A couple weeks ago, I noticed a problem with the camera on my Mavic Pro. It seemed to have a few spots that were blurred and because of that I couldn't use it for work. This was my excuse to buy myself a new drone that I could have some fun with.
I bought the Mavic Air a few days after that incident because I didn't see the issue with my Mavic Pro getting any better. When I first brought home the Air to fly and see what I thought, I was super impressed with my indoor flight but very disappointed with my outdoor flight. In fact, I woke up the next morning planning to return it and just get another Pro but thankfully my business partner was able to convince me to give the Air another try. So I did. I brought this little guy to a few jobs I had that day and said to myself, this will determine whether or not I keep this drone. After using it again and having it work a lot better than the previous day, I was honestly sold on it.
Over the past few years I've been shooting real estate with my drone, I decided on the Air strictly for its size. I wanted to have a drone that I could take with me to a job and have some fun with. One thing I have been really intrigued with is FPV flying in a cinematic way. I find it so impressive when people can fly through crazy objects and really tight spaces to achieve certain types of shots. I bought the Mavic Air with intentions of flying in tighter than spaces than usual and let the fun begin at a few jobs I've had over the past few weeks.
You will see me in a few of the clips because I am standing in a certain spot to keep my eyes on the drone so I don't crash. This seems to be the beginning for me, I need to buy more batteries and practice flying this little thing more and more to get better with it, but so far, I've been having a little too much fun. In the video above, you can see that I have been flying through some tree heavy spaces to come up with more unique entry/exit shots of the properties. Right now, a lot of the real estate video work I see is poorly done and not many agents look to pay for "good" work. With a slightly negative mindset but plenty of positivity, I have been trying to have some fun flying and getting creative shots to impress these agents. Though flying like this is very hard, it could eventually pay off. I would love to have these clients enjoy some of those longer shots in the video so that I can challenge myself to be more creative when it comes to flying.
Awesome. Makes me nervous just watching. I'd love to see a video of you planning/executing your drone shots. I assume you're filming in Tripod Mode?
hahaha I was very nervous flying through some of these, I left them all in normal speed and motion. I'd love to have someone film me in the process but usually I'm alone or with the real estate agent I am working with. I actually have all obstacle avoidance off and am just flying in the normal mode all manually :) Took me a few years to build that kind of confidence but the smaller drone is helpful for those tight squeezes
Yeah... yikes! But really nice shots. After a few close calls and one fatal crash (all in trees) with my Mavic Pro, I kind of wish I had the air with its additional sensors.
Thank You Colin! I've had an incident like that myself a few months ago which could be good cause it showed me its not so easy to fly just based off the screen hahaha. I actually shut the sensors off for shots like this because I find that if I get too close to something, the drone stops and locks up and then I cant move it. So, if I were in a tree, the drone wouldn't know whats surrounding it and I'd rather be in control of it to pull it out safely.
The little guy tried to return home on that second shot when I was pulling through a few trees and just shot straight up and almost crashed, that kinda made me angry cause it was a real close call and completely on the technology.
Hey Ty. Great article and lovely video. My Air has tried to return home while under trees as well, it's not a nice feeling haha. I think I need to grow a pair and up my game a little. Thanks.