So I have been playing with several drones and looking for a drone that can do a follow me type setup to give me a VERY stable shot. I have purchased a few different drones, and tested a couple others. I have found that most drones rely on the GPS from the tablet or phone to do follow me, or like the new DJI drones, use image recognition to follow an object. Neither are as stable as I would like following a surfer. The GPS from a tablet or phone doesn't seem to reliably update fast enough and so the drones usually surge back and forth a bit or have other issues.
I have been looking at this one drone, the Typhoon H by Yuneec that has a 360 degree camera, 6 rotors and retracting landing gear that seemed promising. One drawback, is the large somewhat clunky looking tablet/controller that isn't very pretty, but it seemed to be designed purposely and seemed like it may handle the GPS follow much better.
Wow, this drone follows like its on rails. I currently use a curlview setup on the side of our boat, that is basically a pole that puts the camera out to the side that gives a cool view of the surfer and wave. This drone in follow me/watch me, is about as stable as a pole, it is pretty crazy. Also, it allows you to pull the drone in CLOSE and low in this mode, others do not. Of course, this is a bit dangerous over water, but I got this drone for $1199 and I was willing to take the risk.
One thing to note, the camera on this drone, it does good quality, but NOT in AUTO mode, the software needs some work. This drone take a bit extra effort, lacking some polish like a DJI or Autel drone, but the payoff for the extra work is great, with this follow me stability.
So this drone also has a "team mode" where you can use this wand to fly it, and the wand has its own GPS for the drone to lock in on, and then you can fly just the camera with the controller. I tested this with ATVs on my property. It works fantastic, but you can't switch back from the wand to the controller during flight, and landing the drone with the wand is easy on land, no way on a boat.
Here is my ATV test.
So the controller has a small knob on it for PAN on the camera, and then a type of dial under it on the left for tilt up and down. In follow me mode, its a bit of a pain to try to do this with your left fingers while flying, even in the easier follow me/smart mode.
But I found this undocumented feature. When in WATCH ME mode the camera automatically points to the controller, via GPS communication. It is very accurate. You can see from the footage, the camera seems ATTACHED to the boat. I found that in this WATCH ME mode, I can adjust the PAN and in watch me, the pan is RELATIVE to where the drone believes the controller to be. So all I have to do, is put in watch me, adjust the pan and tilt to perfectly frame the surfer and wave and then I can use the right stick which just controls the relative position to the boat. I only have to make very minor corrections with the right stick, you can almost leave it alone if you are traveling in a straight line. It was hard to see the exposure and I got it wrong in my first clip, but then nailed it after a couple more tries. This is filmed in 1080P/120.
FWIW, I am not affiliated with Yuneec at all, I bought this drone from amazon. I am sharing for 2 reasons.
1. Many of you like to film like I do, and many can geek out on this stuff like I do.
Linear Mode
