Video drones are everywhere. They’ve become almost required footage for real estate and other video marketplaces. With prices over $1000 they are equally matched by their complexity of use. What if you could add a drone to your video services repertoire for around $500? Would you balk at the price fully expecting something more like a kid’s toy? Well a company called Yuneec (did you get the cool spelling?) has created a drone that offers only the essentials like a 4K video camera. Dubbed the Breeze this “flying camera” is targeted for selfies and short videos.

Now if your budget is substantial (mine currently isn’t!) than you can opt for the many high end drones on the market. On the other hand if you’re looking for an entrance into drone videography the Breeze might just be the right choice for you. I will warn you the battery life is short. 12 minutes to be exact. And when it begins to get low the Breeze will beep and land on its own. Now before you leave in disgust, the Yuneec Breeze does come with 2 batteries. So you should always have your back-up battery fully charged and ready to go.

Now as I said earlier Yuneec has eliminated what they believe you don’t really need for a drone in this price range. And 1 of these items is the stand alone remote control unit. What’s that you say? NO REMOTE CONTROL UNIT! Well before you really trash this blog post let me tell you this is all part of the technological genius behind this product. Why not utilize something all of us already own to control and navigate the drone. You guessed it! Our mobile devices! Simply download the app and you have navigation, editing and sharing features.

Now onto actually controlling the Breeze in flight. There are 5 automated flight modes; Selfie, Pilot, Orbit, Journey and Follow Me. The shots that previously would have required a skilled pilot are now accessible with the click of a button.

In Pilot mode you have the most control. Using the traditional two-stick method, you can fly the drone anywhere around you manually utilizing the Breeze Cam app.

In Selfie mode use the distance, altitude, and position sliders to adjust position.

In Orbit mode you can have the Breeze orbit around you or another object. After positioning the Breeze, you can select orbit left, right, or pause the orbit at any time.

In Journey mode the camera pitch determines the angle the drone will fly at, and you can adjust how far it goes.

In Follow Me mode you manually select the location you want the drone to follow you from and the Breeze will react to your movements and follow along.

And finally, 1 of the best features of all. The Yuneec Breeze weighs less than 1 pound with foldable propellors making this “flying camera” extremely portable, lightweight and easy to carry.