what do you use your drone for?

[jeppyboi]

Hey guys

I’m curious to know the general consensus on how many drones people own? Also what do you use your drones for? Is it for fun or recreation? professional photography or film? for work?

I just bought a Mavic Air and I’m enjoying it so far. I’m using it for fun and recreation and I bring it out with me on trips to the beach or on holidays. It’s perfect for taking nice scenic vids and photos when your out and about. I really want to get a phantom pro just for the awesome camera but I don’t think I can justify it to my wife unless I can make money off it lol.

 

[gnirtS]

90%+ of my drone use is taking still photos. 10% video.

To me the mavic is just a really big camera tripod you can move around in 3 dimensions.

 

[Clinton1]

I use mine just for fun, and flying around looking at the scenery. When i am at the beach house or on the farm, then i will take video.

 

[The Fat Controller]

90%+ of my drone use is taking still photos. 10% video.

To me the mavic is just a really big camera tripod you can move around in 3 dimensions.

Same here. In the old days I've laid on the ground, climbed poles and walls, even stood in a river to get a good shot. Now the Mavic does it for me.

 

[Aran]

Mostly piddling about and running up the electric bill a little bit by not flying for a while and having to recharge the batteries

 

[nevernamed]

Definitely photos and video. And just plain old flying for fun, I enjoy getting it up there.

 

[Anthony]

Personal use ... photos, videos etc.

 

[macoman]

I use my Mavic pro to make videos only of different interesting sceneries around Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

 

[hherbson]

Real estate photos, videos of deer and landscapes and chasing hawks when they mess with my chickens.....

Now that drones are more common, it's hard to make money with them. Wedding gigs pay well, but you will need duplicate or triplicate everything if you want to do it professionally, and keep a good reputation. In that case insurance is recommended. I think you would have much more fun, and less stress if you just get a good one, and contact some realtors letting them know you will take photos/videos for them at $50 a pop. Out of that you will have gas expense, and video editing time, but it's kind of enjoyable. Davinci Resolve is a very good free video editing program.

Also, you will pretty much need An Apple phone or pad. I use a Samsung S7 and S9, have done all the tricks and they still crash at least once per flight. Not the end of the world, but when you are finishing up a video, and the phone crashes, it messes up the shot. The DJI app for android is a piece of garbage, and wont release ram. It tends to use all available ram until the app boggs and crashes. If you have 1 gig free ram, it will use it all, if you have 2 gigs free it will use 2 gigs. They make the excuse that it's all the variations of android products, but that's a lie. It's sloppy coding with a priority for collecting your flight data. Why would the app need 2 gigs of ram if you aren't caching video on your phone? Sloppy coding...... Oddly enough, some people never have a problem with their android device. Some systems do a better job of of snatching the ram back from DJI Go, then make it available again, like constantly emptying a filling bucket. I've been trying to modify the android OS to force ram release every so often, but it also causes DJI Go to crash(I'm a newbie to android code). I've heard from a reputable coder that a reason the newer versions of DJI Go has video problems and crashes more is DJI has ratcheted up the data collection (spyware) which encrypts as it goes, eating up resources.

Regards,

Kevin

 

[HVYMTL]

I use my drone as an excuse to feed my addiction to this site

 

[macoman]

Also, you will pretty much need An Apple phone or pad. I use a Samsung S7 and S9, have done all the tricks and they still crash at least once per flight. Not the end of the world, but when you are finishing up a video, and the phone crashes, it messes up the shot. The DJI app for android is a piece of garbage, and wont release ram. It tends to use all available ram until the app boggs and crashes. If you have 1 gig free ram, it will use it all, if you have 2 gigs free it will use 2 gigs. They make the excuse that it's all the variations of android products, but that's a lie. It's sloppy coding with a priority for collecting your flight data. Why would the app need 2 gigs of ram if you aren't caching video on your phone? Sloppy coding...... Oddly enough, some people never have a problem with their android device. Some systems do a better job of of snatching the ram back from DJI Go, then make it available again, like constantly emptying a filling bucket. I've been trying to modify the android OS to force ram release every so often, but it also causes DJI Go to crash(I'm a newbie to android code). I've heard from a reputable coder that a reason the newer versions of DJI Go has video problems and crashes more is DJI has ratcheted up the data collection (spyware) which encrypts as it goes, eating up resources.

Regards,

Kevin

You can buy the litchi application which is much better and stable than the Go App and don't transfer anything in the background like the go app.

 

[gnirtS]

Plenty of android devices that work without issue on Go4. Since 8.0 onwards its got various OS options for restricting and stopping apps that refuse to give things up.
Also most people forget on the android version you need to press back twice on the home screen of Go4 to ACTUALLY close it. Shouldnt be required as its against the google coding standards but once you do that it does quit gracefully and release resources.
Given all the other huge disadvantages of an apple device, i see no reason to go down that route.

 

[hherbson]

Plenty of android devices that work without issue on Go4. Since 8.0 onwards its got various OS options for restricting and stopping apps that refuse to give things up.
Also most people forget on the android version you need to press back twice on the home screen of Go4 to ACTUALLY close it. Shouldnt be required as its against the google coding standards but once you do that it does quit gracefully and release resources.
Given all the other huge disadvantages of an apple device, i see no reason to go down that route.

Thanks. Even when I end processes, and restart the phone some of the DJI script seems semi-persistent and will be running in the system cache. When using fcc boost for example, I sometimes get the map init error which is a dead giveaway, and watching free ram before, and after I run end end processes for DJI go. The stock software, even with running in background disabled is very sneaky, and shows cellular data usage. When I disable it's network use privileges, it seems to bloat up and die, like roadkill on a warm day...... 4.1.3 offline mod takes care of the the data, but it still seems to bloat, until the ram is used up, then it crawls to a stop, and crashes. Just patched 4.1.14 and will see how that works out today. I have S7 and S9 on android 8. S9 will go slightly longer before crashing due to more ram, but it still eventually fills. Controlling it under battery management makes it easier, but then I often have to restart it manually when it crashes. Phones have been factory reset, all unnecessary apps and processes uninstalled or disabled. It's as close to bare bones android as I can get. I'm not really frustrated by it, looking at it more as a challenge now. Been up since 4am watching DJI Modder live chat on Slack, trying to teach this old dog some new tricks. DJI seems to really REALLY want that flight data sent back to them. I heard it was a concession agreement with various governments, but who knows, certainly not their "cut & paste" customer service reps.

If I ever figure it out, I'll post it on the forum.

 

[gnirtS]

To be fair its Samsung. They alter and butcher the android kernel and OS so much they're far more likely to introduce compatibility issues.
DJI can code it to work on "android" but its out of their hands if a manufacturer dramatically alters that android memory handling, process handling, UI and everything else.

Their software is rubbish for sure but it IS usable.
Their windows Assistant is even worse - still no signed drivers and so on 2 years down the line.

 

[hherbson]

Thanks gnirtS,

I bricked my S7 last year, tripping Knox while trying to get full access. Fortunately was able to get it back online, but have been hesitant to try that again. Perhaps they've come out with a better way for Android 8 and I just don't know about it. I'm also not sure what samsung software is required to take full advantage of their hardware. I've played around in development mode, disabling Samsung processes. I'll play around with it more on the S7, since at this point I use it just for the MP. I just didn't expect Samsung and DJI code to be battling over the same turf. I thought they would keep their allocation and processes separate. As I said above, I'm new to the inner workings of android, so I may be talking out of my arse ;-)

Regards,

Kevin

 

[gnirtS]

Samsung as well as forcing their own UI (as everyone else does) also alter the core kernel memory management and so on. Plus obviously their own SOCs and drivers.
DJI are far from blameless (Go4 is fairly awful and not optimised) BUT i can kind of see their point about developing for android then having to develop for samsung alterations in some cases. Android development is already fragmented enough to be a nightmare with 4 major OS revisions, countless different resolution, DPI settings and so on.
If DJI take non SDK shortcuts (likely id say) those are more likely to come up against a "samsung v android" issue.

 

[FlyMe]

Hey guys

I’m curious to know the general consensus on how many drones people own? Also what do you use your drones for? Is it for fun or recreation? professional photography or film? for work?

I just bought a Mavic Air and I’m enjoying it so far. I’m using it for fun and recreation and I bring it out with me on trips to the beach or on holidays. It’s perfect for taking nice scenic vids and photos when your out and about. I really want to get a phantom pro just for the awesome camera but I don’t think I can justify it to my wife unless I can make money off it lol.

I user all my drones for recreation, I do take pitcures and videos but mostly for me I love the view.There is nothing like looking at views from up high, "breath taking" I have Mavic Pro, Mavic Air, Spark, Inspire 1, and Thunderdrones is quoting me for my Phantom 4. I also have X-Star Premium,Q500 4K, and my favorite flyer the Bebop 2 Power.

 

[ac0j]

i just like to fly, it is cool to see things from the air.
There has been some construction on a major intersection near my neighborhood, been two months closed, now they are saying its going to be another month. It makes my normal 2 mile drive to town 5 miles now.
I decided after the "one more month" notice to have a fly over and see whats going on. It appears the county is trying their first roundabout on this intersection.... I would not have known that if I couldnt fly over and see it because they have all four directions blocked off at the next mile.

 

[JY-tek]

I fly strictly for fun, however I am an avid hobbyist photographer, so I do like to play around with the camera end of it.

Regarding the previous discussions about Android devices not working... I have several Samsung tablets and phones and they all have some form of trouble. Either won't connect without a reboot, or bad pixilization and lag. I just recently bought a Lenovo Tab 4 Plus 10 inch, and it works perfectly! Good, bright screen, too! I have heard that the problem is with Samsung altering the Android operating system, and I do believe that could very well be true.

 

[Garfieldg]

I spend most of my time gazing mournfully out of the window looking at the rain/wind/ cloud cover and wishing I could fly my beautiful machine and wishing I lived where you guys live!