Pros and cons of buying a drone in India

If you are thinking of buying a drone for yourself, here are a list of pros and cons you should be aware of. I could identify about 4 pros and twice that number of cons or disadvantages.

Pros

1. Amazing aerial photographs and videos: Because drones take photographs and video from high above, they can offer a perspective hitherto not available to common people unless they could hire a helicopter and cameraman. Depending on what all your drone supports (panoramic etc) and how good you are at editing, you can get some jaw dropping photos and videos.

2. Stay apart: Still a small percentage of individuals own drones, hence your photos and videos may help you stand apart from the crowd, giving you extra advantage in your social media updates or blog posts.

3. Early mover advantage: It is 2022 and still a very small percentage of people own a drone. But this will soon change. With local manufacturing, reduced prices and increased popularity more and more people may rush to buy drone just like how everyone has an action camera now. Five years down the line every 3rd person in the street might be owning a drone and if you go to a tourist place on weekend there could be 10-15 people trying to fly their drone without hitting each other. At that time with everyone having drone it may lose its popularity and something else may come up. If you buy now you may have some leverage.

4. Earn: Drone operators charge good amount- like 10000-20000 INR for half day's work to provide drone coverage to events like weddings. If you are good at commercializing your service you may be able to earn good amount of money.

Cons:

1. Risk of damage and loss: Despite best technology and precautionary measures, there is an element of risk while using drones. Human error, strong winds, unseen obstacles, technical failures can all result in drone not being able to land at a safe place and getting heavily damaged or lost as it drops into water/woods or some inaccessible spots.

2. Not much to repair: While a DSLR can be easily repaired at service centers run by the company (Nikon, Canon, Sony etc), drone repair is tricky. It might be possible to replace some parts like propellers etc but any major damage is usually a write off, as there are no reliable drone manufacturers in India and international brands do not have a sales/service network here.

3. Attracts attention: Flying drones attract unwanted attention. Some locals may feel it invades their privacy and might object, policemen on duty might ask lots of questions and so on. You need to be mindful of the location, sensitive areas nearby where drones are not allowed and so many other things before deciding to launch a drone.

4. Limited battery life: Most drone batteries hardly last 20-30 minutes. Even with additional batteries you can hardly manage for an hour in a day. So during a day-long trip, you need to be extremely cautious where to launch the drone and for how long, as you may end up draining the battery for some important locations later in the day.  Carrying a power bank, charging on the go are some options but still a cumbersome process.

5. Complicated transportation: If you have your own car it is easy to take the drone around, but on a bike or if you are flying, managing your drone will be more tricky. If flying you’ve to keep batteries and propellers in carry-on, main drone in check-in bag and there is a small risk of damage and security asking lots of questions. On a bike trip if you already have other stuffs to carry, drones are extra baggage.

6. Editing time, effort and skill: Shooting drone footage is easy part. You need a powerful laptop to be able to process and edit videos, premium video editing softwares, willingness to spend lots of time learning how to edit. If you can't invest in these you won't be able to leverage full value of drone purchase

7. Regulatory compliance: You need to register drone and be very cautious where it can be launched, where it should not be. Rules vary by country and may change over time.

8. Expensive: A decent drone needs spending of 70k to 1.2 lakhs (INR). More expensive, capable drones cost 1.5 lakh to 2 lakhs. 28% GST/Custom duty (if getting from abroad) extra. Hardly any warranty.

9. Content Theft: Once you start posting your drone footage there are a tons of social media handles eager to steal your drone photo and post in their accounts. These handles claim to "feature you" and make a living off someone else's intellectual property. Detecting the theft, countering it is extra time and effort.

10. Needs lots of planning: Drying to capture a drone footage and make a vlog out of it needs extensive planning. Timing of the day and direction of sun rays affects video quality. Need to visit a place when there won't be much crowd (to avoid too much attention), need to keep in mind battery power left, local regulations, what kind of capturing to do, filters needed and several other things. This will be a continuous learning process that demands patience, time and dedication.

Can you think of more pros and cons? Let me know in comments