Gadgetory

unlike a smartphone or calendar app nobody needs a drum but you shouldn't let that stop you drones are the coolest toy modern-day gadget lover canal and if you're interested in photography or filmmaking drones are going to let you get shots that just wouldn't be possible otherwise if you're just getting started out the most important thing is to get one that can take a licking and keep on ticking because getting good enough to have fun and shoot great footage requires patience and a budget for repairs for the first time drone owner the best overall combination of simplicity performance and video is the DJI phantom 2 it's beautifully designed very well built and offers an advanced autopilot that will let it fly and film in conditions other drones simply can't handle for most people the phantom 2 vision which clocks in at $999 will be more than up to the task if you've already got a GoPro handy you can stick with the Phantom 2 and save yourself around 230 bucks the Phantom's battery is neatly packaged and locks into place easily without loose wires you need to fiddle around with the rotors attached in under ten minutes without any extra nuts bolts or tools and the flight controller has just four switches which means it isn't overwhelming to new pilots the best feature of the DJI phantom is the powerful GPS software this allows it to hover in one place and it will even compensate for strong wind you can set a home position and the Phantom will return to you if it wanders out of range the phantom vision - also comes with a gimbal which means that the camera will adjust as you move helping to center the picture and produce better footage the iris a quadcopter from 3d robotics is the most clear-cut competitor to the Phantom in terms of its flight capabilities and GPS software it doesn't come with a camera but does have a GoPro mount built in at $750 it's roughly the same price if you add in your own video equipment like the Phantom it's meant to be flown right out of the box with minimal assembly and setup but the experience is far more frustrating the build quality is poor beginning with the plastic rings you need to attach the rotors they're not well molded and it took three of us nearly 20 minutes before we figured out how to jam place the batteries come with the warning that they might explode and a special bag to contain the acid spread and fire that might result they also leave the wires exposed and a ton of wrangling is required to get it inside the battery tray the learning curve on the iris is much steeper than the Phantom I couldn't get it to calibrate properly nor could the experienced drone pilot I brought along it back up to give you a simple comparison the DJI phantom controller has four switches on the iris has 13 and an LCD screen with additional info I spent a few days playing with the iris and I never managed to get it off the ground for more than a few seconds even when I did it crashed right away for something simpler there's the parrot AR 2 it comes fully assembled has a stylish camo exterior and only needs a charged battery to be flight ready you pilot it with an iPhone app which makes takeoff and landing a simple tap of the screen it's GPS allows it to auto stabilize a bit although it's much more affected by wind than the Phantom the big plus of the parrot is durability I crashed it a dozen times and it never lost a rotor the downside was the iPhone app as controller which made piloting it feel really mushy and haphazard and the built-in camera shot decent but not great video on the cheaper end of the spectrum are the hubsan x4 mini drone and the proto X Micro drone which clock in at under 60 bucks both are pretty much ready to fly right out of the box neither one can handle serious wind and are best used indoors but despite a lack of GPS both handled really well in calm conditions the hubsan also packs a built-in camera which can record videos stored on a microSD card these are great drones for learning the basics of piloting and for horsing around inside without causing too much damage overall there is a really exciting range of drones available on the market right now and if you can afford it the DJI phantom is the one to go with right now oh and one more thing the four thousand dollar DJI S 1000 is a high-end octocopter that is far too dangerous for the average civilian to control that's why we called in a little professional help from the folks at intelligent UAS to fly these things for a living it's aimed at serious hobbyists and cinematographers looking to use heavy equipment this is not your next maybe your next next next but we couldn't resist showing you a little of what it can do