BEST DRONES OF 2017
We have seen a massive growth in the production and sale of remote control airborne vehicles called Quadcopters. These are also referred as Quadrotors, Drones and Quadrocopters. Many people today long for drones these days. Whether a kid who wants to pilot a drone or someone who wants a drone with camera for photography, filming and also HD filming. Drones are much trendy these days. Who doesn’t love to fly in any way available or to capture things you could not without having a drone.
If you are also searching for a drone, we have mentioned below some of the best drones of 2017.
DJI Inspire 1 PRO Zenmuse X5 4K Camera Drone RTF:
It is a new edition of Inspire 1 featuring an additional Micro Four Thirds camera system. This drone with camera weighs 56.5 pounds and measures 1.5 feet wide making it a large drone and not a toy for your kids. There is new Zenmuse Micro Four Thirds sensor having a 15mm f/1.7 lens of DJI brand which is capable of capturing high-definition imagery and crystal clear 4K video.
The main housing of the drone is stark white and has an aerodynamic design. Two carbon fiber bars protrude out from the white center unit. These bars hold the four rotors that are required for unit to takeoff. The entire drone is built extremely well.
Under the main housing, resides the dark black camera system with lens. One might think at first glance that the aircraft’s four legs come in way of filming, but it’s fascinating to watch when you flick a toggle button on the controller after you take-off the drone, the four legs raise above the drone’s body.
Pros:
Smoothest and most reliable flying
Steady and clean footage even in breezy conditions and dim light
15+ minutes of flight time with long ranges and high altitudes
Cons:
The gimbal tilt control is overly sensitive
Difficult to start using tricky button/timing arming sequence
The DJI Inspire 1Pro Drone is an amazing piece of professional equipment that would be great for photography and HD filming.
DJI T600 Inspire 1 Drone:
DJI Inspire 1 T600 is a totally high-tech and feature rich drone. It comes with two controllers that allow maximum usability. It is a rich assortment of modern characteristics and specs that allow you experience some good quality still image capture and jaw-dropping 4K aerial video.
Among the two controllers, one can be used to fly and manipulate the drone while other can solely be used for controlling the high definition 4K Ultra camera mounted on three-axis-gimbal.
This drone offers a massively high altitude ceiling and a top speed of 50 miles per hour. It will take your eyes into the clouds.
The DJI Inspire 1 T600 is a complete ready to fly system that includes everything you need. You can remove its camera system and gimbal from the aircraft for future upgrades and safe transport. You can watch its real-time feed on your mobile device in 720p HD.
Pros:
Dual controllers give the users better command
Durable build, lightweight and trendy design
Stunning 12MP, 4K camera that captures with anti-distortion
Cons:
Pricey as compared to other counterparts
The controller doesn’t have an integrated LCD screen
Less flight time as compared to other drones
The DJI Inspire 1 T600 provides an incredible video capturing and aerial photography for aerial photography enthusiasts as well as professionals.
DJI Phantom 3 Professional Drone with 4K UHD Video Camera:
The DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone comes with plenty of technology allowing you to create aerial footage and an Ultra HD 4K video camera. This drone would be perfect for professionals or filmmakers that need to rely on aerial footage.
In this drone, the 4K UHD video camera comes pre-installed on 3-axis gimbal. The camera produces pretty spectacular results regarding picture quality as well as stutter-free, smooth aerial footage.
The Vision Positioning system is a new interesting feature in this drone. This feature enables you to achieve stable indoor flights without GPS. To scope out an indoor environment, it uses an array of ultrasonic and optical sensors.
The controller is rechargeable so you will have to recharge it often. Lightbridge digital streaming enables you to view live 720p video while full resolution video can be simultaneously recorded on internal microSD card.
Pros:
Excellent video quality
Great app with useful features
Good battery life
Cons:
Not very portable
Design needs updating
Lacks advanced flying modes
The DJI Phantom 3 Professional is the best drone in the market at this price range and it also offers a fantastic new remote control, 4K video and ample new flying features.
3DR Solo Drone Kit:
The 3DR Solo Drone comes with aerial imaging-specific flight modes such as Follow Me which tracks your mobile devices and Cablecam mode. Autonomous flying, flight stability and a quad-rotor configuration are enabled. For navigational coordinates, the flight controller relies on GPS, plus it also uses data from accelerators, gyros and other sensors keeping the aircraft flight safe. It also features Safety Net and Return Home modes and One Flying/Pause button.
The 3DR Solo drone includes Solo Gimbal, a 3-axis stabilizer that is compatible with a GoPro HERO4 or HERO3+ action camera. This is ready to fly bundle that features a pre-bound transmitter for more intuitive operation. It features dedicated dials for Solo Gimbat operation and dual joysticks for flying.
There is a mobile app for Android devices and iOS in addition to the transmitter. The app gives you full control over the aircraft, GoPro and the gimbal. A mount if provided to mount your smartphone directly to the transmitter.
Pros:
Ground-breaking computerized technology
Great quality
Capture aerial shots with depth and angles that others can’t touch
Cons:
May be considered expensive
Spotty GPS
Drifts when hovering
The 3DR Solo Drone is everything a drone should be with its ability to capture great images and its state of the art technology.
Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon Drone:
The Yuneec Q500 4K Typhoon Drone is simple, has angular geometry and is clearly designed for easy portability. Its design is somewhat larger as compared to other drones. The Q500 4K features best camera. Its intuitive ST10+ ground station is the real treat. Half new-fangled touchscreen, Android-powered computer, half old-fashioned joysticks, the ST10+ lets you fly your drone as well as control the camera seeing what it sees.
There are shutter buttons for both videos and stills and levers on the side to control camera pitch and the drone’s maximum height. The touchscreen is a tablet integrated into the controller which is awesome. The Smart mode of Q500 enables the features Watch Me and Follow Me. Follow Me will make sure the drone follows you and the ST10+ wherever you go. The ground station comes with GPS to keep track. The Watch Me feature makes sure that you and the ST10+ are in camera frame and are in focus.
Other than Smart mode, it also features Home mode and Angle mode. The image quality is great with 12.4MP and also it has smooth CGO3 gimbal, great for HD filming.
Pros:
4K video capture
Remote control with an integrated LCD
Slow motion possible at 1080p
Cons:
Lens become blurry at edges of frame
Inconsistent automatic white balance
Larger as compared to others
Yuneec Q500 Typhoon drone is an excellent one. It has a short learning curve. Is easy to setup and takes excellent video and pictures.
DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Drone:
The DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ is the best fully assembled drone. It comes with everything you need and takes great footage. This radio-controlled drone has stabilized, built-in, high-definition camera, GPS positioning and a transmitter, a Wi-Fi booster to increase range allowing it to fly further and higher than other RC drones.
It can fly up to 33.5 miles per hour and remains stable through some rain and moderate wind but you may end up in less getting less optimal videos and photos. It has one of the longest flight times for consumer drones with flight of 25 minutes.
It has 5200mAH LiPo battery and has 2000 feet operating range. When the drone gets out of your sight, you can use your Android screen and iOS to see what the camera sees which allows you to control the drone easily. When you fly out of range or the battery gets low, the GPS will send it back to land safely.
It has 14 megapixels built-in camera that captures 1080p high-definition video and stills. It has a brushless, 3-axis gimbal to keep the camera stable.
Pros:
Control camera settings while flying
Comes with 4GB microSD card
Easy to use and understand
Cons:
Lacks microphone for recording flight audio
The DJI Phantom 2 Vision + is one of the best consumer drones available. It comes with everything you require to fly and it works phenomenally. It has built-in GPS. Its camera takes high quality aerial footage and incredible photos.
Blade Chroma 4K Drone:
The Horizon Hobby’s Blade Chroma 4K is a redesigned version of Yuneec Typhoon Q500. It shares the same capabilities, has the same 4K resolution camera, remote controller with built-in touchscreen and three-axis gimbal for stabilization. The biggest difference between the two is the actual design. The body doesn’t look strong but being compact makes it feel tougher.
The Chroma drone is very travel friendly because it’s smaller size and the fact that you can easily break it down. The self-tightening, color-coded propellers spin off easily. You can simply unclip the landing gear, disconnect the gimbal’s power cable and another clip in front of the gimbal.
The drone comes completely assembled. Just slide in the battery, spin on a set of propellers and after you have charged it, you are ready to fly. The ST10+ controller comes with built-in 5.5inch touchscreen. The controller has buttons for snapping photos, starting/stopping videos, sliders for setting camera angle and limiting directiona and climb/descend speed. There is a switch the lets you toggle between flight modes: Home, Angle and Smart.
Pros:
Compact camera drone
Includes all-in-one controller
Has follow and tracking capabilities
Cons:
Lacks advanced autonomous flight features
Video is best viewed at small sizes on phones and tablets
The Blade Chroma 4K drone is easy to use and has smooth flight. It has good deal to offer but for those looking for more advanced autonomous features beyond Follow Me should keep looking for other drones.
Parrot Behop Drone 2:
The Parrot Behop Drone 2 is small enough to slide in an average backpack and is easy to travel with. There are no moving parts aside from propellers which helps its chances of surviving a crash. To toughen it up more, its body is reinforced with glass fiber. It is one of the safest drones with plastic propellers that cease the second something hits them.
It is controlled with a tablet or phone. You can fly it by sliding your thumb around, tapping on a screen or simple tilting your phone to fly it in the direction you want. The mobile app is free. This drone with camera can take photos and videos for sharing, survives crashes and can do flips by tapping couple of times on screen.
You can fly the Parrot Behop 2 up to 300 meters away using a mobile device. But the distanve may vary depending upon buildings, trees and other wireless signal traffic to the device you are using. For best range and physical controls, Parrot’s Skycontroller is available. It features full controls for drone and also an amplified Wi-Fi radio on top that allows you to fly up to 1.2 miles assuming conditions are perfect.
Pros:
Fast performance
Long battery life
Lightweight
Cons:
Same video quality as old one
Limited to 8GB internal storage
The Parrot Behop 2 drone is definitely improved on the original and is a good choice for its safer design and portability but merely good image quality and a stiffer competition may limit its overall appeal.
Syma X5C Explorers Drone:
At around $50, you can get an easy flying drone with complete controls and power enough to handle light wind. It has a 720p HD camera and a 4GB microSD card for storage. It is fairly durable especially if you are new to flying a drone it can endure pretty much punishment.
If the motor burns or you do break something, every part of this drone is available for replacement. You can also purchase an updated camera with Wi-Fi that will give you FPV (first-person view) from camera to Android device or an iOS.
The image quality of camera is not great and also there is no stabilization resulting in some shaky product but they are fine if you watch them on a mobile device keeping in mind the $50 price tag of your drone. The 3.7 volt 500mAh battery of drone will give you about 7 minutes of flight though detaching the camera and removing the landing gear and prop guards will get you a few more minutes. Recharging takes about 90 minutes but extra batteries are easy to find and are cheap.
Pros:
Extremely affordable
Durable
Stable to fly indoor and outdoor
Cons:
7-8 minutes flight time with 90 minute charge
The Syma X5C is a toy drone for aerial photography on cheap and is better than its price suggests.
Yuneec Breeze 4K Drone:
With some taps on your phone’s screen, the Yuneec Breeze 4K drone will be in the air and perform plenty of automated camera moves grabbing videos clips and photos. Then from all within your drone’s app, you can download them to your mobile, edit and share.
With onscreen controls, you can fly it around manually. Its range is limited to maximum distance of 100 meters and maximum height of 80 meters. It flight time is 12 minutes so you may not to fly it too far from you.
The mobile app available for Android and iOS is split in two sections: Gallery and Tasks. Task section provides options of Pilot, Follow Me, Journey, Orbit and Selfie. The Breeze is designed to point camera at your not away from you as found in other camera drones.
Pilot uses manual controls for flying around the way; the Selfie mode uses sliders to get the camera in the right position for your video or photo, the Orbit allows you setting up the Breeze to circle you ar another subject automatically while the Journey uses the camera angle to calculate its trajectory to fly away from you and back again.
Pros:
Compact and lightweight
Replacement parts are available
Mobile app available for Android and iOS
Cons:
Short battery life
The little Yuneec Breeze 4K drone makes sharing aerial selfies and shooting a snap. It is perfect if you want a camera drone for aerial videos and photos but not if you are looking to really pilot a drone.