Hover Camera: See what they think

Speaking of Hover Camera, you may think of the bankrupt Zano and the Lily in the drones marketing, the three drones are similar, they are all the drones mainly coming with the Self-Timer function, including the following shot function.

Then Hover Camera will follow in their footsteps? How do you think about the Hover Camera?

Below are some comments from the Hover Camera forum.

“More realistic. Its primary selling point is the use of the bottom camera. The rest of the functions are common cellphone camera features. Its main purpose is to stay in place no matter what, the follow feature is probably just the yaw and camera tilt.”

“I saw Hover Camera in my news feed. Looks cool, but at the end of the day, it’s just another toy hitting the market. It might sell well, but I don’t think this is the kind of device that people NEED or that will be super widespread. I’m sure it’ll be fun to fly, though.”

“Just seems a bit pricey for a design that looks like it was 3D printed to hold crayons. Why enclose the props with all that plastic? You’re losing a lot of functionality (lift and aerodynamics) that way.”

“Video is pretty bad. Which is why they market it more for taking photos instead video. I still need to take it out for another ride on the Boosted Board and see how Beast Mode works and how the video quality it when it’s flying at a constant speed. I’m hoping it does a little better than when just floating. Overall, it’s still a fun little toy.”

“The Dobby and Yuneec Breeze look like good options as well. I’ve had Phantoms and actually lugged them along on some pretty long hikes to do exactly what one of these will do. And the fact is I’m not a videographer and while the capabilities of that platform are wonderful, I’ve just come to the realization that one of these types – or maybe a Bebop 2 – are much more my speed, being that all I ended up using the Phantom for is remote selfies anyway.”

“Just purchased Hover Camera because the concept seemed cool and I wanted to try it. Not worth the money really. But still a fun little guy to mess around with. May end up on eBay in a couple weeks.”

“I don’t think I need Hover Camera but and glad I found out about it through an entertaining and honest, robust instructional delivery well done. Imagine it above you while your cooking acting as a fan while filming.”

“If you are looking to use for photos only, this could be a good choice. If you want more video, I’d suggest something like the DJI Mavic. I did a review of that too. It may be more of what you are looking for.”

 

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Get your Hover Camera in 2018

The commercial drone market is literally soaring right now so any new addition will attract some attention. So to the latest craze in the drone market: Zero Zero Robotics’s Hover Camera.

At a price point on the low side in this group of $599, is it a good choice for new flyers? Let’s take a look.

# “Hover Camera might be a nice product but their service sucks. Be warned, if you email them it will take them a week to respond to you. I purchased in October and in December still have not seen my order moved from “payed” in “my orders” on their website. Despite the fact they had a sale in the last two weeks before Xmas for people to buy it and have it shipped before Dec 25th (if you lived in USA or China). Meaning they decided to give priority with their stock to people who send them their money 2 weeks ago vs people who purchased almost 3 months ago, even if not in US or China it makes no sense since they know international shipments take longer. After a week of waiting for an answer to my email about it they told me mine would ship in last week of December, and guess what….not! Very bad customer service.”

# “Almost mid-January and still nothing…I have canceled my order because they keep lying to me and pretending it’s being shipped “this week” for the past 3 weeks but it actually isn’t. I have been following a few posts on their facebook page where people complain about the Hover Camera customer service and delays in delivery and it made me decide to cancel. It also seems their QA is very bad with many persons having to return the product as soon as they got it because it would only work for a few seconds then die…imagine the wait time on that. Having to return it and then wait for them to decide to repair, then ship back…maybe get it in 2018 when there would be plenty of better products out there.”

# “I have wasted my money for Hover Camera! Arrived after waited 3 long months to be delivered. When I received it, It was faulted Hover device did not work. (after battery gets charged fully, nothing wrong with batteries). When I made a claim to them, they asked me to make video to proof that is faulty. Now they recommend me to ship it back to them for customer service I have to pay for shipping to China and it’s not going to be new product.

My advice is for you all don’t buy it!”

# “I wouldn’t buy Hover Camera if I were you. I received one with a defective battery. I contacted them right after opening and they never responded to me to fix the issue they caused. I had to pay for a broken product. Waste of money.”

Scan forums or some social medias like Facebook, you could find many responses toward Hover Camera customer service like these above.

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Hover Camera app: One of my favorite parts

Taking exceptional photos and videos is extremely easy with your flying camera, Hover Camera Passport.

The Hover Camera Passport has an accompanying app that gives you a fair number of controller layout options. You can fly with two virtual joysticks if you’re familiar with traditional controls; use the simplified layout if you just need to get the camera in position; or even turn on tilt mode and steer the drone around by tilting your phone in any direction. As with most smartphone-based controls, the Passport’s manual modes do feel a bit loose and imprecise — but we still appreciate the ability to switch up the control scheme.

It was simple and easy to understand even without the instructional screens. As someone who rarely reads instructions, that’s a huge plus from me. Plus, the Hover Camera Passport doesn’t require any bulky remote controls. That’s one less thing to charge, one less thing to keep track of, and one less thing to pack.

You can just look down at the app and fly, since the controls sit on top of a real-time video feed coming from the Passport. Whether the camera is recording or not, you can see what your Hover Camera sees at all times. It’s a little disorienting at first, but once you get used to it you can fly without ever having to look up.

The app itself performed admirably; it never once lagged on my Nexus 5x running Android Nougat, and I had the same results with a friend’s iPhone 5s running iOS 10.

The Hover Camera is now available at $599 with 8mins flight time.

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Hover Camera Passport review

Chinese drone-maker Zero Zero Robotics announced its Hover Camera Passport drone and $25 million in funding from investors including IDG, GSR Ventures, ZhenFund and ZUIG.

Being like a drone camera, it offers three modes of photography: 720P, 1080P and 4K. And the Snapdragon 801 processor allows easy recording in 4K, 13MP photo or 720P images in real time. It can recognize a human face and then track it. Hover Camera Passport also supports 360° shooting, throw-and-fly, automatic hovering etc.

And its foldable design gives it a weight that is only at 242g, lighter than iPad Mini. And its foldable size of 18 * 13cm is just a little big as a passport.

But the key to this drone’s design is the safety. The carbon fiber enclosure design protects the propellers, a design move that could have prevented injuries caused by the sharp blades of whirring propellers.

“I want it to be portable, I want it to be safe, I want it to be user friendly,” said Zero Zero Robotics CEO M.Q. Wang, a former Twitter software engineer. “Our goal is to build personal robotics for anyone.”

While the company has really tried to balance efficiency and safety, the result isn’t fully satisfying. As shown above, an adult woman can put her finger through openings in the cover, and of course kids can, too. So for all parents out there: this is not a toy for your kids to play with alone. With such a seemingly safe design, it’s actually more likely that accidents will occur.

It’s something that realistically could compete with the more inexpensive drones from the two established market players, Phantom maker DJI and Yuneec. DJI so far has received at least $105 million in two rounds of venture funding, and Yuneec in August received $60 million in funding from Intel Capital.

Zero Zero Robotics was founded in 2014 and has about 80 employees, Wang said, but the company managed to remain largely unheard of until now.

The Hover Camera Passport is priced at $599. To step back for a second, consumers can buy a Parrot drone or DJI’s Phantom 3S starting. From $499. This new drone-in-a-grill has 10-minute flight, a controllable range of 20m and doesn’t support a remote control, working only through an app. So, is $599 cheap? There are a number of factors to consider.

“We wanted to make sure we solved a lot of hard engineering problems first,” Wang said.

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Hover Camera buy:Is $599 Too High

The Hover Camera is one of the more unique flying cameras we’ve ever seen, focusing on a durable and portable lightweight design, competitive price, and ease of use through an iPhone app.

Just like Lily and Zano, as the marketing message goes, it’s aiming for the selfie market. Like the others, it has attracted a fair bit of attention from the time it was first unveiled in April.

The official release unit is compact, foldable and weighs only 240 grams. It can recognize a human face and then track it. Hover Camera also supports 360° shooting, throw-and-fly, automatic hovering etc. The drone is priced at $599.

To step back for a second, consumers can buy a Parrot drone or DJI’s Phantom 3S starting. From $499. This new drone-in-a-grill has 10-minute flight, a controllable range of 20m and doesn’t support a remote control, working only through an app. So, is $599 cheap? There are a number of factors to consider.

There are three levels of consumer drone:

• Low-end “selfie drones”(under $400)

Example: Dobby

Features: Focusing on selfies, 4k video, flight time within 10 minutes, electronic image stabilization, limited flight range, controlled by smartphone.

• Consumer drones for aerial imaging (Above $650)

Example：DJI Mavic, DJI Phantom series

Features: Focusing on aerial photography, flight time around 27 minutes, three-axis gimbal, long transmission range, uses remote controller.

• Drones for professional photography (Above $1,500)

Example: DJI Inspire series

Features: Cinematic footage of higher quality, better camera, dual controllers.

There isn’t any mature product between $400-$650 yet. The Hover Camera is trying to wedge itself into this market segment. But, when you lay out its features, side-by-side with rivals, it’s simply too expensive as a “selfie drone.” And then ask yourself these questions:

1. Do we actually need a drone to take selfies?
2. Enclosing propellers with a cover, is that innovation or marketing?
3. Do you want to lower your technical expectations, yet still pay a high price for promised “safety?”

In summary, $599 for the Hover Camera is a bit rich for our blood. Drones with far more features, better cameras – stabilized ones – start $100 below that price point and get steadily better as they creep above it by another $100 or $200. The Hover Camera is cute, but it makes too many compromises and comes in at too high a price.

( Source )

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Hover Camera from Zero Zero Robotics

Imagine a flying camera that you carry easily, that you deploy and that is hovering autonomously, with the help of a vertical camera and a front camera. This is the principle of the Hover Camera, a selfie drone developed by Zero Zero Robotics. Its design is not as sexy as that of the Lily. On the other hand, it seems much safe, with 4 rotors placed behind the carbon fiber that protect the propellers.

The Hover Camera measures 18.2 x 13.2 x 3.25 cm when unfolded, for a weight of 238 grams, below the 250 grams which allows to fly unrestricted in the United States. Because the aircraft is clearly intended for indoor and urban flights. Hover Camera on White-1200 not only does it stay hovering, but it also knows how to follow a subject with the help of its front camera and strong algorithms of recognition of shapes, and faces. It can also pan. The camera, which shoots in 13 megapixels and films in 4K, is able to pivot on the axis of the pitch (inclination upwards and downwards). It is equipped with a digital stabilization without mechanical nacelle, in the manner of the Parrot Bebop 2. The goal, according to the designers, is to propose an autonomous flying camera, which flies without the need to control it, which captures its images “with a minimum of interaction”, ie without the need for a radio control, With a smartphone to control the image.

This quadcopter can fly up to 2,000 meters above sea level, or 6,562 feet. This isn’t the actual height above the ground you can fly; that distance is determined by the operating range, which is 20 meters for the Hover Camera Passport.This is one of the worst operating ranges available among all drones, where the average is 100 meters (328 feet).

At a top speed of 8.0 m/s, or 18 mph, the Hover Camera is one of the slowest drones out there. Remember that this is the horizontal top speed, and you’ll also need to account for wind strength and direction when flying, which will affect the rate of travel.

Maximum speed in this case is very important if you want the drone to follow you during a bike ride or other kind of activities with fast movements. The Hover Camera Passport might not be able to catch up!

Another important feature for those who get into drones for the first time, is the presence of some sort of hovering assistance, as it may come hard to keep the drone in a determined position when there’s wind and you still aren’t fully trained. Because of that, the Zerotech Dobby packs a GPS as well as GLONASS dual satellite navigation system to guarantee accurate hovering both indoor and outdoor, with wind speeds up to 28km/h.

The Hover Camera offers a limited battery life of 8 minutes (the battery will be removable), lack of cameras on the sides and back to avoid the obstacles, of a difficulty to fight against the wind. It doesn’t come cheap which is priced at $599.

 

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Hover Camera or Dobby? Read this before you choose

A pocket drone capture amazing high-quality video, and are so well-constructed for the price that they keep everyone from simple hobbyists to those who are looking for a full-fledged movie director’s tool interested. So which one should you choose? Hover Camera or Dobby?

Design

The Dobby has a folding design and is finished in white.The Dobby pocket drone that absolutely feels like something from visionary shows such as “Futurama” or “Blade Runner”, and its propellers fold up very nicely into its tiny pill-like shape. The entire drone weighs just under half a pound, and is controlled by a smartphone app like many others out there on the market.

 

While, the Hover Camera by Zero Zero Robotics has a body made with carbon fiber that makes it lightweight and strong. This Hover Camera has a compact, small and light body is a combination of a camera and a drone. It also has four motors and propellers that are attached to the body. This is due to the design of the body that could be easy on the wallet.

Size&Wight

Hover Camera: 182 x 132 x 33mm, 238g, about the size of an iPad mini
Dobby:135mm x 67mm x 36.8mm, 199g, about the size of an iPhone 6

Obviously, the Dobby drone is smaller and more portable.

Price

At the current time the Zerotech Dobby can be found on sale for $349, which includes the drone, its battery, a charger and 4 blades; there are no prop guards or any other accessories.

The Hover Camera Passport will, on the other hand cost $599 and the package includes the drone, protective case, case strap, easy-carry bag, two rechargeable LiPo batteries, charger, an USB 3.0 cable and 4 spare propellers.

Controls

There’s no dedicated remote control. Instead you fly using your smartphone. The free Do.fun app, available for Android and iOS, is required to control the quadcopter.

The Dobby is pretty easy to fly. It automatically takes off from flat ground—don’t try from a stony driveway or a grassy lawn, however, as the rotors are too low to the ground to spin up on anything but a flat surface. Takeoff and landing are automatic, but you may have to calibrate the aircraft compass and the phone compass before your first flight. The app walks you through that process, which involves spinning the Dobby and waving your phone in a figure-eight pattern.

There are two control schemes available. Selfie mode adjusts the directions in relation to your position. It can also be set to a landscape videography mode, which flies the drone in relation to the position of its nose.

A control pad on the left side of the app adjusts altitude and spins the Dobby about its axis. To move it forward, backward, left, or right in space you hold your thumb down on the right half of the screen and tilt your phone in the direction you want it to fly.

There are a few automated flight modes. You can set it to orbit around a point in space, keeping its camera pointed at the center. It also has Target and Face Tracking, perfect for the selfie crowd—target yourself and the Dobby will follow you around. Finally there’s Return-to-Home, which brings the quadcopter back to its launch point.

As for the Hover camera, the Passport has an accompanying app that gives you a fair number of controller layout options. You can fly with two virtual joysticks if you’re familiar with traditional controls; use the simplified layout if you just need to get the camera in position; or even turn on tilt mode and steer the drone around by tilting your phone in any direction. As with most smartphone-based controls, the Passport’s manual modes do feel a bit loose and imprecise.

It does Orbit mode, in which the drone will fly in a circle around you regardless of where you move; as well as 360 Panorama mode, in which the drone will execute a 360-degree spin and then stitch together a single panoramic image.

The most impressive modes are the two that make use of the Passport’s image recognition software: Face Track and Body Track — both of which are self explanatory. To use them, you simply tap on the face or body that you’d like to follow, and the Hover Camera will do whatever it takes to keep the subject in frame. The software isn’t quite as robust or intuitive as DJI’s Active Track technology (which can track any object you select), but it’s pretty effective, and definitely one of the Passport’s best features.

Performance and Video Quality

Video is recorded at 1080p quality. It’s silent, which is fine as propeller noise is all a microphone would pick up. Stabilization is digital, and the result is wobbly, jittery video. Colors look good, but I’ve seen better detail from 1080p video before.

Stills are captured in JPG format at 13MP resolution. Image quality is on par with what you get from a midrange smartphone. But if you’re used to Snapchatting with your phone’s front camera you’ll be happy with the Dobby‘s imaging capabilities. Just don’t expect anything more.

(via Dobby)

On the other hand, the Hover Camera Passport is touted as a selfie camera, the camera itself is admittedly rather lackluster compared to what’s available on some other drones like Mavic Pro. It can shoot in 4K, 1080p, or 720p — but is limited to 30 frames per second regardless of the resolution. It also doesn’t have a gimbal, and relies on a combination of digital stabilization and a single-axis swivel to stabilize images. Effectively, this means you’ll need to shoot in 1080p if you want smooth video, since 4K video is only stabilized along one axis and will likely be shaky.

(via Hover Camera)

In terms of the image quality and stabilization, Dobby is ahead of the Hover Camera. And it comes with 100m operating range range compared to 20m of Hover Camera.

Flight time

Hover Camera: 10mins
Dobby: 9mins

Both of them are good for social media sharing, easy to carry around and shot battery time, the choice may come down to camera and price.

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Hover Camera:Your new selfie stick?

If you are a selfie addict, this gadget should be in your arsenal of selfie accessories. Introducing the Hover Camera Drone.

Toss that selfie stick away. You can now get a flying selfie drone that will buzz around and take your photos for you. The Hover Camera from ZeroZero Robotics folds up small enough to fit in your backpack, so you can take it along on all your selfie adventures. Don’t worry, you don’t need to send your phone flying to use the Hover Camera ; it already comes with a built-in camera.

The drone is designed to fly around autonomously, following you and filming you from the air. It’s like a very fancy airborne selfie stick. Set it to automatically track your face or body, or control it like a regular drone using an app.

One big disadvantage to the Hover Camera is that it lacks a gimbal. Instead, it uses electronic image stabilization(EIS) to counter shake in photos. But EIS is only available while taking photos and cannot ensure that video shooting goes smoothly and stably.

In addition, the Hover Camera has a maximum hovering time of up to 10 minutes without wind. Though you get two batteries in the package, 20 minutes is not a lot of time to enjoy taking your selfies while hanging out. Excluding the time it takes to strike a pose or mug for the camera, you’re not going to get that many shots off before your battery is out of juice.

What makes it intriguing despite them is the clever folding design. A cage-like structure protects fingers from the propellers. You can even grab it right out of the air when you’re done filming.

It’s on sale now, but you may balk at the $599 price, which is a lot to ask for a personal selfie drone. You can get a very capable DJI Phantom 3 Standard $499 for less, after all. But if you love capturing your own image, and want to put an aerial spin on your selfies, the Hover Camera looks like a promising option for narcissists with deep pockets.

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Hover Camera or Phone to take selfies?

Advances in smartphone photography over the past decade have given us amazing rear-facing snappers. The introduction of accessories such as the selfie stick has taken this addiction to new levels, which begs the question: what’s next in the evolution of the self-taken image?

The answer may well be the ‘selfie drone’, such as the Hover Camera. It’s billed as pocket-sized and, to be fair, it does actually slip into your jeans with a little encouragement. The Hover Camera Passport sports a 13MP snapper that can shoot videos in 4K resolution and at the same time offer live 720 video feed of the ultra HD footage. This drone has sonar and optical sensors that make it possible for the Hover Camera to be stable and steady once in position. It is also powered with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor that has artificial intelligence to track and detect bodies as well as run advanced proprietary computer vision.

But will this sub $599 drone really improve your selfie game, or are you better off simply holding your phone at arm’s – or stick’s – length?

When taking the “mirror shot”, the Hover Camera is a godsend in this regard, but it does require some forward planning – you have to position the drone correctly, and then take a ‘timed’ shot using the accompanying app. You can then put your phone in your pocket and pull your perfect pose.

Of course, all this is ignoring the fact that you don’t actually need a mirror to take a shot when your camera is totally mobile, but when have selfies ever been about common sense and logic? And one issue with this shot is that when operating Hover Camera indoors, you run the risk of it colliding with furniture or light fittings – not an ideal scenario when you’re talking about a piece of tech which costs almost $599.

Given the amount of setting up involved, we’d call it even between drone and camera in this case – the Hover Camera doesn’t really make things any more convenient.

When all you’re interested in is grabbing an image of your smug, smiling face to share with the world, the Hover Camera doesn’t really make all that much sense. Your phone is the perfect tool for these kind of shots.

The drone does a commendable job of remaining stable indoors thanks to its optical flow technology, but we had a few too many close calls with furniture for comfort.

If for landmark shot or group shot, the Hover Camera could definitely be for you. Simply angle the camera downwards and track the drone back slightly until everyone is in shot, and you’ve got the perfect group photo.

It only takes a second to whip out your handset and compose a snap with your trust phone. However, there are obvious limitations – that’s where drones comes in, and if you’re serious about elevating your selfie game then they’re a very useful tool. You can take some seriously impressive aerial photos.

However, there are downsides to drones – setting up a shot takes longer as you have to get the drone in the air, and once you do, flight time is limited due to the fact that the battery only lasts around 8 minutes at the very most. The cost is also a sticking point – drones such as the Hover Camera don’t come cheap.

 

 

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IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE TO HOVER CAMERA

There’s nothing more captivating to tech nerds these days than a cute indoor drone that you toss up into the air, have it take a picture of you and your friends, then drops into your hand, folds up and goes back in your pocket. That’s where the Hover Camera comes in.

The Hover Camera drone is equipped with a pretty decent little camera. It shoots video in 4K, stills at 13 megapixels, and even has a built-in flash.The Hover Camera Passport stands apart from other portable drones thanks to image recognition software, which allows the drone to recognize and follow a target. You could toss it up into the air and just let it go to capture photos. The Hover Camera is a practical and appealing device drone enthusiasts will enjoy using though the battery life is fairly short at 8-10 minutes.

Hover Camera Passport does not come cheap. It is priced at $599 so you’ll have to decide if its features are worth the money, or if you might be better off with other cheaper foldable drones.

The Zerotech Dobby is one of the most popular foldable drones due to the fact that it’s readily available, and relatively good hardware & software. It can shoot 1080p video with EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) and packs different features such as Face Tracking, Follow Snap and gesture based motion controls.

This foldable drone is fueled by a 970mAh battery and can fly for about 9 minutes on one charge. At the current time the Zerotech Dobby can be found on sale for $349, which includes the drone, its battery, a charger and 4 blades; there are no prop guards or any other accessories. You can discover more about the Hover Camera vs Dobby by visiting our Learn More page.

If you’re looking for a more powerful foldable drone, the Mavic Pro could definitely be for you.

It can shoot high quality 4k @30fps with 3-axis IS, it packs tons of features from ActiveTrack to precision hover, obstacle avoidance, OcuSync video transmission and more. The big 2970mAh capacity battery gives it the amazing flight time of around 27 minutes.

The Mavic Pro comes with the following features:

1 Light, small and foldable design;

2 Powerful camera for shooting stable and clear videos and photos;

3 Competitive flight time and long-range control;

4 Creative camera features including Obstacle Avoidance, Gesture Mode and ActiveTrack;

The “small size” only makes sense when the drone have these features. For Hover Camera vs Mavic Pro comparison please visit here.

Will you buy Hover Camera or not?

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Hover Camera Passport, drone or camera that steals itself

For the drone, we know a lot of types, like drone FPV, racing drone, drone of aerial photography. But today, I will introduce a new drone that uses super-advanced technologies. It is called “Hover Camera Passport“.

It is not like aerial photography drones on the market. The Hover Camera Passport is the first drone, or one can say the first smart camera that flies itself for the majority of consumers. Super safe and super portable thanks to its enclosed and foldable enclosed design.

Super smart

After activated the auto tracking feature, it uses face and body recognition on the basis of CNN. Hover Camera can quickly find the goals and you decide the choice. After double clicking the lens on the real-time image of the application, it starts the tracking photograph.

Release on the finger and Recover in half air

With the calculation of the flight controller independent study, the original sensor data is evaluated at a frequency of 1 kHz to sense the fuselage take-off condition in order to quickly adjust the flight controller’s orders. For the drive, it uses FOC calculation which allows a fast and effective rotation motor. And its lightweight design and complete fuselage protection offers a finger-lift and super safety.

Super close flight brings a special visual angle

A super close interaction allows you to be on the spot, and the visual angle of god is focused on you. The complete protection design, the sensors whose fused technology that fits inside and outside and the super flight close to you give a super close photography experience that never exists.

Being like a drone camera, it offers three modes of photography: 720P, 1080P and 4K. And the Snapdragon 801 processor allows easy recording in 4K, 13MP photo or 720P images in real time.

And its foldable design gives it a weight that is only at 242g, lighter than iPad Mini. And its foldable size of 18 * 13cm is just a little big as a passport.

The Hover Camera Passport is also applicable to the beginner thanks to the motion-control mode. It’s easy to learn.

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The biggest problem of Hover Camera?

The Hover Camera is a unique flying cameras, focusing on a durable and portable lightweight design, and ease of use through an iPhone app. But some of the issues with the Passport you also should know before you buy it.

Range: 20 metres.

Flight time: 8 minutes.

But the biggest problem? The Hover Camera does not have a gimbal for stabilization. That means any vibrations from the high-speed rotation of four propellers and motors are going to translate directly into the video. And the results of that – well, they don’t look so great. Tested took a good look at the Hover Camera and its features – and found the video shaky and the tracking inconsistent. It’s worth watching their full review, which includes the positives as well as the downsides.

“With the face-tracking and body tracking, the results are very hit-and-miss, depending largely on your lighting conditions,” says Tested’s Norm Chan at the 6:32 mark.

He later continues: “…It would run past me and get really confused and continue flying. Or, when I tried to do like a walk-and-talk, walking toward it, it would veer off-axis and go off in one direction, then lose tracking, and then crash into a tree or something. Not very impressive.”

Not for $599. And not when you can buy a base DJI Mavic Pro for $999 US that you can control with your phone from up to 80 metres away. That machine has a three-axis gimbal, obstacle avoidance, and multiple smart tracking modes. It’s foldable design is also very compact – and DJI has packed in the cumulative knowledge the global drone leader has acquired during several previous successful generations. Its maximum flight time is 27 minutes.

Reviews of the Mavic Pro are pretty much universally positive – and no one is complaining about shaky video. (YouTube star Casey Neistat calls it “The Greatest Drone Ever.”)

That’s not to say the Hover Camera doesn’t have some cool features. It does. And if you’re looking for a simple way to snap a selfie and video quality isn’t that important to you – go for it.

But $599 puts you very close to the Mavic Pro.

Spring the extra $399…and you’re not just hovering. You’re flying.

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RIP selfie stick, Hello Hover Camera

The Hover Camera is a very simple-to-use drone dedicated to taking selfies pictures or videos.

Beijing start-up company Zero Zero Robotics basically combined two of the most defining technological trends of the 2010s – the selfie stick and the drone (a flying robot) – into one totally futuristic and niche product: the Hover Camera. As the name suggests, it is intended primarily to hover although it may also move.

• Safe – because the four brushless motors (which Zero Zero apparently developed itself), reside within a carbon-fibre cage. It would be next-to-impossible to clip your fingers with a prop, unless you have impossibly tiny fingers.
• Portable – because when it’s folded it measures 182x132x33mm (or a little more than 7.17” x 5.2” x 1.3”) and fits in a small pouch you could throw in your purse or clip on your belt loop.
• Foldable – because, well, it folds.
• Easy-to-use – Yup. Just power it up, place it where you’d like it to Hover, and let go. The Hover Camera, in what appears almost a magical stunt, remains wherever you place it. It features a downward-facing camera and sonar, so it calculates and maintains its position.

The Hover Camera is controlled by an iOS or Android app, so anyone with a smartphone can connect via WiFi and easily learn to control this quad (though the WiFi range is limited to a maximum of 20 metres, according to the company’s specifications).

What’s cool, is that the company has built in a few smart features.

The Hover Camera can follow you, or orbit. It has face-tracking and body tracking – and can even spin in one spot to capture a panorama shot.

As for the image? It’s captured in 13 megapixels via a 1/3.06” CMOS sensor. The maximum image size is 4208×3120 pixels with a field-of-view of 28mm. What’s more, it’s capable of recording 4k, 1080p, and 720p – all at 30 fps. You can control the pitch of the camera angle from -90 degrees (pointing straight down) to +30 degrees (which would give you an up-the nose angle if hovering close to you at chest height).

On paper, all that looks pretty solid. Throw in its ability to just hang there wherever you put it, and it’s pretty impressive. The company home page includes some choice quotes from reviews, including:

“It allows you to grab it and reposition it like a floating tripod” – c|net

“You can grab hold (of) it any way you want without getting cut by the propellers.” – engadget

And, from Dronelife.com: “You’re going to want one.”

On that last point, we’d say – Maybe. And maybe not.

The Hover Camera retails for $599 US. If the Hover Camera shot great video and had an extended range and long flight times, we’d say “Awesome – sign us up!” Unfortunately, however, the Hover Camera is severely limited in those three areas.

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Hover Camera:the drone that takes care of filming you

You are a follower of selfies and you want to take the height with dronies? The drone Hover Camera should become your new friend.

Remember the Lily drone? This quadcopter that follows you to the track to film you with its function follow me. Since then, many drones have come to the forefront and we have been able to meet the Hover Camera drone, a foldable and compact drone that is carried everywhere with you. Its design does not mean a drone, but rather a bird that would be enclosed in a cage. Because the propellers are protected, it is impossible to cut your fingers on takeoff for example.

The Hover Camera drone is capable of filming in 4K and its camera is stabilized numerically. Its face recognition algorithms facilitate the flight in perfect autonomy, but the drone does not know how to avoid the obstacles. We are finally in the presence of a totally autonomous flying camera. Except that if you talk about autonomy, with only 8 minutes of autonomy. It’s little, very little!

During the demonstration, the Hover Camera drone was not very comfortable since the demonstrator did not let it take too high altitude. So we could not judge the automatic tracking capabilities of the device. We are curious to know the performance of the craft when faced with a Mavic Pro which had proved rather convincing on its ability to track and avoid obstacles.

The Hover Camera drone is available at 599 dollars, or about 600 euros once the various taxes are added. It’s a bit expensive in the face of a Parrot Bebop 2 that has been equipped with automatic tracking features and is much more powerful.

 

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Hover Camera:Maybe a first drone for the younger consumer

In 2016, drone has become one of the hottest consumer gadget and we have seen more variations of drones in the market, from 4K camera quadcopter to indoor toy drones without a camera to foldable drones that fit in your pocket. More interestingly in the past few months, foldable drones have become a widely discussed topic among all other drones in the press and social media.

Not all drones are made equal and this also holds true for foldable drones. For many first time drone buyers, price and aesthetics often become key deciding factors for their purchase. However, consumers should really ask themselves how they intend to use the drone. Is this going to be another acquired hobby? Are you interested in capturing amazing aerial footage? Are you just looking for the fun and thrills of flying? Or are you looking for something that can do both?

The Hover Camera Passport, DJI Mavic Pro and GoPro Karma were among the most talked about foldable drones in recent months, so we took a look at some reviews from technology media and bloggers to sum up it all up.

What’s great about it:

• Cool design, compact, portable and easy to carry around
• Charging hub can charge two batteries at the same time
• It crashes into things but it doesn’t fall to the ground
• Can grab or catch the Hover Camera drone because the propellers are inside a casing

Some shortfalls:

• No dedicated transmission system which means greater chance of interference using Wi-Fi, shorter range flights and less ideal for outdoor flying esp. in windy conditions
• Computer Vision is a hit and miss especially in detecting and tracking moving subjects
• No gimbal for the camera so footage were wobbly and shaky
• Camera and sensor size is smaller, only comparable to a smartphone camera and not optimized for aerial imagery
• No GSP, which means less stable and not ideal for outdoor flying
• 8 min battery life only so not idea for travelers

Conclusion: A neat idea for a drone, but not quite there yet in terms of footage quality, tracking and stability. Maybe a first drone for the younger consumer if they are just looking for something fun and cool.

Stay tuned for the second half of this review as we share our analysis of two other foldable drones, the DJI Mavic Pro and GoPro Karma.

( Source )

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Some tricks you need to know about the Hover Camera Passport

The Hover Camera Passport is a follow-up photography drone rather than a aerial photography drone. I’d like to call it the camera robot.

The aerial photography drone is operated according to the orders of the remote control. That is to say, it is you, the telepilot that controls the drone. But for the Hover Camera Passport, its characteristic that impresses me is that it can control itself. And as for a knowledge to be noticed, the majority of drones are controlled by the flight controller, and the telepilot gives orders to the flight controller by the remote control. But for Hover Camera Passport, there’s a difference. First, it can be controlled by the remote control, and it can also control itself thanks to the chip in which it integrates artificial intelligences. This is the first time we have seen a commercial drone with an integrated AI chip. The Hover Camera redefines the standard higher for the commercial drone.

The autonomy of this intelligent drone is about 8 minutes. Maybe you say why it’s just 8 minutes is not enough for me. But this is a drone that flies at a low altitude, if you want to fly it at a high altitude, well, you have to prepare several batteries.

The Hover Camera Passport is also a drone that is super safe as ever, even a child can play through its complete fuselage protection design. Even the propellers are covered with the plates, and this reduces the risk inside. And for take-off on finger, it’s better to do it in an open-air area, and the sonar location takes a little while, maybe it flies to a direction for a few seconds before being stable.

And finally, the Hover Camera Passport is interactive. Why? Because it can be controlled by several people, for example, you can use it with your family together, just push it to another person. The drone is no longer an exclusive thing for people who have the remote control. We can play together.

But better than talking, a video below will show you its mystery.

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4 key questions to find out Hover Camera

Instead of being a jack-of-all-trades, this Hover Camera from Zero Zero Robotics is built specifically for taking selfies and follow footage — We asked four key questions to find out whether it’ll be worth the price of admission in the dawn of a burgeoning drone industry.

So what’s it all about?

There are three main features that give Hover Camera its distinctiveness (if we can call it that). To start with it’s aiming at a very specific market. It’s not really a high-performance aerial imaging machine. So where does it fit in? Well, it’s a low flying one take selfie drone at best and probably for reasons we’ll go into later. Another distinctive feature is its enclosed or ‘housed’ propellers that are electric fanlike in execution but evidently safe to handle. The Hover Camera is light (242g) with a foldable design that can fold into the size of a hardback book.

Does it perform well?

The quick answer would be a resounding no. It does’t perform well at all. But the easiest thing to do would be to break down the Hover Camera’s performance in the following ways.

Camera and image sensor – with a 1/3.06 inch CMOS sensor and 13 million effective pixels the Hover Camera’s camera is simply too small to capture decent images. It’s likely outdated too with a small sensor today’s mobile phone manufacturers wouldn’t even use.

GPS – the Hover Camera only has a paltry 20m wireless video transmission range, which is much shorter than Dobby’s at 100m and absolutely nothing compared to DJI’s Mavic Pro with 7km! However, since the Hover Camera uses optical flow and a front camera SDK to hover, it’s a lot small and ‘floaty’ than the Dobby or Mavic Pro and is therefore susceptible to catch drift in the wind.

Flight Time – a total flying time of just eight minutes and before you know how to even use it, you’ll be recharging or putting new batteries in for another quick round. In practical terms, eight minutes is simply not enough for any kind of photo-shoot without this small inconvenience. Zero Zero have countered this by claiming that they will be giving users spare batteries for orders but for the price, we’re not so sure.

On Board Intelligence – let’s just say that the Hover Camera doesn’t have much in terms of intelligent features ad certainly DJI’s Mavic Pro is the big daddy in that department. When we tested it the active track function lost track of it’s subject several times. A big no no. 

What’s that you say? More than $600!?

For a starting price of $599 and for the features you get and cost and low battery power time, we honestly think you’re better of with a $5 selfie stick and saving your money for a DJI Mavic Pro. Even if you do fork out for a Hover Camera you’ll soon be pining for something more sophisticated and with better overall performance. Mavic Pro is still even cheaper than that.

Verdict

If we had to rate this, it would be 2/10. Zero Zero Robotics have potential but this first generation of Hover Camera really blows. Its natural competitors would be the Dobby, Yuneec Breeze or even Parrot’s AR drones but we would go for any of them first before forking out for a Hover Camera.

( Source )

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Hover Camera: the amazing foldable drone

The drone market is in full swing, many manufacturers are putting themselves there, with devices for all tastes, so there are drones of speed for drone races, or others can follow the sportsmen in full Action in order to film the exploits in aerial view.The Chinese startup Zero Zero Robotics proposes a new drone, Hover Camera, based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight drone platform, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, is the future of personal paparazzi.

Wang was initially inspired by Alone Across Australia, a 2001 documentary about Jon Muir’s 1,600-mile solo trek across Australia. The adventurer filmed the entire experience himself, which proved to be quite a hassle; he constantly had to walk ahead, set up the camera, and retrace his steps. Wang thought there had to be a better solution — a camera that could follow and film simultaneously.

Wang went on to found Zero Zero Robotics with Tony Zhang, a fellow Stanford University alum. The company’s flagship product is the Hover Camera, a foldable drone that takes 13-megapixel stills and 4K video. What’s really exciting is that the drone doesn’t need a controller; it’s self-flying.

That’s because the Hover Camera is based on the Snapdragon Flight platform, powered by the Snapdragon 801 processor. The drone can follow its subjects while being mindful of objects that may be in its way. Multiple sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and barometer, work together to keep the drone at a steady altitude (up to 164 feet or 50 meters). A sonar sensor and ground-facing camera help the drone fly steady, so photos and videos aren’t blurry.

The Hover Camera app can be used to track faces and bodies, as well as provide a live video stream and a 360-degree panoramic mode. The drone has 32GB of internal memory and an 8-minute battery life that can be extended with swappable batteries. A micro-USB 3.0 Type B cable can be used to transfer the captured media to a computer.

Enclosed in a portable, carbon-fiber case, the drone is lightweight yet durable. Its four propellers spin inside the casing, sparing clumsy fingers from unfortunate accidents. At 8.4 ounces, the Hover Camera doesn’t need U.S. FAA drone registration, a requirement for drones that weigh 8.8 ounces (250 grams) or more.

The Hover Camera is priced at $600. Learn more about the self-flying drone on the Hover Camera.

( Source )

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Does the Hover Camera Passport worth its price？

The Hover Camera Passport is a delightful little gadget: It’s a foldable, portable drone that has a built-in camera and auto-follow features. It comes with all kinds of bits and pieces, including an extra battery, The Hover Camera Passport price is $599 and it’s significantly cheaper than other auto-follow enabled drones like the DJI Phantom 4 or Mavic Pro.

Best of all, it’s easier to carry than most drones with similar features. Drones like the Phantom are big, bulky and hard to carry, especially if you’re hoping to bring them on a plane. If you’re looking to bring a drone with you everywhere, the Passport might just be the answer to your prayers. But does it live up to the hype? Let’s find out.

If you do want to fly it higher (it can hover as high as 164 feet or 50 meters), you can use its companion iOS or Android app to position the drone with simple onscreen taps and swipes. The app will have automatic options for shooting panorama videos and 90- and 360-degree orbits as well. You’ll also be able to transfer photos and videos to your device for immediate sharing.

Its 13-megapixel camera is on a tiny gimbal that helps stabilize the camera and can tilt it up and down. Electronic stabilization is also used to smooth video, which can be captured at resolutions up to 4K.

As with most small drones, battery life appears to be the biggest downside at just up to 7 minutes per charge. The batteries are easily swapped out by simply sliding off the top.

This isn’t unusual for small drones, but you’ll routinely find that drones with battery lives in the 8-10 minute range cost significantly less than the Passport. Drones that are in the same price range as the Passport, like the DJI Phantom 3, have 25 minutes of flight time… a marked improvement. However, it’s worth noting that older cameras like the Phantom 3 don’t have 4K video or well-developed apps.

Unless you’re a professional videographer, the occasional shaky-cam shouldn’t be much of an issue. Overall, if you’re willing to part with $599, the Hover Camera Passport is a good choice. If you want something cheaper or with a better battery life, you may have to compromise on things like camera quality and auto-follow modes.

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Discover the Hover Camera drone

Called the Hover Camera, the drone is designed to take perfect pictures thanks to image stabilisation technology and a built-in 13MP camera that will revolutionize the realization of selfies and photos of products or events.

The drones, technology initially reserved for the military, are more and more common in our daily life. For $599, everybody can afford this small flying camera, even if the most powerful models explode this budget.

A worthy substitute for the selfies boom, the Hover Camera drone shoots and takes high-quality photos, and can be controlled by a user’s smartphone via a Wi-Fi connection.

 The first drones were relatively heavy and dangerous, the propellers allowing the camera to fly away being unprotected. The latest models, and those being manufactured and marketed as the “Hover Camera” from Zero Zero Robotics feature protections and are much lighter.

The company said: “Hover Camera captures exciting moments, whether snapping an aerial family vacation photo, capturing the perfect shot from above the rim at a basketball game, or recording your wedding while you walk down the aisle.”

The Hover Camera drone uses AI algorithms to intelligently navigate its environment and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight drone platform.

 Meng Qiu ‘MQ’ Wang of Zero Zero Robotics told that rival drones are too difficult for people to fly without crashing or endangering others, but the Hover Camera is easier to fly.

For example, users of Hover Camera can select an auto-follow mode or input a location they want the drone to fly too, possibly recording its path along the way.

Stabiliser technology prevents fuzzy footage,while algorithms allow the drone to recognise faces and follow them.Though some reviewers pointed out that the electronic stabilization the Passport uses is working overtime, and without it videos would be un-watchable. The problem she had was that even with the electronic stabilization working overtime, the videos often came out choppy. As for the recognition technology, 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.

The Hover Camera drone can hover at a specific distance from the ground by using sonar and a bottom-facing camera to hold it in place, like an invisible tripod. However, it is unable to dodge obstacles due to a lack of cameras on its sides.

The drone can hover at a height of up to 164 ft (50 metres) and its altitude can be adjusted by swiping the phone screen used to control it.

While a two-finger vertical swipe controls the altitude, the drone can be steered by swiping left and right.

The drone can additionally be folded in two, meaning it can be easily stashed in a bag.

Carbon-fibre casing protects users from being cut by its four blades, while its battery gives the gadget 8 minutes of fly time.

Weighing just nine ounces (238g) the company claims its light enough so it doesn’t have to be registered with the Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA).

Thanks to the Hover Camera drone, the selfies will no longer have any limits.

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