When it comes to making vlogs or travel videos, having the perfect filming gear is essential. And for many content creators, that means using a drone to capture amazing aerial shots.
Drones can give your vlogs an edge that sets them apart from the competition. However, with so many options on the market, it can be difficult to figure out which drone is right for you.
Well, here I am to answer your question.
With more than 7 years of experience in the film and camera industry, I’ve come up with a buying guide to help you decide on the best drones for you.
In this guide not only I’ll review some of the top drones with their pros and cons, but I’ll also discuss some of your knotty questions.
Quick Overview :
Here are top picks for the best vlogging drones :
- Dji Mavic Air 2 (Best Overall Drone For Vlogging)
- Parrot Anafi (Alternative Best Drone)
- Autel Evo Nano Plus (Best For Beginners)
Drone Buying Guide:
The price of the drone may tell you about its quality, but it won’t provide you with the exact performance of the machine. Undoubtedly, drones with high prices have high specs but not every expensive thing deserves your money.
So, I’ve made a helping guide that can help you choose the right drone camera.
Always look for the following things before buying a drone camera:
1- Battery Life:
One of the most important factors of a right drone is its battery life. Most modern-day drones give almost 30-35 minutes of recording+flying time, generally considered good.
But for a vlogger, it isn’t sufficient. Therefore, always carry a couple of extra batteries in your backpack.
2- Camera Resolution:
Camera quality is utterly important if you want good quality footage. Most drones come with built-in cameras, while others allow you to attach your camera.
Whatever drone you’re going to buy, give special consideration to the video quality.
If you’re a newbie in this field, a 1080p camera will do fine for you.
3- GPS:
Now, GPS may seem like a subtle feature, but it adds a lot of quality to your drone experience.
It can help you in many ways. For example, your drone can find its way back using a return to home or RTH technology.
Secondly, it improves the general stability and navigational skills of the drone.
4- Range:
The range of a drone camera tells you how far it can go before you can lose its control.
More expensive and professional drones have a large range to cover more area in your shots. The range is quite important if you’re a vlogger who likes to do a lot of aerial photography.
5- Obstacle Avoidance System:
It is a feature that may cost you some extra money, but it is worth it. Obstacle detection and avoidance system is actually a drone sensor that identifies the upcoming hurdle and avoids it.
The feature is particularly important to save you from damage to your camera, especially if you’re an amateur vlogger.
#1 Best Drone for Vlogging/Youtube: Dji Mavic Air 2
Overview:
People often call me a drone hoarder as I own too many of them. But, to be honest, DJI Mavic Air 2 is one of my favorites as it has been my go-to drone throughout the summer.
It is a compact and small beef with a pretty low base, so you may need to buy an additional mat or extension legs.
The build quality is pretty robust, but heavy handling may cause damage to it.
The joy to vloggers is that you can carry it anywhere in your backpack.
Video Performance:
The half-inch sensor of the DJI Mavic Air 2 is quite adequate to do all your vlogging things.
It supports a 4K resolution at 60 fps. Now, the quality of the video is pretty strong, thanks to the crisp 48 MP lens.
There is an HDR video mode too. Now, I’m a huge fan of good pictures, and the in-camera HDR did a great job in handling the uneven lights and preserving the shadows and highlights.
One downside here is that the aperture is fixed, so you may need to buy an additional ND filter to cut the incoming light.
The cherry on top is the video stabilization system of the camera that makes your shots pretty smooth.
Besides vlogging, this drone is great for photography, especially aerial photography.
It has many features, including regular photos, HDR photos, smart photos, and bracketed photos that you can merge in the post-production process.
Range of the Drone:
The range and transmission strength are quite good on the drone. In fact, it has improved from the last generation Mavic 2 pro. With the addition of OcuSync 2.0, it can fly to great distances (6.2 miles) with a solid connection. Yet, I was able to get 5 miles before the battery died.
The company claims the flight time of DJI Mavic Air 2 is 36 minutes. I never hit that limit during my test.
This drone gives an empty signal warning around 28 or 26 minutes. Still, it is a decent battery. For a blogger, I recommend you carry a couple of extra batteries in your backpack.
Dji Fly App:
With the DJI Mavic Air 2, you get DJI fly app, through which you can control your entire drone.
I used this application on my iPhone XS Max. The app is pretty streamlined, and there’s not that much clutter on the screen.
Intelligent Fly Modes:
The plus point of this drone is that it comes with many intelligent modes like you want to do tracking, want to use spotlight mode, or want to do a point of interest video.
It is pretty easy to find the intelligent flight modes on the main screen than by going through all the menus.
Specifications:
Reason To Buy?
- Strong 4k image resolution
- 8K hyper-lapse shots
- Intelligent fly modes
- HDR video
- Amazing battery life
Reason To Avoid?
- No EV control wheel on the remote
- Fixed aperture
#2 Best Drone for Cinematography: Parrot Anafi
Overview:
Parrot is no stranger when providing small yet powerful cameras. Two days before working on this review, I got my hands on 2 of its drones, Bebop 2, and today’s pick Anafi.
This drone is much smaller than Bebop 2, yet a houseful feature-wise.
It comes with an Ultrasharp 4K camera that boosts real-life gimbal stabilization.
This drone can take your cinematography skills to a whole level. But does this offer what it claims? Let’s find out.
Body Structure:
The hand feel of Anafi is more flimsy, even though there is heavy use of carbon fiber in its body.
Speaking of which, a combination of lightweight plastic and carbon fiber is used in the framework of this drone.
The front of the drone features a tilt-up camera, and the back has a USB port for charging. The crisscross exoskeleton not only provides support but also holds 8 small propellers. I reckon this is one of the smallest yet compact drones I’ve ever used.
Performance:
When it comes to the camera performance of the drone, a combination of 4K resolution and gimbal-stabilized video results in silky smooth footage.
That’s the reason I put Anafi as the best drone for cinematography.
The results were charming and full of details. There were balanced details in the shadows, yet the highlights were not as bright as expected.
It is an additional advantage for vloggers who want natural color in their cinematic shots.
Plus, you can rotate the camera upward and down to get 180-degree shots. The shot is pretty rare in these days’ cameras.
Anafi can also take some good snaps. Although the quality is of a smartphone level, the availability of RAW format at 21 MP allows you to pack more pixels.
You can enhance the quality by using a P-Log profile setting that helps you in color grading.
Panoramic shots are also available now, as they were not there when I got my hands on this drone. The feature came late via firmware update
Other Features:
In addition to standard video shooting, the Anafi also features time-lapse and slo-mo videos.
I was quite impressed with the slo-mo because the camera doesn’t step down the resolution compared to other budget drones.
You can only record slo-mo videos at 1080p.
Just like that, hyper lapses can be recorded at 240x or 120x involving 1080p only.
Battery Life:
The battery life of Anafi is quite good. Where the company claims 25 minutes of flight, I got 23-24 minutes per charge. The battery charges with a USB-type C and can take up to 2.5 hours to fully charge.
With all these features, there are some minor issues with Anafi.
It doesn’t have obstacle detection sensors, so you have to be careful while driving it.
There were other issues in the drone, too, like the drone kept on drifting when left hovering in the air, sometimes recording failed, and other times HDR settings were only available at 4K, which also lost the support a few times.
Specifications:
Reason To Buy?
- Small and compact
- Outstanding cinematic shots
- Gimbal stabilized
- Big battery
- 3x digital zoom
Reason To Avoid?
- No obstacle detection
- HDR is only available at 4K
- Still photography is average
#3 Best Drone for Beginners: Autel Evo Nano Plus
Overview:
Autel EVO Nano plus is a drone with a handy body, easy-to-use interface, and excellent video quality, but it comes with a price tag that can be hard on your pocket.
The drone is not only small, but also it is lightweight at 249 grams. It can be folded in the bag and can be carried away easily.
Performance:
Let’s talk about the performance of Autel Evo Nano plus, but before that, let me address the common issues of a few finical YouTubers who claim that this drone is pretty slow in fast winds.
Okay, I understand your concern, but this tiny thing only weighs 249 grams.
How is it supposed to counteract the wind gusts?
Moreover, if the wind is quite heavy in your area, consider buying a big drone like DJI Mavic Air 2 S or Autel Evo lite plus.
The camera performance of Autel Evo Nano plus is quite outstanding. It has a 0.8 inches CMOS sensor that can take pin-sharp 4K footage at 30 fps.
The cherry on top is the f1.8 aperture of the camera, which is quite big compared to other drones that have f2.8.
This means the camera not only has high-resolution shots but also has an excellent low night result.
Testing:
In testing, I found out that this camera not only leaves behind DJI Air 2 but also Mavic 3 to some extent.
The colors were neither overexposed nor underexposed. Similarly, the dynamic range was quite excellent.
I was taken aback when I discovered that this camera has an RYYB color filter.
I mean, that’s incredible. Now, the camera can take noise-free shots of almost invisible objects to the human eye.
What’s more? Behind a go-to choice for beginners and immatures into aerial photography, Autel Evo Nano plus is absolutely matchless.
The top frosting is the gimbal-like stabilization in the footage, making the output video smooth like butter.
Other Features:
One of the top-selling features of Autel EVO Nano plus is its ability to avoid obstacles. Now, this feature is necessary when a person isn’t a pro or when you’re flying in the proximity of tall buildings and trees.
Like many modern drives, Autel Evo Nano plus also had autonomous flight modes that helped pilots shoot dramatic videos from various angles.
It is another helping feature for a beginner vlogger.
The video transmission of the drone is pretty strong and similar to DJI Mavic Air 2. I love how the drone leaves the line of sight and still gets a decent quality image.
Unlike other drones, Autel EVO Nano plus delivers 2.7K resolution up to 1 km and 1080p beyond that.
Specifications:
Reason To Buy?
- 4K video resolution
- Gimbal like stabilization
- Lightweight and compact
- A sharp and accurate autofocus system
- Easy to use interface for beginners
Reason To Avoid?
- Frame rates are limited
- 50 MP sensor but takes 12.6 MP images
- No object tracking
All Drones Comparison Table
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's):
1- What Drone do YouTubers use?
The drone that most YouTubers use is DJI Mavic Air 2. It comes with a decent 4K video resolution with a flight time of 36 minutes. Plus, this drone has 8 GB of built-in storage that you can enhance up to 256 GB.
2- Which drone is best for vlogging?
If you are a newbie vlogger, you can go for Autel Evo Nano plus as it is pretty easy to use.
Otherwise, you can opt for DJI Mavic Air 2 because it comes with the features that best fit a professional vlogger.
3- What is the best drone to buy for filming?
If you are in the film industry and want to have a drone in the budget range, you can opt for Parrot Anafi.
On the other hand, if you don’t have budget problems, you can go for DJI Mavic 3.
4- Which company drone is best?
Many companies make drones, including DJI, Parrot, and Yuneec. I’ve found DJI as one of the best drone manufacturers in the world.
Still, Choosing the best drone depends on a person’s personal preferences.
5- Do you need a license to fly a drone?
There are different laws in many countries, including the USA, Canada, UK. These laws state that you must have a license to fly a drone for recreational activities.
Also, you may need to have permission before film shooting at a particular place.
