The drone in my case feels modern. Its family tree reaches back more than a century.

Britain tested a small radio-controlled aircraft called the Aerial Target in March 1917. Dr. Archibald Low designed its remote-control equipment.

The first controlled flight

Imperial War Museums describes the Aerial Target as the first drone to fly under control. The United States followed with the Kettering Bug in 1918. Neither aircraft entered operational service during World War I, but both proved that a pilotless aircraft could leave the ground.

Where the word drone came from

Britain built radio-controlled DH.82B Queen Bee aircraft in the 1930s as targets for anti-aircraft training. The Imperial War Museums and Royal Air Force Museum both connect the word drone to the Queen Bee name.

The Queen Bee gave gunners a moving target without putting a pilot in the line of fire. Its spruce-and-plywood fuselage could float after the aircraft came down in water.

The United States watched. By 1939, the Radioplane OQ-2 had become the first mass-produced UAV in America. The factory supplied another strange footnote. Photographer David Conover met Norma Jeane Dougherty while she worked at Radioplane. Those photographs helped start the career of Marilyn Monroe.

From targets to cameras

For decades, unmanned aircraft stayed tied to target practice, surveillance and war. The aircraft grew larger. Radio links improved. Autopilots stopped behaving like science-fair projects.

Then cameras, batteries, GPS receivers and small electric motors shrank.

That brought the technology off military runways and into cases carried by photographers, roof inspectors, farmers, firefighters and people like me who pull off a road because a town looks different from above.

The history is not a straight line. It is a shelf full of odd machines, failed tests and useful ideas that waited years for the rest of the hardware to catch up.

Large drones changed civilian work

NASA helped move large unmanned aircraft into science work. Its Global Hawk aircraft flew high-altitude missions that could last about 24 hours and cover roughly 8,500 nautical miles. Researchers used unmanned aircraft to study storms, wildfires and the atmosphere without putting a crew inside a long, risky flight.

That scale feels far away from a folding camera drone. The same bones remain: a ground station, a radio link, navigation, sensors and an aircraft doing work where a person does not need to sit.

The small-drone turn

Consumer drones became useful when several technologies matured together. Brushless motors became reliable. Lithium batteries carried enough energy. GPS held position. Tiny inertial sensors kept the aircraft level, and digital cameras stopped looking like security footage.

Flying changed.

Older radio-control pilots had to manage the aircraft every second. A modern camera drone can hover while I frame a courthouse or wait for a car to leave the shot. The software carries part of the workload. It does not carry responsibility.

That distinction matters. A hundred years of engineering can hold the drone in place. The pilot still decides whether it should be there.

Sources

Imperial War Museums, A Brief History of Drones:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/a-brief-history-of-drones

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, The Secret History of Drones:

https://airandspace.si.edu/air-and-space-quarterly/issue-12/secret-history-of-drones

NASA Global Hawk:

https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/global-hawk-uas/

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Time fixed some of that. I am fixing the rest.

The road has cured me of spec-sheet fever. A drone that takes ten minutes to unpack stays in the case when the light is disappearing. A smaller aircraft that launches in two minutes gets the shot. Battery condition, legal airspace and whether I can replace a prop in the next town matter more than another line on a feature chart.

What changed after 2025

Buying a drone in 2026 takes more homework than it did a year ago. The aircraft may be sitting on a store shelf while its app support, FCC authorization or replacement-battery supply tells a different story.

DJI still has a huge installed base, but new foreign-produced models face FCC equipment-authorization limits. Existing authorized DJI drones can still be used, marketed, imported and sold. I covered that change and the August 2026 status here:

That makes the exact model important. “DJI drone” is too broad. Check the model number, its FCC authorization and whether the seller is offering a U.S. unit or a gray-market import. A low price can become expensive once the controller will not activate, warranty service disappears or batteries are impossible to find.

Buy for the flight you will make

Start with four questions.

Where will you fly most often? What will you carry on foot? Do you need a vertical social-media frame or a camera built for grading later? Will the drone earn money?

My travel kit needs to fit beside everything else in the vehicle. I want fast setup, batteries that do not eat the whole charger and a controller I can read in Georgia sun. Someone inspecting roofs needs different hardware. A real-estate pilot may care more about repeatable moves and fast delivery. A mapper needs positioning, payload support and long days of battery management.

Write down the work before opening a product page. The answer usually removes half the choices.

Rules belong in the buying decision

A sub-250-gram drone is not a blanket exemption from FAA rules. The registration break applies when the aircraft weighs 0.55 pounds or less and is flown only under the recreational exception. Every drone flown under Part 107 must be registered, regardless of weight.

Registered drones must comply with Remote ID unless they are flown under a permitted exception, such as inside a FRIA. Recreational pilots also need to pass TRUST and carry proof while flying. Controlled airspace may require authorization through LAANC or DroneZone.

These are buying details. A Remote ID module adds cost and another battery. Prop guards, lights and accessories can push a small aircraft over 250 grams. A “no registration” sales pitch can fall apart as soon as the flight supports a business.

My used-drone check

Used drones can be a good buy. I check four things before money changes hands.

First, I ask the seller to power up the aircraft, controller and every battery. Swollen packs walk away with the deal.

Second, I inspect the gimbal during startup. It should finish its movement without grinding, shaking or parking crooked.

Third, I confirm the exact model, serial number, Remote ID status and account-binding status. A drone still tied to somebody else’s account can turn a bargain into a desk ornament.

Fourth, I price replacement props and batteries before I price the drone. An older aircraft with two dying batteries is not cheaper than a current kit.

I also look at the case. Dust, bent latches and props thrown loose in a compartment tell their own story. Owners who care for the small pieces usually care for the aircraft.

DJI and the FCC question

I would not ground an authorized DJI drone because of a headline. The FCC action is prospective. It blocks covered new equipment authorizations; it did not make previously authorized aircraft illegal to fly.

I would check before buying a newly released model. I would also keep proof of purchase, firmware records and the FCC information tied to that exact aircraft. Regulation can move faster than a retailer changes a product page.

For pilots who depend on one platform for paid work, a second aircraft deserves thought. It does not need to be a political purchase. It needs to finish the job when a battery, app update, controller or supply chain refuses to cooperate.

What I would carry today

For road travel, I still favor the smallest aircraft that can handle the wind and camera work I expect. The drone has to leave the case. Portability wins a lot of real flights.

For paid work, I would buy around the deliverable and keep room in the budget for batteries, insurance, storage cards, props and a controller hood. The aircraft price is the first receipt, not the full cost.

Do not buy a rumor. Do not buy a model because a countdown video made the box look heroic. Buy the aircraft you can legally fly, service and replace.

Sources

FAA drone registration:

https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/register_drone

FAA Remote ID:

https://www.faa.gov/uas/getting_started/remote_id

FAA TRUST information:

https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_flyers/knowledge_test_updates

FCC Covered List update:

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-673A1.pdf

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This is where the DJI drone ban stands as of August 13, 2026. Here is what that means in practical terms.

On December 22, 2025, the FCC added foreign-produced drones and critical drone components to its Covered List. DJI and Autel equipment named in Section 1709 of the 2025 defense law were included.

The FCC Covered List controls equipment authorizations for new models. The authorized drone already in your case remains usable.

Previously authorized DJI drones can still be used. Models that already received FCC equipment authorization may also continue to be marketed, imported and sold under that authorization. The restriction hits new equipment authorizations. A new covered model cannot legally enter the U.S. market without one.

That difference matters. Your Mini, Mavic, Air, Avata or Matrice did not become illegal to fly because the calendar turned over. FAA rules still apply exactly as they did before: registration when required, Remote ID, airspace authorization and the operating rules tied to your flight.

The harder question sits on the store shelf. Existing authorized models can remain available, but the pipeline for new DJI models is blocked unless the equipment qualifies for an exemption or the FCC changes its position. That can narrow selection and keep older hardware on sale longer than pilots expect.

The FCC has carved out several categories. Certain Blue UAS systems and products that qualify as domestic end products received temporary treatment through January 1, 2027. Foreign-produced toy drones were removed from the Covered List in June 2026. Those changes did not clear DJI’s consumer and professional aircraft.

DJI challenged the decision on January 21, 2026. The FCC opened ET Docket 26-22 and continued taking public input after DJI submitted a security assessment covering two drone systems, controllers and applications. Comments on that filing are due August 28, 2026.

I still think the U.S. needs real competition before regulators close the door on the equipment pilots already depend on. A policy can push domestic manufacturing without pretending a replacement fleet appears overnight. Farmers, roof inspectors, filmmakers and small drone businesses buy what works at a price they can carry.

For now, I am not grounding my authorized DJI drones. I am checking FCC authorization before buying a newly released model, keeping firmware and flight records in order, and watching ET Docket 26-22 instead of repeating headlines that leave out the part about existing aircraft.

That is the practical answer. Keep flying legally. Check the exact model before you buy. Read the FCC documents yourself.

Sources:

FCC Covered List, updated July 7, 2026: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-673A1.pdf

FCC fact sheet on foreign-produced UAS: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-416839A1.pdf

FCC notice on DJI’s challenge and August 28 comment deadline: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-592A1.pdf

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If you’re planning to film the August 12, 2026 solar eclipse with a drone, the most important decision isn’t your camera settings. It’s where you point the camera.

Are you filming the Sun... or what the eclipse does to the landscape?

On August 12, totality crosses Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic, Spain and western Portugal, with less than two minutes in most places and about 2 minutes 18 seconds at the maximum. Parts of the northern United States and much of Europe will see a partial eclipse.

Once the drone is up, nothing you forgot gets easier.

The short version: use the drone for the land. Keep the Sun out of frame unless you have a photographic solar filter made to fit that camera safely. An ND filter doesn’t become a solar filter because the number printed on it is big. Lock the white balance, test the exposure and launch early enough that you aren’t still moving when the light falls out of the sky.

Before You Leave Home

• Batteries charged

• Firmware updated

• Airspace checked

• Solar filter packed

• Weather checked

• Backup landing zone identified

• White balance locked

• Manual exposure tested

• Extra SD card packed

• Observer lined up, if available

Plan the eclipse drone flight before the Sun is up

There’s a part of the morning when the whole place belongs to you for about twenty minutes.

No glare yet. No bad decisions yet. The sky hasn’t decided what it’s going to do.

Walk the takeoff point, then walk the backup landing zone too, because the first one always looks better from the car than it does twenty minutes later with a drone coming home on 22 percent and three people standing where you planned to put it down. Check wind at the height you intend to fly. Trees at your feet can make a windy ridge look calm.

In Spain, totality comes late in the evening, shortly before sunset. A clear view at noon proves nothing. Check the Sun’s altitude and direction for your exact spot and exact minute. Then go there at roughly the same time on another day.

Before eclipse day, I want four things settled

• One legal takeoff point and a landing zone I can reach without crossing a crowd

• The route to the shot, including the gimbal angle at the end of it

• Camera settings saved as a note or screenshot

• A return point that leaves real battery in reserve

Best Places to Film the August 12, 2026 Solar Eclipse

Buford, Georgia, sits outside the partial eclipse, so this one has to be a road trip. Unfortunately, third shift has other ideas.

The word best changes with the person carrying the gear. Duration points toward Greenland and the North Atlantic. A higher Sun points toward Iceland. For a place you can reach, scout and find a road out of, I would look hardest at inland northern Spain.

Inland northern Spain

León gets totality from about 8:28 to 8:30 p.m. local time. Zaragoza gets roughly a minute around 8:29 p.m. Both sit under the path, with roads, lodging and open country nearby.

Spain’s weather agency, AEMET, studied cloud cover for the same August dates and evening hours from 2010 through 2025. Inland Castilla y León and the Ebro valley had clear or lightly clouded skies about 50 to 70 percent of the time. The Cantabrian coast, including northern Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country, came in closer to 30 to 50 percent.

Those are old skies, not a promise for Wednesday.

The best climate record in the world still loses to tomorrow morning’s satellite image. Let history narrow your search. Let the forecast choose your field.

The practical choice is open ground inland with a clear west-northwest horizon, outside town crowds and outside any drone geo-zone. Spain’s Sun will be low. One ridge in the wrong place can eat the whole two minutes.

Western Iceland

Reykjavík enters totality around 5:48 p.m. and comes out about a minute later. The Sun sits higher than it does in Spain, which gives buildings and mountains less chance to block it. Icelandic cloud can end the argument before it starts, so I would keep more than one location available and make the final move from the short forecast.

Western Iceland also asks more from a drone pilot. Wind, protected land and fast-changing visibility can turn a beautiful launch point into a bad one before the battery is warm.

Greenland, northern Russia and the North Atlantic

The longest totality, up to about 2 minutes 18 seconds, falls near the middle of the eclipse path across Greenland, northern Russia and the North Atlantic. Access gets hard quickly. Roads disappear. Weather support thins out and a drone becomes another piece of equipment that has to survive the trip.

For an expedition already going there, the duration is hard to beat. For a first eclipse flight, Spain gives you more ways to recover when the plan bends.

Partial eclipse locations

Most of Europe sees at least a partial eclipse. London gets about 91 percent coverage, Dublin about 94 percent and Madrid about 99 percent, though Madrid sits just outside totality. In the United States, the partial phase reaches parts of the North, from Alaska across northern states and into North Carolina.

Wherever I went, I would check the official forecast the night before and again that morning. Climate maps choose a region. The last satellite image chooses the field.

Can drones film a solar eclipse safely?

Yes. The margin gets thin when you point the camera at the Sun.

We don’t launch into the Sun. We never have.

DJI warns against leaving the Mini 5 Pro camera pointed at an intense light source such as the Sun because it can damage the sensor. That warning matters during the partial phases, when the uncovered part of the Sun is still hard, direct light.

An ND1000 is an exposure tool. A solar filter is safety equipment. Keep those two sentences separate.

If the Sun will be in frame during a partial phase, use a purpose-made photographic solar filter over the front of the lens, fitted to that exact camera and attached without loading the gimbal, fouling its movement or changing the drone’s balance. Eclipse glasses taped over the lens don’t count. Neither does a stack of ordinary ND filters.

Can’t find a proper solar filter made for the drone? Put the solar camera on the ground. The drone can face away from the Sun and film the changing light across the land.

That’s the shot I would choose anyway.

A Mini 5 Pro carries a wide camera, so the Sun will be a small coin in a large frame while a long lens on the ground does the solar disc better and the drone catches what can’t be seen from a tripod: water going dark, streetlights waking up and a line of shadow moving across open country.

One more distinction matters. ISO 12312-2 covers filters made for direct solar viewing with your eyes. It isn’t a camera-filter certification. Wear compliant eclipse glasses when looking at the partial eclipse and buy a solar filter intended for photographic optics when pointing a camera at it.

Best drone solar eclipse camera settings

Settings lists get confident fast. ISO 100. Shutter at 1/1000. Focus at infinity. Done.

Except those settings mix two different shots.

For wide video of the ground, I would start here:

• Record 4K at 24 or 30 frames per second.

• Start at ISO 100. Raise it only when the ground needs it.

• Try 1/50 at 24 fps or 1/60 at 30 fps for normal-looking motion.

• Lock the white balance before launch.

• Focus on distant ground, check it, then lock focus if the camera allows it.

• Turn on the histogram and overexposure warning.

Manual exposure records the fall of light. Auto exposure fights it. If I want the eclipse to look like an eclipse, I use manual and accept that the ground will get dark. Someone who needs detail in the buildings below may prefer a controlled auto setting. Make that choice during rehearsal, when nobody is counting down in your ear.

A shutter speed of 1/1000 or faster can work for a still photograph of the Sun through a proper solar filter. It makes poor blanket advice for drone video. Motion gets sharp and twitchy, and the ground can disappear into black.

Direct solar photographs need their own test, with the correct filter on the camera while the drone is still on the ground, pointed at the uneclipsed Sun long enough to check the histogram and bracket the exposure if the aircraft supports it. Filter strength and cloud cover decide the final numbers.

Don’t discover them at launch.

Where to position a drone for eclipse footage

The sky was doing something orange and violent behind them.

The shot was the ground.

Coastlines are good because moving light shows up on water. Open fields give the shadow room to travel. A town gives you windows and streetlights. Church domes, towers and ridgelines hold the last light in a way flat ground doesn’t.

Altitude helps until it doesn’t. Go too high and the foreground flattens out. The frame loses the one thing that tells a viewer how big the event felt.

Spain and Portugal add a low evening Sun to the problem, which means the trees, roofs and ridges you ignored at noon may matter more than another fifty metres of altitude when totality arrives shortly before sunset. There is no useful Europe-wide 10-degree rule. The angle changes with the location and minute. Check yours.

I aim a little off-axis and give the light somewhere to move. The Sun doesn’t need to sit in the middle of the frame like a target.

Battery strategy for the August 12 solar eclipse

The eclipse runs for hours. The Mini 5 Pro doesn’t.

DJI rates its standard battery for up to 36 minutes under test conditions, a number that starts shrinking as soon as wind, cold, repositioning, battery age and the reserve you should have kept all along enter the flight. The useful number is the one in your own flight log from a similar day.

Launch eight to ten minutes before totality or maximum eclipse. Get into position, stop spending battery on pretty circles and let the aircraft sit where you planned it.

I keep a second battery ready. I don’t build the main shot around changing it. Two minutes is too short for that kind of optimism.

Set the return point before takeoff. Land when the shot is finished, while you still have choices. A low-battery warning is a lousy director.

Solar eclipse drone laws, airspace and crowds

Check the airspace before you charge anything. Check it again near flight time.

Most of the path of totality is in Europe, where EASA open-category flights generally have to remain in visual line of sight, stay below 120 metres from the nearest point of the surface and avoid assemblies of people, with each country free to add its own geo-zones and local limits.

The United States gets a partial eclipse. FAA rules still require visual line of sight, and many flights over people aren’t allowed. Temporary Flight Restrictions appear through NOTAMs and can include drones.

An eclipse crowd is still a crowd. A sub-250-gram aircraft doesn’t give you a pass to hang over it.

Use an observer if you can. Totality pulls your eyes upward. The controller pulls them down. Someone needs to keep watching the aircraft and the air around it while the world turns the wrong color.

What I actually fly

I carry a DJI Mini 5 Pro most places, with a Neo for low work. That’s enough.

For this flight, I would put the Mini 5 Pro in the main slot. Its camera controls and longer battery give me more room. The Neo can grab a low establishing shot before or after the eclipse. I wouldn’t make it responsible for the two-minute window.

Heavy gear won’t rescue a bad position. The road teaches that lesson every week. Put the camera in the right place, know what it’s pointed at and be ready before the light goes.

Common mistakes when filming a solar eclipse with a drone

• Treating an ordinary ND filter as a solar filter

• Pointing bare glass at the Sun during a partial phase

• Copying settings from a different camera and filter

• Letting auto white balance erase the color change

• Flying so high that the foreground loses its shape

• Staring at the screen and losing visual line of sight

• Planning around the battery time printed on the box

• Launching over people because everyone else is looking up

The machinery recurs. People burn sensors the same way every eclipse, thinking one quick shot won’t matter.

It does.

One flight, then the light is gone

Restraint wins this one.

Do less than you think.

Point away from the obvious.

Let the land carry the story while the sky changes above it.

Find the spot early.

Hold the route.

Leave the white balance alone.

When the light begins to fade, let it fade.

Two minutes later the color starts coming back.

The crowd cheers.

Streetlights blink off.

Your props slow to a stop over a landscape that looks almost ordinary again.

Almost.

Because the best eclipse footage isn’t really about the Sun.

It’s about what the changing light revealed about the world beneath it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a solar filter for drone eclipse filming?

You need a purpose-made photographic solar filter whenever the Sun is in the camera frame during a partial phase. If the drone is filming the ground with the Sun safely out of frame, you don’t need one.

Is an ND1000 filter enough for a solar eclipse?

Don’t assume it is. Standard ND filters control exposure. They aren’t necessarily made to reduce solar energy safely across the required wavelengths. Use a filter sold for solar photography.

What are the best drone solar photography settings?

For ground footage, start with ISO 100, locked white balance and manual exposure. At 24 fps, try 1/50. At 30 fps, try 1/60. Test at the location before eclipse day. A filtered solar-disc photograph needs separate settings based on the filter.

How long is totality on August 12, 2026?

The maximum is about 2 minutes 18 seconds. Most locations inside the path get less than two minutes. Your exact time depends on where you stand.

How long should the drone stay in the air?

Launch roughly eight to ten minutes before totality or maximum eclipse and land after the planned shot, with a conservative reserve. Use the flight time from your own logs rather than the manufacturer’s test maximum.

Where can I practice?

Practice at the real location and close to the same time of day. A sunset run will show the low solar angle in Spain or Portugal. It won’t copy the sudden darkness of totality, so test exposure changes separately.

Sources and safety references

-NASA: Total Solar Eclipse on August 12, 2026

- DJI Mini 5 Pro User Manual

- Nikon: How to Photograph a Solar Eclipse

- ISO: What ISO 12312-2 Covers

- EASA: Understanding the Open Category

- FAA: Temporary Flight Restrictions for Drones