The US government predicts one million drones will be sold over the coming holiday season. That's a whole a lot of thumbs jerking around unfamiliar joysticks, trying valiantly to prevent a meeting between shiny new toys and trees or local ferris wheels. But experienced pilots too will be looking to take their wizardry to new levels with the latest in high-flying hardware. With most consumer models carrying top-notch camera gear and a pretty friendly learning curve, drones made for rookies and experts aren't as different as they once were, though they do still have their own strengths and weaknesses. Let's put four of the big players side-by-side to see how they stack up.
- We'll start by saying that the four drones compared in this guide are among the better known, but they are really only a taste of what is out there. We've seen drones that can be controlled with VR goggles and drones that you simply hurl into the air to start filming, all amazing ideas. But they are not ideas you can yet get your hands on just yet. So, here we'll focus on drones that you can unbox just in time to fly on Christmas Day.
This includes two recent additions to DJI's lineup, the Phantom 3 Professional and the Phantom 3 Standard. As the names suggest, one is geared very much toward the experienced user, carrying high-grade camera equipment, while the other is aimed at beginners wanting to learn the ins and outs of drone photography. The Parrot Bepop 2 and the 3DR Solo are very much billed as easy to use drones, though the Solo does also offer a suite of advanced, automated flight modes, too.
The Solo is also a little different to the other models in that it doesn't ship with a built-in camera, rather it carries a gimbal for a GoPro. So for the purpose of this exercise, the Solo's specs outlined below are assuming there's a top-of-the-line GoPro Hero4 Blackattached to the aircraft.
It's also worth mentioning that the intricacies of drone technology bring with them an almost endless list of finer details, from maximum operating temperatures to hovering accuracy to video transmission systems. Here we've tried to keep our focus on the main points.
No comments