DJI Mavic competitor from ZeroTech…

DJI’s first foldable drone Mavic Pro is sought after as soon as it hit the market. Now another Chinese brand ZeroTech, maker of the Dobby, has introduced a similar product, a DJI Mavic competitor.

The aircraft can also be folded, which is almost the same size as the Dobby. At first glance, it’s very similar to DJI Mavic, but different in details. Such as the smaller size, the battery installation and the configuration. It seems it aims at hobby market.

The photos published on drone-rumour site sb-dji.com suggest a folding format drone. Specifications which at this time are rumor/speculation stand as follows:

• Approximately 7-15 minutes flight-time.
• 1.5km flight distance/range.
• Folding propellers.

The industry predicts that the performance of the drone will not be very high, at least is less powerful than Mavic Pro. The advantage is its price, it should be somewhere within $500 USD

What are your thoughts about the competitor? Please let us know in the comment below.

The post DJI Mavic competitor from ZeroTech… appeared first on Drone Inner.

Industry Leaders Collaborate for Safer Drone Skies

Know Before You Fly is a campaign that has been developed to promote safety to drone enthusiasts and is supported predominately by an educational website.

One of the first public initiatives of the campaign was an animated video published before Christmas 2014 in readiness for the correctly predicted upsurge in drone as seasonal gifts. The video promoted best practices which includes the staples of flying less than 400ft, keeping the drone in line of sight, practicing with local flying clubs and not flying near airports or manned aircraft. The video is an approachable introduction to pilot safety.

The campaign was founded by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) in partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The AUVSI is the world’s largest non-profit dedicated to unmanned systems and robotics. The AMA is the most prominent community-based organization in the USA for model aircraft hobbyists currently with 175,000 members and growing. The FAA is the regulatory body that governs US airspace.

The regulatory framework for drones is still evolving as the industry is moving at such a rapid pace. The ‘Know Before You Fly’ campaign is crucial in the industry’s development because many new pilots are simply not aware of the rules and regulations governing both the hobby and commercial use of drones.

The campaign website also has useful information for government entities including for first responders, publicly-funded universities and federal entities.

The initiative has a number of ‘heavy hitter’ industry supporters. One of the most prominent of those supporters is DJI, the drone manufacturing industry leader. In alignment with their support for the campaign, all DJI’s drone products are designed with safety as a priority. For example, The DJI Mavic Pro has a range of safety features, including obstacle avoidance and an intelligent return to home capability. The company continues to innovate in the area of safety. A most recent demonstration of this is the release of the DJI Mavic Propeller Guard which ensures overall flight safety by protecting people and objects from spinning propellers.

The ‘Know Before You Fly’ campaign also has a popular Facebook group and an associated app, available for both iOS and Android smart devices. The app helps drone operators confirm if any requirements or restrictions are in effect in their location of flight. It includes a status indicator immediately alerting the pilot of restrictions in their area, a ‘planner mode’ for future flights in different locations, interactive maps and links to other resources.

With these and continued innovations, the ‘Know Before You Fly’ campaign continues to be both a resource for seasoned drone enthusiasts and a welcoming entry point for pilots new to the industry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Industry Leaders Collaborate for Safer Drone Skies appeared first on Drone Inner.

In which case do you hand launch/catch the DJI Mavic Pro?

Many people are curious how many people are hand launching and catching with the DJI Mavic Pro. Below are the cases from DJI Mavic Pro forums.

# “I was hesitant to hand launch and catch but since I fly from mountain locations where this is the only option, I have now done this many times with no issue. I do not have time to fiddle with settings like disabling OA or VPS. I just catch the Mavic Pro from the front (camera side). It’s easy to grab a good firm hold there with no chance of slipping and you can avoid the bottom sensors. If it does try to lift off, that’s not a problem either, it’s easy to hang on. ”

# “Generally no hand launches; when the terrain makes it necessary I use one of those foldable landing pads. The only exception is when I (occasionally) find myself in a (rebar-heavy) concrete jungle that my compass doesn’t like: then I’ll hand launch. And personally haven’t yet found a reason to hand catch, but I understand that some people (e.g., in boats) have a reason to or just prefer it.”

# “I almost strictly hand launch and hand catch. Too much snow right now and since I travel light, I don’t carry any kind of pad. I find it super easy and I do not turn off anything. I have added a removable neck strap to the controller to make it easier to use with one hand while launching and landing.”

# “I do both hand launch and hand catch and I literally have never tried landing my DJI Mavic Pro on ground. I find my fingers are impossible to touch the props if you catch it from the belly (just like everyone else does)”

# “I hand launch and catch whenever I need to. These days, snow would simply not let me take-off and land normally from the ground. I tried several things, but what works best for me is to make sure the DJI Mavic Pro hovers steadily on my right-hand side, 1 foot above my head. I set the automatic landing with two hands on the RC, then I hold the RC with my left hand only and raise my right hand in the air just underneath the quad. The Mavic Pro starts going down and stops when it reaches my hand and feels what it thinks is the ground.

The other thing I do as often is just lowering the quad manually with my left hand on the RC, while my right hand is grabbing the quad. Usually there is a second or two where the drone tries to escape due to the sensors but it does not resist for long. You just have to stay full throttle down until props stop. The worst that can happen if you miss your shot and don’t have a good grip is the quad lifting off by a couple of feet. You just have to start again with a firmer grip.

I find both techniques safe enough for this kind of conditions (snow, water, rocks on the ground), but I’d rather take-off and land from a flat and clean surface when I can.”

# “I have hand launched and caught a couple of times – when there is no suitable site for auto takeoff. I turn the Mavic Pro facing away from me so it doesn’t detect any objects. Then put my hand up under it quickly and grab, then throttle down quickly. It struggles briefly, but then is ok. Launching is no problem. I set the controller on auto takeoff – hold the Mavic with other hand (facing away from me), and hit the take off button. Sometimes I have my wife hit the button. It just lifts out of my hand and stays there until I’m ready with the controls.”

It seems that most of the pilots launched/caught the DJI Mavic Pro manually if necessary in some special conditions like landing/catching from the snow,water, rocks, jungle and boat etc..

The video below may show this technique and offer some good tips for Mavic Pro hand launching or catching.

( Video via Tech We Want )

The post In which case do you hand launch/catch the DJI Mavic Pro? appeared first on Drone Inner.

Just the battery you could know why the Typhoon H is worse

The battery performance of Yuneec Typhoon H is annoying for its recharge time.It takes more than two hours for a full charge which is twice as long as the Phantom 4.

Here is some case from pilots with Yuneec Typhoon H battery.

“I was out today and tried an experiment I have suspected that when running videos most of the time 15 minutes is about as safe as I can get on a new Typhoon H battery. Next battery flew for 35 minutes taking about half dozen photos at about 400 feet out and 200 feet up. The third battery I flew fast and high taking a few videos and photos and got a low battery at 400 feet up and barely got it down in time, 20 minutes.

Bottom line you have to pay attention to ‘everything’ when you fly, weather, wind, taking videos, flying fast and climbing fast. I have two DJI Phantoms and they will fly circles around these Yuneec’s, the Yuneec’s are very slow in response time. Do love the camera that takes fantastic videos in 4K though.”

“I took my Typhoon H up for its first flight. All I basically did was hover at different altitudes and moved short distances taking a series of pictures. From the first picture to the last picture was only about 15mins. Then I was forced to land with low voltage warning. The battery meter on the st16 was showing over 14 volts and the little icon showed half battery. So I took it up again to about 85 feet to take one last picture and before I could frame the shot it started to return to home. Will the battery break in or is something defective. Other Typhoon H owners say they are getting 18 to 20 mins. Oh, and the wind was minimal.”

Of course, the battery performance of a drone will depend on what the pilot does with his bird, and what the conditions are on any given day. More wind means less flight time, as the drone has to work harder to stay stable. Still, with a two-hour recharge time, Typhoon H users will have to bear with the inconvenience of carrying two extra batteries or three.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Just the battery you could know why the Typhoon H is worse appeared first on Drone Inner.

How to reinvigorate your aerial photography with re-composition skills?

Beginners or veterans, one thing that’s been known to all is that a good composition adds many points to a photo.

But composition is not an easy thing in aerial photography. Different from traditional photography, where photographers can adjust camera positions however and whenever they want to, doing the same thing in aerial photography needs to fly a drone back and forth, with a high cost since the battery of a drone is limited.

That’s why even an experienced photographer cannot ensure every photo is perfect when shooting down from the air.

He might shoot other things that he doesn’t wish to include in the photo:

What’s boat on the top of photo doing here?

Or forget to keep the gimbal leveled:

Oops.

Or wrong position of the targeted subject:

If you unluckily come across the above problems of aerial shooting, try re-composition before giving up.

But what if you don’t know a thing about the rule of third or golden section or the Fibonacci spiral?

Turn to Photoshop or Lightroom for help.

【Take Lightroom as an example】

1. Import a photo and click the icon in marked by the red box (Keyboard shortcut: R)

2. Adjust “Angle” in the red box to rebalance the photo’s composition

3. Attention! The “O” key on the keyboard can change different composition modes (rule of thirds, diagonal, spiral etc.)

4. Press SHIFT+O to change directions under the same composition mode

【Another example from Photoshop】

1. Import a photo and click the icon in marked by the red box (Keyboard shortcut: C)

2. Slide the mouse to the corner to rebalance the photo.

3. Press O or click the icon in the red circle to change composition modes.

Composition mode is instrumental in photo re-composition.

Example 1

Original image, shot in Guilin, China with DJI Phantom 4. The lights are good, plus the hills exclusively found in Guilin, this photo does have something to say. But overall, it’s too plain, with those hills and the sky taking a half of the picture, making it confusing because there is no highlight. Let alone the shape of a drone propeller is also included in the photo.

How to make this photo a bit professional and special? There should be a highlight, a focus, and it has to be the hills.

So use a triangle composition mode and click Crop to reduce the size. And then make this photo black and white. With the lights and hills fill over the photo, it looks like a gorgeous Chinese painting.

Example 2

Original image, shot in Hokkaido, Japan with DJI Phantom 4. This is a shot when I was shooting 720p panorama. When I looked back to this photo, I found the shape of the grove very interesting, however, not emphasized enough. I was to underline the grove, but the fields steal its thunder. It’s also ruined by the strange field in the lower right.

Original image, shot in Hokkaido, Japan with DJI Phantom 4. This is a shot when I was shooting 720p panorama. When I looked back to this photo, I found the shape of the grove very interesting, however, not emphasized enough. I was to underline the grove, but the fields steal its thunder. It’s also ruined by the strange field in the lower right.

I think square composition is more suitable here, so I adjust the images to 1:1, and put the grove at the cross of two diagonals.

However, cropping images always costs a reduction of resolution. So the fundamental thing is to do the right composition at the first place.

So two more tips for shooting:

• Hide all unnecessary interfaces on the screen

Shooting with the edges being obscured by other interfaces is nothing good for composition. You might shoot something you don’t want without knowing it.

So hide all unnecessary interfaces and shoot with the camera footage at full screen.

• Use guide lines to help composition

Instruction: tap the icon under the shutter button – tap the gear icon – show the guide lines

The post How to reinvigorate your aerial photography with re-composition skills? appeared first on Drone Inner.