Hello everyone, new drone owner, new member here.
My name is Richard Truesdell and I'm an automotive writer and photographer. I write for many magazines around the world and my most recent feature is a cover story I produced for the November issue of Mustang Monthly, photographing a Bullitt Mustang Tribute in San Francisco this Summer. Some shots were taken of the car parked alongside the deli across the street from Frank Bullitt's apartment from the movie (boy I wish I had a drone for this shot).
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After a bad experience trying to buy a clone drone from one of the vendors on Wish.com (a terrible company, don't buy anything that costs more than $10 from them) I went to Sammy's Camera in Santa Ana, California, to check out their drones. Not intending to buy anything, I ended up walking out with a Breeze 4K. I don't have buyer's remorse... yet (I haven't opened the packaging yet, so I can return it), I am researching the heck out of my purchase to see if I bought what I need.
My needs? I want to get some aerial shots of the cars I test (as an accredited and published writer I typically have a different car every week). I'm not looking for anything fancy, but want to produce video travelogues of my tests and feel having aerial shots will set apart my videos from the mountain of car-related rubbish one finds on YouTube.
What I see of the Breeze 4K, it appears simple-to-use (an important criterion for me) but I see three limitations of the Breeze 4K. First, my version wasn't packed with a controller. Second, it really doesn't capture 4K stabilized video (not a big issue for me as 1080p@30fps is fine for what I want for my YouTube channel). But its top speed is limited (apparently by its software so it can be used indoors) to about 11mph. I want to know if anyone has hacked the software to raise the top speed to 25mph or a bit faster. What I want to do is get aerial tracking shots of the cars I test during the week I have them.
This week I have a 2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia that I'm going to drive to Palm Springs, drive completely around the dead Salton Sea, and on to a hotel in nearby Borrego Springs for a story I'm producing for a German travel magazine. I'd love to get some aerial shots of the car as I drive up to some of the landmarks along my route, like the
Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge as well as getting shots of the refuge as well.
So while a limitation of 11mph is OK in approaching the refuge, I would like the flexibility to get longer shots of the car going a bit faster; 25mph would be good, up to 35mph would be great!
Anyone with experience in hacking the Breeze 4K's software, especially the speed limit limitations, could you give me a shout? Or should I return the Breeze 4K and get the DJI Spark. The problem is I paid only $150 for the Breeze 4K and it seems that the Spark is at least three times more expensive. Since I won't be using the drone every day, and I'm not trying to produce a competitor to Jay Leno's Garage, I'm thinking that the Breeze 4K will suit me fine except for the speed limit. If I can overcome that issue, I'll be fine.
So if anyone can help, please give me a shout. I'm also looking to connect with other local Breeze 4K owners that live in South Riverside County, California (I live in Lake Elsinore). If you're a local car enthusiast and experienced drone pilot and would like to join me on one of my road trip-style tests, I'd love to hear from you.
If you would like to see a part of my portfolio, to see what I do in print,
click here. I know that I can enhance what I do if I can give my editors some high-quality video for my web presentations, like this trip.
Sorry for the long post but hope someone will see it and can suggest what I should do.
Have a great day,
Richard Truesdell
Contributing Editor, Mustang Monthly, Muscle Car Review, Mopar Muscle, Classic Mercedes (UK)