Speaking of drones....are there better ones these days...?

[AJMD429]

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A few years ago I fell for one of the 'taking the internet by storm' ads and bought a cheapie drone, with two goals in mind. The 'honey, it will save us money's reason was to be able to get lines up higher in trees than I can throw' (gonna make a carbide or hairspray cannon to loft a shot-bag instead), and the 'fun' reason was to look for deer just as a census tool, and if it flew high enough to eliminate parallax (unsure what height is realistic for amateur drones) try to get photos good enough to make a reasonably good map of about a square mile of ours plus neighbors property; some is too swampy or hilly to easily map other than painstaking triangulation off a few tall trees.

The cheapie drone wouldn't even get off the ground so I gave it to a friend who tinkers with stuff, but he tossed it as junk.

Now I know home inspectors and power companies use drones that seem reliable, but ten years ago one I talked to was saying $1,200 for the one he used to check chimney flashing and roofs, and that was too much for my goals.

For those who may use them for work, what is the stuff to look for or brands that are decent...? Have decent ones come down in cost any...?

[vancelw]

My brother in law has a DJI Avata 2
https://www.amazon.com/DJI-Immersive-Ex ... 8efb903409
It's about $1k and he bought extra batteries, accessories and a gamer-like controller to bump it up to 1200 to 1500 range.
He brought it to the house one day and handed the controls to me. With ease I flew it all around my fence line (got as far at 1100 feet away) and was able to see well. It let me hover it at the top of my antenna tower steady and close enough to look at the cable connections. I was impressed. Almost enough to buy my own...but I holding on to my money in case I find a backhoe attachment for my tractor.
I now have an access point outdoors on my antenna tower and am curious to see what kind of range we can control the drone at now.

[GunnyMack]

I also have a DJI, Magic pro. It has 3 cameras one of which is a Hasselbad. The controller screen is very crisp and clear.
My intention is to get it to follow me while bird hunting to get the dog , bird flushing and the shot on video.

Also this just occured to me, shooting at distance the dronecan go check groups.

The DJI is easy to fly but if you want a manual you'll have to print it and they don't make it easy.

[AJMD429]

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"...Also this just occured to me, shooting at distance the drone can go check groups..."

Now THAT is a great idea....!

Maybe figger a way to use it to put up a fresh target, too....

[jeepnik]

DJI seems to be one of the most popular. And with good reason. Even their bottom of the line models have some pretty good features and fly well.

One thing I suggest is when you are learning to fly it, do so in a large open area.

On a side note I tried using one in my work. The idea was to fly above large industrial cooling towers for inspection purposes.

All went according to plan until one starter automatically. The up draft blew it straight up a couple of hundred feet. I wasn’t able to fly out of the updraft until the velocity had decreased. Think riptide.

The lesson learned was to make sure the fans were locked out first.