These days, the top camera drones have a variety of features designed to make both flying them and capturing high-quality footage easier than ever before. One such feature is the “follow me” mode that comes built into many photography drones.
So, what are the advantages of a drone that follows you, and how do you pick the best model for your needs?
That’s exactly what you’ll find out in this guide.
We explain the technology that allows drones to follow you, as well as the benefits this feature can bring.
We’ll then review the top models that offer this functionality, explaining all the key features like price, flight time, camera quality and more, so you can easily find the best drone that follows you.
Budget Pick  | Top Pick  | Premium Pick  |
DroneSourced Rating: | DroneSourced Rating: | DroneSourced Rating: |
Primary Rating: 4.0 | Primary Rating: 4.5 | Primary Rating: 4.7 |
N/A | $712.98 | $2,499.00 |
Benefits of Drones That Follow You
One of the main advantages of a drone that follows you is that it makes it a lot easier for beginner fliers to capture quality aerial footage without having to worry about flying the drone.
Simply set up the follow me mode and you can capture photos and videos with ease.
Applications of Follow Me Drones
“Follow me” drone technology has become particularly popular for capturing footage of extreme sports, such as skiing, mountain biking, and skateboarding. With a drone that follows you, you can easily capture cinematic footage of these activities with minimal manual input.
How Follow Me Drones Work
There are several different systems that can be used to make a drone follow you – let’s take a look at each different method.
Bluetooth
The most basic drones that follow you use bluetooth connectivity between the drone and remote controller or a smartphone app to follow you while you hold the connecting device. This is seen in budget “follow me” drones, but these typically come without advanced object avoidance technology and are limited by short ranges.
GPS
Another way of making drones follow you is by using GPS technology. This works by programming the drone to follow a transmitter or ground control system (GCS), typically the remote control. that is carried by the person or object being followed. This is much more precise than bluetooth tracking.
Visual Recognition
There’s also visual recognition tech, a more advanced and expensive tracking technology. This works by the drone collecting image and sound data via cameras and sensors, which is then transmitted to a processor which can distinguish between tracked objects and background information. This removes the need to carry a transmitter or GCS, but its accuracy can be affected by lighting conditions.
GPS + Visual Recognition
The most advanced drone following technology today is DJI’s ActiveTrack system. This combines GPS and visual recognition technology to result in highly accurate tracking of multiple objects without needing an external tracking device and with advanced obstacle avoidance.
DJI’s ActiveTrack has three different modes – trace, spotlight and profile. Trace makes the drone track at a constant distance, and you can use the remote control or DJI GO 4 app to make it circle the subject. Spotlight keeps the camera pointed at the subject while offering more flexible flight control, while the profile mode tracks the subject from a constant angle and distance from the side.
The Best Drones That Can Follow You Reviewed
Now you’re clued in on how drone follow technology works and why it’s useful, let’s take a look at the best models with this function.
We’ll review both cheap and expensive models and cover all the important specs, so you can easily find the best drone that follows you for your budget and application.
Potensic T25 – Budget Drone that Follows You
If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly drone that’s cheap but can still follow you, the Potensic T25 is certainly one of the best.
Costing less than $200, this is one of the cheapest “follow me” drones on the market. It doesn’t offer the same quality tracking as our more expensive recommendations, but considering the price, it’s fairly decent. This drone follows you by using GPS to connect to your phone.
This drone that follows you has a FPV 2K HD camera that can be adjusted by 75 degrees for capturing footage from different angles.
One of the best things about the Potensic T25 is that it’s a very small and compact drone that weighs under 250g. Not only does this mean it’s really easy to carry around, but as it’s under the 250g weight limit set by the FAA, you can fly it without needing to register the drone.
It also has some other intelligent flying modes that make it really easy for beginners to fly. These include the waypoint fly feature that lets you create custom routes by simply tapping points on the app, as well as an altitude hold function that sees the drone automatically hover in the air.
This drone comes with three batteries for a total flight time of 30 minutes, which is decent for such a cheap model.
