Year on year, the use of professional drones has been increasing steadily. Both for leisure and business purposes more people and organizations are discovering ways to implement a drone as a means to revolutionize a given scenario. But as with any kind of revolutionary device, Once it takes off, manufacturers fall over themselves trying to get out a version on the market. As a result, there are a large range of features, designs and of course price points to consider. It would be a huge article to go through every drone that exists, but I have selected for you 5 professional drones for your consideration, all due to them having at least one stand out feature.
My thinking is that the perfect drone does not actually exist, you need to find the drone that excels in the feature you must require, or if you require one for general use, then an all-rounder is the way to go.
For this article, I want to focus on professional drones, devices which you can expect to find a premier list of features and design styles for. These drones will be capable of higher video quality (always HD) and longer flight times, often with a more robust design on the drone’s body.
Professional drones will be found in industries that demand them, where the work they undertake is key to the job, although many individuals who have a high passion for using them may well also be interested in a drone of this kind.
As we reach the end of 2018, we have the best selection of drones yet to choose from and here today I want to take a look with you at some of these.
There are a few things to think about before purchasing your drone. Firstly, you need to decide what features your professional drone must have, along with the price point your budget will allow you to choose from.
Whilst as you would expect, the more costly a drone, the more feature packed it is in general, this is not always the hard and fast rule, so you do need to carry out extensive research if you are to find the best drone to suit your needs.
Sometimes a cheaper model may have a better battery or even a stronger body, all important factors.
Something else to ponder over is if the parts that you’ll require for your drone, such as extra attachments, spare batteries, replacement components, etc are easy to source or not. You do not want to be paying all that money for a new drone and then not being able to get what you need to use it!
Force1 F100 Ghost
I would like to start with the Force1 F100 Ghost as this is what I plumped for in my professional drone choice! It is not a perfect drone that will necessarily suit all of your needs, but for me, it was one of the all-rounders that suited my planned use, which was to record air footage using my GoPro.
I have also found no glaring faults, and have been pleased with my use. It has a stable design which moves freely and accurately.
The Force1 F100 can deliver 1080P HD live footage and the footage has always remained crisp and clear on each trial run.
Its price point is around the £150 mark, so if that is within your budget this is a solid choice, providing you have a GoPro and want to record footage using this method. A review of some of the pros and cons of the Force1 can be found on the website here:
3DR Solo Drone Quadcopter Site Scan
Right, here is an impressive beast! The B3DR Solo is to the best of my knowledge one of, if not, the only, drone to be powered by twin computers. Furthermore, you can stream wireless HD video content from GoPro directly to your Android/iOS device.
To help aid in achieving professional photos, the drones controller features pushbutton flight and computer-assisted Smart shots.
There are definitely no glaring design faults here, either with the physical body or onboard computers, that really do provide an amazingly powerful experience.
But there is a major drawback-this professional drone has just 13 minutes battery life, one of the shortest on the market. A more in-depth review can be found here:
Parrot Bebop 2
To represent a drone with a longer battery than our previous listing, let us take a look at the fun named Parrot Bebop 2. This clocks in with a 25 minute fly time which is much more like it! The drone comes with Cockpit VR glasses that allow you to closely follow flight experiences in a real-time dynamic manner.
Once again this drone features full HD 1080p camera and a fair price point. I do have some doubts about how durable the body is though as it is made completely from plastic. How well would it survive over the months, especially if it receives any knocks? Still worth a strong consideration. Has a review for more information
Force1 DYS XDR220
Do you feel a need for speed with your drone? Well then let us have a look at the Force1 DYS XDR220. This is a very fast drone, helped by one of the lightest drone bodies on the market today.
That does not mean you need to fear for the durability of the device seeing as it is so lightweight, as it is made from carbon fibre, a material with a strong stiffness level, which will go a long way to protecting the drone.
One important note is that the drone does not come with a battery at all, a bit of a disadvantage because you’ll have to purchase your own one separately, and the one you pick will make a difference to the performance of the drone.
Also, this is not the easiest drone to set up. Having said all of that, once you have it up and running with a good battery, it impresses, especially with the speed and its robust design. The speed is so good its the ideal racing drone if you fancy getting into that kind of thing! Here is a nice extensive video review:
Yuneec Typhoon H Pro Realsense Hexacopter Drone
Now, for just under £1,500 you could look to Yuneec, the creators of many-a-drone, to provide the Yuneec Typhoon H Pro Hexacopter. This drone is very advanced, making the cost worthwhile if you do have that kind of cash to spare.
For starters, this drone can take dual control, by joining a controller to the Typhoon and one to the camera using the Team Mode feature. A great feature also offered is obstacle avoidance, a blessing for your navigation. The camera is capable of full 4K and allows for a full 360-degree view.
Overall, I’m impressed with this done, and it is definitely worth a look into. You can see the drone, including a look at the mentioned obstacle avoidance feature in action, on this YouTube video:
Hopefully, you will have enjoyed this article, and please do let me know if you have. I would also like to add that as well as reading reviews and perhaps looking at some of the videos I have provided, with all the drones you look at do try and find some video footage to see the drone in action, with this kind of thing, you do really want to see your potential purchase in flight, and it can almost be guaranteed someone somewhere will have uploaded a video about the drone which interests you on YouTube!
Drones are one of my latest passions (they are always changing!) so I enjoy the chance to be able to share on this topic and have your feedback. Perhaps you have recently made a professional drone purchase, what model did you opt for? Let me know in the comments below!
