We Have A Drone!

We now have a drone! In full disclosure, I’m still learning as I did crash it once during an early test flight. Luckily it was just a few feet off the ground and a quick blade replacement got me back up in the air. Plus I was almost pecked out of the sky by some very territorial birds. That was a dodgy experience but made for a fun video that you can see below. Other than that, it’s been a very exciting piece of equipment to finally add to our kit.

I say “finally” because for the longest time, I avoided buying a drone with full restraint. Why? Because to me, there seemed to be more reasons NOT to become a drone operator. For one, It’s a highly regulated piece of equipment. I was never eager to jump through the hoops of getting what many compare to a pilot’s license for the handful of times that our projects require drone shots. It’s really not that often, if you were wondering. For most of our clients and their video projects, a drone shot is a nice-to-have but not a need-to-have. Therefore I would hire out a licensed professional whenever necessary. 

The second reason was that it’s a technical piece of equipment and one more thing to learn. It’s hard enough to keep up with mastering regular video equipment from camera settings, composition, lighting, and focus. I’ve known a few skilled operators who have crashed and lost very expensive drones and I didn’t want that to happen to me. So I avoided getting on that bandwagon for a long time.

The Mavic Mini 2

Then came the DJI Mavic Mini 2. You see, having to register your drone and get an operator’s license comes with 1 small catch (in Canada and many other countries). “Small” being the operative word, because if a drone is under 250 grams (like the Mavic Mini 2) then it is considered more of a toy and all that regulation does not apply. Of course there are certain rules to follow and one must be safe. However, the excuse of not wanting to register and go through training (for now) went out the window.

Despite the fact that it’s technically classified as a toy, it is anything but. The camera shoots beautiful 4k footage and it uses the DJI Fly app to operate the drone. While the app is extremely technical, it makes operating the drone very easy. The learning curve that once prevented me from getting a drone just flattened out.

So after a few months of contemplation and more research I finally took flight with my DJI Mavic Mini 2 back in June 2021. It was a little birthday present to myself. It’s the perfect companion for those shoots when a drone shot would be nice-to-have and it’s safe to do so. 

The image quality is good but obviously not the best. It won’t compare to my Z Cam for example, but if we ever need a drone shot fit for a feature film or more realistically, a shot that requires more expertise, we will do what we did before: Hire another professional with all the equipment and training! 

So that’s our new drone. It’s small but powerful and so much fun to fly. Plus I’m a lot better at operating it than I was just a few months ago. I’m excited because it allows us to get some of our clients those nice aerial shots without a major hit to your budget. Just check out this clip of test shots and be sure to watch to the end to see my close encounter with those territorial birds. Eeeesh!