Hover Camera quadcopter drone review

Consumer drones have exploded in popularity in recent years. These flying camera computers have the ability to detect faces, follow people around, fly on their own, land safely, and perform all sorts of cinematic tricks that used to require helicopters, cranes, steady hands, and lots of patience. And the prices are falling all the time: DJI’s Phantom 4 drone costs $1,100 and can avoid objects while tracking moving objects at over 25mph. And a new drone, from Chinese startup Hover Camera quadcopter drone, aims to be the first affordable drone to normalize constant filming—like a pet paparazzo that can track your every move.

The Hover Camera Passport allows users to chronicle their adventures, hands-free.

Zero Zero Robotics developed Hover Camera quadcopter drone to be the easy solution to a traveler’s needs. The camera almost serves as your own personal camera crew. It doesn’t require a selfie stick or attachment to capture videos. (There’s nothing stranger than watching a friend’s Go-Pro footage and not seeing their forearm in the frame the whole time.)

And don’t worry if flying a drone seems intimidating; the Hover Camera Passport uses facial recognition technology to follow you around automatically, letting you focus on being the model, not the photographer. If you want more control, just use the simple, intuitive iOS or Android app with just a few taps and swipes. The 13-megapixel camera can be tilted while in flight, and electronic image stabilization provides 4K video of your holiday adventure. And while flight time may seem a bit limited at under ten minutes, it’s easy to swap out a fresh battery and keep the fun going.

Some of the issues with the Passport might get fixed in the future, since the drone gets software updates fairly regularly. My first gripe, and one that may be fixed, is with the auto-follow modes. It’s actually a little difficult to get the camera to follow you if you aren’t moving extremely slowly and staying in its field of vision at all times. So, it’ll follow you on a run in a straight line, but it tends to cut out or “lose” you if you turn — even if you go slowly. That’s just for the body-based follow mode. The face-based mode should follow you based on facial recognition, and I only got that one to work once.

Keep in mind that the auto-follow modes are one of the Passport’s biggest selling points, so this is kind of a big con. However, like I said, the drone gets software updates, so this issue could be resolved. The company even said they might add auto-follow for animals or objects (which isn’t available yet).

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