Drone Photography, The Next Big Meme?

Sup nigs.
So the house next to me is up for sale and the other day I saw some faggot come with a drone to take areal shots for the real estate agent to put up on her listing. So I did some research and it turns out those fuckers charge an average of AT LEAST $150/hour for 5 pictures, they also charge by the hour for the time it takes them to travel to the location.

Do you think it would be wise to invest less than $1000 in a high quality drone and start my own business on the side? My only concern is if the market is too saturated and then I take a hit reselling my drone.

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This will be heavily dependant on how you market yourself. Give it a try OP, worst outcome you have a drone you can resell. Return with results and what you have learned.

Any recommendations on equipment? Seems like the DJI phantom 3 is the go to for best bang for your buck. Unless there are smaller brands with better equipment? I'm probably gonna develop a plan this week and weigh out the cons and pros when I get some time. Got to also develop some price packages (still shots, stills plus video, additional post rendering, etc..).

>DJI phantom 3
Just search reviews for them and see what people say.

I'd buy one second hand though, check your online trades in your area. People always buy this sort of thing and hardly use them.

I don't know in your area but I've heard of people covering events like festivals and shit and they charge about that too, the fucking drone practically pays itself in one night.

I might do this too.

drone technology is advancing fast, ill buy my first when they can fly at least 45min and reach 2km

go on youtube and find people who make drone videos. message them asking questions. by asking them you are appealing to their sense of authority and they'll give you answers because it makes them feel good. (they might also just be nice helpful people)

google search for people who do this in your local market to gauge competition

You are late.
Drone video/photo is sooo 2014. It's a over saturated biz today

FAA is going to shit on things pretty soon. If you wait too long, you might have to make do with equipment that has restrictions built into the hardware.

creeper! creeper!

>you might have to make do with equipment that has restrictions built into the hardware
Pretty retarded considering drones can be made out of open source controllers. Gonna be a market for custom drones which get around that silly shit.

True enough, but as with everything else, retards are going to ruin it for the rest of us. I'm still salty I have to order lawn dart parts instead of just buying the assembled darts. Bunch of drunken dipshits threw them at each other and killed each other trying to catch them.

God, I'm not even 30 and I sound like a jaded old man.

The older you get the more you realize people are fucking retards.

I figured that out when I was 12.

I sliced my finger to the bone and had to get 8 stitches because of a 'safety' utility knife that was spring loaded. Old one wasn't spring loaded, and I held it correctly till it broke. The newer 'safer' version required you to hold it awkwardly to keep it open, so I slipped. Parents tried to explain the reasoning for the safety spring to me in the hospital and I screamed "Why are people so dumb these days?" at the top of my lungs because the stitches hurt so badly.

I've considered this because I'm in a related industry and it could help me get freelance work.
I have two misgivings
>1. Saturated market
>2. long learning curve. I've got no experience with remote control planes or anything, and you'd need to really get intimate with the controller if I want to get good money.

Now, having said that, let me double this meme idea:

>VR DRONE.

'saturated market' is such bullshit. every market is saturated. wherever there's opportunity, there's competition. it'll come down to outperforming, outmarketing, outbranding the others. you'll get your foot in the door even by just outperforming the bottom 20% currently saturating the market. everyone knows those guys are dumb af and don't try hard enough.

Well, someone who knows jackshit like OP certainly won't outperform, outmarket and outbrand the others.

it's probably not saturated yet, but it's a complete ripoff to pay $150/hour for gear that costs 1.5k.

it's not like actual photography. there really isn't much skill involved.

Not a ripoff, just an excellent profit margin.

So my brother has owned a drone photography business since 2012. He has made considerable income and shot for multiple motion pictures.

There's still money to be made, but it ain't what it used to be. But i think you could crack $50k a year without too much effort.

DJI inspire or phantom is the way to go in your market. Ideally it's a 2 man job. One guy flies the chopper and another guy works the camera gimble. Also you need to know exposure, lighting, filters, and depth of field. None of which is that complicated, just get a book on it and spend a few weeks playing with your chopper. You need to be able to capture a steady object and moving things like people and cars.

Lastly these things fall out of the sky. I've seen it 3 times. So over water and your chopper is gone. Over people and someone can get fucked up.

AMA if you want.

A bit more....

The FAA has been flapping their gums for years now. I doubt any major changes soon. And even then, getting the little piece of paper they have now is a pretty simple process.

And no you won't take a hit, drones are very popular selling it should be no prob.

>Lastly these things fall out of the sky. I've seen it 3 times
Why does this happen? User error? From my understanding the good models (DJI phantom) have a GPS built in and it should return back to you if it goes out of range or the battery is about to die.

Its already a big meme. The market is extremely saturated already.
Just check out real estate agents in your area. You will see plenty of them hiring Drone Operators for pictures or video.

>So I did some research and it turns out those fuckers charge an average of AT LEAST $150/hour for 5 pictures

Thats strange. Most usually charge per house.
If they're professionals, they will charge much more than $150 and it usually takes them half a day or more to get the footage they want. But this is not an entry level segment or the market, or one you want to try and break into. The people working that segment are the highest end of the Real Estate market, or Architecture and Design firms.

You want to target plain old bus bench Real Estate Agents.

The fact that its a highly saturated market is not really bad news for you.
Just charge per house and lower the price.
The average for a decent set of photos and video is somewhere around $200 per house. Usually something like $199 or $250.
I'm talking strictly on the lower end, but still decent here. Big jobs cost thousands.

If you charge $99 per house in and out in 30 mins or less, you will get plenty of jobs. Another 15 minutes to edit the video and you're done in less than an hour.
If you charge $79/ house, you will be turning down more jobs than you can handle.

$79 seems small, but it can quickly add up.
Squeeze out 5 homes a day at $79 per house and that's $400 for less than 8 hours of work.
You will end up making as much, if not more per day than the guy that charges $150/hr.


Photographers and Videographers and Drone Operators who know what they are doing know that it takes a lot more than half an hour to do a job like that.

The reason you will get so many jobs is most people hiring you are not well informed about what service they require and what you should be able to provide. Most Agents don't know, nor do they care about quality.
If they did, they obviously would never consider some greasy bumbling fucking idiot charging just $79.