Hover Camera review

( Video via Unbox Therapy )

 

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Yuneec Breeze price point a controversy

Take your pick of the extras you’ll need for the Yuneec Breeze and the advertised price of below US$500 suddenly starts heading toward the higher end of prices from other UAV drone manufacturers.

For example, as offerings of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) parts, a list of two dozen add-ons to get more out of the beetle-shaped “selfie” drone can be priced from US$4.55 to US$227.50, and these don’t even include a carrier case, which the Yuneec drone lacks.

For example, a Yuneec Breeze replacement battery is priced at $46.80—probably a necessity if you buy the drone because it only comes with one battery that lasts for a mere 12 minutes.

But wait, there’s more! You’ll need a Yuneec Breeze power cable for that battery charger, at US$5.45. And while you’re at it, get a set of Yuneec Breeze propeller protectors for US$7.80, as the unit does not include them and the R&D for the propellers has led to a design that makes hitting one with a hand entirely possible.

However, if you do break a propeller in the RC quadcopter, you can buy two from Yuneec for US$10.15, so a whole new set is $20.30. But probably the four most interesting add-ons are the Yuneec Breeze lens, compass module, rubber dampeners and optical flow components that would total US$139.58—and again would be necessary for a drone that has an 80-meter range at best and is operated using a smartphone. A mere gust of wind could cause a loss of connection and send the Yuneec Breeze crashing or flying out of sight.

Be aware, a lot of these accessories are on the waiting list or exclusively for higher-end items, such as the Yuneec Breeze Accu LiPo battery. Good luck.

The need to kit out the supposedly low-cost starter Yuneec Breeze has not escaped reviewers who compare the model to offerings from start-up drone makers who combine components for functional, if short-lived, camera drones priced at as little as $99.

And it’s the 4K camera claim of the Yuneec Breeze that is really at the heart of many decisions on whether to splash out quite a bit more for a drone that other companies sell for one-fifth of the price. Reports are already rolling in that it may be hard to get 4K video out of the Yuneec Breeze and that in most cases, users will want to use the 1080P video for stability.

In fact, the question was raised by Burmansound, who wondered how control of the drone’s line-of-sight camera impacts use.

“I wonder how much of the 4K resolution is lost by the image stabilization?” Burmansound asked.

“You’d need a lot of pixels outside the frame to accommodate the tilting and rolling of the drone as it moves. I’d imagine it would only work if the drone were stationary with not much wind, or maybe moving, but at a slow, constant speed. But I guess even if it gives you HD resolution without a gimbal that would still be pretty good. But there’s still the problem of framing the shot. I’m guessing you can manually tilt the camera down before takeoff in order to get shots like the ‘wish you were here’ shot on the beach.”

 

 

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Choose Parrot swing if…

If you are selecting a New Year gift kind of toy, then the Parrot swing is for you.

Parrot tried something a bit different with its latest small drone. Rather than go with a standard four-arm quadcopter that can only face one way, the Parrot Swing can fly with its propellers pointing upwards or forward. In other words, it can either look like a regular quad-copter, or more like an X-Wing Fighter.

Inside, there’s a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope to measure its speed, tilt, and how hard it’s hit an obstacle. There’s also an ultrasound sensor underneath which can measure how far away the ground is, as long as you don’t fly it above four metres.

As you’d expect, you don’t get the same high-tech obstacle avoidance or wind resistance you’d find in a more professional drone like Mavic Pro, which limits where and how you can fly the Parrot Swing.

While the Parrot Swing is not explicitly designed for exclusive indoor use, its size and weight mean it’s much easier to fly indoors than a “proper” drone. It’s also so small and light that any wind outdoors will easily send it off course, into a tree, shed, or person.

Being so small and light means it’s very responsive though. For the most part, that’s what you want in a drone. You want to know that your joystick control results in a swift, fast movement. But in a confined space, that’s not always a good thing: we crashed into a few windows, door frames and ceilings by generally trying to be a bit too clever.

When the Parrot Swing drone detects impact it tends to shut off the propellers and go in to freefall, which sounds a lot worse than it is. Its size and weight mean that when it does fall, there’s no real damage upon impact with the ground. It’s not really heavy enough to break; it generally just falls like a feather and lands on its side.

The biggest negative about flying the drone is that while you’re getting to grips with the controller and drone response, the battery dies. Fortunately there’s a second spare one in the box, but it’s still not quite enough.

Here are the key features of the Parrot Swing:

• High Performance Sensors For Stability
• Unique X Wing Design
• Vertical Takeoff and Landing
• Remotely Change from Plane Mode to Quadcopter Mode
• Fly Up to 18 MPH
• Pilot with Free iOS or Android App
• Precision Flight Control With The Included Parrot Flypad
• 65 Foot range with Smartphone, 200 Foot range with Flypad
• Battery lasts a few minutes
• Second battery included
• 30-minute recharge time
• 1 Year Support and Assistance Warranty

If you just want something to fly around your house or back yard, the $145 Parrot Swing is a fun option.

 

 

 

 

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Beware if you buy Xiaomi Mi drone

The Xiaomi Mi Drone is a collaboration of Xiaomi and another company, Flymi, which is also based in China.

The Xiaomi Mi drone was introduced in late May 2016, a three-axis gimbal, 4K camera, and a remote control that uses your Mi smartphone as its viewfinder.The 4K version retails at 2,999 yuan (just under $460), while the 1080p model is priced at 2,499 yuan ($380).

Thanks to mainstream online marketplaces as well as wholesale marketplaces based around exporting Chinese products, eager buyers outside mainland China will still be able to get a Xiaomi Mi Drone delivered to their door.

Xiaomi currently offers a limited range of products for American buyers in its online store: some headphones, a car charger, and a “summer treat package” that includes a USB reading light and personal cooling fan. Notably, the company’s globally popular smartphones — which it sold 71 million of 2015 — were left out. Without the distribution partnerships and patents that would allow it to take hold in the U.S. market, it’ll be a while before Xiaomi is able to directly sell its main products to American consumers.

The Xiaomi Mi Drone will probably face similar impediments as its smartphone. (DJI, meanwhile, holds around 40 patents in the United States and is on the shelves of many big-box stores.)

Americans hankering for electronics that aren’t sold officially by their manufacturers can turn instead to the third-party sellers on online marketplaces like Amazon, Banggood, and AliExpress. When the Xiaomi Mi drone goes up for sale, it could very well be available on these platforms.

But beware: buying foreign electronics from random middlemen sometimes come with a host of pitfalls. Chinese electronics are made for use in that country — meaning they aren’t likely to be supported in the United States, and they’ll be configured in Chinese rather than English. Plus, it’s hard to know what you’re really getting from these everything-goes platforms. The 2015 plague of exploding hoverboards was one symptom of this vast, unchecked global market, where counterfeits and pirated products abound.

Will you buy the Xiaomi Mi Drone and where will you get?

 

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Mavic Pro Initial Setup tutorial

( Video via Timothy Sunday )

Now the Mavic Pro could ship within one week now. Join us to learn the initial setup of the DJI Mavic Pro, then you could get it into the sky soon after you received it.

Starting with the base pack, the DJI Mavic Pro ships with the drone itself, the remote control, three remote connection cables, a power cable for the remote, the charger for the removable drone battery and an extra pair of propellers.

The drone comes with only the rear propellers installed, giving you the opportunity to learn how to install the props before your first flight. Installation is very simple, match up the small white circle on the one propeller to the white ring around one of the motors, line up the pins on the underside, press the propeller down into the motor and give a little twist. It’ll pop into place or pop off if you didn’t do it right.

Match the other propeller and motor and repeat. Do not mix these up, one spins clockwise and the other counter- clockwise, installing backwards will create downforce, your drone will never get off the ground.

The Mavic Pro is a collapsible drone, which you’ll need to unfold before you can fly. Start with the front arms, simply unfold them from the side of the drone, they are spring loaded, so they’ll resist you a little, then pop right open.

The rear arms are folded underneath the drone. The propellers are installed, so please be careful when you unfold, but go ahead and fight that same spring-load until the arms pop into place.

Battery installation is as easy as lining it up and pressing it down. There are two little buttons on either side of the battery, pinch them together and pull up to remove the battery.

It is recommended to power on the remote before powering on the drone, so let’s talk about the remote first.

The remote for the DJI Mavic Pro is an impressively small, video-game inspired, controller. It has two antennae, which fold together and snap in place. There are two folding arms that mount your smartphone at the bottom. Supplied are cables with micro USB connector for Android devices, Lightning connector for modern iPhone and USB Type-C for whatever doesn’t fit above.

Smartphone connectivity can be managed through the micro USB port on the left side of the remote or through the full size USB port at the bottom. Use the side micro USB port to charge the remote itself.

You need to double tap the power button to turn on the remote, single press then immediately long press the power button until it powers up. A single tap will read out the current power level. This is true of the drone as well, double tap to power on.

You do not need to use your smartphone or small tablet with the DJI Mavic Pro, the supplied remote is enough to handle the majority of flight and photography needs. That said, there are extra functions and features only found within a connected smartphone running DJI’s app.

Head on over to the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store to download the appropriate version of the DJI Go app for your device.

http://ift.tt/1Q5jSuH

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( Via Charged )

 

 

 

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Meet Hover Camera Passport

The Hover Camera Passport, the Zero Zero Robotics’s first camera drone, is setting out to be an affordable option against the premium brands GoPro Karma and DJI Mavic Pro.

The Hover Camera Passport is described as ultra-lightweight and ultra-compact.Its folded dimensions is 182 x 132 x 33mm and it weighs only half a pound,while the DJI Mavic Pro is about 1.62 pounds heavy. The Hover Camera Passport is designed to fold up like a book when you’re not flying. There’s a slim “spine” that houses all the machine’s electronics, and a pair of enclosed propellers under the spine that swing out like pages.It’s perfect for the casual everyday flying camera drones shootout kind of thing.

On to its most important specs, the camera, the Hover Camera Passport sports a 13MP snapper that can shoot videos in 4K resolution. Of course, it comes with pretty cool features as well. It can lock onto an object and orbit around it or follow it around. The Hover Camera uses its front camera to lock onto a person (using face detection technology), and has a feature called ‘Orbit’ to film yourself autonomously as the drone circles around you, while a “360 Spin” feature allows you to shoot panoramic 360-degree videos, capturing footage of you in your chosen environment.

The Hover Camera Passport still does not match up to the big brands, though.It connects to an iOS device over direct Wi-Fi, which limits its range. The WiFi connection will drop when it gets about 60 feet away from you, and it’s just not meant to fly that high. The WiFi connection did drop once or twice on me, but this was before I even asked the company what the limit was – so it was definitely occurring when I was pushing past that 60 feet boundary. But of course Hover camera Passport isn’t a full-featured drone like DJI’s Inspire or Phantom. It’s meant to be more of a close-up camera or tripod – not a true aerial camera.

Even so, it can be rather useful inside homes, where bigger drones would not dare to fly. The inclusion of a flash also emphasizes that it is meant for close-up shots. It also has only about 10 minutes of battery life, so you need to always be armed with extra batteries if you plan to use it longer.

It should also be mentioned that it does not come with a remote, unlike the DJI Mavic Pro, which has a remote bundle option.

So will you go with the Hover Camera Passport at $599 or add $399 more to get the more powerful and feature-packed DJI Mavic Pro?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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