Ok Kevin... I (or we) have avoided your question for a while now! That is for good reason. We don't want to answer it and open up a big smoking hole!!!
Firstly - I'm not picking on you and I'm happy to talk to you (over the phone - PM me your daytime number).
We see lots of people come on forums with ideas, often with money but no experience, hoping that we all have the magic answer.
I'm lucky that after flying rc planes for 27 years, rc helis for 7 years, flying part-time commercial AP for 5 years (and being a technician by trade) that the multicopter way of life was a relatively painless journey for me. I have flown electric-only for 10 years so the battery/current/motor/esc stuff was already sorted in my head. I have seen friends start from scratch and take nearly 2 years before they were safely producing good AP commercial results.
Experience is everything - especially when you are in a strange country (like Africa) and something is broken. I know of several Kiwis who over the last 2 years have spent large $ on pre-assembled multis with gps controllers that think (and were told via a sales pitch) that they will be filming golf courses within a week or two "because the copter flies itself". It doesn't work that way -and they crash and break things as they didn't start with a basic machine and learn. Reading the forums will show how hard it can be to get a good flying multicopter, without waypoint guidance, that flies for 10 minutes and carries a Gopro that doesn't have "too many" vibrations...
If you want to go the multicopter way, start with a basic quad that you have to fly manually. You will learn and understand so much in a short time-span. That will save you money by not only crashing something that is cheap to repair (because you will crash) but will help you understand the bigger model when you choose to go there.
As for the 30 minute filming with waypoints with a compact travel machine... my initial thought is a 2M motorglider (with 4-part wings) and a gps waypoint system. In fact - I would say that option way almost easy with off the shelf components.
Just my 2c worth before bed. I'm happy to talk to you - PM me your phone number and I'll call you.
Pete
