Camera drones are becoming increasingly popular in travel photography, and I’ve been eager to try flying one. Yet with no experience flying a drone before, I decided to sign up for an introductory DJI Phantom 4 Drone class offered by XPR to learn the basics so I wouldn’t crash my $1000-2000 drone on its first flight.

Flying camera drones are an outstanding way to record or take photographs from new perspectives you couldn’t normally get with a regular camera. In the past few years, the DJI Phantom drone, and now smaller Maverick or Spark have become so small that they can easily be brought as carry-on luggage with you on your next vacation. Imagine being able to send your DJI drone up into the sky to film the entire beach, or use tracking mode to follow you around while you kayak on crystal clear water, the ability to get the exact angle you want for your shot will help you capture events in your life better.

DJI Phantom 4 Drone Lesson In Ottawa With XPR

My introduction DJI Phantom 4 class was offered by XPR (whom I also took a VR experience with), and taught by Matt Guzzo. The introduction class is approximately 45 minutes long costs $75 and allows for up to 2 people to take the private class. In the course, I got to learn the basics of drone flying, including how to take photos and videos, how to set up the drone and land it, along with some useful functions such as active track. I found Matt to be a very patient and friendly teacher who was a very knowledgeable about flying the DJI Phantom 4 Drone.

When booking the class you can schedule a time, and then can discuss a suitable open park nearby that you would wish to fly at. As I was eager to try filming at a beach, Matt found a park that we could go to for our lesson.

I couldn’t get over how far up (6 km) the drone can fly, which allows you plenty of ability to get the exact shot you want. For those worried about hitting a tree or person, the drone actually detects nearby obstacles and will do its best to prevent hitting them, which makes flying easier. When flying you can see on your cell phone exactly what the drone is filming and control the drone with the two small joysticks.

Built-in functions such as active track where the drone can follow a person or moving an object to always keep it in the frame make it very easy to get shots of you walking around. Likewise, there is the option circle around an object or person, so you can record a 360 view with the built-in feature.

When the drone is getting low on battery, it will auto fly back to the controller but there is also a return to home button which makes landing your drone very simple.

All the video footage was taken from my intro lesson and will give you a sense of some of the basic functions you will be able to do.

I would highly recommend taking the DJI Phantom 4 Drone flying class if you would like to test out flying one before purchasing, but anyone would find the activity fun.