JWilsonphoto
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 p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Official drone photography IMAGE thread. (Not primarily for discussion, see post #1) | |
Good Morning Bill!
Thanks for giving me a heads up on your great new thread! As you probably already know I do a considerable amount of air to air and air to ground photography/videography. Been hanging out of various aircraft for over 35 years and have thousands of hours on assignments that involve being in the sky, I love it!
About three years ago my son surprised me with a Phantom II Pro kit for my birthday. He spent well over 3K for the set up so I didn't want to appear ungrateful, but I really wish he had discussed it with me before he made that move. Apparently it could have been much worse, because he was about to order me a $14,000 Octo from Movi but his Mom convinced him to think that through a bit. Still $3,600 sitting in a Tundra case in my closet bothers me quite a bit.
Here's my take on all of this, and some outside influences are causing me to review my position and do some more research. The Phantom II was an unreliable nightmare, every time I launched it all I could see was liability. Combine that with the fact that it had a propensity to take off in it's own direction and you can begin to see why my interest in drones fell off precipitously. Three years ago you had to be Speilberg to use one to generate revenue and there were no indications that was going to change anytime soon, another factor in my loss of interest.
Fast forward three years and add a couple of very good clients who are urging me to have drone capability, and you find me looking into the whole thing again. I charter helicopters hundreds of hours annually and I don't think that is likely to change. My still gear is Canon 1DXII/Canon 5DSR, my cinema tools are all 4K Sony, Z150, FS/7 with an F55 on the way, so quality is of utmost importance to me. That being said, buying a drone capable of hauling that kind of gear aloft is a considerable investment, then hanging another 10 to 40 grand underneath it and sending it off into the sky, kind of makes me a little nauseous. So, where I am at the moment is, researching the reliability and capabilities of equipment like the Inspire 2 Pro, going ahead with certification (I've been a pilot for almost 50 years so that part is pretty simple), and I'm talking with companies who specialize in training commercial drone operators. The Inspire 2 Pro won't even be available until early next year so I have a little time to dig into this to see just how much I want to do it.
I'm in a bit of a unique situation because budget really doesn't enter into my decision. My client base is largely interested in what I can do and maintaining/surpassing their quality expectations. I don't mean to sound flippant, but the truth is, at his level of imaging, they don't care what it costs, they just want to continue to be wowed, and I want to continue to do that on all levels. Maybe in a year I'll be sending sixty grand off into the sky, who knows, but I can't imagine it at this point. Liability is a huge issue for me, and I think people take it too lightly. Yes, one can obtain insurance, and at a reasonable rate, but the liability limits are such that, should something significant occur, the plaintiffs will be coming after assets over and above the policy limits. A million $$$ in liability is really nowhere near enough to give one comfort in today's litigious environment. You can set up a shell LLC, you can put it in another name, there are all kinds of maneuvers that folks think will protect them from a judgment, but there are few of those that really do. Sure, if you plan to fly above deserted coastlines/forests, your liability is going to be nominal, but if you plan on really putting it to work, you will often be in the thick of it and a million in coverage is a drop in the bucket. Two years ago I had a great client beg me to fly a drone in their manufacturing facility so we could get unique perspectives on the massive machinery that produces their products. The assignment would have generated thousands of dollars to me, over and over I would guess, but I respectfully declined. The chances of injuring an employee, the thought of disabling a manufacturing sequence because there's a bunch of plastic, propellers, and circuit boards that decided to take a header into the equipment, just didn't outweigh the potential cool images and income generation. I'm still biased to that perspective, we'll see what my research does to moderate those fears.
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Yeah, I'm a lost cause. 
