Novice entry drone recommendation

How do novices choose entry-level drones?

Pacific computer network

20 18-06-29 founder of the top 100 list, official account of Guangdong Pacific internet information service co., ltd.

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Recently, many famous drone companies that have been silent for a while have launched their own new drones, including zero-degree intelligent control Hesper, typhoon H Plus in Xiang Hao, and Anafi Pi Nuo; Recently, DJI also sent an invitation to the media to launch a mysterious new drone on July 18.

Invitation letter from DJI.

This is undoubtedly a good thing for some veteran aerial photographers. The drone market with a hundred flowers will give them more choices; But for some novices who really want to try aerial photography, too many choices will dazzle them and they don't know which one to buy. Today, Ge Fei will put aside the brand and product factors and analyze the strategy of novice buying drones.

How should novices choose aerial drones?

Many consumers have a bad habit when buying electronic products, that is, they only look at the parameters: this drone has a long distance, that camera has a high resolution and this battery has a long battery life. ...

Probability statistics of drone bombing.

For the average old flying hand, the level of parameters undoubtedly directly reflects the possibility and limit of UAV. But what about novices who are not very skilled? According to the statistics of the after-sales departments of some drone companies, about 70% novices will blow up their planes within one month, and most of the reasons are: operational errors (above).

If the novice cooks the chicken as soon as he gets on the plane, what is the performance limit?

So novices buy drones and don't think about those miscellaneous parameters. Safety, stability and reliability are the first priority. Without these, any performance limitation is just a cloud.

Look for obstacles for safety.

What is the most common situation for novice bombers? The first push is not familiar with the operating rules of drones, such as:

Many novices will take off rashly in a narrow room, and then lose control because there is no GPS signal, causing the drone to hit the wall;

Or when flying outdoors, I didn't notice the problem of poor GPS signal when taking off, which caused the drone to drift and hit the wall;

There are also many people who don't pay attention to the direction of the nose when flying, lose their sense of direction when breaking the pole, and accidentally hit the wall;

Some novices will fly to the back of the building, lose the signal, trigger automatic return, and then hit the wall because the return altitude is not enough.

Cause analysis of UAV explosion

"Hit the wall" is definitely the first newcomer killer in the drone link. Therefore, Ge Fei strongly recommends that novices must buy models with obstacle avoidance ability when purchasing aerial drones.

Although the price of aerial drones with obstacle avoidance function is generally high, many entry-level products only have frontal obstacle avoidance and cannot provide all-round protection; However, avoiding obstacles is better than not avoiding obstacles. No matter how expensive it is, it is much cheaper than the maintenance cost after the bombing.

In addition, unmanned aerial vehicles with obstacle avoidance function generally have good visual positioning function, and can hover stably indoors with poor GPS signal, which greatly reduces the risk of being bombed.

"Far" is not the only criterion for evaluating image transmission.

In addition, many old flying hands will pay special attention to the maximum distance of image transmission when purchasing aerial drones.

It is true that the distance of image transmission determines how far the drone can fly, but it does not represent the true performance of image transmission. The XXkm image transmission distance promoted by manufacturers is basically measured in the ideal environment without interference in the field, so the actual aerial photography environment cannot be without interference. And for beginners, flying hundreds of meters is scary, and flying a few kilometers is neither safe nor necessary.

Therefore, Ge Fei suggested that novices should pay more attention to the stability of image transmission than the maximum distance of image transmission.

How can we know whether the image transmission of UAV is reliable? For beginners, look at the following two points:

Directional antenna can increase the strong transmission distance, but beginners do not pay attention to the antenna pointing, and it is easy to lose signals at close range.

The image transmission stability of aerial drone connected only by mobile phone is relatively poor. Compared with the remote controller specially designed for UAV, the mobile phone is limited by the design of the built-in antenna and the transmission power, and its anti-interference ability is weaker. Therefore, novices should not be greedy for convenience, and it is better to buy a remote-controlled drone.

There is also the remote control, and the stability of the UAV with directional antenna will be relatively poor. Directional antenna (that is, the design of erecting a large planform on the remote control, see the above picture) must be facing the drone, so the signal will be very stable, but most novices don't know it. It often happens that the distance is very close, but the antenna direction is not aimed at the drone, and the signal suddenly disappears. In contrast, the strip omni-directional antenna (below) is less likely to lose signal, so it is best for novices to buy aerial drones using omni-directional antennas.

The remote control distance of omnidirectional antenna is shorter than that of directional antenna, but the pointing requirement is lower and the close range is relatively stable.

It is better to fly with peace of mind than to fly far away.

Similarly, many people who buy aerial drones will also attach great importance to battery life. Many novices spit out: the mobile phone can be used all day, why does the drone last less than half an hour? In fact, experienced pilots understand the truth: general aerial photography takes about 10- 15 minutes, and half an hour's battery life is actually enough for many pilots.

Therefore, Ge Fei suggested that novices should pay more attention to the stability of the battery than the maximum battery life.

Some people have no chance to calculate the flight distance and endurance, reminding users to return to China as soon as possible. Image source: Look at the bomber.

The biggest problem faced by novices is not battery life. For beginners who are afraid of flying every time, flying 10 minutes is very good. On the contrary, some novices insist on flying when the power is low, and forget to calculate the power back. When the voltage is low, they find that it is too late to return.

Fortunately, the more reliable aerial drones are equipped with smart batteries, which can calculate the flight distance, judge whether the remaining power is enough to return, and remind the flying hand in real time to avoid blowing up the plane.

Old drivers know that drone batteries are not easy to maintain, and novices don't necessarily understand. Image source: DronesPlayer.

In addition, the maintenance of UAV battery is also extremely important. Mobile phone batteries are used every day, often charged and discharged, and easy to maintain; However, the use frequency and charging and discharging frequency of UAV batteries are much lower than that of mobile phones. In addition, many novices don't know how to maintain the battery, and it is easy to accelerate the aging because of long-term non-use, which affects flight safety.

But now, many UAVs' batteries are designed with intelligent charge and discharge, and novices can easily maintain the batteries with simple operation, which greatly avoids accidents.

If you want to shoot beautifully, you must shoot steadily first.

Buying aerial drones, flight performance is one thing, and camera performance is another. Although some novices are not familiar with drones, they know something about cameras and know how to pay attention to camera parameters at the first time: resolution, 4K, frame rate, code rate and so on.

But what novices often don't know is that aerial photography is very different from ground photography: in aerial photography, not only the shaking of the drone during flight will lead to the instability of the camera picture, but also the high-frequency jitter caused by the rotation of the drone blade will make the picture appear jelly effect.

The three-axis pan/tilt is equipped with three motors to counteract the shaking of the drone.

At present, the most effective scheme to stabilize the picture of aerial drone is still the mechanical three-axis pan/tilt. It is worth mentioning that, in order to reduce the size and cost of some low-end UAVs in the market, some will choose to replace mechanical pan/tilt with electronic anti-shake technology (EIS), or replace three-axis pan/tilt with cheap two-axis pan/tilt+electronic anti-shake technology.

The effects of various anti-shake techniques: two-axis pan-tilt in the upper left, useless pan-tilt in the middle, and three-axis pan-tilt in the upper right.

Although the current electronic anti-shake technology has made great progress, in many scenes, two-axis pan-tilt or electronic anti-shake still can't completely eliminate the shake, and electronic anti-shake often reduces the clarity of the image and even cuts the picture, so the shooting effect is difficult to compare with that of three-axis pan-tilt.

Therefore, Ge Fei suggested that novices should pay more attention to whether aerial drones use three-axis ptz than camera parameters.

Parameters are not as good-looking as comfortable to use.

In short, aerial photography and ground photography are basically two different worlds. We can't just look at the parameters to know its performance like choosing a camera: besides the paper parameters, the aerial drone should also consider the detailed design and experience, especially the safety and reliability. Therefore, if a novice aerial photographer buys a drone, it is better to think more about whether this drone is suitable for him and what the actual flight experience is.

Ge Fei's suggestion: UAVs suitable for novices should best include the following four items:

With automatic obstacle avoidance function;

Image transmission is stable and reliable, and omni-directional antenna is adopted;

Use smart battery design;

Using a three-axis machine platform