Helicopter VS Drone For Aerial Photography

You might be forgiven for thinking that drones have taken over the skies of Australia, they have grown in popularity at a breakneck pace for a wide variety of commercial and hobby uses and it feels like they are buzzing around everywhere! There are a number of benefits that can be had by using a drone, but there is still one area that they still fall short on, the art of aerial photography.

Aerial photography is considered to be at the pinnacle of modern photos and films, before aircraft, one could only see and record similar views by climbing mountains or visiting the top floors of large buildings. Human flight, particularly in the form of versatile helicopters, opened our perceptions to new aerial vistas. If you want to capture the most stunning images then riding in a helicopter in Sydney or other photogenic locales is going to yield you the best results! The limitations of drones might prevent the photographer from achieving the high-level results they are seeking.

Drones are by necessity quite lightweight and are only able to carry a camera that is also lightweight, which can mean sacrificing quality. Drones also have stringent restrictions on their flights over urban areas which can be problematic. In many areas, it’s simply illegal to fly drones at all! So, it has to be determined whether or not the photos taken from a drone are going to satisfy the needs of the photographer in terms of quality, as well as if the site to be photographed can be accessed by a drone!

The use of a traditional helicopter is usually going to produce better results than what can be managed by a drone. If the weight of the camera equipment is of concern to the photographer, helicopters can carry far greater payloads than any existing drone can, and they can carry them a lot farther and longer. The helicopter allows the shoot to continue for a much longer duration, so the photographer has the option of entering remote locales far beyond the range of a drone, giving it a very competitive edge in the photography of unique and distant places. Urban flights are also much easier for a helicopter to arrange than a drone, opening up a lot of options for capturing cityscapes.

Drones are not built to handle weather conditions that would be no trouble at all for a helicopter that can navigate safely through them, allowing for photography even during storms or weather extremes that often produce some of the most startling visual effects!

The serious aerial photographer’s best option is definitely to choose a helicopter over a drone.