Quadcopters for Everyone: Top 5 Drones for Beginners and Experienced Pilots

The Chinese company Hubsan has recently entered the arena of unmanned aerial vehicles. But she has already managed to win the hearts of many pilots — from beginners to aerobatics aces.

The pro version of the popular Zino model has undergone an upgrade on key points of the programme. So, the range of its flight increased from a modest distance of 1 km to 4 km, and the bitrate of the video recording increased to 60 Mbit/s. At the same time, the maximum speed of movement of the drone on the surface of the air sank by half — from 60 km/h to 32 km/h.

The quadcopter is equipped with brushless motors with folding screws, GPS and GLONASS modules, a 4K camera on a three-axis stabilization suspension. The drone takes off and lands automatically, and it also returns to the starting point on its own when a low charge of the 3 Ah battery is detected. A full charge of the battery lasts for 23 minutes. soaring in the clouds. The only "but" is that many instances of the quadcopter have battery latches.

Communication between the copter and the pilot is established via a remote control with a wired connection to a smartphone. On the screen of a mobile gadget, you can see a picture from a drone camera as a 720p online broadcast. It is proposed to control the drone manually or by resorting to the services of automatic flight programs: tracking the object of Follow Me filming, circling Orbit Mode, passing the route through GPS points, etc. As a bonus, drone owners get the opportunity to use replaceable ND filters. More information about the main filters in the photo is described in the framework of the article of the same name.

The Mavic Mini is the smallest folding drone from DJI's portfolio that fits on the palm of your hand. You can characterize it with just one phrase: "Small, but bold."

The compact "carcass" of the quadcopter carries on board a brushless engine and a built-in camera with a sensor size of 1/2.3". The first sets the rotation rate of 120-millimetre screws and provides the drone with a flight speed of up to 47 km/ h, and the DJI Mavic Mini camera shows itself in action when shooting videos. In-flight videos are recorded on the device's camera at a maximum resolution of 2.7K at 30 fps or in FullHD format at 60 fps. A three-axis stub is put on guard of the smoothness of the picture.

The duration of the flight on the copter is up to half an hour. The copter is able to move in the sky at a distance of up to 2 km from the pilot's location. With the use of an American remote control at 5.8 GHz, its flight range is doubled. The model has four automatic shooting modes: Dronie (takeoff back and up with the camera fixed on the object), Rocket (smooth ascent with aiming at the target), Circle (circling around the object at a given height along a stable radius) and Helix (spiral takeoff with the target in the frame).

The Fly More Combo package is paired with a quadcopter with two additional sets of propellers, two spare batteries, screw protection, charging for three battery slots and a transport case. Finally, the weight of the tiny drone is only 249 g, which avoids problems with flight bans in some countries.

Xiaomi FIMI X8 SE 2020 — top for your money from the quadcopter guard for novice pilots. The model demonstrates confident flight qualities, handles well with photo and video shooting, can stay in the air for a long time without recharging. But about everything in order.

The drone has a folding design with four propellers, the rate of rotation of which is set by a brushless power plant. A three-axis mechanical suspension is attached to the "body" of the copter, playing the role of a stub for the onboard camera. The substrate for this was an image sensor with dimensions of 1/2.6" and a resolution of 12 MP. Photos on the drone's camera are taken in RAW RAW format, and the video on it is written in HDR and resolution up to 4K with a frame rate of 30 fps. At the same time, encoding of the video sequence in H format is available.265.

The quadcopter is capable of flying at a distance of up to 8 km from the operator . The vertical threshold of its rise rests against the "ceiling" of about 500 m. The image from the drone's camera is broadcast to the receiving equipment in HD quality. The autonomous flight time of Xiaomi FIMI X8 SE 2020 is less than 35 minutes. And then in calm weather and at a constant speed of 28 km/h. Automatic flight and shooting modes of the model are represented by three options for tracking objects, building a route at preset points, night shooting and several types of automatic aerial shooting.

The remote control for the drone is made in a sliding form with a place to install a smartphone or a small tablet in the centre. Control sticks and other buttons are located on the sides. In the arsenal of the copter positioning system there are multiple sensors, GPS and GLONASS modules, a visual perception camera. According to the totality of flight qualities and shooting capabilities, you will not find an equal model in this price category during the day with fire, which exposes the brainchild of Xiaomi in the light of one of the most preferred options for testing the pen in flight.

Following the Pro version of the first generation Zino, the top-end Zino 2 drone was rolled out under the auspices of the Chinese brand Hubsan. It will serve as an excellent and more affordable alternative to advanced solutions from A-brands.

The model has acquired a modified power plant, due to which the drone's flight rate has increased from a modest 32 km/ h to 72 km/h. If you do not "drown" to the fullest, Hubsan Zino 2 is able to stay "afloat" for 33 minutes. Another important characteristic of the copter is the maximum communication radius, reaching 8 km in the absence of interference. The convenience of remote handling of the drone is added by a monochrome information screen on the front panel of the remote control, where key flight data is displayed.

The drone still has a folding design and shoots 4K video. From now on, videos in ultra-high resolution of 3840x2160 pixels are written to the camera of the device with a frame rate of 60 fps, which increases the smoothness of rendering highly dynamic plots. The copter flies in object tracking modes, circling the target in a circle, building a route using GPS points, and intelligent panoramic shooting, timelapse and hyperlapse programs are also available to the pilot.

Of the shortcomings in the first versions of the drone firmware, periodic connection breaks are noted. Fortunately, in this case, an automatic return of the quadcopter to the starting point is provided. Software updates of the remote control and the drone itself are made through a mobile application for a smartphone. In the second generation, the Hubsan Zino drone has almost reached the perfect and is ready to compete on an equal footing with any rivals in the medium-low-cost league of aerial video shooting aircraft.

DJI Mavic Air 2 is the "golden mean" in the hierarchy of DJI drones. Below it is a series of Mini drones, and a step higher are the quadcopters of the Pro family.

The second Mavic gives you more freedom of action. The video from it is transmitted to the receiving equipment using OcuSync 2.0 technology from a distance of up to 10 km. The videos are written to the drone's camera in three versions: conventional 4K with a frame rate of 60 fps, 4K HDR at 30 fps or with a gentle D-Cinelike gamma curve (4K at 60 fps, ideally for subsequent colour correction). The three-axis mechanical suspension of the camera is engaged in ensuring the smoothness of the video sequence.

In the "gas to the floor" mode, the quadcopter dissects the air surfaces at a speed of up to 68 km/h. In order to avoid collisions with obstacles in front, behind and on the belly of the drone, special sensors of the APAS 3.0 system are installed. But there are none on the top and sides, so you need to keep an eye on the copter carefully. Other upgrades have undergone automatic drone flight modes: following the ActiveTrack 3.0 object, moving around the Point of Interest 3.0 object, centering on the target regardless of the direction of flight Spotlight 2.0. In addition, Mavic Air 2 supports Hyperlapse video shooting in high resolution 8K.

The battery life in the second version of DJI's Air drone has grown by a good third — from now on it flies without recharging for over half an hour (33 min. "by passport"). The model comes very close to the heels of the video production guru from the air and rightfully occupies the top lines of the podium in the mid-low-cost price segment of quadcopters.