Home » Reviews » Best drone for photography 2022

Up the cinematic quality of your shots with the best drones for photography in 2022

Drones make for powerful photography tools as they allow for angles you wouldn’t otherwise have access to., so let’s have a look at the best drone for photography in 2022, as it might just change your photography game

People have been strapping cameras to airborne vehicles for as long as both have existed, but there was always a limit to what you could do due to the weight of cameras.

Previously, this necessitated the use of a helicopter, but now good quality photos and video can be captured from cameras that can fit in the palm of the hand.

This means that a humble and relatively inexpensive unmanned is now fully capable of lifting a camera hundreds of feet into the air, allowing for creative possibilities you previously need a Hollywood movie-level budget for.

Before launching onto the product page and dropping big bucks deluxe on the best drone for photography, it’s worth taking a moment and thinking about what you need and what you don’t.

Depending on whether photography is a business or a hobby for you, this consideration takes on a considerably different meaning.

If you’re a professional photographer or even use photography to make a little extra money on the side, you might be able to write off a portion of your drone purchase and get it back with your tax rebate.

However, it’s still worth keeping in mind, as spending thousands and thousands on a photography drone when photography is simply your weekend hobby might not be a shrewd investment.

Additionally, drones can very quickly go from pristine technological marvels with untold potential to smoking wrecks stuck 150ft up a tree in less than a second, so consider your piloting ability and adjust your budget accordingly.

Drones are impressive, compact, and technologically advanced pieces of kit, but the battery life still sucks. This means you’ll scarcely get more than 20-minutes of flight time before having to land and swap the battery out.

So, keep in mind the type of photography you’re going to be doing, and, more pertinently, the locations in which you’ll be shooting. If you can’t take off close to the subject that you’re shooting, you’ll have less time to make the shot before having to return to base.

Aside from concerns of distance, longer flight times just make life easier with less stopping and starting. It’ll also shorter the duration of your photoshoots considerably.

Bear in mind here that lighter drones generally have longer flight times, but often have cameras of lesser quality and less capacity for holding better aftermarket cameras.

This is the second most important area of consideration aside from the Drone itself. After all, what good is a $1000+ drone that crashes every time you fly it because you piloting it with a Madcatz-looking, younger brother-tier controller?

This is a more complex piece of kit than your typical run-of-the-mill PS5 controller as piloting a drone, or any aircraft for that matter is not an easy task.

It requires simultaneous modulation of several different inputs and it takes a lot of practice, so getting a really good one is a great shout to make the learning curve seem that little bit less steep.

Additionally, you want a controller with sufficient range if you’re wanting to shoot in more remote locations or to get closer to the top of large objects like buildings or cliffs.

So, now we’ve established what needs to be kept in mind, let’s get to the good stuff. All them drones.

Aside from building a bespoke solution that can carry a full-on IMAX camera, the DJI Mavic 3 is currently the undisputed champ of drones for photography that a normal person might be able to afford.

Aside from the inarguable pedigree of DJI, we also get the benefit of a genuine Hasselblad camera mounted on a gimbal, which is a big deal for a few reasons, and interesting for a few more.

Hasselblad is a manufacturer of high-performance, general-use photography and cinema cameras, in fact, their cameras were specifically chosen for the American Space program, and a total of 12 Hasselblad cameras remain on the surface of the moon. The film magazines were removed and kept, while the cameras themselves were discarded to save fuel for the return trip home.

That says it all, really. If the company you get your cameras from has made them work in the vacuum of space, they’ll be able to handle zipping around on a drone.

But what if you don’t want to spend 5 months’ worth of rent money on a drone? Well, luckily DJI has your back all the way down in this price bracket too, with the DJI Mini SE.

So far as we can tell, DJI has distilled all the most important features of the best drones for photography down into the DJI SE Mini. Of course, at this price point, it doesn’t retain the sheer quality of the big boys, like the Mavic 3.

However, it retains the good stuff so it’s got everything a budding to midweight photographer needs to take their art to new heights (lmao).

It’s worth noting here that somehow, the irritating trend of not including chargers that we got from Apple (Thanks, boys), has made it to drones too.

So if you buy this drone, make sure to grab a compatible charger too, lest you unpack the shiny new DJI Mini SE and be left woefully grounded.

We can’t just recommend DJI drones here. Luckily, in response to their meteoric rise in popularity and critical acclaim by hobbyists and professionals alike, other companies have cropped up to steal a share of the pie.

One such company is FIMI and they have done a stunning job of making their drones competitive with DJI, both in terms of pricing and overall performance.

The FIMI X8SE V2 utilizes a Sony 1/2″ CMOS sensor capable of 48MP photos. Due to its origins in CCTV, it’ll keep the footage of pictures crystal clear with minimal graininess.

Additionally, you can get a loudspeaker attachment. The true purpose of this is for either communication or emergency use, but we think it’d be more fun to use it to shout obscenities at people without the risk of being punched.

The Snaptain SP7100 is another more accessible drone, equalling the DJI Mini SE’s $300 price point, and it’s got a lot going for it, aside from the amusing company name.

Essentially, it’s specced very competitively for the price, including all the essentials and a few creature comforts that will help elevate (haha) the drone photography experience.

Our favorite is the ‘Decide your own flight path’ function. Essentially, you can use the companion ‘Snaptain Mate’ app to draw a line from point to point. The Drone will then follow a path between these points, taking photos or recording videos as you see fit.

Additionally, the drone and controller are fully collapsable, and given that the controller utilizes your phone instead of its own screen, this allows the overall package to pack down into a remarkably compact form factor.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

The Warehouse, Use Space, Paddock St, Manchester M12 6PN

WePC is the essential site for serious PC gamers. We offer everything from high end PC custom builds and advice to the latest hardware and component reviews, as well as the latest breaking gaming news. You take your gaming PC seriously. So do we. WePC.