FPV drone
Also known as: first-person view drone, FPV quad, FPV quadcopter
A drone flown through live video goggles from an onboard camera, usually in full manual mode, for fast, low and acrobatic shots camera drones cannot do.
Updated
What it means
FPV stands for first-person view. Instead of watching a phone screen while GPS holds the aircraft steady, the pilot wears goggles showing a live feed from a small camera in the nose, and flies as if sitting inside the drone. Most FPV pilots fly in acro (rate) mode, where the drone does not level itself - release the sticks and it keeps whatever angle it had.
That manual control is the whole point. An FPV quad can dive a cliff, chase a mountain biker through trees or skim a wave in ways a Mavic simply will not. Ready-to-fly models such as the DJI Avata line soften the learning curve, while classic 5-inch freestyle quads are usually built and tuned by hand. The style overlaps with cinewhoops, which trade speed for safety in tight spaces.
How it works in practice
There are usually two video streams. The goggles record a DVR copy of the live feed, which is low quality and only useful for reviewing a flight. The footage you actually edit comes from an HD camera: a digital system like DJI O3 or O4 recording on board, or a GoPro strapped on top, often a stripped-down "naked" GoPro to save weight.
A common setup records wide 4:3 at 50 or 60 fps with in-camera stabilization off, so the clips can be stabilized afterwards in Gyroflow or ReelSteady using the camera's gyro data. Pilots add an ND filter to keep the shutter slow, because natural motion blur hides the choppy look that a very fast shutter gives stabilized footage. Packs last only a few minutes, so one session produces a stack of short clips.
What to watch out for
Vibration is the classic FPV problem. Loose props, a bent motor bell or a hard-mounted camera produce "jello", a wobbling distortion caused by rolling shutter that no stabilizer fully removes. Balance props, use soft camera mounts and check a test clip before a big session.
Raw FPV clips are also full of wasted seconds: arming on the ground, hovering while you pick a line, crashes and the walk to recover the quad. Over a day that dead time can outweigh the actual flying. Finally, check local rules before you fly, since many regions treat goggles-only flying differently from line-of-sight flying.
How RawClip handles it
RawClip does not stabilize footage, so run your FPV clips through Gyroflow or ReelSteady first, or record with in-camera stabilization on, and upload the stabilized MP4 or MOV files. The AI then drops the arming, hovering and crash recovery, keeps the dives and gaps, and cuts the best lines to the beat of the music in one finished highlight.