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4 Reasons Helicopter Triumph over Drone for Aerial Filming

Whether it is a feature film, a documentary or promotional footage, the addition of aerial shots adds authenticity to any given subject or discourse. For the longest time in history, helicopters have been used to capture those soaring top shots for all sorts of content.

Even today when drone cams have become all the rage in aerial filming landscape, helicopters stay ahead of this newer technology in many aspects. Here, we are going to shed some light on those areas where helicopters triumph over a drone cam when it comes to aerial filming.

1) Unmatchable Range and Fly Time

A drone cam is good for taking quick generic aerial shots. In fact, drones are often used just to label footage with the tag of “aerial shot”. There are pretty straightforward reasons why drones can’t give you the ‘real’ aerial footage.

To begin with, their range and fly time has no match with the supreme flying capability of a helicopter. Even the “long-range” drone cams available on the block can’t fly for more than half an hour and a couple of miles.

You don’t have to face such restraints while filming from a helicopter. Even the most basic helicopter shot can give you the coverage of hundreds of miles with the fly time of many hours. Moreover, it won’t face the curb of ‘recharge’. You will certainly need to refuel the helicopter, but by then you are most likely to complete your aerial filming assignment.

2) Supreme Payload

Drones can only fly with certain lightweight cameras and lenses. Those specs may be good enough for amateur aerial filming. However, a professional project may not get the desirable results from the camera work of a drone. In contrast, a helicopter allows you to take the heaviest camera rigs on board. If you don’t want to compromise on the crisp quality of aerial filming, then you need to get that heavy camera equipment in the air, which is only possible through a helicopter.

3) Some Locations Are Only Scalable Through Helicopters

Let’s suppose you have to take an aerial shot from the middle of nowhere in the wild southwest. There are strong chances that you might not find a drone with such a long range.  Even if you find one, there is always a risk of losing orientation and connection while flying a drone at its maximum range.

To risk losing an expensive long-range drone along with a high-definition camera and lens or getting on a helicopter ride to capture those difficult shots in the best quality and without taking any unnecessary risks—the choice is yours.

4) Helicopter Gives You the Room of Improvisation

When you fly a drone, you only get to see through its lens.  But when you go on conventional helicopter aerial filming, you get the opportunity to see the surrounding locations by your own eyes while filming. Getting this firsthand visual input can help you in improvising your aerial filming for better.

The experienced pilots and operators at H5 Helicopters can help you with any challenging aerial filming assignment in the wider southwestern region. You will certainly get far better results than regular drone shots.