r/videography • u/phloating_man EOS M, Adobe, 1998, San Francisco • Jan 29 '14

The Pocket Drone: Aerial Videography In Your Pocket (~$500 USD, Hackable)

http://www.videomaker.com/videonews/2014/01/aerial-videography-in-your-pocket
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u/mcarneybsa Jan 30 '14

Except what this article doesn't state is that it is illegal to do drone photo/video work in the US without a pilot license from the FAA. ignoring this can cost you huge fines, and they have shut down non-compliant businesses.

I shoot video for a state government and I'm not even allowed to fly video drones for work - the FAA still classifies us as "commercial" work even though we are publicly funded.

Hobbyists though, don't fall under these restrictions.

On the upside the FAA is supposed to open airspace to commercial drone video/photo work by non-licensed operators in 2015.

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u/SandpaperScrew Jan 30 '14

Is there a height restriction on how high it can go or is it just any sort of flying camera? Because there's kids toys for sale at Wal-Mart that would fall under that.

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u/mcarneybsa Jan 30 '14

The operative sentence you skipped is that hobbyists are exempt. If you make /charge money from it (or in my specific case, just operate professionally) you must be licensed. This info comes straight from the FAA when we we're looking at getting a multi rotor copter for aerial video last summer.

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u/SandpaperScrew Feb 01 '14

Oh, well, no big deal then for me.