• Category Archives drone

  • New drone / camera combo from DJI

    Posted on by beno Comment

    From the department of ‘just because we can’, DJI have meshed their most heavy lift capable drone with an outrageously expensive camera to make one of the world’s most expensive aerial photography platforms that no one asked for. Ever.

    https://9to5toys.com/2017/04/26/djii-new-drone-hasselblad/

    Its latest release comes in partnership with the recently acquired Hasselblad. The 100MP M600 Pro Drone is a Hollywood-grade device with a price tag to match. Even though this is probably too much fire power for the average consumer, it’s still fun to aww over the incredible power and specifications of this monster.

    Pricing has yet to be unveiled on this new model, but early estimates from experts in this category have it at upwards of $30,000. So what does a drone that costs as much as your car deliver? According to DJI, the industry’s best aerial photography and video experience.

    In short, your drone will be carting around 35k worth of camera.
    Yeah, all up the thing is expected to go for something like 45k when you put batteries in it.

    I love tech, but phew. They are probably not going to fly off the shelves, but whoa, imagine, just imagine the dronies you could take with this sucker!


    drone

  • Google zeppelins

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Coming soon to a sky near you. Google Zeppelins?

    There are a bunch of companies that figure what is old is new again.
    Enter the zeppelin. Only, safe and automated this time.

    https://www.engadget.com/2014/02/11/nasa-google-hangar-one/

    And

    https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/26/bloomberg-google-co-founder-sergey-brin-has-a-secret-airship/

    Will save you the click. Neither have pictures since it’s all early days and they are just getting started.

    Wont bother linking to the other guys either as they are all computer renders at this time, but the fact remains, plenty of people are pouring money into these big balloons.

    Watch this space.


    drone

  • Kitty Hawk Flyer

    Posted on by beno 2 Comments

    Oh, I am such a bad person…..

    Take a look at this video, it’s only 2 minutes (less if you could trim the junk), and then I will tell what I thought the instant I saw this thing take off in the video…

    Right, so I got to the bit where it takes off and straight away I snorted and thought… ‘Huh, imagine that thing chopping up Gary’s dining room table’.

    Yeah. I think the only reason we are still friends is because I am over here and you lot only see me every few years…..

    But seriously, Gary, you gota get one of these things for Lake Leanne.
    Why send a drone up to view your joint when you could ride it!!!


    drone

  • Drone sales up 117% in 2016

    Posted on by beno Comment

    No real surprises here. The hype cycle works for everything, electric cars, solar panels, weight loss pills and drones.

    Drone Sales Exploded 117% in 2016.

    This has been reported a few places, I just picked this article to link to because it was short.

    NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service found that in the 12 months ending in February 2017, $300+ “premium” drones drove steady sales while low-cost drones between $50 and $100 flew off store shelves.

    $300+ drones accounted for 84% of the dollars spent on drones and 40% of the unit sales.

    Here is one of the more interesting aspects I found worthy of some thought…..

    In terms of features, the data showed that drones with intelligent autopilot features sold 5 times faster than drones without it, and drones with intelligent follow capabilities sold a whopping 19 times faster.

    My take on this is a few scattered (tattered?) thoughts…..
    So people like buying ‘smart’ drones. I suppose that is two fold, firstly, they cant fly, so want high levels of autonomy to prop up their lack of skill.
    This seems to be a thing in most areas these days, people just don’t want (cant?) to put in the time to learn a skill. I admire Terry, he has put in hours and hours of stick time and it shows, his flying is way beyond mine. Yes, the other day when he was working on his done with my soldering station, he said ‘Thanks Dad for teaching us to solder, I would not have got so far along so fast by just watching YouTube’s on soldering’…. So it works both ways, I cant fly as well as him as I have not put in the time, but I can solder better because I have put in the time. Totally get that. My point remains, people are buying the smarter drones because they need/want the help.

    Second point from this quote…. ‘Intelligent follow’. People want videos of themselves doing things. The century of selfies, or dronies.
    I am guilty of this, and hope to become more guilty, but not with software, I want to get out there and fly with Terry and have him video me from his drone. You can’t program human intelligence, aka, time developed skills.
    I don’t trust the software to have the drone follow me, and I don’t trust the software to respect my money that is hovering (hopefully) in the air. I also don’t trust the software to be creative, to get a shot that takes planing and practice. It is for this reason I really like the older drones piloted by a skilled human.

    In the mean time, we can look forward to seeing drones fly off the shelves being used for things they probably shouldn’t and we will see law makers try and make laws restraining low skilled pilots from trusting software to do stupid things.
    Yay.

    [Yes, I am a grumpy old man].


    drone