Hover Camera Passport specs

The Zero Zero Robotics Hover Camera Passport is commonly used for selfies. At $599, the Hover Camera is one of the more expensive pocket drones available.

It’s very small which weighs at 242 grams or 0.5 pounds. As far as color goes, it is only available in black.

In order to fly the Hover Camera Passport, you’ll need to download the Hover Camera app onto your compatible smartphone or tablet. The app will only work on devices featuring at least Android 4.4 and iOS 8.0 or later, so be sure that your device has the right software installed.

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.

The Hover Camera Passport can fly in ambient temperatures ranging from 5°C to 35°C, or from 41°F to 95°F. Keep the operating temperature range in mind before attempting to fly in extreme conditions.

On to its most important specs, the camera, the Hover Camera Passport sports a 13MP snapper that can shoot videos in 4K resolution.But of course Hover camera isn’t a full-featured drone like DJI’s Inspire or Phantom. While it does shoot 4K video and have a 13MP camera, it’s meant to be more of a close-up camera or tripod – not a true arial camera.

The WiFi connection will drop when it gets about 60 feet away from you, and it’s just not meant to fly that high. But when the connection drops the drone will just hover in place so you can walk closer and reconnect the WiFi.

Battery capacity is the most accurate way of determining overall battery life, and with a 1,360 mAh battery, the Hover Camera Passport uses an above-average sized battery to power its flight, compared to the average of 650 mAh. While an above average battery capacity should translate to longer flight times, it’s also important to account for the takeoff weight when estimating flight time.

Possessing a flight time of 10 minutes, the Hover Camera Passport can fly for a slightly above average amount of time compared to the average of 8 minutes.

The flight time measurement given is the amount of time the drone will fly with no additional weight added, so keep in mind that as you add additional weight, the flight time will decrease.

The post Hover Camera Passport specs appeared first on Drone Inner.

How to tell a Real DJI Phantom Drone from a Toy

Today, there’s a wide range of drone available from different manufacturers, at an equally great range of price points, and most importantly – varying quality and performance.

The question is, how do you – as a consumer and pilot – navigate the market to find the gems and avoid the duds?

Here’s a list of ways to identify the good and the not-so-great in the rapidly growing drone market.

Safety and reliability

One thing that clearly sets the DJI Phantom apart from competitors like Yuneec’s Typhoon H or Q500 is safety and reliability.

Things that DJI’s series of drones have that make them much more reliable are intelligent features like Collision Avoidance (Yuneec’s drones have something similar called RealSense, but its performance is far below DJI’s), that senses and avoids obstacles in its paths. There’s also Return to Home which you can use to prevent your Phantom from flying away, or if you lose control. With just the push of a button, your Phantom will return to its starting point.

There are many competing products that look like the Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 but fall far below in performance and reliability. Here is one example of an upscale toy drone — it has no real gimbal and a pretty poor third-party camera. And of course, no smart features.

Brand

Brand names are now a centuries-old convention that helps consumers easily distinguish between goods. When it comes to drones, we’ve already given you a clue: stay on the lookout for drones from DJI. (You may recognize the brand from other products — the company is also the creator of the very innovative Osmo camera.)

DJI’s current models, the Phantom Pro and Phantom 4, are basically at a different level than the competition when it comes to photography and filmmaking, ease-of-use, reliability and customer service and support in case you run into any unexpected problems. We highly recommend seeking out these as your first drone!

 

The post How to tell a Real DJI Phantom Drone from a Toy appeared first on Drone Inner.

If you’re an experienced,you could try

Some experienced pilot that’s able to properly control the Q500 in Angle (Pilot) Mode, and they do not exceed any altitude/distance limits or fly in any ‘no fly zones’ in your area, they are willing to disable/turn off Typhoon Q500 gps. So how?

WARNING: Smart Mode and Home Mode, along with their corresponding features, only work when GPS is active and the Q500 has a suitable GPS signal/lock. If you disable/turn off Typhoon Q500 gps the Q500 can only be flown in Angle (Pilot) Mode. And if you cannot properly control the Q500 in Angle (Pilot) Mode the aircraft may crash or even ‘fly away’.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Yuneec drone Crash damage and ‘fly aways’ are NOT covered under warranty.We do not typically recommend disabling Typhoon Q500 gps for any reason, especially if you’re a first-time or low-time pilot. However, if you’re an experienced,you could try.

And do NOT disable/turn off Typhoon Q500 gps unless you accept ALL responsibility and liability for crashes or ‘fly aways’.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Every time you turn the Q500 on it will default to having Typhoon Q500 gps active/on (even if you disabled GPS the last time is was powered on).

Step 1) While the ST10 and Q500 are powered on and linked (and the motors are NOT running), move the Proportional Control Rate Slider on the right side of the ST10 to the uppermost (rabbit) position.

Step 2) Move the right-hand stick all the way to the right and hold it there until step 3 is completed.

Step 3) Move the Flight Mode Selection Switch from Smart to Home and Home to Smart mode 4 times in 3 seconds.
When GPS has been disabled successfully the Q500 will emit an audible indication and the Typhoon Q500 gps status on the ST10 screen will show ‘Disabled’. Also, the Main LED Status Indicator will flash purple and the Below Motor
LED Status Indicators will flash three (3) times per second then will stay off for one (1) second.

 

The post If you’re an experienced,you could try appeared first on Drone Inner.

Will you buy DJI care for you Mavic Pro?

DJI Care is a service plan that provides you with peace of mind, covering damage to your DJI aircraft, gimbal or camera sustained during normal use.During DJI Care’s period of validity, if accidental damage occurs during normal use, repair fees and related costs will be covered by DJI.

So should you add refresh if you buy the Mavic Pro? It’s essential to read on before you make decision.

WHAT DJI CARE WILL COVER

Basically, the plan covers damage to the drone and it’s camera/gimbal, so in most cases you will never have to worry about crashing. Here are some examples of things that DJI Care will cover.

• If you’re out at the park and someone throws a baseball, knocking your Mavic Pro out of the sky, it’s covered.
• If you accidentally crash into the roof of your house while taking your first flight, it’s covered!
• Perhaps you’re just trying out the Follow Me mode and your Mavic Pro decides to follow you into a light poll (because it doesn’t have obstacle avoidance). Again, this isn’t a problem if you have DJI Care!
• Maybe you’re out on what seems like a perfectly normal day, but what you didn’t know is that there’s a massive amount of radio interference from a solar flare, causing your Mavic Pro to mistake a tree for a landing site. No problem.

WHAT DJI CARE WILL NOT COVER

Here are some of the most important things that DJI Care will not cover. There are a few other things that DJI doesn’t cover, but these are the things that we found to be the most important to know.

• Intentional accidents. One example would be, If you decided to shoot a video of yourself lighting your Mavic on fire to get lots of hits on Youtube.
• Any repair fees resulting from or following water damage. Sorry swimmers, surfers, and sailers. If your Mavic Pro falls into the lake, or lands in the swimming pool, you can’t get it repaired for free.
• Personal injury and/or property loss to the customer or any other people caused by the aircraft. In other words, if you hurt yourself, someone else or maybe even crash into a Ferrari , you’re still responsible for your actions.
• Lost or partially lost aircraft and accessories. If you plan on flying far away and loosing your Mavic Pro, you better be able to find the remains or it won’t be covered. Buying a GPS tracker could be a good idea for long range missions.
• Stolen, forgotten, or abandoned your Mavic.
• Damage caused by flight under unsuitable conditions.
• Stolen, forgotten, or abandoned aircraft.
• Repair fees for remote controller and modification accessories.
• Abrasions and shell damage that do not affect the performance of the Mavic Pro.
• Direct or indirect losses caused by force majeure.
• Repair requests for damage incurred outside the period of validity.
• Extra fees resulting from technical enhancements or performance improvements.
• Damage resulting from circuit restructuring not in accordance to manual recommendations, or the use of incompatible batteries and charger.
• Damage resulting from the use of third party accessories, batteries or software.

With DJI Care, you can fly with complete confidence. Click here to see DJI Care coverage plans…

 

 

 

 

The post Will you buy DJI care for you Mavic Pro? appeared first on Drone Inner.

Change Your Travel Photos with the Hover Camera

Hover Camera is a delightful little gadget: It’s a foldable, portable drone that has a built-in camera and auto-follow features. This drone is built specifically for taking selfies and follow footage.

This “flying camera,” as the company calls it, is small enough to carry with you and simple enough for a novice selfie-artist to use. Unlike conventional quadcopter drones and their now ubiquitous four-armed design, the Hover Camera Passport’s unique form mimics the size and shape of a hardcover book, and even opens like one to change into flying mode. Not only does this make it easier to transport, acting as its own carrying case, it also leaves the drone free of exposed propellers thanks to its fully enclosed lightweight carbon-fiber construction.

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 smooth, steady 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.

Thanks to the Hover Camera, you could get your personal travel photographer and your vacation pictures are about to get a major upgrade.

Below are some shot images from Hover Camera.

 

The post Change Your Travel Photos with the Hover Camera appeared first on Drone Inner.

The real reason to opt for the Phantom 4 Pro over the Phantom 4 is…

The Phantom 4 Pro‘s body is essentially identical to the standard Phantom 4. It’s a white quadcopter with sleek lines and a glossy finish. It measures about 7.0 by 11.5 by 11.5 inches and weighs 3.1 pounds, so you will need to register with the FAA before taking it up into the air.

Like the Phantom 4, the Pro’s packaging doubles as a carrying case.And the remote of the Phantom 4 Pro is also the same as Phantom 4’s.

The Phantom 4 was the first DJI drone with forward-facing obstacle avoidance sensors. The Phantom 4 Pro adds identical sensors on the rear, preventing it from backing into objects.There are also downward-facing sensors on it. And infrared sensors on the left and right sides. These aren’t as capable as the front and rear obstacle sensors, and don’t work in every flight mode, so don’t think you can fly the Phantom 4 Pro in any direction with reckless abandon—flying it sideways into a wall is a real danger in most situations.

If you want to take advantage of obstacle recognition on all four sides, you need to fly in either Beginner or Tripod mode. Both slow down the maximum operating speed, and Tripod mode makes it possible for very, very fine adjustments to position using the control sticks.

Forward and rear obstacle avoidance works when flying the Phantom 4 Pro at its top standard speed, 31mph. And it works well: Fly right up to an object at full throttle and the Phantom stops in its tracks.

The drone also has a Sport mode, which increases the maximum speed to 45mph, but absolutely no obstacle detection is enabled. It can go faster with help from the wind—the app told me that my Phantom 4 Pro was flying around 50mph in Sport mode for a good stretch of distance during one of my test flights.

Compared to the Phantom 4, I am still impressed with the Phantom 4 Pro which has a five direction obstacle sensor system and a four direction obstacle avoidance system.

The Phantom 4 Pro has all the modes you’ll recognise from its predecessor, there are also some new and enhanced features. ‘Narrow Sensing’ makes it possible to fly through tight environments and there’s also a ‘Draw’ mode, which lets you draw a line path on a map for the Pro to follow. ActiveTrack has also been enhanced so that it can work backwards or sideways. Likewise, TapFly lets you fly backwards now and supports ‘Free’ mode, which rotates the aircraft as it moves along its path, without changing flight direction.

Extra obstacle sensors are nothing to sneeze at, but the real reason to opt for the Phantom 4 Pro over the standard Phantom 4 is the camera.

DJI’s Phantom 4 comes with an impressive 4K camera which enables it to achieve great ISO levels and allows for still images at 12MP quality. These stills offer vibrant colour in both RAW and JPEG formats. When it comes to video, the Phantom 4 offers 4096×2160 pixels at 25fps and 4K UHD at 30fps. If you don’t need the full 4K treatment, there’s also the option shoot in 2K and Full HD as well as 720p HD, the latter of which is fed to your controller in real-time.

While the Phantom 4 Pro’s camera races past it in terms of quality. Images are captured at 20MP in JPG or RAW DNG, with video available up to 4K quality at 60fps. 30 and 24fps shooting rates are also available. The camera also adds aperture control and features a mechanical shutter, eliminating the rolling shutter effect you sometimes get from electrical alternatives. Footage is compressed at 100Mbps using H.265 compression, up from the H.264 60Mbps format offered by the Phantom 4.

The new camera (and improved sensors) also allows you to access the gesture control functionality as well as a range of other features such as Draw and Advanced Return to Home. This increased functionality is being welcomed by aerial videography companies.

As for battery life. With a powerful 5,350mAh battery, the Phantom 4 can stay in the air for almost 30 minutes. However, bear in mind that achieving a maximum flight time depends on suitable weather conditions. There’s also the fact that the extensive range of features can also be a drain on the power supply, so keep this in mind when operation the Phantom 4.

The Phantom 4 Professional runs a similar battery to the original, however, it has been slightly upgraded to 15.2V 5870 mAh, keeping the aircraft flying for up to 30 minutes.

Will you upgrade to the Phantom 4 Pro?

 

The post The real reason to opt for the Phantom 4 Pro over the Phantom 4 is… appeared first on Drone Inner.