The Chinese company Yuneec calls its small quad-copter “Selfie drone” or “flying camera”. It is called Breeze 4K and is to be particularly suitable for simple video recordings and photos, which the pilot himself can make.
The Yuneec Breeze 4K is compact, it fits into a plastic case, which is only 215 x 205 x 73 mm. The drone itself measures 196 x 196 x 65 mm, with attached propeller protection 327 x 327 x 65 mm. The propellers themselves are not rigid, which is why they can be folded inwards to save space. At 385 grams, the copter is relatively light.
Yuneec Breeze 4K is easy to carry
Due to the compact packaging, the Yuneec Breeze can be carried along very easily and comfortably on the road, which is not only practical when traveling: in many large cities in America it is not permissible to fly a drone in the city center. This is far more convenient with such a small drone, especially if you are not driving.
The Yuneec Breeze is ready for use: We just have to fold out the four feet, insert the battery and press the power button. The copter then waits to connect to a smartphone that acts as a remote control.
We need to install the free Breeze cam app, which is available for both Android and iOS. Using this application, we can not only control the drone, but also make settings, view, edit, and edit the captured video, and track the live image of the camera during the flight. The connection between drone and smartphone or tablet is via WLAN, so the range is limited to a few hundred meters.
Speed limits for quiet shots
The maximum flying height is set to 80 meters from home – this restriction makes sense in the sense that users are supposed to film themselves with the drone. Its maximum flight speed is at 18 km/h and the maximum ascent rate is even at 3.6 km / h. This makes the Yuneec Breeze much slower than many competitors, such as Parrot Bebop or DJI Mavic. However, it is also possible to record extremely quiet camshafts and camera movements.
The Breeze Cam app is designed to allow users with little flying experience to get the drone up and take good pictures with it. In addition to the so-called pilot mode, in which we control the drone completely manually via two virtual control buttons on the screen of our smartphone or tablet, there are different flight modes, in which the user is able to release a part of the control and automate it.
The drone as a self-contained stick
The Selfie mode is used to photograph and film yourself without having to pay too much attention to the control of the drone. Correspondingly, this mode should be executed in a range where interference in the trajectory can not occur. The Yuneec Breeze camera will show the user in this mode. The Selfie mode focuses more on the camera image and sets the control of the drone into the background. Accordingly, we do not control the copter with virtual control sticks on the screen as in pilot mode.
These are also as documented as with other copters: The left stick regulates the yaw and the ascent or the speed of the drone, the right is responsible for the direction. This division can also be reversed in the settings. Alternatively, a tilt control is also available: the yaw and the height / speed are still controlled by the virtual stick, while the direction is controlled by the smartphone. To do this, press and hold a corresponding button on the display with our thumb.
Simplified operation
In the Selfie mode, however, we adjust the distance and height simply by means of sliders in the standard setting, also the camera is adjusted in this way in height. This control makes it much easier to focus on the image, but it is also more difficult to react to suddenly appearing objects in the trajectory. Before activating the mode, the user is explicitly advised to pay attention to surrounding structures. The Yuneec Breeze does not have built-in sensors that warn of collisions or even objects.
After a brief familiarization, the selfie mode allows us to take good photos and videos, especially when we are shooting in Full HD. Then, the image is electronically stabilized, as opposed to images in 4K. These are better from the resolution and the details, but by the constant corrections, which the Yuneec Breeze in the flight independently makes, noticeably more jerky.
In orbit mode, the copter circle flies
Beware of surrounding objects, especially in orbit mode where the Yuneec Breeze flies in circles. Again, the control is reduced, we adjust the altitude and the distance by means of the slider. At the push of a button, the drone begins to cir- culate with or counter-clockwise at the set distance. This can take place around the user himself or around an object. The circuit is interrupted at the touch of a button.
In our tests, we found that the chosen circle should not be too tight, because the camera of the drone then has problems to really fly around a center point – this is not determined by tracking. Correspondingly, we were sometimes on the edge of the video recording rather than in the middle. If the circle is big enough, the centering will work better. But then users have to pay attention to other buildings, trees, and especially people.
In Journey mode, the Yuneec Breeze flies away from us and then returns to us. There is no way to determine the coordinates that are being flown here – the Breeze 4K simply flies away and returns. Accordingly, we found the mode of all least useful.
In the follow-me mode the copter follows only conditionally
This is different with the follow-me mode: As the name suggests, the copter follows us in this mode – or the mobile device connected to it. Yuneec does not use a high-resolution object recognition, but follows us exclusively via the smartphone or tablet, with which we control the drone. This means that other objects such as vehicles, other humans or animals can not be tracked.
The tracking works fine in our attempts, sometimes less good. The drone loses sight of us, but the result is satisfactory at normal walking speed. For the Yuneec Breeze to fly us, we have to switch a switch in the preview screen of our smartphone.
We’ll continue to review in the next post,please stay tuned to us.
The post Yuneec Breeze Review: Everything you should know-Part I appeared first on Drone Inner.
No comments:
Post a Comment