I’m mostly talking about camera drones rather than FPV ones.
Every time I take mine out of the bag, people gather around with the same questions: how high does it go, how far does it go, was it expensive, have you ever crashed, etc. - as if they’ve never seen a drone before.
It seems like every single YouTuber and amateur photographer has one these days. They’re easy to fly and relatively cheap too. You’d think they’d be everywhere, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually seen someone flying one. Granted, I don’t leave the house much and when I do I usually head into the woods, so that probably plays a role. Still, I’m curious if this is just me or if other people have had the same experience.
Because those drones are still rather expensive and… useless? I personally can’t imagine what fun (let alone useful) I could do with a drone. I suppose a few first flies would be fun just for the sake of flying, but what next?
They are great for exploration and photography/videography which I’d count as rather useful. More “useless” things are flying it for fun and getting better at controlling it. There is stunt flying and tricks you can do, there is a whole community of enthusiasts who modify (and build) drones and contests you can compete in. “Useless” like any other hobby I guess.
Yeah, EDC aerial reconnaissance is the other usecase besides photography. Nice to have something you can send to scout ahead before commiting to bushwhacking.
Doing stunts and tricks requires a different kind of drone though.
They’re not that expensive, but they’re not cheap. The DJI mini goes on sale for like $200 fairly often and that’s an insane value for what it is. But yeah, unless you live in an area with a lot of great views you’ll probably use it a handful of times then leave it in its box.
Unfortunately the US government is trying to outlaw them so we might not get newer models.