Best Drone With Camera
What is the best drone camera included? Well, apparently, I depend on how you want to use the drone, your budget and price-point, and whether you are a newbie or a professional photographer. So the big question to you is: have you thought about how you will use your new quadcopter?
Obviously, if you are a beginner, or buying a gift for a child or pre-teen, then you just want a package that gets them up and flying quickly with the ability to snap a few low-quality pictures with reasonably jumpy video. However, if you are an amateur aerial photographer, or you are a professional that needs to shoot commercial quality footage for cinematic, agricultural, or real-estate purposes, then you'll have completely different requirements!
Some Drones and Quadcopters come equipped with integrated cameras (built-in by the manufacturer), and some come without cameras included, but instead, have mounts &/or gimbals that you can use to attach a camera of your choice. (i.e., you buy the camera yourself). For now, let’s focus on drones with integrated cameras. They come in 3 basic categories:
1. Toy Drones with Low Resolution / Non-Gimballed Cameras
beginners will be able to capture low-resolution photographs and unstable, jerky video. Manufacturers add cheap cameras to these low-end drones to increase the primary value for budget customers. The cameras work, but you won’t be winning any photo contests here. Some of the contenders:
- Syma X5SW: necessary quad with 0.3 MP camera, is a cheap Phantom-clone and consistent Amazon Best Seller
- UDI U818A: favorite quad with 720p HD Video / 1280p camera usually under $130, is also quite popular on Amazon
2. Hobby Drones with HD Cameras w/ Gimbal Mounts or Stabilization Tech: Acceptable Camera Drone for Hobbyist
- Parrot Bebop: hobby drone with 14 MP / HD 1080p, nose-mounted / no-swivel / fish-eye lens camera that provides reasonably stable video, average resolution video using stabilization tech
3. Intermediate Drones with integrated, Professional Quality 4K Cameras with 3-Axis Gimbals: Best Drones With Cameras for Serious to Professional Photographers
- Yuneec Typhoon Q500: 4K / 1080p CG03 Camera + 3-Axis Gimbal
- Blade Chroma: 4K / 12 MP CG03 Camera + 3-axis brushless Gimbal
- Phantom 3 Standard: 2.7 K / 12 MP + 3-axis Gimbal / Wifi Video transmission
- Phantom 3 Professional: 4K / 12.4 MP + 3-axis Gimbal / Lightbridge Video transmission
- Q500 Typhoon quadcopter
Please SCROLL DOWN to the tables below to learn more about some of these higher quality intermediate camera drones.
Drone Requirements for the Serious / Professional Photographer
Here are some of the must-have features & critical requirements that you should consider when selecting your very best camera drone:
- Flight Time & Range: quad batteries should carry enough charge to keep your bird aloft for at least 25 to 30 minutes giving you the option of capturing multiple shots, or traveling further to get remote shot in distant locations.
- Stability of Platform: the drone should be stable in wind gusts at altitude and should not be too wind-bouncy.
- Flight Characteristics / Reliability: the quad should be easy to control and simple to maneuver, allowing the operator to be more of a photographer and less of a pilot. Also,
- Performance Reliability: Wifi Range & GPS lock must be high quality to ensure that you retain control of your drone at all times. It will allow you to avoid the loss of the drone & an expensive camera through flyaways caused by signal loss
- FPV Range: this refers to the distance at which the drone camera can stream video back to the ground station/controller via Wifi, LightBridge or some other transmission protocol. The farther, the better.
- Camera Photo Resolution: should be about 12 MP
- Camera Video Resolution: should be at 4K but 2.7K can also deliver good quality
- Gimbal: a 3-axis brushless mount is an absolute must to provide stable (non-jello) video quality
- Programmable Flight Modes: Pre-programmed modes such as Way-Point planning, Follow-Me, CirclingPatterns, Hover mode, Cable-flying mode is ESSENTIAL automatic flight patterns that allow the operator to focus on photography while the drone flies itself. These are critical features of all the best drones with cameras.
No.1 Yuneec Typhoon Q500
Pros Cons
- easy to fly, super-stable platform
- reported radio range: 600-700 ft
- true RTF, beginner friendly, all inclusive -no waypoint mode
- CG03 integrated camera -large unit, not crash-durable
- Three-axis gimbal inc
- hand-held camera mount inc free
- display screen controller / no mobile device rqd
- GPS, follow-me, RTH
- ships w/ extra battery, props, metal case
- responsive customer service
- all inclusive / best value for $
No.2 DJI Phantom 3 PRO
Pros Cons
- easy to control, wind-stable
- basic manual, tricky setup, not RTF
- 12mp/4K UHD camera -mandatory firmware update over wifi
- Three-axis gimbal inc -app connection issues w/ some phones
- camera control via remote -QA issues reported: flyaways, signal-loss
- GPS, ATTI, RTH, POI, waypoint -continued DJI customer-service complaints
- flight time: 20 - 25 min
- all inclusive / good value for $
#3 Blade Chroma
Pros Cons
- easy to fly, RTH -range only about 300 ft
- camera inc: CG03 4K -RTH landing is imprecise
- gimbal inc: 3-axis brushless -sluggish throttle response time
- truly RTF: easy setup
- FPV live stream, onboard LEDs
- GPS, stability/smart mode, safe-circ
- Three versions available inc BNF
- all-inclusive package
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