Top 5 camera drone

#1. DJI PHANTOM 4

Right now, there are a ton of camera drones for sale, but the DJI Phantom 4 is by far the most innovative. It can fly super fast. It’s very reliable. The HD live video streaming works better than any other drone out there. It’s super easy to set up and use. The list of things that you can do just goes on and on.

The main feature of the Phantom 4 is the added 3D cameras and new computer hardware for mapping out environments in three dimensional space. This is what allows it to avoid obstacles and maneuver around them. However, features like obstacle avoidance aren’t the only thing that puts the Phantom 4 above all the other drones out there.

From a design standpoint, the Phantom 4 is made extremely well. It’s not the kind of drone where it just looks cool. Every part has been designed to be functional, but still elegant. Recently, DJI has expanded their customer support team and now they even have DJI Care, which is like a damage protection plan for drones

#2. DJI PHANTOM 3 SERIES

If you’re looking for the easiest drone to fly with the most flight time, features and great video quality, the Phantom 3 is the only option that I would recommend to just about anyone. There are a few other drones that have similar functionality to the Phantom 3, but nothing else is going to give you a great all around experience with all of the most popular features for the same price.

Right now, the Phantom 4 is what I fly the most (when I’m not flying the inspire 1), but the Phantom 3 was my favorite camera drone before the Phantom 4 came out and it’s still better than any other option in it’s price range. I used to tell people to buy a smaller drone so that they could learn how to fly before investing in a Phantom, but now with better flight characteristics and the built-in flight simulator, there really isn’t a reason to do that anymore.

One thing that isn’t immediately apparent is how large the DJI user community really is. Compared to other drones, the amount of  YouTube videos, websites and people in general talking about the Phantom 3 is huge. Any questions that you might have, there will always be someone out there who knows the answer. You can also find after-market accessories for sale like carrying cases, lens filters, GPS trackers and more.

#3. DJI INSPIRE 1 WITH 4K RAW VIDEO

Let me just start off by saying, if you ever get a chance to see this drone in person, you’re going to want one for yourself. With a design that looks like it came from a sci-fi movie, the inspire 1 is the most professional ready-to-fly drone you can buy.

The DJI Inspire 1 is probably one of the most advanced quadcopters I’ve ever seen. There isn’t much that the Inspire 1 CAN’T do. it comes standard with all of the features of the Phantom 3 Professional, but with a much bigger, cooler and higher quality design. It’s almost twice as big and twice as fast as the Phantom 3 and with it’s transforming design, the propellers will almost never be seen in your videos. Additionally, the Inspire 1 comes with a 4K camera on a 360 degree panning gimbal, which means that you can control the motion of the camera completely independently of the Inspire 1. This makes it great for dual pilot operation, but also for getting locked in shots in almost any wind conditions.

#4 YUNEEC TYPHOON H

Compared to DJI, Yuneec is a relatively unknown company, however that hasn’t stopped them from competing. The Typhoon H is the biggest competitor to the Phantom 4 we’ve seen so far. It’s a 6 rotor retractable landing gear beast of a drone, with a 360 degree gimbal (similar to the Inspire 1). What makes it similar to the Phantom 4? Well both drones get over 20 minutes of flight time, have obstacle avoidance, decent video quality and are in the same price range. This is a drone that has a lot of interesting features and flies extremely well. We had the chance to use it for a few weeks and were genuinely impressed. By having 6 rotors, the Typhoon H flies very smooth, it should stay flying even if one motor fails, and it handles wind like a dream.

It comes with an all-in-one android controller, which means you don’t need a smartphone to use it, but the user interface is nowhere near as simple as the Phantom 4 or any DJI product for that matter. That’s one of the main reasons why we prefer DJI’s drones over what Yuneec offers. Also, you will need to upgrade to the Typhoon H Pro “with Realsense” to get full obstacle avoidance functionality. Unfortunately, this will bring the cost up by over $400, making it much more expensive than the Phantom 4.

#5. YUNEEC Q500 4K

The q500 4K is an older model from Yuneec and as the name implies, it shoots 4K video just like the Phantom 4 and Typhoon H. Although the Yuneec looks like a pool vacuum cleaner (in my opinion), it has lots of great features for the price. For example, it comes with two batteries and a hand mount that allows you to take the camera (and gimbal) off the quadcopter to use it as a mini handheld stabilized camera system.

At around $800, it’s definitely a good price for what you’re getting, especially compared to the Solo, though it’s not as cheap as the Phantom 3 standard. Because the Q500 4K isn’t super popular compared to the other models, you won’t find a lot of information and videos about it yet, nor will there be any third-party accessories available, but that shouldn’t stop you from considering it as an option. The most interesting feature of the Q500 4K is that it has an Android device built into the controller, so there’s no need to use your tablet or smartphone, although the quality of the screen on the controller is definitely subpar compared to an iPad. If you do plan on buying the Q500, make sure that you get the new silver and black 4K version, because the original Q500 had a 1080p camera and it wasn’t all that great.