Two very different paths to your media assets

You can absolutely buy a drone and start shooting your own marketing. First, though, you’ll spend anywhere from two to six thousand dollars on a prosumer airframe, spare batteries, ND filters, a rugged case, and liability insurance. Add an annual software subscription for Adobe Creative Cloud or DaVinci Resolve Studio, plus the $175 FAA Part 107 exam (and the many study hours it takes to pass), and the “cheap” in-house option is suddenly a real investment - both in cash and in weekends lost to learning curves.

Hiring Lone Star Drone, by contrast, is plug-and-play. We arrive with thousands of dollars in gear, fly legally under our current Part 107 certificates, carry millions in liability coverage, and leave you with fully graded, ready deliverables. There’s one line item on your marketing budget and zero capital expense.

The hidden costs DIY flyers underestimate

Time. Mastering smooth orbits, crane-up reveals, and tracking shots can take months. Then come the hours in Premiere or Resolve fine-tuning color, stabilizing footage, adding motion graphics, and exporting in half a dozen aspect ratios.

Compliance headaches. A single temporary flight restriction, Classed airspace boundary, or night-ops waiver can stall your shoot for days/weeks. We file LAANC requests and waivers daily; most clear in minutes. We are also acutely aware of where drones can be flown legally, a crucial aspect many pilots overlook.

Risk. One crash or fly-away can wipe out your gear budget in seconds, and if you filmed commercially without a Part 107 certificate, you’re also on the hook for FAA fines.

What you actually spend the first year you “do it yourself”

Even on a tight build, expect roughly three thousand dollars out the door: $1,200 for a solid drone like DJI’s Air 3, $480 for four batteries, $250 for a decent case, $240 for software, and $225 for the exam and prep. A more capable rig—say a Mavic 3 Pro or Autel EVO II Pro with extra accessories—pushes the tally well past six grand. And that’s before you’ve shot a single frame that passes for professional.

The hidden time tax: learning, practicing, perfecting

Budget dollars are only half the equation. To produce footage that actually elevates your brand, you’ll also spend dozens - often hundreds - of hours climbing the learning curve:

• Part 107 study: Even the most motivated learners average 15 - 20 hours of online coursework, flash cards, and practice exams before passing the FAA test.

• Flight proficiency: Count on 30 - 50 hours of stick time just to master smooth orbits, reveal shots, and accurate return-to-home protocols without relying on automated modes.

• Post-production skills: Real-world color grading, audio sweetening, motion graphics, and multi-platform exports add another 50 - 100hours of YouTube tutorials and trial-and-error before results look broadcast-ready.

• Regulatory maintenance: Every shoot demands pre-flight airspace checks, LAANC approvals, battery health logs, and post-flight data entry - easily 1–2 hours per project that never make it on screen.

  
  

Add it up and a “quick in-house video” can consume 80 –120 hours of your first year. This is time that could otherwise be spent closing deals, servicing clients, or innovating your core product.

What you get when you outsource to Lone Star Drone

• A trained cinematographer and photographer with 10 years of editing experience, meaning your footage looks broadcast-ready straight out of the gate.

• Dual-operator flights when the shot (and budget) demands it - one licensed pilot on the sticks, another on the camera for buttery precision.

• Variable format capture that lets us push color and exposure farther than any baked-in consumer profile when needed.

• Hero clips for social media and full campaigns - cut, color-graded, audio-sweetened, and more.

• One-and-done pricing that bundles license, insurance, flight, post, and final delivery all in one. No surprise add-ons.

Bottom-line ROI

Most clients recoup our project fee in fresh web traffic and conversions before they’d even unbox a new drone, let alone master LUT-based color grading. When you compare a modest four-to-five-figure DIY outlay against hiring us two or three times a year for guaranteed cinematic content, the outsourced path simply wins on cost, time, and polish.

Ready to skip the learning curve?

Call (817) 642-7499 or email info@lsdrone.com and tell us your marketing goal. We’ll quote a fixed package, handle every legal and technical detail, and hand you scroll-stopping aerials - while you stay focused on running the business.