Hello from a newbie looking for advice

[Tomh1982]

Hi everyone I'm Tom

I've been an amateur landscape photographer for quite a few years now & have been interested in drones for a while but never really done to much research on them. I'm a member & long term contributer to a photography forum so know the great knowledge & advice people can lend so I thought this could be a good place to start.

I'm looking into a drone for landscape photography only & have a list of must haves so hopefully I can get some advice.

Must haves:

Capability to capture images in raw format,
Reasonably high quality camera preferably with filter thread to attach filters,
Stable with little vibration,
No building required(straight out of the box),

Thanks in advance for any advice & if I need to give more detail so I can be advised please let me know.

Cheers Tom

[ched]

Do you have any radio control experience?
I think what you are asking about would be quite expensive and probably not 'out of the box'.
I would say start by getting a Hubsan 107 or an Eachines 101 so you can have a play indoors and learn the controls. They are only cheap and will give you an idea of how to control a quad.
If you are happy controlling a little quad indoors maybe a dji phantom which has reasonable photographic capabilities.
If you want more of a quad/hex to take a 'proper camera' they you might need a specially built one.
Hope that gives you some ideas?

[Rammylad]

Hi tom, welcome to the forum there are a lot of members here who will help you they have a wealth of knowledge about all different types of aircraft.

[Cheredanine]

Hi everyone I'm Tom

I've been an amateur landscape photographer for quite a few years now & have been interested in drones for a while but never really done to much research on them. I'm a member & long term contributer to a photography forum so know the great knowledge & advice people can lend so I thought this could be a good place to start.

Hi and 
Let’s see if we can help.
First observation, the forum is busier on the racing quad area than the photography, whilst they are fundamentally both multirotors, there are some major differences. There are people who do drone photography around, and they may chip in and help.

I'm looking into a drone for landscape photography only & have a list of must haves so hopefully I can get some advice.

Must haves:

Capability to capture images in raw format,

This is a capability of the camera you attach to a multirotors, not the capability of the multirotor.
Most of the people around here will be using GoPro or other action cams, probably 1080p at 30fps video
A few phantom and magic owners will be using the cam that comes with the multirotor but serious photographers will be using the cam they select. Whilst you can’t just add any cam to a drone, weight being an important factor, you should consider the two things separately. As a photographer You can probably find a better cam than most of us if you bear in mind the weigh criteria

Reasonably high quality camera preferably with filter thread to attach filters,

Again this is a multirotor forum, nit a photography one, there are people around that may be able to help but you are probably far more knowledgable on cams

Stable with little vibration,

Fundamental to most photography craft

No building required(straight out of the box),

Thanks in advance for any advice & if I need to give more detail so I can be advised please let me know.

Cheers Tom

So to deal with the last one.
Generally you are looking for a decent multirotor with a gimbal mount for cams, these tend to come in three broad classes:
Cheap - usually Chinese. May or may not come with a cam already, if they do it will probably be pretty naff, would stay away
Entry level - mavic, phantom etc - doubt the cam does all the things you want, but broadly used for photography by amateurs.
Proper photography - starting with the inspire and moving upwards you start to be able to mount serious cameras on them, we are talking a lot of money here, note also if a quadcopter loses a motor or prop it is gonna fall out the sky, which is bad news for 5e expensive camera dangling beneath it, increasingly therefore as you look at better offerings they become hex or octocopters

Another point is get up to speed with the law.

[Two-Six]

Hello TomH 
Some great answers right there.  I approve of these messages 

I was going to say this but was beaten to it and what I was going to say has been said.  Ah well I have spent some time typing this, shame to waste it.

Something that can lift a "real" camera is going need to be pretty chunky, with hopefully some redundancy in built (two receivers, two power supplies, the ability to fly after loosing a motor, that kind of thing). 

Also, I think anyway, that you should be able to fly a multi-rotor by-hand if necessary with a reasonable level of skill before operating something big and heavy. 

If you want to use the photo's you take for commercial purposes then you will need a "license".

[Tomh1982]

Thanks everyone for replying & the welcome.

I think maybe I made a mistake & assumed that most drone users use them for photography/video.

I've seen the dji phantom drones & had thought one of these would be the way to go but wondered if there were other brands/models that would do a similar job that were worth considering. I'm not looking for something that will carry a dslr for example. I think the camera that the phantoms have would be adequate for what I'm looking for providing it shoots raw image files.

Is there a forum more biased towards drone photography out there?

Thanks again for your help!

[Two-Six]

My Runcam2 takes nice pictures and video:

https://www.banggood.com/RunCam-2-RunCam2-HD-1080P-120-Degree-Wide-Angle-WiFi-FPV-Camera-p-1017010.html?cur_warehouse=CN

Its light and also very very crash-proof and it now does slow-motion and time-lapse!

You can strap them to anything, even a kite.

[orfordness]

My Runcam2 takes nice pictures and video:

https://www.banggood.com/RunCam-2-RunCam2-HD-1080P-120-Degree-Wide-Angle-WiFi-FPV-Camera-p-1017010.html?cur_warehouse=CN

Its light and also very very crash-proof and it now does slow-motion and time-lapse!

You can strap them to anything, even a kite.

Hi Tom,

I don't fly to race so most of my flying is either fun flying or aerial photo work (non-commercial)
the advice here so far is spot on, some of what you ask is towards the expensive end, however if your prime requirement is OOB (out of the Box)
then I think you have maybe only one or two options.

Personally id look into the following:

DJI Phantom Vision 4 (Does 4k video and RAW shooting, plus is easy to fly) camera can be changed, but only to another DJI camera or a Go Pro (Although you probably have a better DJI camera on there by default)

DJI Mavic Pro Also shoots in 4K and RAW, more portable and flight times of 25min + Camera cannot be changed

Yuntech Typhoon 4K http://us.yuneec.com/ no experience, but seeing some good results from friends in the US who has one...
or
Yuntech Typhoon H  http://us.yuneec.com/typhoon-h-overview

Walkera VITUS, new and out for the mavic's blood! http://www.walkera.com/ no experience, but generally not as polished as DJI stuff.

Most or nearly ALL of the above will need a tablet or mobile phone (iphone or Android) with HD screen to work.

If you go above this then you are probably looking at having a drone built for you, but I'd learn to fly on something cheaper first!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hubsan-X4-H107L-Quadcopter-Black/dp/B00K8SDSY4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1509721045&sr=8-3&keywords=hubsan

Also as mentioned above, ANY kind of commercial work or photography done for reward required the pilot to be licensed by the UK CAA
Fliers have been prosecuted and fined!
oh and you also can't film just anywhere http://dronesafe.uk/drone-code/

Steve

[Bajadre]

welcome to MRUK tomh  enjoy buddy 

[guest325]

Tom, there are other forums out there but they will possibly be in the same boat, racing and fpv has brushed AP aside pretty much but there are still lots of us who don't race on here who prefer to stay put because it's a great friendly forum, there are too many out there that are too elitist to answer basic questions, so stay put and ask away - you've already got more answers than if you went on.... say RCgroups!!!

[hoverfly]

  don't worry  there are quite a lot who do A/P .The tec used in the racing  side of the hobby is constantly changing ,while the photographic  is fairly slow moving,its mainly the cameras changing.
Once you have one or lots of camera platforms  most of the time is spent using them, as opposed to repairing/up grading.
The skills base of the forum is superb,  ask away..

[iRobot]

  to the madhouse 

It's already all been said above 
I own a phantom 3 standard, that's the cheapest in the range of DJI  'camera ships',,,, they are brilliant !
I know very little about photography,,,, but I think for a person who takes a lot of pics and knows a bit about cameras, they wouldn't struggle with any dji drone and they pretty much have the capability to fly by themselves with next to none or minimum control inputs from the operator.

Took my P3s on holiday in the summer,,, makes your holiday pics take on a whole new level.