Cheap Aerial Photography Drone?

[Trident_RC]

Hi. I am looking in to making a multi-rotor that can shoot aerial photography, but still be cheap and portable. I would prefer it to be less than $175 as I am not made of money. I also already have a Hobbyking transmitter,receiver and a GoPro. Another question is could I use the gopro app to do FPV? What good, cheap frames are out there?
Thanks.

 

[CrashRecovery]

for that budget you are going to be pushing it. the best bet is to start with an electrohub and just run the gopro with out fpv to start

 

[N4PJ]

Cheap Aerial Photography Drone

After my own searching/researching, I think "cheap aerial photography drone" is either an oxymoron or a contradiction!

If you use the GoPro as a camera, you're almost forced to also use a gimbal mount. Otherwise, virtually every little twitch of your drone (turning, stopping, starting, the flight board reacting to a puff of wind, etc.) will create the infamous "jello" effect.

My personal experience is that the GoPro (without a gimbal) will work fairly well in almost calm conditions and very slooooooow movements.

My opinion (and I'm a hobbyist, not a professional) is that you essentially *must* have a gimbal mounted camera. The weight of the camera, the gimbal and a battery system large enough to provide reasonable flight time all conspire to require a reasonably large frame - relatively speaking.

What's that old joke that applies to so many areas - small, cheap and efficient - choose any two!

Good luck. Seriously.

Art - N4PJ
Leesburg, FL

 

[makattack]

I think it all depends on what you mean by aerial photography. If you're looking for something that can compete with the pros who fly rigs that cost as much as a used car, it would be hard to compete for under 200. There is a reason why they fly those vs a $100 fpv250 Miniquad.

If you're looking for some fun aerial shots for a different perspective to show friends and family, you can probably get great results from a $100 quad and a $50 camera.