DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

Are drones spying on you? No they’re not, and here’s five reasons why

Jul 12, 2017 by John Aldred 7 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Privacy is a big deal these days. Whether it’s online or in the real world. And one of the biggest things people seem to be shouting about in the real world lately is drones. Many people are just absolutely paranoid about them. To the point where they’re shooting them out of the sky.

But here’s commercial drone pilot, Brad Simon of Diamond Aerial with a reality check for you. Drones, for the most part, are definitely not spying on you. And he gives five solid reasons explaining why.

 

Battery Life

The battery life is far too short for any kind of serious spying. With most commercial drones, you’re going to be looking at 20-30 minutes, of flight time at the very maximum. DJI say the Phantom 4 Pro has a maximum flight time of 30 minutes. With the DJI Mavic Pro, it’s 27 minutes. And these are under ideal conditions. Ideal conditions that rarely happen in the real world.

You’re increasing engine use every time you move the drone, draining the battery sooner. If it takes you five minutes to get from where you are to the subject you’re “spying” on, that means it takes another five minutes to bring it back to you. So there’s a third or more of your battery gone already. And nobody’s going to fly it for the full duration of the battery, because they don’t want risk it hitting zero before landing safely.

Sure, they could have a spare battery or two, but at a ridiculous $139 each for Phantom 4 batteries, the majority aren’t going to make that investment.

It’s not the right type of camera

In order to do the kind of spying most people assume, you need a long telephoto lens. Sure, with a tiny sensor comes a smaller lens to get the same field of view, but most commercial drones just don’t have them. People buy these drones to create wide angle views of the environment. Not close up detail shots.

The Phantom 4 has the best consumer drone camera in the market right now. And he demonstrates exactly what it can see at different distances that many would deem to be rather close. At 100ft, you’re going to hear a drone buzzing around. But as far as the drone seeing you, you’re barely more than a handful of pixels.

Even at 50ft away, with such a wide angle lens, it’s not exactly picking up a whole lot of personal detail.

Even at 25ft away, a person is only filling a tiny portion of the shot, and at this distance, the drone is noticeably loud.

Are there drones which have telephoto lenses? Absolutely. But these cost thousands of dollars. The people buying these kinds of drones have much better things to do. Nobody’s going to spend that kind of money on a drone to spy on somebody. Those kinds of drones aren’t exactly small, either, so they’d probably be spotted, even at a distance.

They’re too noisy

As seen in the previous example, they’re just too loud. At 25ft, you can even hear the microphone picking it up in the video. And that’s a directional shotgun microphone, designed to cut noise not coming from directly in front of it. Not exactly subtle for spying, and you’re certainly not going to be able to sneak up on anybody. In person, you’d be able to hear it even at 100ft. I know I can hear mine 100ft away.

We have better things to do

Brad is a licensed commercial pilot. He has much better things to do than to be spying on you. Commercial drone pilots are too busy working on their skills, testing technique, or shooting for clients. And if you’re not paying them, they’re certainly not going to waste their time filming you.

The same goes for hobbyists, as well. People aren’t going out to spend $1,000+ on a Phantom for the fun of it to just go spy on people.

You’re just not that interesting

This goes hand in hand with the previous one. You’re just not interesting enough to film. Sure, there’s the occasional interesting event caught on drone, but those are down to random luck. You and your daily life just isn’t that interesting. Certainly not enough that somebody’s going to follow you around with a drone all day.

We all like to believe we’re the special little snowflakes are mothers always told us we were when we were five. But in the real world, we’re just not.

If you want to check out Brad’s other drone tip videos, be sure to head over to his YouTube channel.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Five reasons why the 35mm lens can be perfect for travel photography Five reasons why using film for landscape photography is still a good idea Five reasons why 24-105mm is a must-have lens for landscape photographers Five reasons why you might want to get a Komodo 6K cinema camera

Filed Under: news Tagged With: Brad Simon, drones, spy, Spy Drone

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

« This is what happens when you move while taking a panorama selfie: two heads
Tunisair Stole My Cameras »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy