Most people are drawn towards drones for the ability to take amazing photos and videos. The stuff that can be done using flying machines is incredible yet not all is as easy as it seems.

There are tens of cheap flying models with cameras on board, but unless you invest serious money you WILL be disappointed with the result.

Below is a shot comparison of video recording taken from three platforms:

* Hubsan X4 H107C HD – amazing toy to learn flying, but as you can see the video is useless. £35

* DJI Phantom FC40 – entry level DJI quadcopter (discontinued) – quite capable machine that carries a stock 720p camera. You’ll get similar quality image with similarly priced machines. It’s fun to play with, but the results are shaky. £350.

* The same as above but upgraded with Walkera G-2D gimbal with GoPro Hero3+ Black attached. The image quality is more than reasonable. You can see propeller guards and quadcopter arms in the picture – this can be solved by repositioning of the gimbal. As you can see the gimbal makes the camera rock solid in two axes, but the image is still shaky when copter yaws (rotates). Fixing that would require a 3D gimbal. Total price for this set up £350 Phantom + £70 gimbal + £250 camera =£670.

 

The video contains 4 parts – three streams combined and then each of the videos is shown in full.
Click fullscreen for best results.

You get what you paid for.