Low-Budget vs. Expensive FPV Drone - Why Spend More?

all right I'm gonna show you guys two fpv shots one is from a really popular drone that costs 500 and the other is from a drone that costs 80. see if you can tell which is which here's shot one [Music] and here's shot two [Music] now these clips are pretty short but there are a few minor differences including the weather since they were shot at different parts of the day but did you notice anything else all right well here are the answers if you chose the first clip as the premium drone you got it but if you chose the other one or had no idea whatsoever I don't blame you it wasn't exactly an equal playing field on the premium drone I mounted this tiny insta 360 go-to camera while the budget drone used a stripped down GoPro which has better stabilization and produces a nicer image the reality is when it comes to fpv shots these days a lot of your final shot will come down to the action camera you choose to use and a good action camera could smooth out almost any imperfections in your flying when it comes to Freestyle Clips like this some people would even consider cheating what if you're a filmmaker and you only care about the final shot does the Drone still matter is there any point in investing in a more expensive quad or should you save that money and invest in a better camera instead well there are a variety of components that make up your standard fpv drone and all of them contribute in one way or another to its performance although it might not be obvious now lowering the quality of any of these parts can have unique consequences which could all have an impact on your final video So today we're going to take a look at these two drones to see what those differences actually are first with such a large price difference there are some compromises that are unavoidable one of those being the video system this is the nozzle 5 Vogue one of the most popular pre-built drones you can buy today when I'm flying the evoke with my fpv goggles I see what this fpv camera sees and the video looks like this sure it might be a step down from the action camera but as far as fpv video goes this is as good as it currently gets this is the Darwin baby ape a cheap 80 drone that has been getting a lot of attention recently when I look through my goggles while flying this one the video looks something like this clearly there's a very big difference but the final video that you post will still be taken by the action camera so why should you care well having better FP video quality can still be really critical it'll help you see in difficult conditions allow you to hit tighter gaps allow you to see branches wires and other obstructions and also just make you more confident to take bigger risks now one of the reasons why the video quality between these two is so different is because the baby ape uses an analog video system which is why it might remind you of an old VHS tape and until very recently all fpv drones used analog video because of the minimal delay in the video signal now I do have to say before all the analog die hards get upset with me no not all analog cameras are this bad and analog video can still be a great option this is actually the worst analog camera I've personally ever used but it just happens to be one of the corners that had to be cut to keep this price down as low as it is the evoke on the other hand uses digital video which is a newer technology and clearly looks better however this digital system alone costs almost double the price of this entire drone besides the camera another critical part of your video system is the video transmitter or VTX while the image quality of your video is mostly handled by the camera the VTX along with the antenna is responsible for taking that image and broadcasting it back to your goggles depending on the quality of your VTX and the output power that it's capable of the range that you'll be able to receive clear video will vary you can see that with the nozzle evoke I have clear video all the way to the back of this property and it's capable of much more than that in the past I've flown this drone all the way up mountains with perfectly clear video the whole way as for the baby ape as soon as I fly down this path and turn around you'll notice my image gets more and more staticky if I flew any further I'd probably end up losing my video completely now these days it's pretty affordable to get a solid long-range connection between your drone and your controller so actually losing control is less often a problem most of the time time you'll lose your video first which can still be just as bad and you could end up crashing as well as you can imagine the further you can fly the more possibilities open up to the types of shots you can get and having a solid VTX along with good antennas can help increase that range a lot all right next flight performance and when it comes to Performance there are a variety of components that all contribute in their own way for example the strength of your Motors the quality of your flight stack the rigidity of your frame and the shape of your propellers will all make a difference to the way your drone flies and cheaping out on any of these could reduce how quick or precise your drone is in the air with cheaper components you might start to notice unwanted vibrations or feel less in control of your drone's movements this will become especially apparent if you want to fly cineworps which already have their performance limited by these propeller guards and these quads are hard enough to keep steady as it is and honestly every little bit helps cheaper parts are also often less durable and may perform well at first but then will break on you after a single crash in this case sometimes spending a little bit more money at the start could help save you money in the long run now one way to mitigate this is decide eyes down and you might have noticed that the baby ape is significantly smaller than the nozgula Vogue now this doesn't mean that all budget drones have to be small but smaller components do usually tend to be more budget friendly so it could be a good way to cut costs without sacrificing as much performance a smaller drone is also lighter and will have a lighter impact during a crash this could help offset the durability of your components but one downside is that a lighter drone will also be more affected by wind and it could affect when you can actually go out to fly it when it comes to the baby ape for how cheap this guy is it's honestly impressive how well it flies it might not be as precise as the evoke but in a small Park like this you can honestly have a lot of fun now I have heard from others that it might not be that durable and some other reviewers have mentioned that it broke on them faster than they would have liked I personally haven't crashed it yet so I can't speak on that all right next it's important to consider power and for the most part more power costs more money whether you're filming sports cars or anything that goes fast how fast you can fly can make or break your shot to get more power you'll first need stronger batteries which are often more expensive on their own you also need better components in your quad that are made to handle the additional stress from those batteries the baby ape uses 3s batteries which have three battery cells working together to provide Power to your drone the evoke uses 6s batteries which are twice as strong now even if you don't plan on flying quickly stronger batteries can be more efficient resulting in better performance and longer flight time having stronger Motors and batteries will also mean that you can lift more weight which will determine what action cameras you can mount in the first place essentially more power equals more possibilities because you can always limit the power of your drone and make it slower but you can only push a less powerful drone so far now if you're a beginner you might not realize that your drone's components could affect your action camera as well a bent propeller a loose screw a bad tune or cheaper components could all introduce more vibrations during your flight but they could also make their way into your final video this is commonly known as Jello and it can really ruin the clarity of your shot here's a bad example from some footage I shot when I first started flying now some action cameras like the new GoPros are better at filtering out these vibrations and may give you clear video more reliably when using cameras like the insta360 go to you have to be more careful during my test shots for this video the go-to footage looked mostly clear on the evoke but there was definitely some Jello when I put it on the baby ape now maybe it was just struggling in the wind or it didn't like the extra weight of the camera either way there was definitely a noticeable jiggle in the video like I mentioned earlier the action camera you can use in the first place will be limited by the weight your drone can lift while the evoke can handle any action camera without a problem there's no way I can mount this heavy GoPro on the baby ape as you've seen if you have a GoPro there is the option of stripping the camera but it's not a perfect solution either naked cameras are significantly harder to work with and come with their own range of problems by removing their original case you're also sacrificing a lot of durability it's much easier to break a naked camera than it is a regular GoPro all right finally when you're purchasing a premium drone sometimes you're just paying for the little things when you purchase a non-school of Oak there are a variety of little details on here that just make this more enjoyable to use the evoke can be purchased with an additional GPS that will attempt to recover your drone if you fly too far it also comes with a beeper to help you find it when you crash both of these things require a better quality flight controller extra space inside the frame and the ability to carry the extra weight all things that the baby ape is lacking the evoke also comes with a more elegant design with walls that protect the Drone from the elements this is absolutely not necessary but a huge asset when flying through snow near waterfalls or over the ocean it can also be purchased with a receiver pre-installed while the baby ape requires you to buy one separately and solder it on these are all little things but all things that add up to make a big difference in your experience so all that being said there's clearly some pretty big differences between these two quads for eighty dollars the baby ape is honestly amazing and it's capable of quite a lot but there's also a reason why the nozzle series of drones has been so popular and there are definitely a ton of different shots that I'd be able to get with this one that I wouldn't be able to get with this little guy it's also important to mention that you don't actually have to spend 500 on this drone but if you're okay with analog video you can get the analog version for 330 dollars they might even sell the nozzle 5v2 which is the previous version somewhere and if you can find that you might be able to get an even better deal as well so for around 300 you can honestly pick up a quad that is capable of so so much anyways thanks so much for watching until this point and I hope you guys got something out of this video if you want to help support the channel just giving this video a like or subscribing would honestly really help a lot also if you wish you can now become a patron for as little as two dollars a month or leave a one-time donation by clicking the thanks button down below all and any of those things will help me make more videos like this one anyways I'll see you guys in the next one thanks for watching peace

Channel: Matt Pochwat

Views: 275,503

Keywords: cinematic fpv, fpv beginner guide, fpv drone, best budget drone, cinematic fpv drone

Id: cs8xI-IfLIU

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 23 2022