If the latest trend for ever-cheaper, ever-better video drones continues, it seems it will no longer be good enough to take a selfie with your phone at arm’s reach with your grinning face in front of the stunning destination you’re visiting.
These remote control helicopter-like devices with high definition cameras attached can now be bought for well under £1000, and with a bit of practice and some video editing skill can produce incredible cinematic aerial videos that you’d expect to see in an opening sequence of a big screen blockbuster.
There’s even a new website devoted solely to the videos. TravelByDrone.com has amassed links to over 5,000 drone videos shot around the world, and lets you browse the world, by drone, via a map of destinations.
Despite the undeniably stunning results (over-use of ‘uplifting’ dance music notwithstanding), not everyone is a fan of video camera drones. They can be noisy and by their very nature disrespectful of privacy issues.
The US National Park Service has recently put a temporary ban on drones in its territories, making its 84 million acres of monuments, battlefileds, historic sites, seashores, rivers and trails ‘no drone zones’.
Otherwise, hobbyist drone fliers are still relatively free to operate drones in public areas, as long as they stay below 400 feet, and away from populated areas and full-scale aircraft.
Whatever your opinion on their use, don’t miss out on this timelapse video over southern Iceland with a quadcopter, by Skarphéðinn Snorrason. He used a GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition for the aerial shots and a GoPro Hero 2 for the timelapses.
