Phantom 3 gets Autopilot features Waypoints, Point-of-Interest and Follow Me
Update 2: The Autopilot Firmwares have been released. See our Firmware Upgrade Guide to help you through the update. Here’s how you use Point-of-Interest mode for example: DJI GO – Intelligent Flight Mode: Point of Interest Watch this video on YouTube. Update: The Inspire 1 will also receive Waypoints, POI, Home Lock and Course Lock. The Phantom 3 Advanced will also receive 2.7K (2704 x 1520) resolution. News just broke that the Phantom 3 Professional, Phantom 3 Advanced & Phantom 3 Standard Drones will receive the following Autopilot features on Monday September 7th via a firmware upgrade: Waypoints – You will be able to input points on a map and tell it at which height it should fly past the waypoint, allowing you to concentrate on pointing the camera to frame the angle you want to capture. You will be able to save the flights and recall them at a later date to allow you to fly the same route again at a later date. Point-of-Interest (POI) – You will be able to select a point on a map and fly a perfect circle around the point while the camera is positioned perfectly to aim at center of the circle, which allows the camera to capture a 360 degree video of the point selected. You will be able to select the radius and height of the circle the quadcopter or drone flies. Follow Me – The Phantom 3 will follow your location once it’s airborne. It will use the GPS location of the smartphone or tablet connected to the remote control (if equipped with a GPS chip). The Phantom 3 will follow you while aiming the camera so you are always in the frame. Course Lock – Lock your Phantom 3 onto a directional course and it will fly in a straight line into the set direction. You can yaw to aim the camera and focus on framing your shot. Home Lock – The perfect “get it home” mode. Once enabled pulling back on the right stick (Mode 2) the drone comes back to your location. Sort of a manual fly-home mode. I can not wait for these features to hit next Monday. Then these “wishlist” features will become a reality, making the Phantom 3 an even stronger platform in the world of drones & quadcopters. Source: DJI, engadget, cnet...
DJI Inspire 1 featured on Good Morning America (GMA)
Update: Eric Cheng posted a few pics and additional details on his own Skypixel.org regarding the GMA Special. Here are two of them: For those that missed it this morning Eric Cheng DJI’s Director of Aerial Imaging performed a live flyover of the Bardarbunga Volcano in Iceland. Two Inspire 1’s were flown together towards the volcano and filmed the hot Lava. This whole event was transmitted live on air. Eric Cheng’s Lightbridge was hooked into the live feed from the TV Station. It took the crew 2 days to drive to the volcano in what appeard to be similar vehicles as top gear used for their polar special :) minus the “bumper dumper”. I’m thrilled that quadcopters and drones finally got some positive screentime on the mainstream news program this morning. A nice relief....
DJI announces Inspire 1 Camera Handheld Gimbal Mount
Update: The handheld gimbal has arrived. It is called the DJI Osmo. It is available as an all in one package or handle only for Inspire 1 Pilots. For all the details check it out on our DJI Osmo Page. We knew DJI had a reason for allowing the 4K Camera to be unmountable from the Inspire 1’s gimbal. Our initial thoughts however were that it was to future-proof the quadcopter and allow better newer cameras to be mounted on the existing 3 axis gimbal. Through CES 2015 we learned that DJI is building a new accessory in its secret labs in Shenzhen, China which will allow you to take the Sony sensor powered 4K camera from your Inspire 1 and mount it on a handheld “stick”. It appears that you can mount a cellphone on the side in a mount built into the handheld stick to use as a viewfinder. In the photos below (credit: Gizmodo) you can see that on this prototype an iPhone 6 was used in the Rosette mount to utilize an app to allow you to control the cameras settings such as ISO, whitebalance, exposure, etc. The grip will allow 2 separate types of modes, mode 1 will allow you to stay focused on a subject, and mode 2 will allow for super buttery smooth panning shots. The controls on the grip will allow you to take videos or stills with a push of a button. It also has an internal microphone as well as a 3.5mm microphone jack so you can use a lavalier mic or other external mics if you so choose. The whole thing is powered through a lipo battery inside the grip, since the Inspire 1’s camera doesn’t power itself it also draws juice from the supplied battery. Battery life is claimed to be about 70 minutes, which is more or less similar to a gopro shooting 4k. Since it’s still a prototype pricing and availability is unknown, but check back in the future and we’ll be sure to have all the details once they become available. Items like this handheld camera and gimbal mount will make the Inspire 1 an even more versatile quadcopter than it already is. User Lars posted this: The Verge shot a video demoing the new mount: DJI's new drone camera is also a super smooth handheld — CES 2015 Watch this video on YouTube. Who else wants one? Let us know in the comments...
What comes included with an Inspire 1 from DJI?
Now that DJI’s Inspire 1 is starting to ship i thought it would be interesting to see what is included in the production version. The following items are included with all Inspire 1 orders (All items are included 1x unless otherwise noted), currently if you order a 2 remote version you will receive the following package and will then receive a separate controller in another package: Aircraft Body Remote Controller Camera with Gimbal Propellers (Pair) ×4 Intelligent Flight Battery (TB47) Battery Charger SD Card (16GB) ND Filter Manuals Power Cable Micro-USB Cables ×2 Remote Controller Charging Cable Remote Controller Harness Camera with Gimbal Box Carrying...
Inspire 1 Review Roundup
The Inspire 1 from DJI was finally officially announced on Nov 13th at a Press Event in San Francisco. Since then it’s been delayed giving us a chance to read up on what kind of impressions the preview units made to the lucky few who had a chance to try them out. The consensus is that it’s improved in every way over the Phantom 2 except battery life. The Inspire 1 is the first quadcopter or drone that comes with a 4K Camera stock. It’s also the first “consumer/prosumer” quadcopter that allows you to have 2 people fly and film together out of the box (If you purchase the Bundle with 2 Tx’s) Motherboard.Vice.com: That being said, it’s much better than the Phantom. The thing looks like an alien’s head, and that’s for a reason. It concentrates the weight a bit, which, along with some new algorithms and that downward facing camera, stabilizes it better. I have no doubt that a Phantom would have been blown away… DPReview: The Inspire 1’s camera system, dubbed the X3, features a Sony EXMOR 1/2.3-inch type sensor with an f/2.8 20mm equivalent lens. The lens uses 9 elements in 9 groups, and contains an aspherical element, along with anti-distortion and UV filters. The X3 is capable of capturing 12MP JPEG and DNG Raw files and offers three capture modes including single shooting, burst shooting (3/5/7 fps options), and time lapse. Video capabilities include HD and UHD 4K (4096 x 2160) recording at 30 fps. A few words about the App for the Inspire one from Gizmodo: As with DJI’s other UAVs, the Inspire 1 beams down a wireless video feed that you can monitor from a tablet (or phone if you want to squint). The app allows you to control lots of exposure settings as well as to control a number of of the camera’s movements automatically. For example, one button allows you to snap the camera back to a starting position in case you get disoriented as to where you’re pointing....
Inspire 1 delayed by DJI for quality control issues
DJI’s new Inspire 1 quadcopter which was announced on Nov 13th, is going to be delayed. They were supposed to start shipping in late November/early December. The problem lies with the Inspire 1’s camera lens, in testing they found that in 10% of cases sunlight affects pictures negatively. The solution is adding a lens-hood. The email sent to Customers of the Inspire 1: Dear DJI Customer, We want to give you an update on the status of the Inspire 1 shipments. Because we are committed to giving you only the best systems DJI can produce, we have decided to postpone shipment of our first units, and we want to explain this decision to you. Earlier this year, we started flying and testing the first Inspire 1 beta units. The technology we built into the Inspire 1 is based on all of our years of research and development, and we have always dreamed of combining these elements into one complete system. So these first flights were deeply important to us. As these flight tests went increasingly well, we started bringing the Inspire 1 around the world to test it in different environments. At that time, we were 99% certain for a launch date in early December. Unfortunately, as we started ramping up to full production scale, there were unavoidable circumstances that prevented our best work from being completed. So now it is the right decision to delay shipments. We apologize for bringing you this news, but we are working hard to give you the best products you need. We will update you on our shipment times soon. Sincerely, DJI The following information was found on the DJI Support Forum on November 30th: Hey guys， I apologize for the shipment delay. Actually we do have encountered some problems in production. The worst one is the lens. The original design is lens + filter glass. But we found that when the sun is not appeared in the filed of view, the sun light will affect the image quality. Engineers advised to accept the result because it is just one case and will be ok in 90% of applications. But the product manager disagreed. He insisted that the camera is the key point of the inspire 1. We should do something to make things better. So we decided to add lens hood onto the camera. And you can find out the camera on website is different with the introduction video. It is a big change and the date is close to release. However，there are a lot of work to do. Redesigned the camera within limited weight and room. Changed the design of lens....
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