Blog
The future of aerial photography
It’s no secret that the growth in the drone market is on the up – and up in a serious fashion. The number of consumer drones sold in 2018 is scraping the 13 million mark and with an expected increase upto 29 million by 2021. That, if you’re unsure, is some serious growth and if this keeps up – we can only imagine the scale of consumer drone sales by say 2040. That got us thinking – what does the future of aerial photography look like? With a whole host of new drones created every single day – it’s hard to imagine a world where they’re as common as mobile phones or netbooks. So we had a sit down, did a bit of a brainstorm and came up with four ideas that reflect what we think the future of aerial photography will bring.
1. Tighter restrictions
I don’t really want to start this post off on a downer, but with more drones and more people flying, it’s likely that we’re going to see some tighter restrictions in the coming years. Whether that’s more no fly zones, harsher penalties for areas of restriction or more rules when flying – we’re expecting a few more legal bits and pieces. As the technology becomes more sophisticated we’re also expecting that some drones may become electronically limited – similar to some cars on the market – to prevent unnecessary danger when flying. That could be less range, a lower top speed or autonomy to prevent drone related accidents and incidents.
2. Decreased price
Bit of a cheerier point and one we’re really looking forward to – with the increased popularity, we’re expecting a huge decrease in price for professional drones. With more people buying, an increase in the level of technology and a better availability of parts – dips in our favorite (and future favorite) models are expected and welcomed. This is all assuming that DJI don’t continue their reign and increase their domination in the market sector and abuse the monopoly that they’d likely create. Fingers crossed huh.
3. Smarter autonomous modes
Autonomy and AI are ever increasing and with autonomous flight modes making an appearance in some of the higher end drones as of current, we’re excited to see what the future will bring and what can be done. With ‘follow me’ modes and waypoint finders already present, it’s only a matter of time before drones will be able to take well framed, gorgeous shots by themselves. You might not even have to set it off, it could just know the sunset time and head out to capture it – it’s a scary one – but it’s equally as exciting.
4. Higher quality
It goes without saying that the longer products are around, the higher the quality usually becomes. That’s both build quality of the product itself and the image quality from the attached camera. Although we may be crashing less in the future, it’ll be a nice peace of mind to know that your drone is stronger and more durable than it may have been in the past. Image quality is of course key for aerial photography and we’re expecting higher and higher resolution and better and better quality as time goes on. But as with everything – it’s only time that will tell.
