The Best Drone For Vlogging: Choosing The Right One For You

How to Buy The Best Drone For Vlogging

When choosing which drones are best suited for vlogging, there are a few questions you need to consider.

Camera Quality

As great as stabilization is, nothing can beat the quality of a good camera. Vloggers are always thinking about optimizing their content for people to watch on their phones. With that in mind, you’ll want the best camera possible to make sure your videos look great across all platforms. 

Zooming and low light performance are essential depending on the environment you’re shooting in.

Flight Time

Flight times of around 20 minutes provide more than enough time to capture adequate footage. However, modern battery tech promises longer and longer flight times as the technology develops. 

This means that if you can afford it, you may want to consider opting for drones like the DJI Mavic Pro that offer over 30 minutes of flight time. Amazing battery life comes with a price, and you should consider this aspect before you start shooting amazing videos from your drone.

As long as your flights are limited to about 20 minutes per session, you’ll be getting somewhere between 10-50 hours of video content shot before having to recharge or swap out batteries. This can easily last weeks, if not months, depending on how often you fly. 

You should also consider the miles per hour the drone can cover when you fly it from the take-off point within the max flight distance.

Max Flight Distance

For those flying drones for a while, you know that it’s easy to overestimate the flight distance something is from you. This can lead to disaster as you quickly lose sight of your drone and its costly camera rig as it drifts beyond its max flight distance. 

Unfortunately, because most people don’t fully understand how far their drones can fly (and even less likely to be able to calculate distances), many users assume these “lost” drones are still within range and not out of the max flight distance. 

If this is your first time flying, then chances are you’ve never felt the panic of losing your expensive toy until now. To avoid these lost investments, make sure you know the max flight distance. You can check the max flight distance by checking reviews or contacting the manufacturer before hitting the buy button.

Video Resolution and Framerate

You’ll need to pay attention to video resolution more than anything else. The higher the number, the better since it’s directly related to how sharp photos and videos will look when editing them later. 

Typically, you’ll want at least 1080p quality for anything destined for YouTube or Instagram, while 4K is what you should go for if you plan on creating some breathtaking cinematic shots. Pay close attention to your chosen drone’s camera specs before buying so that there are no unpleasant surprises.

Few things are worse than taking home an expensive new toy only to discover that the camera doesn’t output video of any kind. Some drones record video directly on the camera itself. In contrast, others stream their video back to an app on your phone or tablet so you can ensure everything is being recorded properly before takeoff.

Motion Stabilization

Motion stabilizers are an impressive new feature that makes flying a breeze even if wind conditions are sub-par. This is a fancy way of saying that the drone can see and avoid obstacles in all directions. This is a nice feature to have when flying indoors or around tight spaces where you’d otherwise be crashing into things if it weren’t for the software helping you out.

Integrated Gimbal

Gimbal stabilization is one of the main reasons people choose drones with cameras instead of GoPros. They want something reliable and not something held together by duct tape and luck. Buying a drone with an integrated three-axis gimbal will ensure your footage has minimal shake. 

This is essential if you’re using it for vlogging. If motion sensors are appropriately calibrated, the odds of crashing into someone or something becomes incredibly low. Gimbals are devices used to stabilize a camera by compensating for the vibrations and movements of the camera itself. 

With no gimbal, the best you can hope for is some stabilization from software. While this is sometimes enough, it isn’t nearly as impressive as footage from a drone with a built-in gimbal.

Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing

These sensors are located on the front of the drone to help improve flight safety. They’ll tell your quadcopter how far away obstacles are so it can either avoid them or (if there’s not enough time) land before impact. Omnidirectional obstacle sensing is a great feature that helps you avoid crashes and potentially injury.

Dolly Zoom

Dolly zoom allows you to take photos with the object closer to the lens appearing larger than those further away. It gives an intense look that can be easily faked in post-production but makes for some interesting-looking results when done right. 

Final Thoughts

When choosing the best drone for vlogging, there are many factors that you should consider. The first thing you should decide is what your budget is. You can spend as little as $100 for a very basic drone, but the one that will give you the best quality will probably cost between $500-1,000+. 

After choosing how much money to spend on your new drone, you have two major decisions to make: whether or not to get an integrated camera, and whether or not to choose a portable drone. One of the great things about choosing a camera drone over something like a GoPro is that it can be used with multiple devices without hassle!