You have to admit that drones are cool; if you can use a flying camera around, you can tell that the tech has come a long way in a very short time. Previously, drones had been clunky and difficult to carry due to their lack of portability. But now drones have become intelligent; can avoid accidents and dodge objects in their way.
These drones have made a remarkable advancement in taking the best pictures and videos from the sky and some of them are been called the “tripod in the air”, because of their perfect stable results. Which is why we have decided to write an article about the best camera drones that are available in the market. We hope that this article will surely help you choose the best one, according to your necessities and budget.
DJI PHANTOM 3
The most aggressive priced drone in the market, under $500, if you want to get an excellent out of the box experience then the best recommendation is DJI PHANTOM 3 Standard. This is basically at the lower tier phantom 3 line up of drones from DJI, it has a 2.7k camera but still you have a three axis stabilization gimble which is going to yield some really beautiful aerial photography and in a lot of cases you are going to pull off results that look almost as good as you would find with a phantom 3 4K or the phantom 3 professional that have 4K cameras because I think the 2.7K camera is still really good in dynamic range and excellent color rendition.
The drone is really easy to fly as well, it’s a Wi-Fi enabled run so you might not have some of the fancy features such as the light bridge technology that can increase your distance, but it does give you a better overall HD feed and obviously you also don’t have the vision positioning system, it’s a GPS Wi-Fi drone only, just as a solid beginner drone. it’s probably the best solution out there. In this world of consumer, drones are really hard to compete with what DJI is offering.
Pros:
- Easy to fly even in strong winds
- Easy to use RC
- Fast charging
- Solid build quality
Cons:
- Limited range
- No support for bigger tablets like iPad
- Extra batteries are very costly
3D Robotics – 3DR Solo
One company that has aggressively pursued drones is 3D robotics, the 3DR Solo with the solo gimbal is probably one of the best GoPro integrated drones that you can get it as full native GoPro support for charging, live view monitoring in decent quality as well as changing the camera settings and they are always providing updates every now and then. As a camera carrying platform, its a very good choice especially if you have a black edition GoPro that has the full 4K capturing capabilities.
You can buy the solo with the gimble for under $1000 and if you already have the GoPro it could be a really compelling option. This is also a smart drone so you can perform actions like Cable Cam, Selfie Cam, can orbit around a specific object, it can also follow you. There’s definitely a lot of cool innovative features and even there is a little accessory bay that will add things like perhaps a parachute and other features in the future, so there’s plenty of expandability and it’s a great platform to start out with especially if you want to use your GoPro cameras
Pros:
- Lightweight and durable housing
- Easy to operate and fly
- Have support for bigger devices as iPads
Cons:
- Pricey than usual drones
- Gimble to be sold separately
DJI – Phantom 3 4K
Currently if you want the best bang for the dollar drone possible. I would definitely recommend you a $649 drone The DJI Phantom 3 4K. What makes this different from the phantom 3 professional that got released almost about a year ago is the fact that you pretty much have the identical camera system with same visual quality and vision positioning system but you don’t have the light bridge technology so your maximum communication distance goes from about 1.2 kilometers on the Phantom 4k side verses on the professional you can go up to five kilometers at a best case basis. But that distance is perfectly fine for most people and for that price range you can’t beat the amount of value and capabilities.
Also how easy and fun the Phantom 3 4K is to fly additionally the Phantom 3 4K also has a slightly better battery life you can fly this drone for almost 25 minutes verses you kind of struggle in that kind of low 20 min mark on the Phantom 3 professional. So for a lot of those benefits and just for the sake of the price range definitely check this thing out if you want to get a drone that has 4k video capturing capabilities
Pros:
- Stunning aerial photography.
- Easy to operate and fly.
- 4K recording with 30 FPS.
Cons:
- Audio recording not supported as you’d only hear the sound of the propellers spinning.
- Flying time could be more.
DJI Phantom 4
In the brand new Phantom 4, although they have improved camera optics on the Phantom 4 essentially you are looking at a very similar video quality compared to the 3 4K and the phantom 3 professional compared to the phantom 4 but the big benefits are certainly those obstacles avoidance system which work pretty darn, well it’s not bulletproof but certainly can avoid general obstacles in the way and in terms of these smart tracking capabilities, this is the most easiest drone to fly especially if you have never flown anything before. Using the camera to guide the drone is pretty neat.
It’s like playing a first-person flight simulator. Speaking of the camera, it can record 4K and full HD 1080p video as well as shoot 12MP photos. The results were pretty clear. The drone also comes with a 16GB Micro SD card that you can insert on the side to save all your footage. The first thing that impressed me about the quad copter was its sleek design, it gives it a “sexy” aspect. It has four propellers, a camera and a set of smart sensors that will prevent it from crashing. It’s not easy enough for a child to fly still at a premium cost compared to the phantom 3 lineup, it’s worth every penny.
Pros:
- Obstacle Sensing System (OSS).
- One button, Bring back drone to its starting point.
- Easy and secure to fly.
- AutoTracking system.
Cons:
- Battery lasts 28 minutes.
- Comes with only one battery.
The Mavic Pro
The Mavic Pro, when folded up, is so small that one could easily grab it using one hand. The body is made of plastic to make things light but has a high-quality feel to it and a solid, reinforced sound when you tap it.
It weighs just 64 pounds (743 g) and is 83mm (height) x 83mm (width) x 198mm (length)
The DJI Mavic Pro is a one-of-a-kind quad copter that promises to be a huge hit with first time drone buyers. It is small, easy to fly, and takes very good quality 4K video and photos up to 4,000 x 3,000 pixels. It features a 3-axis gimbal that tilts smoothly via remote control and also hovering around in a radius of 7 kilometer. With a price tag of $999 I believe it’s worth every penny buying The Mavic Pro.
Pros:
- It’s foldable.
- Easy to move around with you.
- Much quieter than other drones .
Cons:
- Not waterproof.
- Slower than phantom 4.
- A little pricy.