Drone Photography

Chapter 2

Types of drone and their capabilities

Unsurprisingly, drones come in all shapes and sizes. The legislation that governs the use of drones refers to unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs - this covers everything from toys you can fly in your house, to military drones operated remotely from a different continent. When we talk about drones we typically mean small (up to 25kg) multi-rotored aircraft, with a camera system, controlled by someone on the ground, using a radio transmitter.

Choosing a drone requires you to think about the application that you'll be using it for and the budget that you have. If you are just starting out then you should get something that will enable you to have fun flying; something relatively inexpensive whilst you learn the controls and capabilities; something you can afford to crash and possibly lose. More proficient flyers will progress to more expensive and sophisticated machines. Professionals will generally choose the payload they need (i.e. a camera, thermal imaging equipment and so on) and the drone will be matched to the requirements of the payload.

TOYS AND MICRO-DRONES

Starting at the bottom of the size scale we have the micro-drone. These are typically very small and inexpensive and can be bought for a few pounds. Often small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, micro-drones have limited systems, for example no GPS and no camera capability. They are fabulous machines to learn the very basics on and help you get to grips with the fundamentals of control. That said, they have very limited battery endurance and because you fly them 'manually' they are probably best kept indoors.

Not much bigger than a 50p coin, micro-drones are great fun and teach you the basic flight controls. Best flown indoors until you get the hang of it!

Next up are the toy drones - bigger in size and price tag, they will often have some GPS capability and, perhaps, a camera system. Again, these drones may be the limit of some hobby fliers' aspirations as they are fun and inexpensive. If they have a camera system then some basic photography and video recording may be possible but don't expect too much in the way of quality. Prices range from just a few pounds for a micro-drone to tens of pounds for the bigger craft.

TYPES OF DRONE

There are many types of drone, all with different characteristics, price points and functions.

Micro-drones and toys

FPV and racing

'Prosumer' integrated camera

'Heavy-lift' camera

Fixed wing

FPV OR RACING DRONES

Recent years have seen the development of First Person View (FPV) or 'racing' drones. FPV refers to the fact that the pilot wears goggles, and controls the drone (typically a small radio-controlled quadcopter) equipped with a video camera. The goggles show the pilot a live-stream video from the drone so he feels like he is onboard. Flying this way gives the pilot better depth perception and obstacle awareness, enabling the drones to be flown very accurately around, and even through, obstacles. The drones are fast and robust, and often take a real beating!

FPV racing is now an international sport with prize-pots running to millions of dollars.

FPV pilots are given an exemption to maintain Visual Line of Sight (or VLOS) with their aircraft but, according the law, 'must be accompanied by a competent observer, situated alongside him/her, who maintains direct unaided visual contact with the small unmanned aircraft sufficient to monitor its flight path in relation to other aircraft, persons, vehicles, vessels and structures for the purpose of avoiding collisions and advises the remote pilot accordingly'.

Usually confined to indoor, or netted, arenas, FPV racing has become an international sport where drones are raced against each other around a specially built obstacle course; the action is fast and furious, and there are always crashes!

'PROSUMER' DRONES

The DJI Phantom was the first drone to win mass appeal and to put an affordable drone, with a good quality camera capability, in the hands of hobbyists and professionals alike. Other manufacturers quickly followed and now there is a wide choice of drones and camera systems in this space. The drones in this range may weigh from about 0.7kg up to around 5kg and prices are in the range of hundreds of pounds to low thousands.

The evolution of this genre has seen the development of foldable, more flexible, higher spec aircraft with ever more sophisticated functionality, and this has only served to widen their appeal.

Features of drones in this category will be a good quality camera (with, say, 20mp stills or 4K video capability). The camera will be mounted on a 3D stabilized gimbal so that the camera is kept still even though the drone may be moving. Some cameras have a zoom lens; others may have interchangeable lenses. Physically the drones are light, often foldable, and they may have retractable landing gear. With high capacity batteries, flight times can be more than twenty-five minutes. The camera output and flight telemetry can be viewed through a monitor, and often via an app, giving the pilot ultimate control over 'smart' flight parameters as well as creativity.

The DJI Mavic, with its foldable configuration, has become the drone of choice for many starting out in serious aerial photography.

Getting an SLR airborne is quite a daunting proposition. My Vulcan octocopter has a flying weight of 9kg and can be heard in the next county.

For professional use the drones can be configured as 'dual operator' so that the pilot can fly the aircraft whilst the camera operator concentrates on operating the camera.

Drones in this range are most likely to be the first that serious photographers will acquire and will be most versatile for all types of photography. I will be using one for most of the work shown in this book.

'HEAVY-LIFT' DRONES

Not really relevant for many readers of this book is the heavyweight scene. Mostly the domain of the professionals, the so-called 'heavy-lift' drone is the catch-all term for aircraft that can carry larger, often bespoke, payloads.

Heavy-lift drones are not for the faint-hearted or inexperienced operator, and nearly always require a degree of customization. They are normally made of carbon composite materials, yet, despite that, will often weigh in at more than 20kg. Applications can be anything from film production or high-end photography using SLR cameras to crop spraying. Expect costs to be in the thousands of pounds bracket - and that's before you have attached your payload!

Ironically, despite their cost, heavy-lift drones may have far less functionality and capability than their much cheaper relatives in the prosumer range. What they lack in 'bells and whistles' is compensated for by the quality of the data or imagery they capture. Working at this level is definitely one where the camera is a more important factor in the decision-making process.

Heavy-lift drones will normally have a dual set-up, as a minimum, as flight times are short, pilot work-rates high and small mistakes can be very costly.

FIXED-WING DRONES

Multi-rotor drones, which can take off vertically (VTOL), hover and transition to horizontal flight, are amazingly versatile, easy to deploy and fly. Their Achilles' heel is that, in order to do so effectively, they need multiple motors, in turn powered by a heavy battery, or batteries.

Fixed-wing drones usually have a single motor, are very lightweight and can be landed without any undercarriage. This makes them ideal for long endurance missions, like crop surveys, as seen here.

Some drone applications like mapping and photogrammetry don't require the versatility of VTOL so can dispense with the need for multi-rotor aircraft. Instead, mapping drones can be fixed-wing, can be hand-launched and can land conventionally. Only having one motor, a large wing surface that can generate lift with constant forward flight, means that flight times can be extended well beyond those enjoyed by multi-rotors with a similar power supply.

Fixed-wing drones can be programmed to fly autonomous missions gathering data over longer periods of time, or much greater areas. With ever-evolving technology some fixed-wing drones have their motors set for VTOL and swing into a horizontal position for forward flight, once airborne, and so take advantage of both technologies.

GOING FORWARD: NEW APPLICATIONS FOR DRONE TECHNOLOGY

More and more, nowadays, it's the application, or use, of the drone that gets attention rather than the technology itself. This is the sign that the industry is beginning to mature, a little like manned aviation in its infancy; once the novelty of the technology itself wears off then the race is on to commercialize its application.

We have already seen much in the media about Amazon's 'delivery drones' programme. Indeed, it was recently reported that new apartment buildings in London already have built-in drone delivery ports. Other potential applications include unmanned 'flying taxis' from Uber - again, as difficult to imagine today as would an A380 Airbus have been a hundred years ago.

The public sector has leapt on drone use for its versatile...