admit that I do not have the most comprehensive knowledge of the drone world, so figured I'd ask here, and see what kind of response I can forward to him.

 

[dirkclod]

If money was a issue I would go with a Mini. .

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Several problems occur to me in this usage with cheap drones.
1) Range, both control and battery life.
2) Probably no live feed so looking for wood would be a matter of looking at recordings after flights and then working out where the wood was. That gets more complicated if there are several flights unless 'GPS' is available and included in the 'EXIF' data.
3) Probably no gps which adds to the difficulties of 2) but conversely might be of benefit if flying under the canopy (no RTH behaviours to worry about). Trees around my at home take off point seem to block GPS so I have to take off and climb to get GPS.

I have a toy (Hussban?) I flew to maybe 100yds and back but that was clear line of sight and not in trees. I was only able to make that trip a few times before the battery was drained.
Price wise I think the friend of a friend has little chance unless perhaps 2nd hand drone prices have crashed but think a Mavic Mini might be a starting point.
Would the drone be flown above or below the leaf canopy? With the spotting of fallen wood I can imagine that both would have their own inherent problems.


In addition, flying above the canopy what are the chances of spotting windfall wood under the canopy, it might even be difficult in winter through leaf less tree. I have overflown my back garden a lot over several years, (very overgrown) and didn't spot two 20ft+ falls until I was on the ground clearing up a lot of over growth.

Besides that, in the UK there might be an issue as to who owns the wood collected and whether they would be trespassing to gather it, there is something buzzing about in the back of my mind about that.

 

[lookout]

For $50 that's not much more than a toy.

Strangely a more expensive quad makes you not want to crash it, with the help of the extra expensive modules to help keep you from crashing it. Although it's not foolproof.

Hubsans seem like a dji knock off. Somewhat comparatively priced. Autel is another possibility.

 

[AZDave]

If he's worried about crashing his drone, my suggestion would be to buy something with GPS positioning. That way if things get dicey he can always just take his hands off the controls to hover in place until he figures out what he wants to do. For a different purpose I did some quick online searches, and the cheapest I could find with decent ratings was the Holy Stone HS710 for $176 on Amazon. There may be better choices since my search wasn't exhaustive.

 

[dozzn]

My first drone was a holy stone, I still have it somewhere around here lol.
I’m really grateful for it because it taught me some of the most important rules and regulations for flying and it helped me realize just how much I wanted something nicer!

If money or the possibility of lack of interest is a concern I would definitely recommend an inexpensive drone. Just be sure it has GPS.

 

[frcaloy]

$50? Tell him to forget it. Waste of money. A crash is more likely with a $50 drone than a DJI Mini SE.

 

[lookout]

$50? Tell him to forget it. Waste of money. A crash is more likely with a $50 drone than a DJI Mini SE.

I get a feeling the FAA thinks we are all flying one of those $50 quads without any bells or whistles or even altitude hold. Seemingly more dangerous than a smarter quad.

 

[BillS]

I knew nothing about drones and stated with a DJI Mini SE. They are currently about $300 at Amazon. It turns out I love this little drone - easy to fly and it has a capable camera. I do landscape photography and thought a drone might let me offer a different "perspective" among my photographs (and have recently sold three wall art pieces). I obtained my Part 107 at the end of May and am off an running. I just ordered a Mini 2 for the better camera controls it offers (I don't need the hybrid 48 MP of the Mini 3) and it is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

 

[frcaloy]

I knew nothing about drones and stated with a DJI Mini SE. They are currently about $300 at Amazon. It turns out I love this little drone - easy to fly and it has a capable camera. I do landscape photography and thought a drone might let me offer a different "perspective" among my photographs (and have recently sold three wall art pieces). I obtained my Part 107 at the end of May and am off an running. I just ordered a Mini 2 for the better camera controls it offers (I don't need the hybrid 48 MP of the Mini 3) and it is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

I have a Mini 2. It's my go to drone. It's a brave little drone.

Although I love my air2S. Great camera.

 

[stairtherefore]

Several problems occur to me in this usage with cheap drones.
1) Range, both control and battery life.
2) Probably no live feed so looking for wood would be a matter of looking at recordings after flights and then working out where the wood was. That gets more complicated if there are several flights unless 'GPS' is available and included in the 'EXIF' data.
3) Probably no gps which adds to the difficulties of 2) but conversely might be of benefit if flying under the canopy (no RTH behaviours to worry about). Trees around my at home take off point seem to block GPS so I have to take off and climb to get GPS.

I have a toy (Hussban?) I flew to maybe 100yds and back but that was clear line of site and not in trees. I was only able to make that trip a few times before the battery was drained.
Price wise I think the friend of a friend has little chance unless perhaps 2nd hand drone prices have crashed but think a Mavic Mini might be a starting point.
Would the drone be flown above or below the leaf canopy? With the spotting of fallen wood I can imagine that both would have their own inherent problems.


In addition, flying above the canopy what are the chances of spotting windfall wood under the canopy, it might even be difficult in winter through leaf less tree. I have overflown my back garden a lot over several years, (very overgrown) and didn't spot two 20ft+ falls until I was on the ground clearing up a lot of over growth.

Besides that, in the UK there might be an issue as to who owns the wood collected and whether they would be trespassing to gather it, there is something buzzing about in the back of my mind about that.

thank you so much for your suggestion

 

[Bluesman1942]

This is a nice little HolyStone drone for $48 at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Stone-Q...710291629&sprefix=holystone+dr,aps,161&sr=8-8