Curious About Drone Videography? Here’s What You Need to Get Started

I’ve been a drone and RC enthusiast for longer than I care to think about at this point, and there’s never been a better time to get into the hobby (or even profession) if you get a good start to your journey. I’ve made some expensive mistakes over the years, but hopefully I can help you avoid that with a few good tips right out of the starting gate.

Flying Practice

I started out with RC electric helicopters, long before camera drone quadcopters were common or affordable. So the first time I took the controls of a rather expensive DJI drone (which did not belong to me!) it was a pretty easy transition.

This early-generation drone didn’t have any obstacle avoidance or autonomy, but it did have a GPS lock and height sensor for hovering, which meant that if you took your hands off the controls, it would simply hover in place.

These days, modern drones mostly have excellent obstacle avoidance and can pretty much fly themselves, but I still think it’s important that anyone looking to fly a mulltirotor drone has a good amount of practice with manual flight. After all, GPS locks can fail, and some drones don’t have any obstacle avoidance when in their high-performance modes.

Also, in some cases manual flight is the only way to get the shot you need. The good news is that you can buy a little toy quadcopter with no camera for under $50. Get a nano- or micro-class drone, and fly it around your garden or house. The control layout and general principles are exactly the same as big drones, and it’s good to have manual flight skills to fall back on.

Besides, it’s a lot of fun!

A Good Understanding of Drone Regulations

For a while, the whole category of personal and private professional drones was a bit of a Wild West as lawmakers tried to catch up with the technology. Today, aviation authorities all over the world have a pretty good handle on how to deal with millions of drones flying around public airspaces.

Before you even think of buying a drone for yourself, you need to know drone laws and regulations in the places you intend to fly intimately. You’ll be subject to national, state, and local regulations. There will be plenty of places, such as national parks, where you are not allowed to fly.

Also, your intended use for the drone will affect which laws apply to you. Some smaller drones may be exempted from licensing and registration requirements, or will fall under recreational flyers regulations. However, it’s likely that you will have to at least register your drone with the FAA and you’ll have to become a Certificated Remote Pilot. If you want to fly your drone for money, you’ll need to become a Certificated Remote Pilot including Commercial Operators.

The regulations are constantly changing as new challenges arise, so whenever you read this, it’s always your responsibility to research the latest rules and regulations that apply to you and your intended drone activities.

A Starter Drone

Justin Duino / Review Geek

Every camera drone operator has to start on something, and getting the right starter drone can be tough. However, drones are cheaper and better than ever. You can get the latest DJI Mavic Mini model, for example, and have most of the features of “big” drones that cost thousands of dollars. Generally, if you can fly one of the fully-featured but less expensive drones, you can operate their bigger cousins.

However, starting off with something like a Mavic Mini allows you to put the hours in on a drone that won’t make you weep if you do happen to have a few crashes that require repairs, or even complete drone replacement. You wouldn’t want to learn how to drive in a million-dollar sportscar, after all!

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DJI Mini 4 Pro

The DJI Mini 4 Pro does just about everything you would want out of a drone in an incredibly compact, convenient, and highly functional package. The ease-of-use and image quality are best in class.

We maintain an updated list of the best drone, and that’s a great place to get started.

Essential Accessories

It’s common for drones to be sold with accessory combos that almost always work out quite a bit cheaper than buying the included accessories later. These generally include extra batteries, multi-battery chargers, carry cases, lens filters, and other handy doodads. Unless you’re buying a second drone and already have a bunch of accessories you can share between them, it’s almost always better to get these bundles instead of the bare drone.

Going out to film something with a single battery and only 15-30 minutes of total flight time is a big mistake. Lens filters aren’t optional in my opinion, and you can never have enough extra rotors.

Speaking of which, make sure you buy an SD card that’s rated fast enough for the best video quality your drone is capable of. I’ve seen people have issues because they’re trying to film in 4K60 and the SD card they’re using simply can’t keep up.

If you’re going to edit your own footage, you’ll also need software and a suitable device. I edited most of my drone footage on my iPad Pro using LumaFusion, which is on all mobile platforms, but honestly, most basic editors will do, and if you need something more advanced well, video editing is its own whole thing.

You may want to check out DaVinci Resolve, which is a free professional-grade package.