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Garen Build Guide by Ortaloo
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Spin yourself out of Elohell -
Garen Build
Start vs (strong) AD Champ
Start vs (weaker) Champ
Other Items to start with
Normal Lane vs (strong) AD Champ
Playing vs (strong) AP Champs
Possible Build (Offtank)
Possible Build (Fulltank)
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
Whatever happens: NEVER FLAME, NEVER!
Try not to be toxic, if you feel like blaming your teammates, do it, but only in your head, or speak it out loud, but not in chat, don't let them notice it unless it's constructive critisism. Seriously, don't flame, ever!
About me!
So, this is my first guide and I'm only doing this because I thought it would be fun.
I'm not a proplayer or anything, just Gold 1 Elo atm, but on my way up.
Garen is one of my favourite Champions because of his sustain and his ability to come back even after a hard laningphase.
I started to play ranked in Silver 5 (which was horrible, honestly) and found that the easiest way to gain Elo was to carry my team myself. My main role was Toplane, and I played Garen to do so. Garen can be a noobbasher, and if you feel like you are stuck in your lowelo, try this guide;)
If you disagree with my guide, you can try to contact me and I will gladly discuss anything. I can only say, I win most of my games with Garen (61.3% in ranked Gold I, atm). So, enjoy and learn something.
(Play Desert Trooper Garen, he has a Scimitar, which is awesome!)
Introduction to Garen
Garen,... Garen is one of the most Badass Champions (right after Darius & Jax) that LoL has.
He is perfect for trolling the enemy, going in and out of fights whenever you like, tanking the whole enemy team + a turret and still doing tons of dmg while executing the enemy tank with your Ult.
Long story short: He is fun to play, and not as easy as most people think.
BUT: Garen is not always a good pick. He lacks teamplay ability, and that's mostly what you need, if you want to win.
So, if your team hasn't got any CC DON'T ****ING PICK GAREN.(Some people may say: "BUTBUTBUTBUTBUT, HE GOT SILENCE!"...... yes, he has got a Silence on his Q, but see how much that will help in a teamfight.)
This is the most important lesson you got to learn as a Garen player, you may win your lane, have awesome stats, but still lose the game, because you'll become useless. So, if you ever wonder what else to pick whenever Garen might be bad, I'll try to make some guides for other Champs that can help here(Jax, Jayce, Malph, Elise...will hopefully follow.)
Back to Garen:
Q: Gives you Movespeed on activation (incredible much of it), the next Autoattack deals more dmg + Silences the enemy, and ofc, if you are slowed, you can just make the slow vanish by pressing Q (=awesome)
W: Gives you extra Armor + Mageres for % of ur Armor/Mageres passively (This is what makes u one of the strongest tanks.). On activation you gain a shield that lowers incoming damage and gives you some kind of Tenacity/Some CC-reduction while the shield is active.
E: Spin to win. You spin in circles, can move around freely, deal a lot of dmg to every enemy nearby (every single of these hits can Crit!!!) and you are still able to cast your other spells.
R: Your Ult, the thing that makes everybodys screen shake. Awesome stuff. Useless against Full-HP enemies, but once you've gotten an enemy low, you can finish him. The less HP the enemy has, the higher the Dmg gets.
I recommend to play Garen with all his skills on Smartcast.
Your role as Garen in Lategame/Teamfight:
Your job is either to try to guard your DDs in a teamfight or to get the enemy DDs.
The first thing is pretty hard for you, because you haven't got any real CC, like I said before. The second thing is much easier for you.
You can easily dive into the enemy team, they can Slow you, you can Q it away and rush for the enemy ADC or AP-Caster or whatever you want. With your silence + E dmg you can cause a lot of trouble in the enemy lines, once you see a target drop low, you can ult it for a pretty safe kill. (Watch out that you dont use ur ult on the enemy Support while their ADC ist beating your team up)
Most ADCs will start to run from you, which can be good. Garen is good at splitting up the enemy team, if you do your job right, you will seperate their ADC from the rest of the team. Just send him running, he'll not be able to hurt you;)
Your Job in short terms: Guard, Zone, Split, Dive, Tank, and be ****ing annoying!
So, I just wrote a ****load of text here, for more specific information just take a look into the specific sections.
Marks: Flat AD for better lasthiting, and punishing the enemy.
Seals: Flat Armor for tankiness + one single Critchance rune.
(if you crit a single time, it can actually change a whole teamfight, 1 armor extra will most likely not make any difference.)
Glyphs: Flat Mageres for tankiness
Quints: Movespeed Quints (for Garen the most important thing is to stay close to the enemy, even if he gets CCed. These help you do so.)
If you don't feel like using Movespeed Quints, go Armorpen, they are usefull as well.
I usually go 6-21-3 Masteries. Your job is not to deal much dmg, but to be tanky as ****. These Masteries make sure you do your job;)
If you are facing an AD-Toplaner, you can skill Tenacious 4 times instead of Resistance and Evasive.
Against an Ap-Toplaner, you can skill Tenacious 4 times instead of Hardiness and Reinforced Armor.
I'm not done trying the new Masteries, so I am not completly sure which one is better.
In very seldom cases, you can actually go an offensive build. In that case, you can go 21-9-0. But I wouldn't recommend it.
Basic Summoners are FLASH + IGNITE.
You can also play the following:
GHOST (no need, to be honest)
BARRIER (don't do it, just don't.)
As Garen your job is tanking, at least in most cases. I too play AD Garen sometimes, Crit Garen especially is a hell lot of fun!
But anyway, usually you'll build into a Offtank.
Against AD-Champions you have to rush Health + Armor.
Against AP-Champions you have to rush Health + Mageres.
Against Champions that you can easily outdmg, buy some AD/Crit.
But don't forget that sooner or later you'll meet 4 other enemies, and they might deal more dmg than your laneenemy!
There can not be ONE GUIDE, TO WIN THEM ALL.
You will always have to adapt to your own playstyle, the enemy and of course your team. You are not playing a Singleplayer game here, take care of your teammates.
Some bad items (in my opinion) that many people build on Garen:
Black Cleaver: This item can be usefull if you spin inside the enemy team while being in teamfights lategame. It will lower all their Armor, which is useful of course.
If you play the way I do, if you dive through the team to kill the enemy carries, it will not be that helpful and you should build Atmas, IE or Last Whisper instead, to maximize your damage.
Boots of Swiftness: Why the hell would you build these boots?! Reduced Slow? You can't be slowed with your Q anyway-.- Get some Armor- or CC-Boots instead, you are fast enough!
Triforce: Okay , I do it myself, but I'll still list it here to make you understand, this item is only very seldom of use. It gives you a bit of health, some critchance and extra dmg after a skill, but it also gives you AP + Mana, which is wasted on Garen, both of it. So really think it through, it can be fun, though I wouldn't build it in a ranked game.
Lasthiting and Pushing
As Garen it is pretty easy to get a good CS, in early- as well as in lategame.
After you got your E on lvl 3, you can easily destroy the casterminions with only one E.
You can either just run into the wave, make sure your E hits everything and finish the close ranged minions of with Autoattacks + Q,...
OR (even better), Zoning:
You zone your enemy by standing between his minions. if he comes to get a lasthit, you give him a normal hit, followed by a Q and E. He will most likely lose the dmg-trade and you will still be able to get the whole creepwave (if you do it right.)
Winning lane as Garen
Here's the situation: You are winning your lane, you got more farm, outdmg the enemy, got more kills, something like that.
Here is what you do, freeze the lane and don't let the enemy get close to get any CS. Deny his Farm, and even the Experience if you can. Make sure you got your lane warded, otherwhise you'll get ganked soon and lose everything you won before.
2 places to freeze your lane:
Normal defensive Freeze:
The creeps are fighting on the height of the beginning of the river(the side that is closer to your side, ofc), keep them there, you are only gankable through tribush or from the lane itself. ward tribush and make sure the enemy stays away from ur creeps, sit in the bush and whenever he comes, scare him off with a Q+E from u. Works perfectly.
New Freeze, still testing;)
At the far ending of the river, close to his turret. Some enemys will have problems lasthiting under their turret, if so, buy a pinkward, get it into the riverbush (it now lasts forever, which is awesome!) and keep the lane pushed or frozen close to his turret. He will lose CS to his turret while you can easily get every creep out of a wave with your E + a few lasthits.
Counters to Garen/Having problems as Garen
In my opinion there are no real counterpicks to Garen, some may say that's wrong, but let me finish...
So, Garen is a Melee Champion, without a real gapcloser, which makes every ranged Champion a Counterpick,...
BUT: His Q + his Lanesustain with his Passive + the Bushes (now three, YES!) are really helping Garen to survive any lane and any gank.
Example, the so called strongest Counterpick: Teemo = Bu ll sh it.
You can counter teemo yourself, get some resistances, push your lane out. Teemo cant push back quick enough. Towerhug early lvls, once you got lvl 3 E, finish the whole wave quick and fall back, heal with passive + Pots until the next wave arrives, do the same thing again. Wait for a gank, finish Teemo quickly because you can easily outdmg him once you are close to him.
And that is how you have to play against nearly every ranged Champion.
Garen has different ways of playing in lane, you can lasthit under turrets pretty well, so if you're getting beaten up really bad, just towerhug, you'll be fine. You can easily steal some kills with your Ult lateron, which will get you back into the game.
Most of the time the key to winning a lane as Garen is to push out the lane real quick. Nearly no other Top-Champion can push so fast. Afterwards press Q and go roaming, disturb the enemy jungler, gank/dive mid and get a kill with your Ult. Just use the fact that your skills don't cost anything and that you are really fast with your Q.
If you really don't stand a chance in your lane, let them finish your turret and make sure you are of use somewhere else, get a drake, help bot, something. If you see in Champselect, that your lanenemy might beat you up, reconsider playing with Flash + Teleport. It allows you to go back on early lvls without losing CS and gank after lvl 6 with a high killrate.
Just don't do anything that will harm your teammates, like farming your ADCs farm, he'll need it more than you;)
General Stuff
Just because Garen hasn't got any skillshots, it doesn't mean that he is easy to play. I agree, Viktor is harder, and Anivia as well, and many other Champs too, but it's not like a Garen-pick means you are winning instantly. To master Garen, you got to learn when to engage, who to engage and when to run. Don't underestimate this knowledge.
Game started: Move towards Toplane and buy while you are walking, the shop-range is higher towards the toplane!
Arriving: GUARD SOMETHING, either your tribush, your Bluebuff or whatever, don't be useless under the turret!
Coming from Base: PRESS Q, don't waste time
Your Lane is pushed: Roam, disturb the enemy, but always time it right so you don't miss CS.
Your Jungler timed the Bluebuff badly: Your Jungler is bot while your blue is up, push your lane, do the blue for your midlaner, make yourself usefull! Don't just sit top.
Whatever you do, try to get all the lasthits, practice it! In a normal case you can even lasthit under the enemy turret. It doesn't matter if you tank one or two shots (in most cases, don't blame me if you die.) The first Turrethit deals less dmg anyway.
Bluebuff (5 min respawn) = Normally not for u, give it to someone who can actually use it!
Redbuff (5 min respawn)= Might be usefull, but I'm sure somebody else might have more use of it.
Wraiths (50 sec respawn)= Quick money for you, if you got nothing else to do.
Wolfs (50 sec respawn)= Takes you a bit longer than Wraiths, might be worth it.
Golems (50 sec respawn)= Nearly never worth it, costs too much time.
Big Ghost/Wight (50 sec respawn)= Not worth it, doesn't deal dmg to you, but it takes you ages to do it.
Drake (6 min respawn) - ALWAYS time the Dragon-respawntimer
Baron (7 min respawn) - ALWAYS time the Baron-respawntimer
Try to time your buffs too, it's easy to do and helps your whole team. Just activate timestamps and everytime you do a buff, write the respawntimer real quick. Just do it!
Explanations for Dummies
DMG = Damage
AR = Armor (more armor lets you take less physical dmg.)
MR = Magical resistance (more MR lets you take less magical dmg.)
ADC = Attack Damage Carry (Vayne, Graves, Ezreal,...)
APC = Ability Power Caster/Carry (Brand, Xerath, LeBlanc,...)
DD = Damage Dealer (ADCs + APCs)
Tank = The one that tries to take the dmg instead of the DDs.
Offtank = Offensive Tank, a Champion that tries to play hybrid.
CS = Creepscore (Your lasthits on Creeps/Monsters)
CC = Crowdcontrol (Things you can do to enemys: Stun, Slow, Silence, Snare, Root, Knockup/Airborne, aaaaaahm....I guess some more, stuff like that)
AA = Autoattack (Normal Attack every champion can do without any cost)
Crit = Critical strike (An Autoattack that deals double dmg(or more in some cases))
Tribush = The bush with the triangular shape that can be entered from the top/botlane, the river and the jungle(there is only one Bush like that, go find it yourself!)
BT = Bloodthirster
IE = Infinity Edge
LW = Last Whisper
GA = Guardian Angel


text:
'Cook like a ninja!' I'm frying onions under the watchful gaze of Judy Cardoza in her kitchen in Goa. I'm not sure how ninjas cook but Judy's frown tells me they probably don't burn their onions. 'It will ruin the flavour, the dish will be too bitter,' she warns and I have to start all over again.
Fortunately her attention is diverted from my efforts by the sight of another of her pupils stirring his biryani in a cold, unloving manner. 'Cook with your heart!' she yells. 'Food just HAS to be delicious.'
Judy Cardoza is passionate about Indian cuisine. She has been cooking since the age of 14, when she would sneak into her mother's kitchen, which was strictly off limits, and spend hours secretly experimenting with different flavours and spices. The thrill of the prohibited made it all the more enjoyable for her. Now her passion has found a legitimate outlet teaching five-day cookery courses specialising in the food of southern India.
Every day a taxi-van arrives at 9am to pick me up from my hotel in Calangute. It's a 30-minute drive to Judy's heavily gated Portuguese-style colonial mansion overlooking the Mandovi river in Betim and we pick up my fellow novice chefs en route. There's twenty-something Nick who is taking time out in nearby Anjuna and wants to learn how to cook to impress a female friend; Sandee from Scotland, a mother of two, who is now on her third visit to Goa and wants to convert her husband to the joys of curry; and Australian Morag who works on a luxury yacht owned by a wealthy businessman, who wants her to learn how to cook his favourite Indian dishes.
On our first day Judy instils her philosophy into us. Her style is rigorous - vegetables must be chopped into perfect neat slices; vessels need to be HOT! before anything enters the pan; timing is everything - and yet instinctive.
'Don't follow a recipe book word for word, go by your feeling instead,' she tells us. 'Cook with an open mind, make it a unique and individual experience. No two masalas will be the same. If you cook a masala on a Tuesday, it will be different to one you cook on a Thursday.'
Judy is a quietly imposing figure, but occasionally she throws down her utensils in disgust when we get it wrong. She doesn't flinch when the flames of my chicken cafreal go gushing up to the ceiling.
Our recipe books are divided into three sections: the north, the south and sweet nation. During the week we learn some recipes from the north, which tend to be heavier, meat-based dishes such as sofiani biryani and chicken tikka. Dishes from the south of India are more likely to be vegetarian and tend to involve a lot of coconut and local spices (masalas).
My favourite recipe has to be the Goan fish curry. Coconut oil is used instead of olive oil and Judy shuns American long grain rice in favour of basmati every time. (Apparently it's also better for your digestion.)
'Indian cooking in the west is often very artificial,' says Judy as she shows us how to achieve what she calls 'eye appeal', using colourful spices such as Kashmiri chilli powder. She insists on making everything from scratch - even the cardamon tea we have on our well-earned break.
As the week unfolds it becomes clear that much of the Indian food served in restaurants in the west is a distortion. The pakoras and bhajis we make in class are tiny, dainty little things, unlike the humongous bloated ones served up back home in Britain.
Goan cuisine has been influenced from a blend of cultures throughout the centuries. But it was refreshing to discover the basic components of Goan cooking are local products, such as the coconut, which is used not just for cooking but also as a material for building roofs.
A trip to the colourful and chaotic Mapusa market halfway through the five-day course provided us with the opportunity to purchase a vast range of local herbs and spices, cooking utensils, fish, vegetables and fruit at bargain prices.
Sandee felt her approach to Indian cooking had been revolutionised: 'I have learnt so much and what sticks in my mind most is that we must always use fresh produce - my spice cupboard is now offically binned'.
Lessons finish at lunchtime, with the chance to sit around the table and sample each other's cooking. Then it's back to the hotel for a lazy afternoon by the hotel swimming pool. On the last day I proudly make gulab jamuns, which are round balls of dough that taste like doughnuts. We wash them down with home-made lassi (a refreshing drink made from yoghurt, fruit, cardamon and ice). 'A typical south Indian home will be full of loud slurping noises at eating time,' says Judy. 'Using hands to eat is a must, as long as the food doesn't drip below the wrist.'
At night we visit the local beach bars: Britto's for the most amazing array of desserts; La Dolce Vita, where the jetset of Goa chill out; and the Mayonna bar for all night rock'n'roll.
Judy's cookery school has helped to demystify Indian cooking and I no longer feel even remotely dazzled by an Indian restaurant menu. I confess I am hooked, but after a long morning working over a hot stove, I can't wait to get back to the beach at the end of class and leap into the sea.
Rachel Foster travelled to Goa with On the Go Tours (020 7371 1113; www.indiaonthemenu.com), which offers cooking holidays in destinations such as Morocco, Mexico and Jordan. An eight-day cooking course in Goa costs from £549pp including accommodation at the three-star Casa de Goa in Calangute, excluding flights. Jet Airways (0800 026 5626; www.jetairways.com) flies from London to Goa (via Mumbai) from £450pp.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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|May 5, 2011, 10:26 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: April 24, 2010
Location: Ohio
Posts: 530
Simple have a lot read that a lot of money and a lot of time to shoot.
|May 6, 2011, 03:43 AM
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Join Date: May 1, 2011
Location: NorthWest
Posts: 4
BiPed, As I just posted, I bought a JW 2000 at Big 5 for $259+tax the other day and it works just fine. The finish, fit and feel are well worth the money. For shooting cans in the desert, how much gun do you need? I think this shotgun is all I will ever need.
|May 6, 2011, 08:32 AM
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Join Date: February 9, 2006
Location: Homes in Brooklyn, NY and in Pennsylvania.
Posts: 4,906
Bottom line: SXSs are hunting guns. That's what they were made for...not Trap, not skeet, not Sporting Clays, not CAS. Yes, SXSs have been used for all of those sports but they shine in the field more brightly than any other venue.
I suggest that, much as I share BJP's feelings about quality (and I do), there are few SXSs that are going to be put to the 25K test.
As to $400 guns......the used market has been kind to me, though the guns that I have chosen to buy are antiques. Despite that, I hunt with them on a regular basis and have even shot SCs with one.
In one afternoon, I picked up a Parker VH and a LeFever Nitro Special for less than $800 total. Both guns were and are tight and bright. It was the LeFever that I used at Sporting Clays and did well enough that one of the other fellows in the party wanted to borrow it.
"Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games." Ernest Hemingway ...
NRA Life Member
|May 6, 2011, 10:13 AM
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Join Date: September 15, 2001
Location: Central PA
Posts: 1,007
try one of these on for size before you spend allot of hard earned dough. 50's vintage Stevens 311. This one has the 5100 action and is a 20ga with 28" barrels and real black walnut furniture. I paid all of $200 bucks for the gun and it will last a few more decades...
|May 6, 2011, 11:17 AM
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Join Date: August 23, 2008
Location: SoCal
Posts: 6,442
A point that is often overlooked is that the SxS is, by it's nature, an inaccurate configuration. Unlike the O/U with its parallel barrels, generally SxS barrels converge at a single point and their accuracy is limited. Think of a attack aircraft with wing guns, there is a sweet spot where that bullets converge; but, at other ranges there is a horizontal separation. It's basically the same principle with a SxS shotgun.
Back in the day when black powder SxS smooth bores were front loaded with a wide variety of charges, scattergun performance, and accuracy weren't consistent. With today's longer range ammo the SxS's lack of accuracy becomes readily apparent. There's a reason why the majority of serious shooters traded in their SxS guns many years ago.
If you're only after a gun for close quarters action and/or nostalgia, then go for a SxS. On the other hand, if you're after a gun that will take advantage of modern ammo, you might be better served with a single barrel or O/U gun.
|May 6, 2011, 11:26 AM
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Join Date: February 23, 2005
Posts: 12,922
I'm not saying any of you guys are wrong in your approach ( well, that's not true / I'm still not buying a Huglu or a Baikal - even for the grandkids to shoot ) ....but another way to look at this ...and everyone is different in their usage and expectations of quality ...
I probably agree with most of you on the SXS's being used more in the field than in clay games....but let's switch it up to inexpensive O/U's that some shooters want to use in the field and in clays games...
A. ... $ 400 gun and if its a decent value I'm saying it has to go 10,000 shells in its lifetime/before major repairs. At 8 boxes a month - call it 2,000 shells a yr / or 10,000 shells in 5 yrs. At $400 and 10,000 shells fired that equates to $ 40 per 1,000 targets fired.
B. ..... $ 3,000 Browning O/U Citori XS Skeet model with adj comb 30" barrels ( a gun, that I say, will fit 99.9% of shooters very well ) ...not a fancy gun / but a solid workhorse. I can attest it will easily go 250,000 shells without any major issues ( and I have at least 2 of them / that are currently doing that and more )... 250,000 shells may seem like a lot but its common for a semi-serious shooter to fire 15,000 shells a yr as a local competitive shooter - sporting clays, etc ( 25 boxes a month in competition / 25 boxes a week in practice ).
You can buy Browning Citori's - like the Lightning - for $ 1,500 but the XS Skeet model has more adjustability / its not any stronger than the Lightning ....but for the sake of my comparison call it a $3,000 gun / it lists for more but $3K will get this gun, new in box, in my area ...
$3,000 @ 250,000 shells is $ 12 per 1,000 shells .....
The question is - what's the better buy .... the $40 per 1,000 shell gun or the $ 12 per 1,000 shell guns ......
Take into account resale value ....what is that $400 gun worth in 5 yrs ... $100 or $50 ...maybe ...
What is that $3,000 gun worth in 5 yrs ( even with 75,000 shells thru it ) ...$ 2,500 maybe $ 2,750 ...(because Brownings prices will go up about 6% a yr at least on new guns ...)...or at least they have for the last 15 yrs ..
I didn't always have $3K to spend on a gun / or the money to enter tournaments (target fees, travel, etc ) or shoot 15,000 shells a yr ....so like a lot of guys, for many years, I shot a Browning BPS ... 8 or 10 boxes a month maybe ...did some hunting, etc ... ( and I still have that gun that I paid around $ 125 for in the mid 1970's ) ....
But my point is --- that if you can afford a better quality gun ...maybe it pays off in the long run.
For what its worth ....I hunt upland birds with the Citori XS Skeet models as well as shoot Skeet and Sporting Clays with them ...not as much as I did 15 yrs ago ...and yes, they have a few marks on them / but even in a duck blind ...or on a Phesant hunt - you can still be careful with a nice gun ( it doesn't have to be a boat paddle )....and if, god forbid, you drop it or scratch it badly ...well winter time is a nice time to sand it out / repair the dumb-butt scratches a little if you have to ...
Just my perspective - there is no wrong or right answer probably .../ if one buyer thinks about this analysis ...I'm content ...regardless of what decision they make.
Last edited by BigJimP; May 6, 2011 at 11:36 AM.
|May 6, 2011, 11:44 AM
Join Date: March 22, 2011
Location: Northern Maine
Posts: 74
I haven't met a person who's fired 30,000 shells, let alone 250,000...
I've probably fired 400 in 5 years hunting (mostly shotgun, maybe 15% rifle), but I'm looking to get into trap, skeet, and maybe some longer range rifle work now so that is probably going to double this year.
I've had my eye on a fairly cheap SxS ($250) that I would use in trap and skeet plus would be my new bird and rabbit gun.
I didn't know SxS's came together at a certain distance, I figured it was like an O/U that would simply fire straight right next to each other giving you "basically" the same shot out each barrel.
|May 6, 2011, 12:25 PM
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Location: SoCal
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|May 6, 2011, 12:31 PM
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Join Date: February 23, 2005
Posts: 12,922
They should all hit the same spot ....or have the same point of impact..
but if the barrels are not properly constructed ...like the Huglu O/U that an acquaintance bought ...at 21 yards one barrel was high left about 8" and the other barrel was low right about 10" ...or an 18" spread ( which made it next to impossible to hit anything consistently with that gun )....
Qty of shells is relative ...but trust me, there are a lot of even casual competition shooters - shooting at least 5,000 registered targets ( tournament targets a year ) ...and practice at twice that easily ...so 15,000 targets a year isn't uncommon...among competition shooters...
I know quite a few guys that are retired or work for themselves - and they practice 3 days a week ( 2 or 3 hours ) - about 150 targets a day ...and then often shoot either Sat or Sunday/ sometimes both days in local registered shoots ....or easily 600 targets a week and when the regionals and bigger 4 day state tournaments come up -- they shoot at least 1,000 targets over those 4 day events between warm up, the registered shoot, after hours with a few crazy cash games... so call it 30,000 or 35,000 targets a year probably.
Yes, it does take money to do this ( but it takes money to do everything ) ...but if the kids are all grown, you don't have a weekend or 2nd house, don't like to snow-ski, don't like to play golf, don't have a boat, don't like to fish ...for a lot of guys shotgun shooting is a major hobby ....( my problem is I have too many hobbies / and I still work 3 - 4 days a week - because full time retirement would kill me, I'd be so busy .. ) ...
When I was raising kids in my 20's ...I didn't have a lot of extra money for shooting anything ...everything in moderation ..and over time ..../now I'm taking my grandkids shooting ...( so my expenses are up big time ..)...but my wife is very generous and does not make an issue out of it(for time or money ) ...as long as I keep it a little in perspective...
|May 6, 2011, 12:32 PM
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Join Date: February 23, 2005
Posts: 12,922
and my buddy Zippy speaks up ....( and he's serious ) ..../ and he did it for "many, many years " ....
|May 6, 2011, 12:57 PM
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Join Date: April 24, 2010
Location: Ohio
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Zippy13 brought up regulation and that some gunmakers will regulate doubles to shoot to a specific point with both barrels for discriminating clients. Let's discuss that a bit. That is possible and you are then limited to that one specific load and spending your time standing square to the patterning board and making it your sole target.
First it is useful to understand what happens that causes side by sides whether they are rifles or shotguns to shoot each barrel to different points of impact with one poiint of aim. Basically it is because the centerline of the bores of each barrel are left and right of the centerline of the gun. When the right barrel is fired recoil pushes the muzzle up and to the right a small amount before the charge leaves the barrel in like manner when the left barrel is fired it moves up and left. What then happens with loads the gun is not regulated for is the right barrel impact on target to the right of the point of aim and the left barrel impacts to the left of the point of aim. For a right handed shooter the left divergence will generally be less due to the support hand on the forend and opposite for a right handed shooter.
To counter this SxS have their chambers paralell at the breech and then at a point, generally at the forend latch hook used as a fulcrum, they are bowed toward the centerline of the gun so that the centerlines of the bores are closer at the muzzles then they are at the breech. There is of course a limit to the amount of convergence towards center that can be built in and it normally is not enough to overcome completly the effects of recoil with shotguns that have light barrels unlike rifles that have significanlty more weight to offset recoil.
It's interesting that if you were to put lasers into the muzzles of a SxS shotgun so that the beams were aligned with the centerline of the bores you would find that the beams intersected generally 9 to 12 feet in front of the muzzles. This is with 20 through 12 Ga it will be somewhat longer with .410.
This amount of convergence is not going to be enough to bring loads to the point they will cross at any point however it is enough that while the left barrel will diverge left and the right barrel will diverge right within the general range of loads for the guage it will not be enough to make any difference.
For example a 12Ga load that diverges 4" right at 15yds and 4" left at the same distance will be off 12"right and 12"left at 35 yds. With the dimensions of the pattern that is not really significant. By the way what I just quoted is about the max you might see.
Also the above is only valid with the gun stationary when fired such as at a patterning board. When you shoot at flying targets and the gun is moving up down left or right the inertia of the moving gun will considerably offset the effects of recoil.
This is what I mean when I say that regulating a shotgun is a fallacy. Shotguns are layed up to be reasonable close with the general range of loads for the guage. That is all that is necessary.
|May 6, 2011, 02:08 PM
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Interesting ...
And I know you said 12" left and 12" right is the max ... but that would be a 24" spread between them, if I'm understanding your point correctly...
So with a Modified choke at 35 yds giving you about a 36" pattern ....to center that target in the pattern ...you're going to have to adjust your lead with one barrel vs the other ....on a hard crosser moving right to left ....if you felt like you wanted 8 feet of sustained lead with an O/U on that target .... then with a SXS - you'd want about 7 feet with the left barrel and 9 feet with the right barrel (worst case) ..../ or am I missing something ?
And is that 2 Feet of lead variation / if you're shooting sustained lead ...a big deal ...it seems like a lot of adjustment to make as you switch barrels ...( and another reason why I like shooting O/U's vs SXS's perhaps ...). Shooting a SXS consistently might take more talent than I posess ....( I had wanted to be as quick as a Cat - but I was born like a Buffalo - so this is as good as it gets ...) ......
But interesting ...
|May 6, 2011, 02:38 PM
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Jim you didn't read all that I said. I said that the inertia of the moving gun largely overides the effect of recoil. I was only pointing out the fallacy that SxS shotguns are regulated to print both barrels to the same point of aim at a certain distance.
The example I was using was what you might expect to see if you took say a light 12Ga SxS best suited for a snappy 1 Oz upland load and fed it a 1&1/4 mag load.
If such things are important to a person you can adjust the load you use to the gun and get them mighty close. It just won't do much paracticaly except make you feel good.
|May 6, 2011, 02:50 PM
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I'll have to think about this some more ...
|May 6, 2011, 08:33 PM
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Well Biped, You asked about a SxS for around $400, Here's one for a lot less than that. I got this one at the Big 5 in Poulsbo, WA for $259+tax. I really don't think it will "burn off" 1/4 of a million shells, but to shoot beer cans out in the desert, "Your In"! Get One and have FUN.
|May 6, 2011, 09:45 PM
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Let's say you're correct and stipulate:
|May 6, 2011, 11:14 PM
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Well, I haven't met you personally Zippy, I didn't say people don't do it. I come from a economically depressed region so people can't afford to shoot that much, not to mention the lack of competitions.
I'm sure people who are quite into competition shooting will shoot that much, and people who can afford it (or spend their money on shooting versus other hobbies), but I have way to many expensive hobbies to ever go through that quantity of shells financially.
|May 7, 2011, 12:01 AM
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You are correct. Regarding how we generally define accuracy the single barrel ie: pumps, autos, etc. are the most accurate followed by the O/U and the SxS bringing up the tail.
That said all are accurate enough and the important thing is the skill of the man behind the gun.
|May 7, 2011, 12:27 AM
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The man was just looking for a 'cheap' SXS; all this debate and techno speak may have scared him off I learned alot though
"I'm what ya call a 'conscientious objector'; you know a coward". Bender "futurama"
|May 7, 2011, 01:06 AM
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Please see PM.
|May 7, 2011, 07:38 AM
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Try your local gun shop, there are some out there you can trust, and telling them your NEW to the gunny world and they won't try to screw you.
If you get this good vibe, you can get a good used o/u or s/s for your price.
They'll be old but they shoot well and you'll be on your way, to a new higher grade gun. Don't waste your money on a Bentley when a Jeep will get you where you need to go.
|May 7, 2011, 11:55 AM
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Concerning the discussion about the need (or not the need) for regulating barrels on SXS doubles, I found the following quotation from Charles Askins in his book Modern Shotguns and Loads interesting, if, perhaps, a "bit" dated: "...Double barrels are of course forged in separate tubes, which are then smoothed down to correct shape and put together by soldering. It requires a clever workman to fasten a pair of barrels together so that they will shoot to an exact center, and in fact so adjusting shotgun barrels is a trade of its own. Occasionally at that, a pair of barrels will have to be taken apart and readjusted. Bore sighting is of considerable help in correctly placing two barrels together, and the man who has a suspicion that his two barrels are not shooting to center can test that out by putting up a six inch bull at thirty yards, fixing his tubes in a rest and sighting through them..."
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|May 7, 2011, 01:11 PM
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Ask the folks at Purdey or H&H about regulating barrels
|May 7, 2011, 04:08 PM
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Location: Ohio
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Actually it is correct and the folks at Purdy and H&H would tell you that shotguns are layed up not regulated. Double rifles are regulated.
Stop and think about it for a bit how useful would a shotgun that was limited to one load only be.
Also the so called cheap guns from Russia and Turkey shoot very well actually. The formulas for laying up SxS shotguns regarding barrel length, weight, convergance vs range of charges for the guage are pretty well known.
Interesting that a few months ago the History channel had an hour long program at Holland and Holland on constructing a "bespoken" SxS shotgun that went into detail showing the construction and laying up of the barrels, the machining and hand fitting of the action and stocking the gun. They did not regulate it and a "bespoken" gun is about as high tier as you can get.
Last edited by denster; May 7, 2011 at 04:31 PM.
|May 7, 2011, 05:11 PM
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Regarding the quote from Charles Askins. He was a colorful character. However the quotation shows he had a profound misunderstanding of that aspect of shotgunning. Particularly the part about putting a target up at 30yds and sighting through the bores. That is just so much bologny. It is not important where the muzzles are pointing when the trigger is pulled but where they are pointing when the charge leaves the barrel.
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When executing an AIF-service with the COM and .Net Business Connector the client will not be notified about exceptions during the execution. The reason for this is, that AIF-services are always executed within a transaction (ttslevel = 1) even when no ttsBegin has been executed. And as described on the X++ blog, exceptions are not caught within the transaction (sample is taken from the X++ blog):
1: try
2: {
3: MyTableType t;
4: ttsBegin; // Start a transaction
5: try
6: {
7: throw error("Something bad happened");
8: }
9: catch
10: {
11: // Innermost catch block
12: }
13: update_recordset t … // Must run within a transaction
14: ttsCommit; // Commit the transaction
15: }
16: catch
17: {
18: Info ("In outermost exception handler");
19: }
The exception thrown in line 7 would be caught in line 16.
If you need to handle the exceptions on the client-side, you can create a workaround by calling a ttsAbort before executing the AIF-service code. The best way to implement this workaround is to create a new AIF-service that executes the ttsAbort before calling the original AIF-service code. In that case the original AIF-service can stay "as is".


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Kids These Days - Bud Biliken
Last heard reworking Kanye West's Flashing Lights on a July promo cut of the same title, Windy City crew Kids These Days take inspiration from another local institution on the latest song release off their forthcoming full-length: Bud Billiken, a fictional character famous for lending his name to Southside Chicago's annual Bud Billiken Day Parade and Picnic, the United States' largest and oldest African American parade. The record itself , however, is more concerned with kush than local color. Emcee Vic Mensa delivers rapid-fire bars detailing his prolific smoking habits before stepping out of the way for the explosive instrumental climax—which includes an unexpected but dope brass-band rendition of Radiohead's breakout single, Creep. Kids These Days' Traphouse Rock LP is scheduled for release next Tuesday, October 30, but our readers can get a sneak peek starting Monday, when the project hits The DJBooth for free streaming.


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For decades, there were only three cars Indians could buy locally: The Ambassador, the Fiat or more accurately Premier Padmini and the Standard Herald, the last based on the British Triumph. The comfort and space of its rear seats and the Birla connection got the Ambassador the official nod, and launched its prolonged India reign. In that sense, the Hindustan Ambassador, as it was badged or the Amby as it was affectionately known, is like a time capsule of the last 57 years, its sofa-style seats a repository of the memories of millions. Entire generations have come and gone, their dreams and ambitions transported by this one ugly-looking car. Long before the Maruti 800 arrived, this was the Peoples Car. The late photographer Raghubir Singh did an entire picture book on the Amby and its many avatars. In the foreword, he wrote, As I journeyed all over India, I came to understand that if one thing can be singled out to stand for the past 50 years of India...it has to be the Ambassador. It was a car one could take liberties with. One of Singhs brilliant photos featured a red Amby with red hubcaps, a red steering wheel and red upholstery. Behind the car, the red infects the very landscape. Did the Amby make the Indian landscape what it is or was it the other way around So rugged and indestructible was the car that its difficult to tell.
It was, ultimately, the sarkari car. Government ministers and bureaucrats were its biggest customers, often fitting out their cars with interior fans, curtains and a flashing blue or red light on top, as the ultimate status symbol. Till recently, it shuttled around thousands of chauffeured government bureaucrats and military brass nationwide. Blue vehicles for the air force, black for the army, white for the navy and for politicians. The ultimate tribute is that the Ambassador has been mass-produced for the longest number of years, with minimal design changes, on the same assembly line (at Uttarpara in West Bengal). No other car anywhere in the world can match that record. Today, in most metros like Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, the Ambassador is still very visible, the ultimate workhorse taxi.
Despite its British origins the car is based on the Morris Oxford made in the UK from 1956 to 1959 the Ambassador is considered the definitive Indian car. When the Birlas started operations as carmakers, they renamed the then Morris 10 as the Hindustan 10. Production continued till 1954, after which the Landmaster based on the Morris Oxford Series II was introduced. In 1963 it underwent a minor frontal facelift and was named as the Ambassador Mark II. The first ever produced Mark II in black was gifted to the then PM Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1975 another minor facelift with a new all black dashboard and rounded parking light was turned out as the Mark 3, the most popular face of the Ambassador. A year later, the Ambassador Mark 4 made its appearance. It was the first diesel car in India and was well received. Thanks to the patronage of successive Congress governments, technological stagnation was the hallmark, with little willingness or need to innovate.. For decades, the Ambassador had no power steering, no side mirrors, no power brakes, no stick shift gears, no seat belts. The seating resembled two sofas placed one in front of the other, except that these sofas smelled of low-quality rexine.
The first major upgrade came with the Ambassador Nova launched in 1999. It had a newly designed steering wheel, new steering column, better brakes and electricals. It also included a new radiator grille. The badly needed engine upgrade was delayed till 1992, when another version was released the Ambassador 1800 ISZ, featuring a 75 bhp 1,800 cc Isuzu engine and a five-speed manual gearbox. It also had the option of bucket seats, as opposed to the earlier bench seats. The instrumentation panels were shifted from the centre of the dashboard to behind the steering wheel and seat belts became mandatory. However, the Ambys ancient technology and basic design proved a huge advantage; it was the only car that could break down in the middle of nowhere and there would be a local mechanic who could fix everything, from a leaking radiator to an overheated engine and modified parts. Not that it needed too much care. It was rugged, sturdy and could go anywhere without too much trouble or maintenance. Before the Maruti 800 came along in 1983, it was everyone's first car. Says RC Bhargava, Maruti Suzuki chairman: My first car was a lime-green Amby bought in 1960 in Lucknow. I still remember the price, it was for R12,600. When I got married in 1961, we used the car for our honeymoon when just the two of us drove down to Gopalpur beach in Odisha... The car was absolutely first class, there were no break downs. I sold it to another colleague who kept it for many years more after that. It survived only because it was the only car with a diesel engine at the time and it received patronage from the government and taxi operators. There was no way to modernise the Amby for HM, which neither had the money or the technical know-how.
Things radically changed with political developments, namely the threat from terrorists to the PM and other VIPs. This compelled the carmaker to shop for a more powerful engine that could effectively propel the car with the added weight of armour plating, with bullet-proof glass and air-conditioning as essential add-ons. The Isuzu 1,817 cc engine made the cut, and was also introduced in civilian models. The Ambassador was re-engineered and renamed the Ambassador Classic. The new model featured a redesigned dashboard, polyurethane seats, pull type door handles and the steering column gear lever was replaced by floor-shift gears and had a tweaked suspension. The higher-end models featured servo-assisted disc brakes and power-assisted steering. The Ambassador Grand was launched in 2003, with 137 changes compared to its predecessor, including central door locking, factory-fitted music system and an optional sun roof.
The Avigo was the most radical revision of the venerated Ambassador, a part of a brand revitalisation kicked off in the middle of 2003. The change of name, a break from the Ambassador marquee, indicated a different marketing strategy. The Avigo was launched in 2004. This, however, was seen as a desperate attempt to claw back its ever-dwindling market share. By 2002, the writing was clearly on the wall. The then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had switched, on the advice of the SPG, to armoured SUVs, and the political class followed, upgrading to more modern-looking automobiles that had more social status. The Amby was selling for between R5 lakh and R6 lakh depending on the model, and a number of more technologically-advanced cars were available in that range. A bigger blow came in 2011, when the sale of Ambassador taxis was banned because of stricter emission standards rolled out in 11 Indian cities. Though a new, cleaner diesel engine was introduced in 2013, branded, cleverly, the Encore, and India's favourite taxi returned to the streets, the metre was running. Private taxi companies had eaten into the Amby market and the loss of official support was a killer blow. In 2011-12, Hindustan Motors sold around 2,500 cars and registered a loss of R29.96 crore.
Despite that, the Amby had become so iconic and basic a vehicle that it lent itself to experimentation. Legendary car designer Dilip Chhabria produced a customised version called the Amberoid, while fashion designer Manish Malhotra jazzed up his own version in bold colours and interior fabrics. Even today, the Amby continues to rub bumpers with its more illustrious rivals across the country. After ruling the Indian roads for more than 50 years, it's time to bid farewell to one of India's enduring icons. The Amby was, and will always be, much more than the sum of its parts, even if those parts did belong in a museum.


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The Best Drones
After 25 hours of research and several days of real-world flight and photography with nine leading models, we've found that the DJI Mavic Pro is the best drone for most aspiring aerial photographers and videographers. It matches or beats similarly priced competitors in image quality, ease of flight, and autopilot modes, but it really stands out for its portability—it's smaller and lighter than a full 1-liter water bottle, so it'll fit in almost any bag.
The best camera is always the one you have with you, and drones are no exception: The DJI Mavic Pro's extraordinary portability means you'll bring it to more places, so you'll get better shots. Because it measures just 3.3 by 3.3 by 7.8 inches and weighs 1.6 pounds when fully folded, you can take it almost anywhere—simply unfold everything, and you're good to go. We got approximately 19 minutes of flight time in our tests, and its 4-mile operating range extends farther than the eye can see. It comes with a high-quality camera that captures 4K or 1080p footage, as well as a smartphone app that lets you preview your on-drone camera for photography and for first-person-viewpoint piloting ease. The only real drawback is that you'll need a current smartphone or tablet to take full advantage of its FPV and live-streaming features.
Of all the drones we've ever tested, the GoPro Karma is the easiest to fly, thanks to a user-friendly UI and an intuitive controller that doesn't require a smartphone. It lacks obstacle-avoidance sensors, however, so you have to be careful while flying it, and it doesn't offer the range or portability of our top pick. It can shoot excellent stills and video thanks to the included GoPro Hero5 Black, and you can remove its gimbal and use that separately from the drone for stabilized handheld shooting. It's also a great value, as it ships with the handheld Karma Grip.
If our other picks are akin to flying GoPro Heros (that's literally what the Karma is), the DJI Phantom 4 Pro is more like a flying Sony RX100. Its 1-inch sensor is nearly four times larger than the 1/2.3-inch sensors found in the Mavic Pro and Karma, and it can shoot 20-megapixel raw and JPEG still images as well as 4K 60-frames-per-second video. Its lens has a mechanical shutter, and manual controls abound, so experienced photographers can dial in their preferred settings. Relative to our top pick, it also has a more advanced collision-sensing system and longer battery life (a 25-minute average in PCMag tests), and it has a rugged magnesium-alloy chassis. Additionally, you get all the same intelligent flight modes as you do with the Mavic Pro, as well as Sport Mode (which enables a 45 mph top speed) and an interesting new mode called Draw (draw a line on the screen, and the drone will fly that route).
If all you want is something to capture aerial footage on occasion for personal use and social-media sharing, and you don't need advanced flight features or collision-avoidance technology, you can save several hundred dollars by getting the DJI Phantom 3 Standard. It has all the important core features you need from a video drone, including high-resolution 2.7K video recording, excellent image and flight stabilization, and limited smart-flight modes like Follow Me (tracks and follows a subject) and Point of Interest (encircles a subject while capturing photos and videos). But it doesn't fold up, it comes with an outdated controller, and it's limited to a half-mile operating range. DJI recently announced the Spark and the Phantom 3 SE, two drones with pricing and features similar to those of the Phantom 3 Standard. We discuss them both in the What to look forward to section.
If you're unfamiliar with flying drones or if you just need to keep your skills sharp (and who doesn't), we suggest getting a cheap trainer drone before putting a pricey investment aloft. For this, we recommend the Parrot Mambo. This little quadcopter is about the size of an extended hand and flies via touch controls on your smartphone. It lacks a camera and fancy features like GPS-assisted position hold, and its battery life is rated at 9 minutes (closer to 7 minutes in our tests), but it's the ideal drone for getting used to the control layout. It also ships with grabber and cannon attachments that allow you to pick up small objects and blast away targets with small plastic pellets.
Regardless of which drone you choose, know that there's an evolving body of regulations surrounding drone flight and appropriate usage that you should get familiar with before buying and flying.
The Research
- Why you should trust us
- Who this is for
- How we picked and tested
- Our pick: DJI Mavic Pro
- Flaws but not dealbreakers
- Runner-up: GoPro Karma
- For experienced photographers and videographers: DJI Phantom 4 Pro
- An entry-level drone: DJI Phantom 3 Standard
- A cheap trainer quadcopter: Parrot Mambo
- What to look forward to
- How to fly safely (and know your rights)
- The competition
- Sources
Why you should trust us
I'm a professional photographer who has been piloting drones for nearly three years, relying mainly on a DJI Phantom 3 Professional for landscape and real-estate photography projects in the Northeast and using it to capture video and stills on nearly every project. During that time, I have experienced everything from minor crashes to having the drone fly onto the top of a tree (instead of returning "Home"), where retrieval required a 30-foot climb after a football-hurling session failed to dislodge it.
Who this is for
The reason drones have become so popular recently is that they have the ability to shoot bird's-eye-view photos and videos that were previously unavailable to photographers and filmmakers without access to cranes or to ultralight aircraft or helicopters—aerial establishing shots, for instance, or alternate angles for chase scenes that only big-budget productions could achieve. Drones are ideal for budget filmmakers—or even photo or video enthusiasts—because they can capture images that otherwise would be impossible.
With technology rapidly improving and price tags declining, there's never been a better time to buy a drone. Previously, we recommended that all rookie pilots start with a trainer drone, but at this point flying a drone has never been easier, and you can get a decent one at an affordable price. You should certainly still get a trainer drone if you'd like, but we no longer think it's a necessity.
How we picked and tested
We scoured professional and user reviews, spoke to enthusiasts, experts, and manufacturers at 2015's InterDrone conference, and surveyed our readers to ask what they wanted in a drone. Based on this information, we arrived at some key criteria to help pick the best to test:
- While winged drones exist, most pilots will want to stick to quadcopter drones shaped like an X or H, which are more maneuverable and can generate enough combined lift for the drone to carry a pound or two of camera gear, keep stable in winds up to about a dozen knots (or higher, in some cases), and move in both indoor and outdoor settings.
- A GoPro-quality camera and a gimbal (a camera stabilizer that uses accelerometers and gyroscopes) are crucial for providing usable, high-definition (or better) footage in anything but the most placid flying conditions.
- First-person-view capabilities for the pilot to see things from the drone's perspective make flying much more intuitive. Some drones even have the option of working with goggles that give you a more immersive flying experience.
- You'll want a battery that lasts at least 10 minutes between charges. Shorter flight times mean shorter shots and also less flexibility. You could stitch together short segments of the best footage from your quadcopter, but more time in the air allows you to better get in position for shots and provides a larger margin of safety (so you can steer your drone back to base before it runs out of juice).
- Any video drone worth buying should have a fail-safe return-home mode, which automatically brings the aircraft back to the launch point when you flip a switch or the controller loses contact.
- We also gave preference to models with crash-avoidance sensors. But even so, you always have the chance that you'll crash your quadcopter horribly or run into some kind of interference that causes a dreaded "fly away" (which is exactly what it sounds like). You shouldn't spend more on a quadcopter than you're ready to lose.
- The sweet spot lies somewhere around $1,000. Spending much less generally means losing out on video-stabilization features (only a two-axis design, or purely optical stabilization rather than a three-axis gimbal) and severely limiting your flight range (for budget models, generally to a couple hundred feet from the transmitter). Spending much more—upwards of $2,000—gets you better stabilization and greater load capacities (for bigger cameras). Once you move up to $3,000, you get advanced camera gimbals that can pan in all directions. But such features are overkill for most enthusiasts, often requiring two remote controls—and thus, two professional operators.
Using these criteria, we were able to pare the testing field down to the DJI Mavic Pro, the DJI Phantom 3 Standard, the DJI Phantom 4 Pro, the Yuneec Typhoon H hexacopter, the GoPro Karma, and the Parrot Bebop 2.
To evaluate performance, I timed battery life by flying each drone continuously until I got a warning to fly home. I tested distance by flying as far as I could until the drone lost connection with the controller. I looked at image quality side by side with all models and referenced reviews, which helped me to gauge stabilization quality and to see whether propellers appeared in any of the shots. I also experimented with most of the intelligent flight modes and crash-avoidance systems by having each drone hightail it toward my barn at full speed. I tested maneuverability and controller sensitivity by flying low and completing a series of turns in my field.
Our pick: DJI Mavic Pro
The DJI Mavic Pro is easy to fly, and it excels in portability. Its ability to fold down to the size of a sandwich means you can stow it in a messenger bag with room to spare. Its propellers are also constantly attached, which cuts down on prep time. The Mavic Pro offers a 4K-capable camera with a low-distortion, wide-angle lens, as well as a three-axis gimbal for effective image stabilization. It also has a standout wireless range that gives you the ability to see both real-time flight stats and a 1080p first-person view of what you're shooting from up to a bit more than 4 miles away, using a smartphone mounted to your radio controller. Forward and downward vision sensors help the drone avoid obstacles by automatically flying out of harm's way. It also has preprogrammed flight controls with modes tailored to both beginners and advanced pilots, good battery life (around 20 minutes in our testing), the ability to fly autonomously via ActiveTrack and TapFly settings, and a fail-safe setting that prompts the drone to return to its launch site or current pilot location automatically if it loses connection with the radio transmitter.
The Mavic Pro combines all of the best technology found in DJI's Phantom 3 and 4 models, yet folds down to around 3 by 3 by 8 inches. The remote controller is about the size of an eclair when compacted into its stowable form. The 4K-camera-and-gimbal apparatus works just as well as its larger counterpart on the Phantom series but is small enough to sit flush with the bottom of the drone, making for a more compact and streamlined body. And unlike older designs that require you to install the propellers prior to flight, on the Mavic Pro the blades stay attached and need only to be unfolded. Best of all, the whole thing weighs just 1.6 pounds. Before the Mavic Pro, just about every serious drone model available required a separate carrying case the size of a small suitcase. Now, you can carry the Mavic Pro in a messenger bag, the top compartment of a backpack, or even a large purse.
You might think the Mavic Pro's diminutive size would be a disadvantage when flying, but in reality the Mavic Pro is the most consistently stable drone I've flown to date. In my tests it hovered accurately and resisted drifting. This is because the Mavic Pro uses a combination of GPS and GLONASS satellites, as well as the four vision cameras, to monitor movement and altitude changes. It also captures images of the takeoff point so that it can land in exactly the same spot from which it took off. The drone corners on a dime and responds sensitively to the remote controller's joysticks.
While flying, the Mavic Pro uses five vision sensors (two forward, two down, and the main camera) to sense obstacles up to 49 feet away, and it can either stop or change course to avoid a potentially fatal crash. I witnessed this on several occasions with both the Mavic Pro and the Phantom 4 Pro, as I tried taking full-speed runs at my barn only to have each drone come to a halt roughly 15 to 20 feet away from its certain demise. Crash avoidance is enabled in every intelligent flight mode, including Return to Home, and it's something the DJI Phantom 3 series lacks.
The Mavic Pro has a new wireless transmission system called OcuSync, which has a range of more than 4 miles (though current FAA rulings demand that you keep your drone in sight). I was able to fly the Mavic Pro over 2 miles away before realizing that the battery was more than half depleted—luckily I was able to have it return with only 10 percent battery capacity remaining. The moral here is that the Mavic Pro will run out of battery before it goes out of range. OcuSync delivers a 720p or 1080p feed, automatically scans for the best frequency band before takeoff, and supports several devices at once, so you can use the remote controller, the Mavic Pro, and a secondary controller at the same time. At the CES 2017 trade show, DJI announced goggles for the drone, which now have a May release.
The Mavic Pro's wireless controller is a completely new, highly portable design that displays helpful information such as distance, altitude, battery life, speed, and wireless connection strength on a secondary LCD. The controller is designed to use a smartphone for displaying the main FPV feed and controlling the main options, including drone calibration, camera settings, GPS maps, and intelligent flight modes. The smartphone connects to the controller via a specialized USB or Lightning cable threaded through the side of the left brace—you can use a standard cable, but it sticks out oddly and limits motion.
You'll find a number of modes and features that are both fun and useful: Tripod Mode, which limits the Mavic Pro's speed to 3 mph and softens the controls to prevent jerky movement for cinematic shots (Philip Bloom is especially into Tripod Mode); Gesture, which recognizes you and takes a picture when you stand with your arms in a Y shape; TapFly, which lets you tap on the screen to tell the drone to fly to a location; Terrain Follow Mode, which allows you to fly the Mavic Pro forward while the internal computers automatically adjust the altitude to follow the lay of the land; and an improved ActiveTrack mode suite, which follows a moving subject in a variety of ways. The bottom line: The Mavic Pro is packed with intelligent flight modes that will accommodate weekend adventurers, hobbyists, and cinematographers.
Despite having a smaller camera and gimbal than the DJI Phantom models, the Mavic Pro still sports a 12-megapixel 1/2.3-inch sensor capable of shooting 4K video up to 30 fps, with a 60 Mbps max bit rate (the processing speed at which the camera is recording digital media) and an identical ISO range. It can't match the slow-motion 120 fps frame rate in 1080p video mode and the wider 20 mm FOV lens of the Phantom 4 Pro—but the lens does let in more light, which is handy when the sun starts to set.
Early reviews of the Mavic Pro dinged it for images that were blurry and out of focus—but you can remedy this problem by simply tapping the screen of the controller, since it uses tap to focus. In our tests, videos were also very stable, thanks to the three-axis gimbal, and the propellers did not make their way into the frame nearly as frequently as they did with the Phantom models.
In video quality, the Mavic Pro stacks up very nicely to the Phantom 4 Pro—it has more saturated colors by default (several YouTube comparison videos confirm this), but shooting in the D-Log color profile, which flattens the colors substantially so that you can correct and grade them in post-production, fixes that. The ability to manually set white balance, ISO, exposure, and picture controls is also a major plus.
You can capture still photos in JPEG and raw, and the Mavic Pro offers several modes such as burst shooting (up to 7 frames per second), auto exposure bracketing, HDR, and interval (capturing images every predetermined number of seconds). As with the video capture, its still-image quality was very good in our tests, especially in raw images. With the amount of customization and control, it's very possible to capture professional-looking images with the Mavic Pro. One especially neat trait is that the camera can rotate 90 degrees within the gimbal in order to shoot portrait orientation.
The DJI Go application is very user-friendly and tracks all of your flight information, which you can then replay if you're trying to repeat a shot. It also lets you live-stream over Periscope, Facebook Live, or YouTube; has built-in video-editing tools; and even offers a flight simulator for training (though we think a dedicated starter drone is a better learning tool).
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The biggest issue with the Mavic Pro is the banding effect (a rolling shutter artifact) that appears when it's shooting into the sun. When banding strikes, it renders videos unusable. This effect is something we saw on the Phantom drones, and it just won't go away. Camera sensors tend not to like direct sunlight, and banding is most common when you're shooting toward the horizon while the sun is low. The only solution is to steer away from the sun and/or lower the tilt angle.
The Mavic Pro rarely captures its own propellers while shooting—the problem is very infrequent compared with the Phantoms—but it's still a possibility. The Mavic Pro does give you an option to limit the max tilt angle, so this isn't an issue.
Also, the Mavic Pro may not be best for people with older smart devices. While it is technically compatible with devices dating all the way back to 2014, in our experience it struggled with smartphones more than a year old. Competitors such as the Yuneec Typhoon H, while not as easy to fly as the Mavic Pro, use controllers with built-in touchscreen LCD panels for the live feed, so you don't need to supply your own iPhone (which also means one less thing to worry about charging). The Mavic Pro's controller is very compact, best suited for a phone rather than a tablet, and it is not as comfortable as the larger Phantom controller––the price you pay for portability.
DJI rates the battery life of the Mavic Pro at 27 minutes, but in our testing it lasted for approximately 20 minutes of actual use—good, but not up to the level of the Phantom 4 Pro, which after 22 minutes of heavy use still had 15 percent battery life. With the Mavic Pro, you'll need a few extra batteries, at $90 a pop, to really make a dent in your storyboard.
We've also read a number of reports (and learned from Wirecutter senior editor Dan Frakes's personal experience) that DJI's customer service can be very slow, with especially long waits for repair service, though the company is quick to send replacement parts. Keep in mind that pilots who have encountered serious equipment damage in the past have experienced lengthy downtimes.
Runner-up: GoPro Karma
Of the drones we tested, the GoPro Karma is the easiest to fly thanks to a quick setup, intuitive and responsive controls, and the fact that you don't need to pair it with your smartphone. It shoots excellent stills and video courtesy of the GoPro Hero5 Black (which is currently our top action cam pick), it has a nice suite of intelligent flight modes and decent battery life, and it ships with GoPro's handheld Karma Grip, which lets you get more use of the camera off-drone. It's still notably larger than the DJI Mavic Pro, and it can't match our main pick's range—and while GoPro claims to have fixed the issues that led to the whole line being recalled after its initial release, we're still keeping our eyes open for future problems.
After you've charged its batteries, the GoPro Karma can be in the air within minutes thanks to a built-in 5-inch 720p LCD screen on the controller—no need to pair it with your phone, calibrate it, or run firmware updates. We launched our Karma in under two minutes by pressing and holding the Launch button on the controller.
Piloting the Karma is also very easy. Its joysticks and camera tilt are smooth and highly responsive, and the touchscreen functions are easy to use. It remains remarkably agile in the air and hovers fairly accurately, and it returns to the Home point within 10 feet of the controller. However, the Karma has a stated maximum range of just 2 miles (half that of the Mavic Pro), and in our testing we started having issues after just a mile of distance. This typically isn't a big problem with most drones, since they resume live-streaming to the controller once they automatically return within range, but the Karma's screen froze and stayed that way until it landed at our feet after an auto Return Home. This experience scared us, because we didn't know whether the Karma was on its way back until we heard it in the air. We weren't able to safely replicate this behavior, for fear of losing the drone over icy New England waters, but it's something to watch for. According to GoPro, this same malfunction happened to one other reviewer, and a firmware fix is in the works. We recommend not flying the Karma over a mile away, especially with an obstructed connection, until the company has officially addressed the issue.
The Karma is compatible with the GoPro Hero5, Hero5 Session, and Hero4 action cameras (it's sold either with a Hero5 Black camera or in a no-camera version for adding your own), which connect to the three-axis Karma stabilizing gimbal. You can also remove the gimbal and camera from the drone and connect them to the included Karma Grip, a handheld stabilizing unit for photos and videos.
The Karma Grip is highly effective at stabilizing video in the air and on land, and it's a bonus that no other drone offers. In our tests, due to the way the gimbal was mounted in front of the Karma, we never captured propellers in our shot, either, which was a problem for the Mavic Pro and just about every other DJI drone we've ever flown.
Video and still quality is excellent thanks to the GoPro Hero5 Black, a camera we already love, and in our tests the images rivaled the results we got from the DJI Mavic Pro and Yuneec Typhoon H cameras, turning out sharp and clear. The Hero 5 Black can also shoot at different FOV angles, including Linear, which corrects horizontal distortion—an issue we had with previous GoPro models.
The Karma is capable of performing in four intelligent flight modes: Dronie (takes a selfie video and travels away, giving context), Cable Cam (travels a set linear path), Orbit (flies around the subject in a perfect circle), and Reveal (flies in a straight line and gradually tilts the camera up). While these modes are certainly useful for cinematic applications, the Mavic Pro offers more with the addition of subject tracking and the very useful Tripod Mode.
The Karma drone itself is hefty, and one of the better-constructed models out there. Its prop arms fold up to increase its portability, but it still requires a 21-by-13-by-6-inch carrying case (included). The Mavic Pro is notably more portable, which is the primary reason we chose that model for the top spot, since you can just put it in a backpack rather than needing a designated carrying case. Still, the Karma occupies less space than any DJI Phantom model and the Yuneec Typhoon H, which each require carrying cases nearly double the volume. Battery life on the Karma is about 16 to 17 minutes, judging from our experience—not the best, but pretty close to the battery life of its rivals.
At the end of 2016, GoPro recalled the Karma due to a loose battery connection: During certain flights, the Karma's battery would lose contact with the internal connector and cause the drone to fall out of the sky. The redesigned battery latch seemed secure in our tests, but we're keeping our eyes open for any further complaints of falling Karmas.
For experienced photographers and videographers: DJI Phantom 4 Pro
The DJI Phantom 4 Pro is a drone better suited for advanced filmmakers and photographers. It is more refined, with a 20-megapixel 1-inch CMOS sensor and a mechanical shutter (which reduces or eliminates the rolling shutter effect), better manual photography controls, and more advanced collision detection. It captures truly excellent-looking 4K video up to 60 fps and has a 100 Mbps bit rate, capabilities that place it alongside advanced mirrorless and high-end point-and-shoot cameras. It can shoot raw and JPEG images and can capture up to 14 fps in burst mode. It's priced above our $1,000 sweet spot, but if you are an advanced shooter and have the money, the Phantom 4 Pro is the best all-in-one drone available right now.
The Phantom 4 Pro is also the safest sub-$2,000 model DJI has ever released. It has forward-, left-, right-, backward-, and down-facing collision sensors that prevent the drone from crashing along any of those axes. This network of sensors also enables the Phantom 4 Pro to hover more precisely in place, especially in areas with weak GPS signals. The DJI Go app allows the pilot to measure how far the Phantom 4 Pro is flying from potential hazards via a proximity meter: The closer the drone flies to its potential death, the more red bars appear in the meter, and an alarm sounds—something we experienced firsthand with the Phantom 4 Pro.
I tested the Phantom 4 Pro's Obstacle Sensing System by having it gather as much speed as it could and making it zoom straight toward the broadside of my barn. Each time, the drone stopped dead in its tracks approximately 5 to 10 feet away from what, for other drones, would have been a certain demise. It accomplished this forward and backward, and it even detected me while it was flying low and stopped before taking off my head. Unfortunately, the sideways collision-avoidance sensors work only in the Beginner and Tripod modes—here's hoping that future models will employ all four in every mode.
Like the Mavic Pro, the Phantom 4 Pro can fly over 4 miles away, thanks to its OcuSync transmission system. DJI also claims a battery improvement in the Phantom 4 Pro, with a flight time of 30 minutes. PCMag was able to get 25 minutes out of the battery, a superb result for a high-performance drone. In contrast, I got 22 minutes from it and was able to fly only over 7,300 feet before I lost the transmission signal; perhaps this was due to the cold weather, but the Mavic Pro flew much farther.
The Phantom 4 Pro has all the same automated flight modes available in the Mavic Pro but adds Draw, which lets the pilot draw a path on the FPV screen; the drone then flies that route while keeping a uniform altitude. You control these modes via a smartphone or tablet mounted on the Phantom 4 Pro's controller—but said controller is more comfortable and easier to use than the Mavic Pro's. If you have the budget for more, the Phantom 4 Pro+ includes a remote controller with a built-in 5.5-inch 1080p screen twice as bright as the displays of conventional smart devices. It also does away with the need to bring your own smartphone or tablet.
An entry-level drone: DJI Phantom 3 Standard
The DJI Phantom 3 Standard is the cheapest and most basic model the company offers, and is an ideal beginner drone. While it doesn't have the video quality or feature set of the Mavic Pro, it comes at less than half the price, retains an excellent stabilization system, and is more than good enough for someone just starting to get into drone photography and videography.
Included is a 12-megapixel camera that can record video up to 2.7K at 30 fps, as well as raw and JPEG still images, quite a bit below the 4K capabilities of the Mavic Pro. The camera is mounted to the same three-axis gimbal found on the higher-end Phantom models, including our previous pick, so videos remain jitter-free, though this model is more prone to capturing its own propellers in the shot. It has a wide camera lens, some manual camera controls such as exposure and white balance, and still-photo modes like bracketing and time lapse.
The Phantom 3 Standard also has a few intelligent flight modes, though nothing as advanced as those on the Mavic Pro or Phantom 4 Pro. It has Follow Me (a more primitive ActiveTrack), Waypoints (allows you to tap checkpoints on the screen that you want the drone to fly to), Points of Interest (circles around an object in a fixed rotation), and Home and Course Lock (keeps the drone on a fixed path with minimum control). Like all DJI drones, the Phantom 3 Standard comes with an interactive flight simulator to help beginners practice before launching the real thing.
The drone relies on the DJI Go app and provides a 720p FPV live view on a smartphone or tablet, which is significantly inferior to the OcuSync system found on the Mavic Pro and other higher-end models. As a result, the Phantom 3 Standard can travel only a little over half a mile. It also relies exclusively on GPS rather than on a GPS/GLONASS combination; in our tests of this system on the Phantom 2 Vision+, it provided a decent signal but tended to lose connection far more frequently than the system on DJI's improved models. The Phantom 3 Standard also uses the same remote controller as the Phantom 2 Vision+, which has limited external controls and a less user-friendly smart-device mount.
A cheap trainer quadcopter: Parrot Mambo
The safety and collision-avoidance features built into modern drones make them easy enough for most beginners to pick up and fly. But if you are too afraid you'll crash a $1,000 investment, it makes sense to get some practice with a trainer quadcopter. These devices typically cost less than $100, usually don't record photos or video, and typically lack GPS position-assist capabilities, but in flight they feel similar to larger, more expensive drones, so they're a great option to get your bearings.
The Parrot Mambo is our pick for anyone just starting out, because it's easy to fly, it handles similarly to a full-size drone, and it has a reasonable battery life of around seven minutes. It's the size of a large hand outstretched and is extremely light. It flies via the Parrot Free Flight app, which transforms any current smartphone into a touchscreen remote controller with two joysticks and a Takeoff/Landing button.
In the air, the Mambo wanders up and down slightly, but that's to be expected without GPS functionality. You can fly it indoors with ease, and it's relatively quiet. With the hulls attached, the Mambo can slam into walls and ceilings and smash into the floor without a scratch—it's the drone version of training wheels, a far better option for practicing than doing the same with a full-size Mavic Pro. The Parrot Mambo instantly takes off each time it's able, until the battery dies.
The Parrot Mambo comes with two fun attachments. One is a grabber for picking up objects weighing less than 4 grams, and the other is a mini cannon that fires plastic pellets. It's safe to say the Mambo is kid-friendly and will help educate young drone pilots.
What to look forward to
In May 2017, DJI announced the Spark, an entry-level, palm-sized drone—it weighs less than a pound, and it's about as large as a can of soda—that features gesture controls. You can also use a smartphone to control it up to 109 yards away, or you can buy a separate remote control to fly the Spark up to 1.24 miles away. This drone can capture 12-megapixel photos and 1080p video, and it offers speeds of up to 31 miles per hour, as well as a reported 16 minutes of flight time. The Spark costs $500 and began shipping in June. DJI also released a $700 bundled version of the Spark that comes with accessories, and a recent firmware update added a "sphere" mode (panorama/fish-eye lens effect). In August 2017, DJI announced that Spark owners must update their firmware by September 1; any Sparks not updated by this date will be inoperable. Some have speculated that this mandate comes in response to reports of Sparks falling from the sky mid-flight.
Later, in August 2017, DJI announced the release of its new entry-level drone, the Phantom 3 SE. Many of its camera specs—such as the 94-degree FOV 20mm lens, ISO range, and 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor—remain the same as those of our current budget pick, the Phantom 3 Standard. However, the Phantom 3 SE offers ultra-high-definition 4K video recording and a Vision Positioning System, two improvements over the standard model. DJI also claims the Phantom 3 SE is capable of 25 minutes of flight time and has a 2.5-mile video-transmission range, five times that of the Phantom 3. The new model is available now from DJI for about $600.
DJI released a set of FPV goggles designed to pair with the Mavic Pro, the Phantom 4, and the Inspire series. The DJI Goggles headset, which currently costs about $450, allows you to fly your drone and control the camera gimbal with head gestures. The headset offers two 1920×1080 screens inside, one for each eye, and a single charge should give you six hours of playtime.
At the 2017 CES trade show, Yi debuted the Erida, a three-rotor drone with a foldable design that makes it easy to carry. Yi claims the carbon-fiber tricopter will offer speeds of up to 75 miles per hour and a 40-minute battery life, as well as 120 minutes of shooting. You can fully control the drone through a mobile app. The company has not yet announced the Erida's pricing and availability.
At the 2017 IFA trade show, DJI launched a new version of our favorite drone, the Mavic Pro, called the Mavic Pro Platinum, which is designed to be quieter and fly longer. DJI also revamped the Phantom 4 Pro (our upgrade pick) by putting a slightly better camera and a dark coat of paint on the Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian.
In October 2017, Polaroid joined the drone game, announcing four drones: the Polaroid PL2900, a $300 quadcopter; the Polaroid PL1000, which (for the same price) is designed to fly in shorter, speedier bursts; the smaller—and, at $250, cheaper—Polaroid PL3000; and the little blue Polaroid PL 1300, which will sell for about $50.
How to fly safely (and know your rights)
Though it's beyond the scope of this guide to offer any legal advice (and we are not pretending to do so), a good place to start for beginning amateurs interested in small-quadcopter flying is Know Before You Fly, a resource cosponsored by the FAA with the Academy of Model Aeronautics and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The FAA also released an app version of this resource that lets pilots check on airspace restrictions for where they are flying or where they plan to fly. If you're interested in delving further into the particulars, the FAA maintains a site covering the evolving regulations pertaining to "model" aircraft, including amateur drones; if you're curious about unmanned flight in general (and commercial drone use), check out the FAA's full site on the subject.
In short, the FAA's guidelines say that every drone hobbyist should do the following:
- Avoid flying directly over people, especially large gatherings (e.g., concerts and sporting events).
- Yield to other aircraft, and stay at least 5 miles away from airports (unless you have permission).
- Steer clear of emergency-response efforts, such as fires.
- Keep the drone in sight and below 400 feet.
- Don't charge people money for your flights.
As of June 19, 2014, it's illegal to fly a drone in any of the 401 units of the US National Park system—except where it obviously isn't, such as at a dedicated radio-control flying facility (e.g., the RC Field at Gateway National Recreation Area in New York City). And it's illegal to take off or land in National Forest Service Wilderness Areas. The Academy of Model Aeronautics (PDF) also says that photography "at locations where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy is strictly prohibited by the AMA unless written expressed permission is obtained from the individual property owners or managers." Fines for breaking these rules can reach into the thousands of dollars and can cause a mess of legal troubles, so be careful and stay informed.
In May 2017, the US Court of Appeals ruled that the FAA has no authority to regulate "model aircraft," which includes recreational drones. (Drones used for work/business must still adhere to FAA rules for small commercial aircraft.)
Despite this ruling, the FAA still "encourage[s] registration for all drone operators … to ensure that drones are operated in a way that is safe and does not pose security and privacy threats," as well as "to help in the recovery of lost equipment." To register, pilots must provide their name, home address, and an active email address at the FAA's sUAS Registration page to generate a Proof of Ownership number, which should be marked clearly on the drone. The registration fee is $5. A pilot can use the same registration number for each owned drone, and the registration is valid for three years.
As of May 2017, DJI requires that you register your DJI drone with the company. If you don't, your drone's range will be limited to a 164-foot radius up to 98 feet high, and live camera streaming will be disabled. We think that you should register your drone, and will continue to recommend DJI drones. But pilots who would prefer not to register their drones should consider the Karma. We will watch to see if GoPro and other manufacturers follow DJI's lead.
3DR, DJI, and Yuneec have partnered with AirMap to develop geofencing systems that alert drone pilots to no-fly zones. No matter what drone you fly, you can use AirMap's data now (via a Web application or iOS app) to avoid restricted areas and even to alert airports to your flight plans (AirMap can provide real-time information on drone flights to airport control towers through a system called the Digital Notice and Awareness System, or D-NAS). Eventually the system will be available within all of the major manufacturers' software, so you won't have to use a second app. At this writing, AirMap data has already rolled out as of the 2.0 version of 3DR's Solo app, and DJI's corresponding GEO system is currently available in a beta version of the DJI Go app. We'll test DJI's full implementation once it becomes available in a release version.
In August 2017, DJI said it would begin development of an offline "local data mode" for all of its drones, partly in response to the US Army's concerns that DJI drones might contain "cyber vulnerabilities" (the Army abruptly stopped using all DJI products that same month). We do not think this development is cause for immediate concern, and it does not change how we feel about any of our current picks. However, we will continue to keep tabs on all drone-related news and update this guide if anything changes.
The competition
The Yuneec Typhoon H hexacopter almost became one of our picks but lost at the last minute to the GoPro Karma, which likewise doesn't rely on a smartphone but is smaller than the Typhoon H and comes with a removable camera. The Yuneec model has a 4K camera that rotates around a full 360 degrees, plus forward-collision avoidance, carbon-fiber prop arms, retractable landing gear, a handful of intelligent flight modes, and a touchscreen built right into its remote controller.
We like the safety of a hexacopter because if one rotor fails, the drone can still fly. The Typhoon H is extremely fast and agile, but it has a more limited flying range than our main pick. Though the drone is large next to others we tested, it looks unlike anything else in its class.
Its large size prevents it from being truly portable, and the remote controller's UI is not as refined as those of DJI and GoPro. In the end, the benefit of the DJI Mavic Pro's portability and the superior value of the GoPro Karma (with its included Hero5 Black camera, Karma Grip, and detachable gimbal) pushed the Typhoon H to the sidelines.
Walkera offers two models in our price range: the Aibao and the QR X350. With mixed reviews and a poor camera, the QR X350 doesn't really stack up to our main picks. Although the Aibao is newer, it still lags behind our picks in its specs.
The Xiro Xplorer V is a great flyer and has some nice intelligent flight modes, but its camera tops out at 1080p 30 fps, and its flying range is shorter than the Mavic Pro's. We'll look at the Xiro Xplorer 4K when it becomes available.
The Parrot Bebop 2 is a much-improved version of the first-gen Bebop. It flies farther and better, has a longer battery life and better controls, and offers a neat FPV goggle option. Unfortunately, it tops out at 1080p 30 fps, and the image quality is not great. You must purchase the intelligent flight modes separately as add-ons, and the only way to get your pictures and video footage is to save them to your smart device or suffer through a wireless transfer to a laptop.
Although the Autel X-Star Premium is designed to be a Phantom 3 Professional killer, it can't fly nearly as far as our main picks. That said, it does have solid owner reviews, a 4K camera, a removable three-axis gimbal, a 25-minute battery life, intelligent flight modes (Follow, Orbit, Waypoint), and an LCD screen built into its remote controller, as well as an orange exterior to aid visibility. Autel also provides great customer service, according to numerous reviews. We're looking forward to trying one out in time for the next update.
We didn't look at selfie-oriented and self-tracking drones like the failed Lily and the upcoming Staaker for this guide; we think that such products may not be a great investment, since 3DR, Yuneec, and DJI have now introduced Follow Me modes on more capable full-featured UAVs. We'll keep looking at these specialized drones as they evolve, however, and if we find that they begin to make a compelling case, we'll test them as they become available.
The Yuneec Q500 Typhoon 4K was our runner-up last year. It has a 4K camera that also captures raw still images, a controller that doesn't require a smartphone, a removable gimbal, and a few nifty intelligent flight modes. Unfortunately, it's not as agile a flyer as the Mavic Pro, the GoPro Karma, or its bigger sibling, the Typhoon H. It suffers from the same limited flying range as the Typhoon H, and it's monstrous next to the Mavic Pro and Karma.
Special thanks for assistance with this guide to Eric Cheng, whose book, Aerial Photography and Videography Using Drones, demonstrates basic and advanced concepts in the field using DJI's Phantom 3 series drones.
Korey Smith, DJI Mavic Pro Footage: How I Set the Camera Up for Professional Shots, MyFirstDrone.com, October 4, 2016
Jim Fisher, DJI Phantom 4 Pro, PCMag, December 14, 2016
Scott Gilbertson, Review: Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K, Wired, October 15, 2015
Jacob Kastrenakes, US government to require registration of some small drones, The Verge, October 19, 2015
Eric Hansen, A Boy and His Drone, Outside, February 26, 2014
Chris Welch, GoPro is recalling its Karma drone, The Verge, November 8, 2016


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In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Royal Bank of Scotland ran an advertising campaign featuring customers standing in front of bucolic landscapes and talking about their careers and aspirations.
The adverts boasted of how many of the bank's branches were open at weekends and the tagline was "The Royal Bank of Scotland is here for you". It was part of a campaign by the bank to regain public trust, as was the promise in 2010 that it would not close down a branch if it was the last bank in town.
With the announcement yesterday that RBS is to close 44 of its branches - 10 in Scotland - that promise has now been broken. The boasts in the adverts about branches being open "from Sauchiehall Street to Stornoway" also sound hollow, particularly as the axed branches stretch from the Borders to Caithness and include at least one that is the last bank in town.
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In defending the closures, RBS said yesterday the nature of banking had changed and the truth of that should be acknowledged. More customers are banking in more flexible ways and the pace of change has been accelerating in recent years. In 2007, less than one-third of Scots used the internet to do their banking; last year, it was half.
RBS cannot ignore this trend, which has led to falls in the number of customers going into branches (there has been a 30% drop in branch transactions since 2010) but it also has to recognise - particularly in light of its status as an institution that was bailed out by taxpayers - that it has responsibilities to the communities it serves.
Many of those communities will be worse off today thanks to the closures - communities such as Castletown in Caithness which will lose its only bank. For many Castletown residents who bank online, this will not be a problem, but then not everyone is in this situation. And closing branches will hit some small businesses hard as many of them still frequently use their local branches every week.
As Rob Gibson, the MSP who represents Castletown, points out, closing a branch in a rural area can also affect rural residents disproportionately because of the lack of good broadband connections. Even if it is true that banking has been changing in recent years, the availability of broadband should be a factor banks take into account in deciding which branches they are going to close. To fail to do so will leave the impression that rural areas are being singled out.
In years to come, it is probably inevitable more branches will close, but RBS and other banks must explore ways in which they can maintain a presence in towns and villages. Ross McEwan, RBS chief executive, has said he wants more automated tellers and cash machines in shops and railway stations, and that is a good idea. The mobile vehicle banking service has also been a success and should be expanded as much as possible.
RBS says it has a responsibility to adapt to what customers want, but that cannot mean only customers who bank online. A bank must aim to serve all its customers in the best way possible: urban and rural, young and old, those who use the internet and those who do not.


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Appliances Shot Up
KSAL Staff - July 6, 2015 12:42 pm
Shots are fired into an unoccupied Salina business.
Police report that several gunshots were fired into Tony's Services at 736 N. Santa Fe sometime between 7pm on Thursday and Friday morning at 8:35am.
Police say glass on the front door was shattered by bullets and the shots hit a microwave oven and refrigerator inside the building.
Damage is estimated at $650.


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Ulster clash postponed
Ulster's RaboDirect Pro12 game against the Scarlets in Belfast on Friday night has been postponed.
Ulster announced that referee Leighton Hodges had deemed the Ravenhill pitch unplayable.
"The two teams are now exploring the possibility of playing the game tomorrow at Ravenhill," Ulster said, in a statement.
"A further update will be issued as soon as possible."
Press Association