First drone, first flights, first video

[ColdForged]

Hi all,

I've lusted over getting a drone for quite a while, so when my buddy sent me the link to the Mavic Air I was immediately in love. Complete coincidence that I saw it two days before the official release so I didn't even realize it was brand new. I just blithely ordered the white fly more combo on the 27th and waited to get it. Got it on Friday the 2nd and took it out on its (and my) first flights then and yesterday.

I'm still I giant chicken as I don't want to wreck my brand new drone but so far it's quite amazing. Took it on my morning run and used it in wifi phone mode to catch a few action shots then got the remote out after my run to catch some more distant shots and experiment. I don't have any ND filters yet so I'm limited in the smoothness department.

All criticism welcome, from composition to flying to rendering. I'm especially interested in my flight choices and how they jive with accepted flying guidelines. For instance, I never flew directly over anyone but for the overhead shots one could argue that there were people near the flight path though I was 300 feet up. Acceptable? Avoid? Thanks!

 

[zezrum]

Thanks for sharing. I do like the colors & the picture of the MA. How are you finding it, realizing it's your first drone?

As far as critique of your video, your framing & technique & filming skills will all improve over time. I'm not an expert (I'm a stills guy more than anything) so I won't say anything other than just keep having fun and learning.

 

[ColdForged]

Thanks. Honestly I'm amazed at the capabilities of the little thing, though mildly disappointed in others, but only a couple.

• I'm disappointed that there's no facility for operating it completely with gestures and no external device for when I'm out running.
• The active track is seemingly very sensitive to contrast. One of those cuts I put in the video of me running was because I ran out from under the shadows and the drone stopped following me because I'd "changed" enough. It's a bit more "squidgy" than I'd hoped.
• I'm still getting used to the capabilities, obviously, but sometimes it acts in mysterious ways. I sent it straight up from my back deck last night to around 300 feet to try to capture a sunset. That went fine. But it was very hesitant to accept forward and backward commands while up there which struck me as weird and had me very worried that it was losing controller connection. Up/down, gimbel tracking, and left/right rotation were responsive as usual, just forward and backward felt weird. I captured my (uninspired... missed my timing) shots and pulled it straight back down without issue.

In every other respect I'm completely amazed at this little thing. I mean, I feel like I'm complaining about a practical miracle. I love the form factor and design, I love how even though it's small it feels well thought out and put together well. I'm hoping I can get more confident with it and capture some really amazing shots. We travel a fair amount, including RVing, so I'm hoping I can explore new areas in ways that would have been impossible before.