A drone was something that was on my wish list for some time, and I think consumer drones are now at point where the tech capabilities and the price make sense for the average modern journalist to add to their standard toolkit.

DJI's current new models the DJI Neo 2 and Mini Pro 5 fit that tag, although the latter was a bit pricey given that I was new to drone photography.

The DJI Neo 2 Fly More Combo comes up at around MYR 1,500 with controller paired to be paired with a smart phone (RC N3) and 3 batteries. A similar combination for Mini Pro 5 was around MYR 4,500. It does have features that on hindsight I missed, but more on that later.

While the DJI Neo 2 is marketed more for social media content creators such as follow me and gesture modes, the features and specifications are quite impressive for drone photography.

In practice, it reached a distance of 1.5km before having to return, a round trip of 3km and total flight time of 9mins per battery. The camera was also quite good despite it's small sensor, similar in size and quality to a mid-range smartphone.

The 120m maximum legal height from the ground for Malaysia, is also good enough. Easily clearing tall primary forest trees.

It is also almost idiot proof. It'll warn you to return home when the battery has just enough left to get back. If it loses connection for too long, it'll also return back home automatically. 

Some tips:

• Make sure you enable video subtitles in the DJI Fly app. This will save the flight telemetry as SRT file, which will give you flight coordinates to correlate to your videos. Important when gathering evidence.
• If possible, launch it from discreet spot close but away from area you're taking photos from for safety. It's noisy near the ground, but at 50m and above, it's small and hard to spot or hear against background noise. This way nobody will realise that a drone has been launched, but also not know where it came from if spotted. You can make it go up to max height and it's really hard to spot at that height and 500m away.
• Bring a battery pack to keep charging the battery packs as you move between locations, this allows you to keep using the drone throughout the day.
• Although not part of the Fly More bundle, the RC 2 controller with built in screen, makes it quicker to launch the drone. Connecting N3 controller to your smartphone is more troublesome, but not a deal breaker, especially if you're on a tight budget.

Some short comings of the DJI Neo 2 vs Mini Pro 5 for actual use:

• Range and time is much more shorter. About 8 mins and 3km round trip, vs 21-30mins and 15-20km round trip for MiniPro. This means less time to investigate or observe, and also needing you to get close to the target location which may not be possible or increase risk of detection by security or workers for the drone pilot.
• More affected by strong winds.
• No zoom for camera, small sensor size, which is limiting when you need to capture details such as text on signboards, logos etc. You have to physically fly in close, which might make people aware of the drone.
• No preset waypoints.
• High pitch buzzing noise due to the small fan blades

On the hand it's tiny size, makes it easily packable to bring with you, makes it hard to visually spot, and while not a small amount of money, less painful if there is tragic mishap and you somehow lose the drone vs the much more expensive Mini Pro 5.

It's content creator features also means you can make more use of it for more mundane content, like say my bike packing trips.

Small case

With it's fan blade guards, the DJI Neo 2 is a tough little drone, so you don't need much protection for it. A small compact tech pouch is good enough, and easy for you to quickly chuck into your bag. I found that the Ulanzi SeeClear Large Tech pouch fits it nicely. Other pouches with the following dimensions W 23cm, D 9cm, H 15cm, should work. Maybe 16cm height would make it less tight.

Unfortunately due to an ongoing story, I can't share more details on all the different ways I'm actually using it for investigations. Will definitely write a tip sheet when it's OK to do so.

Despite it's shortcomings, the DJI Neo 2 is still and invaluable tool, that allows you to investigate and capture information that would be impossible without a drone. Highly recommended addition to a journalist's device toolkit.