Actually prices on these drones has come way down. They go as high as 10K depending on capabilities, but the higher end are more for law enforcement, fire departments, etc.
There are 2 consumer versions out there. The Parrot AR drone and the DJI Phantom Vision. The Parrot does not shoot HD video and is much less durable. It is more of a toy really, and the range is around 300 feet line of site. I think it is around $299 retail. They have a new version with more capabilities coming out this fall. If your just looking for something fun to fly, it's pretty cool. I might get my Dad one of those for Christmas. It is flown with the I-Pad as a controller. The DJI Phantom II + is the newest, and it has the Wi-Fi extender, HD-CAM, and is much more durable. A lot of real estate agents use this model to fly through property/large homes as a way to attract buyers. This model caught my attention earlier this year because of the extender and 1080P camera that is movable on a gimbal, and can pan up/down, left/right with zoom. It is around $1300. It also has a much larger battery than the Parrot drone and can fly on one charge around 25 minutes. The AR can only do about 8 minutes. The one I have is on the edge of the professional ones that fire fighters use to help in wild fires, etc. My personal feeling is that the only reason law enforcement should use these is to locate someone who is missing, but with new technology comes abuse unfortunately. My guess is regulation will be coming soon, and I'm OK with that.
I'm only interested in shooting videos for personal use. The price drop on these gadgets is pretty dramatic. 4 years ago you couldn't touch the toy version technology on these for less than 5K. They actually didn't market to direct consumers, more just agencies. The top price now for one in the consumer range is probably 8K or so, and these are large enough that they can carry payloads and such. Amazon made news when they said they would consider using these to drop small packages OFF in large metro areas. Unlikely to say the least with all the other air traffic.
In fact it occurred to me that someone like Jeff Bezos can say anything he wants, regardless of how unlikely it is, and someone in our sector can possibly misspeak or be misinterpreted, and they are marched out to the guillotine. Definitely not a fair playing field.
There are 2 consumer versions out there. The Parrot AR drone and the DJI Phantom Vision. The Parrot does not shoot HD video and is much less durable. It is more of a toy really, and the range is around 300 feet line of site. I think it is around $299 retail. They have a new version with more capabilities coming out this fall. If your just looking for something fun to fly, it's pretty cool. I might get my Dad one of those for Christmas. It is flown with the I-Pad as a controller. The DJI Phantom II + is the newest, and it has the Wi-Fi extender, HD-CAM, and is much more durable. A lot of real estate agents use this model to fly through property/large homes as a way to attract buyers. This model caught my attention earlier this year because of the extender and 1080P camera that is movable on a gimbal, and can pan up/down, left/right with zoom. It is around $1300. It also has a much larger battery than the Parrot drone and can fly on one charge around 25 minutes. The AR can only do about 8 minutes. The one I have is on the edge of the professional ones that fire fighters use to help in wild fires, etc. My personal feeling is that the only reason law enforcement should use these is to locate someone who is missing, but with new technology comes abuse unfortunately. My guess is regulation will be coming soon, and I'm OK with that.
I'm only interested in shooting videos for personal use. The price drop on these gadgets is pretty dramatic. 4 years ago you couldn't touch the toy version technology on these for less than 5K. They actually didn't market to direct consumers, more just agencies. The top price now for one in the consumer range is probably 8K or so, and these are large enough that they can carry payloads and such. Amazon made news when they said they would consider using these to drop small packages OFF in large metro areas. Unlikely to say the least with all the other air traffic.
In fact it occurred to me that someone like Jeff Bezos can say anything he wants, regardless of how unlikely it is, and someone in our sector can possibly misspeak or be misinterpreted, and they are marched out to the guillotine. Definitely not a fair playing field.
