r/drones

Welcome to the weekly “what drone should I buy?” recommendation and discussion thread!

Some of the most commonly recommended drones on this sub (approximate retail prices in USD):

$100-200:

• Ryse Tello (sub 250 g)

<$500:

• DJI Mavic Mini/SE (sub 250g)
• DJI Mini 2 (sub 250g) - Fly More Combo will put you over $500.
• Fimi X8SE 2022
• Hubsan Zino Mini Pro (sub 250g)

<$1,000:

• DJI Mini 3 Pro (sub 250g) - Fly More Combo will put you very, very close to $1k and possibly over if you live in one of the 45 states with sales tax.
• DJI Mavic Air 2
• Autel EVO Nano/Nano+ (sub 250g)

<$2,000:

• DJI Mavic Air 2S
• Autel EVO 2
• Autel EVO Lite/Lite+
• Skydio 2+ Starter/Sports/Cinema

$2,000+ (not really entry level at this price range, but why not?):

• DJI Mavic 3/Mavic 3 Cine
• Skydio 2+ Pro
• DJI Phantom 4 Pro
• DJI Mavic 2 Pro
• DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise/Dual
• General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper

FPV (First Person View) drones:

This is an inherently much more complicated part of the hobby, so recommendations on price aren't easy. There are ready to fly drones out there and even beginner combos that come with pretty much everything you need to fly right out of the box, but it is recommended that you put together your gear separately if you can. It's a little intimidating at first, but there is a lot of great information and fantastic people out there ready to help.

Captain Drone has a very helpful FPV FOR BEGINNERS playlist here. Start here.

Joshua Bardwell's YT channel is also a great source for information. He also put together a shopping list website here.

Also check out our sister subs /r/Multicopter and /r/fpv.

If you are new to the hobby, please make sure you are also familiar with your local drone regulations:

United States

Canada

European Union

United Kingdom

Australia

You can see previous weekly threads using this link.

Hi everyone, What I should expect from a drone Company to pay for a Thermography report of a 10 hectares of solar panel field?

I'm in Italy so any idea from other countries would be great to understand!

Thaaaanks

Does anyone have the 250.1 download to make your go pro camera sync with the controller that navigates the Karma drone. I have tried all kinds of things that I found on utube and various other web help spots to no avail. Go Pro has totally brushed me off after repeated calls, texts and emails saying that GO Pro Karma was "end of lifed". B.S. someone somewhere must have this download 250.1 to make this $1000 paperweight fly again. Please because it pisses off my wife that she bought it, I flew it 5x and blamo...piece of sh$%# sits on a helf gathering cobwebs and dust.

What's the weirdest thing you've accidentally filmed with a drone?

I was at a local beach a couple of weeks ago, and I was flying recreationally. I was technically only near the beach, and the entire area is open airspace. So anyway, I'm flying at 350 feet, and I'm noticing small manned aircraft carrying advertisement banners. There were two of them, one passing the other with less than 50 feet between them carrying huge banners. What's more was that they were BELOW my drone. (Not directly below, because I was still pretty far away, but their altitude had to be 300ft AMSL.) I decided to just pack it in for the day after that.

So my question is if this is ever allowed? I thought planes had to stay a minimum of 500ft AGL. Is this something I should report?

Hi everyone. I'm looking at getting back Into the drone game. I used to have a mini 2 but had to sell due to hard times. I'm back being comfortable again and want to jump back in. When using comparing sites between the 3 pro and the 4 pro there doesn't seem to be much of a difference. In everyone's experience what one is best to get. Is the price difference worth the extras? Thanks in advance.

Found a very solid deal on a DJI mini fly more at seconds and surplus store. I asked if the drone was new or refurbished and was told new.

Are there any tips/clues to help me determine the condition? I am only interested in a new unit

I used to fly a lot, but ever since remote id became a thing I stopped flying, I know that alot of drone pilots just opted to not getting remote id, but sadly the areas I used to frequent are full of karins or thugs and I already had a experience with a buddy of mine that I would not like to repeat.

So that being said, I got many questions.Like:

What drone would you guys recommend that are small enough not require remote id.

Do you guys recommend building your own, I have seen a lot of fpv content and it looks cool but also expensive. I wouldn't mind spending more in the future but for now I would like to start smaller.

If I fly under what's necessary for remote id should I renew my expired uas registration?

What modules do you recommend for remote id if I do decide to fly my larger RC planes and drones.

CubeId? Recommend? Or trash?

If anyone still has a hubsan zino h117, mine still flies, so should I do firmware updates? Will it be remote id compatable if I do the firmware updates? Also battery recommendations because last one I had inflated.

Waterproof drones? My hubsan zino saw a lot of over sea flying and I was always concerned about it dropping in the water, last time I checked there was only one brand and it was very expensive.

If you guys are curious or need the info on what I might fly to give advice here is the list: hubsan zino h117, a 3 foot wing span foam Corsair( no camera, yet), a small quadcopter I forgot the same of but is under the weight requirement, and multiple small RC helicopters.

I know it's a lot of questions in random odd-ball order but thank you in advance to anyone that comments.

Looking to fly an Inspire 3 around Utah this month and daytime temps get up to 105°. That hovers right around the max recommended battery temp (104°) but in full sunshine and with the batteries working hard, guessing the battery temp will exceed that number.

Anyone fly the Inspire 3 in these types of conditions and able to share their experience?

Is it safe to fly the Inspire 3 in these temps at all?

I am needing some help from the fellow 107 community. I had a job booked for a client and it went south because they added a lot of stuff on the project last minute after the quote was given. Plus some other additional requirements last minute.

Does anyone have a contract example they can send me as a template or what you use when booking a job with a client.

I would greatly appreciate it and any help.