Fun With The New Drone

Being someone who loves technology, and camera gear specifically, it seemed to be only a matter of time before I decided to get in on the up-and-coming drone phenomenon. A few of my friends have them, and have been telling me about great the DJI Mavic Pro is, so I decided to take the plunge a few weeks ago and ordered one for myself. 

Most retailers didn't have any in stock, but I managed to get one from DJI directly in about a week. The video below shows a few clips from my first-ever successful drone flight. My previous experience with drones was limited to a few crashes with a much cheaper aircraft, so I was naturally nervous to fly this one. 

I was amazed at how easy this thing flies. One it takes off, it hovers at about eye level right in front of me. It comes out of the box in a "Beginner Mode" which makes the controls much less sensitive. Definitely put my mind at ease once I learned which controls did what, and how it didn't get away from me during this process. 

If you're considering getting one of these, do it, by all means. You can fly this. I didn't think I could, but I was getting better at it even by the end of the first video above. 

Below, you'll see some video from my second time out with the Mavic. I took it to a local park, and experimented with some of the automatic following features, as well as deactivating the Beginner Mode to unleash the full power of the aircraft.

This thing...is...fast. Hit 40 mph at one point... Yikes!

I still have much to learn, but am enjoying the process - I look forward to learning more, and to making my future videos more interesting!