DRONE STUFF

"But will it see power lines?"

No, that is "Kinderkrankheit", you have to live with it.
Why you have to fly to No-Fly zone? For most of footage you don't really need to fly extreme high, and to follow a person, this is a very good feature.

I will say, buy it and shoot with it, sell footage, and make money, instead of talking all day long about codec, no fly zone, distance etc etc.

Normstock bought his Drone and made his money back long time ago. Just don't let these malfunction, or Kinderkrankheit to stop you having the drone. Go for it if you are into drone footage.

Well, after saying this, I am the one who is most time are skeptical about everything new thing/technique.
Sorry Guys. Ignore me.. LOL

Pat, no problem, you don't have a drone (and likely never will, actually) but if you look at this basic list: http://www.dji.com/fly-safe/category-mc?www=v1

Then I can tell you even here in Alaska, where there are 3? NFZ and Alaska as a state is bigger than many countries ... so very sparsely populated, I have been prevented from taking off several times, and these zones are NOT MARKED on this map.

It would be very good for a follow-me drone to be able to see small details...not just trees or walls! Think about it.

People have great fun and make useful video with crappy drones from DJI. People also complain about crappy drones from DJI (or others) with crappy codecs. Why not talk about it? Sometimes it helps make things better. Can lead to solutions. Other times, in the case of someone caring before they dump money into something, they learn, and make better choices.

There are a lot of variables to what makes a good flying video. Very easy to make it "so so" or NFG. Any tool can be used to make good video, yes, perhaps within its own limitations. The difference here is that some people try to tell other people what the limitations are before they can understand the true import of these little details. Later, they learn. Sad people.

Oh well.

Gene,

But never say never! No one know if I will get a drone! I have no confidence NOW to have one, may be after 1-2 year.
It is good to know all problem of the drone, but not to be threatened if you need one to fly. Just realize the consequence what may happen and accept it.

People should talk and criticize openly, but not to be afraid to have one. Don't fly to NFZ and you will be safe.

@Mizamook,

Yes, after numerous bad experiences and crashes with the h500 I find myself terrified to fly it. I want something like the phantom that is super easy. My friend has the inspire, and like you said, it is super easy to fly. That is what I am looking for. I am not hoping to become a master drone pilot. I don't have the necessary time to do that. I am perfectly satisfied with keeping simple and using its autonomous flight controls. I think I am going to order it.

Well I did it. I just ordered the Phantom 4. Now I'm looking forward to paying it off with the clips I get from it.

Good luck. After buying two DJI Phantoms (over $2,000 total) I've had great success and have made about $400 maybe ;). Drone footage is a niche category still.

I will definitely be keeping track to see how much the aerial footage is earning.

They are fun toys in any case ;)

I sold my first and only motorcycle ('78 Honda CB650) as I noticed I was becoming MORE terrified as I rode. Terrified is no way to be operating dangerous things. Of immense help (and lots of fun!) is to get a little toy quad or something (I started with the Ladybird v2) and fly it indoors and out. Autonomous is all well and good, but being comfortable with the controls is important for safety, plus it allows you do do cooler things, like flying in tighter spaces (in forests, through open windows, close to water or ground). A lot of the famed "flyaways" can be attributed to people that are used to autonomous watching their bird drift off on the wind after GPS goes out. I noticed this myself ... I learned in Attitude mode, on the Matrix, then went to Inspire. When I came back to the Matrix I was worse than when I started ... Autonomous modes dumb down your skills. They are good to have, yes, but not to depend on.

And yes, no matter what, these things are fun!

I did purchase a little quad that is tons of fun to fly and almost indestructible because it is so light. More than anything, I didn't find the h500 to be very reliable. When you turn it on there is a list of a bunch of things that have to be done in a certain order or else it can have all sorts of problems (like flyaways which I did experience once but luckily it crashed into the only large tree nearby rather than flying off in the distance to be forever lost).