Mavic Pro shot with the fighter jets was a surprise

( Video via Matthew Me )

I have been messing with my new Mavic Pro the past few days in Colorado. Other than the fact that I have blur on the right side of my image I love this drone.

*DISCLAIMER* All of this video was recorded outside of all no fly zones and I never flew this flight more than 150feet or so from the ground level. The shot with the fighter jets happened about 10 minutes into my flight and I did not know they were in the air nor did I know they would be flying so damn low.

You may wonder who recorded the Mavic Pro in flight? I was flying with a friend of mine who also owns a Mavic so I recorded him recording me. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything recording sound so I had to borrow a sound effect to put in the video but I think it fits in well.

Someone asked me regarding the fighter jets, where I in any particular mode (tripod, cinematic..) while filming? They flew directly over my head and then circled in front of where I was so I had a few seconds to prepare myself. That being said the panning was quite jerky but I ran it through stabilization in Final Cut Pro and that smoothed it out quite a bit and made it looks as if it was a smooth constant speed.

 

 

The post Mavic Pro shot with the fighter jets was a surprise appeared first on Drone Inner.

DJI Polygon No-fly Zone Launched in Mainland China

Safety has always been a priority for drones flying in the sky. Recently, DJI launched its Polygon No-fly Zone in mainland China. This new regulation is more suitable in real flight, and generally speaking, not much stricter from the previous version.

Reason of Launching New P-NFZ

Not long ago, an irrational drone pilot flied his drone up above an airport in Hangzhou, China. The video showing a manned jet flying extremely near to his drone caused deep concerns not only among drone users but also the general public in China. This led to vast discussion on UAV regulations online and television, even drew the government’s attention.

In answer to public concerns, DJI issued an announcement where several measures would be taken to address UAV safety issues. And Poly No-fly Zone is one of them.

Previous version of no-fly zone was simply a circle centering an airport, without considering the fact that planes have already descended to 500m high before entering NFZ. That was how the offended drone user got those footages. Now with the new P-NFZ launched by DJI is more specific and reasonable, aiming to stop accidents like this from happening again.

The first version of NFZ

What’s new of the P-NFZ

Though the new P-NFZ is a bit more complicated compared to the old one, with a new restricted fly zone added to the new version, it’s not hard to understand through detailed explanation.

Above is the new P-NFZ diagram.

• No-fly Zone: R1 area in the diagram, which is the overlapping part of two circles using two ends of the runway as centers, with a radius of 5 km.
• 30m Restricted Fly Zone: R2 area of the overlap (excluding R1)of circles with the same centers but a 7 km radius.
• 60m Restricted Fly Zone: two trapezoids (excluding R1 and R2) with a 15% slope extending from the two ends of the runway.
• 120m Restricted Fly Zone: a circle using the midpoint of the runway at 10km radius, excluding all the three areas above.

Different restricted heights of 30m, 60m and 120m form a huge funnel-like cover protecting airports and airplanes flying in and out. Drone flight is still permitted once you are out of the zone.

Sector-by-sector Flight Height Restriction

1. When a drone is approaching the P-NFZ, a warning prompts out and warn the user the risk of flying in this area.
2. If a drone is flying higher than the maximum restriction, it will automatically slows down and hovers until the user descends it to a permitted flight height to get in.
3. If a drone flies lower than the restriction, its maximum flight height after entering the zone will be restricted.
4. If a drone has entered the P-NFZ without GPS signal, it will automatically descend to the restricted height after regaining one.

Comment

So judge by the current regulations, this new P-NFZ is less strict than people previously thought. Apart from the 4.5 km no-fly zone (R1) surrounding the runway, the rest of the zone is still available for flying, though within limited heights.

Comparison of the P-NFZ in Shenzhen Bao’an Airport

As shown above, the new P-NFZ covers almost the same area as the old one, except two stripes stretching from the runways. Though it does bigger than the previous NFZ, to be specific, drones are only banned in the central red areas, with only restrictions in the rest of the zone. In other words, the total areas expended, but the no fly zone area remains almost unchanged.

Indeed, the new regulation puts strengthen the restriction on flight heights, which will inevitably affect drone users in some places, especially those who want to do high altitude aerial photography. But it’s worthwhile for bringing down the risk of drones interfering manned airplanes and protecting passengers’ safety. The P-NFZ is undoubtedly a good news to passengers as well as the entire civil aviation system in China.

After all, once a drone is dragged into an airplane’s engine, the affected engine is highly likely to break down, causing serious consequence. In this aspect, stricter regulation is acceptable.

What DJI can do as an enterprise is limited. It can lay down some regulations, but users’ cooperation is what matters most. Flight safety should always be prioritized in drone users’ mind.

The post DJI Polygon No-fly Zone Launched in Mainland China appeared first on Drone Inner.

How the GoPro Karma flight modes work

Many pilots are interested in hearing the details of how the GoPro Karma flight modes work. Above is a video that demonstrates each of these options.

The GoPro Karma has four automatic shooting modes, which enables the drone to do all the hard work when it comes to getting the perfect cinematic shot and/or positioning. Note that these modes are commonplace on drones these days, so none of what we see here is out of the norm. In fact, by all objective measures, GoPro has the least number of autonomous shooting modes. And they lack autonomous follow-me modes.

Here’s a run-through of the four modes.

Orbit:  In this mode, the drone will orbit around a set point. To set it up you’ll start by flying directly above the point you want to orbit around. Then on the controller you’ll tap to set that point.  Next, you’ll fly to the radius around that point.  In other words, just back up 10-15 meters. Then mark that point. Then simply hit start. At this point Karma will fly around the object forever.

You can adjust the speed along a slider, as well as then adjust the height and radius distance using the controls. This means that you can keep the drone circling around that tree, while increasing or decreasing elevation. The drone will automatically keep pointing both the camera and gimbal angle at that tree. Further, you can then increase the distance to the tree by using the other stick, allowing you to create a spiral effect.

Dronie: This mode allows you to take a selfie where the drone zooms out and away from you. So the picture starts up close, and then the drone flies upwards and outwards away from you, keeping you in the picture. You can control the speed during it. Afterwards, it’ll reverse course along the same path back to the starting position.

The challenge I’ve found on numerous occasions with this is that it’s hyper-sensitive to movement of the controller. While the unit will give you a 3-second countdown, if you try and place that controller out of view during that 3-second countdown I’ve seen cases where it’ll change orientation of the drone camera – thus defeating the purpose of the dronie.

Reveal: In the reveal, GoPro Karma will fly towards a point and slowly rotate the camera gimbal up to the horizon. You’ve likely seen this shot countless times at the start of a movie where the camera is pointed down towards the ocean, and then pans up to show the skyline of a city ahead of it, as the craft continues to fly towards it.

It’s a great opening shot in a video, and it’s also handy to use in snippets of videos as well.

Cable Cam: This flight modes allows you to set two points in the sky and then have the drone fly back and forth between those points over and over again. You’ll start by flying to Point A, and then setting it. After which, you’ll fly to Point B and set that. You cannot do any more points beyond two points.  After which, you’ll press start.

GoPro Karma will then go back and forth along this imaginary highway. By default it’ll also remember any elevation changes you’ve set between the two points. Thus you can get smooth elevation increases this way. While the drone is going back and forth, you can then control the camera angle. Not just the gimbal, but the orientation of the camera. The drone takes care of flying, while you just focus on the camera. You can also adjust speed as well as height at any time.

Note when you close the clamshell, it immediately ceases any auto-shot modes. The drone will instantly stop and hover. This really sucks, because that’s kinda-sorta the point of the clamshell remote – to be able to close it up and not have it dork with the controls. So I had wanted to get in the shot and take the control with me on the bike, but alas, I can’t do that.

( Source )

 

 

The post How the GoPro Karma flight modes work appeared first on Drone Inner.

What can we expect from the DJI Mavic Standard?

Drone Manufacturer DJI will in all probability soon come with an entry-level version of the Mavic Pro on the market. Not entirely the drone DJI Mavic Standard will be called surprising and have lesser specifications. These new drone will also be offered for sale without a controller. The selling price of the basic model without transmitter would not more than $ 500.

Model M1S

On the FCC website there is in fact a photograph surfaced of a product label showing the designation M1S. On the Mavic Pro adorned with a similar label, but with the indication M1P.

Anyhow, the introduction of a DJI Mavic Standard (or just ‘Mavic’) is a logical continuation of that DJI. The Phantom 3 Standard was announced 6 months after the release of the Phantom 3 Professional and Advanced. At the end of this March, the Mavic will be turning 6 months old, so we can expect that a cheaper iteration will hit the market around that time.

If such a model were introduced, we would expect that its specification might be limited as follows:

• Camera resolution limited to 1080p/2.7K camera.
• Ocu Sync video transmission (same as the pro). That means the Mavic Standard will also be able to fly as far as 7km (4.3mi)
• Removal of obstacle avoidance sensors
• No remote controller
• Controlled only by the DJI Go 4 app
• $ 699 for the version with controller and only $ 449 for the Mavic Standard without remote.

Delivery Problems

Many retailers still have many orders are on backorder. These may put off potential buyers as such a specification would severly limit the functionality of the Mavic Standard.

Thank you very much for reading!

The post What can we expect from the DJI Mavic Standard? appeared first on Drone Inner.