The 5 best Drone Camera videos

Drones look set to be the next big thing as technology has now reached a point where all of the components are tiny enough for little helicopter-style blades to lift them up – whilst sending a wifi signal back to a smartphone in real time.

The BBC this week put into service their first ever drone camera. Just like Obama’s flying death machines, these unmanned aerial vehicles are controlled on the ground and equipped with a camera – meaning they can get shots that would have been impossible under any other circumstances.

There’s still lots of complexity around drones as the law is a bit fuzzy on the issue of when and where you can fly them (I guess lawmakers, like the citizens of the Swat Valley, didn’t see them coming). But this will no doubt be cleared up as more and more people start using them. So here’s our pick of the five best drone videos we’ve found:

Polish Protest

The BBC’s drone rules prohibit them from using drones above crowds of people (so now swooping shots of Glastonbury then), but these Polish people play by a different rulebook. Here’s a clip of a protest – watch as the camera follows the column of police and swoops around. It’s very impressive!

How High?

Here’s an awesome demo of just how high you can fly a drone. I can’t help but wonder if the pilot kept worrying about the batteries failing… as that’s a long way to fall.

In fact – it was so high up that when it landed the people who flew it lost it and gave up searching after four hours. It was only the next day when a police officer called to say he’d found it that they got it back.

Germany Drone Near-Miss

Drones are so new that not even the world’s militaries have got used to flying them yet. Here’s a video from a German drone in Afghanistan and it’s near-miss with a passenger plane carrying 100 people.

When Drones Crash

So what about when drones crash? Here’s one drone that lost radio contact with the pilot and then proceeded to fall out of the sky. It landed 25ft up in a tree – the owner had to find a large pole to knock it down. Apparently though there was only $25 of damage despite the high fall! Impressive!

Skip to 1:30 when the action begins.

London

Finally this astonishing video from TeamBlacksheep in London, in which the fly a drone camera near the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Gherkin, London Eye and even Parliament & Big Ben… and amazingly, manage to not get shot in the process.

We hope to be reviewing a drone or two soon – so stay tuned for that!

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