Tag Archives: Mavic

DJI Mavic Air Ultra Portable 4k Drone!

DJI Mavic Air

The new Mavic Air may actually be the drone you have been waiting for.  It has most of the technologies that have evolved on pricier drones like the Inspire series and Phantom high-end consumer offerings like obstacle avoidance, awareness sensors, and now at this tiny size, a 4k 30p 3-axis gimbal stabilized camera.  The 4k recording ups the ante at 100mbps compared to the Mavic Pro’s 60mbps which was a big issue for motion artifacts and clearly separated the quality lines on phantom and Mavic series.

The new drone also has the ability to shoot 120fps Full HD 1080p video in what looks like improved quality “but still a little noisy” which is also a plus.  The sensor is the same as on the Mavic Pro with a 1/2.3″ size at 12MP with HDR still shooting mode and an 85°-degree FOV. The main feature of course is the size which is slightly bigger than last year’s spark but with finally 4k image quality. Portability is probably the most important drone feature today. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

DJI Spark Mini Drone Lacks High Frame Rates!

DJI Spark

The newly announced DJI Spark Selfie Micro-drone is a thing of beauty when it comes to capability vs size.  At just $499 it is also half the price of a DJI Mavic Pro and while it lacks a 3 axis gimbal and extended flight time; this is geared to the people that want a no nonsense experience that is truly portable for their flight camera needs. It has a camera capable of 1080p video of pretty good quality at 30fps.

The downside is that it lacks 4k for one thing and any other frame rates besides 30fps full HD.  It does do  12MP still images with good dynamic range and color accuracy which could become the best use of the drone for markets such as real estate, surveying and aerial imaging that is ready at any moment without the bulk. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

GoPro Hero 6 What will it Take?

GoPro Hero 6

It is no secret that GoPro had a pretty bad 2016 in terms of sales performance and the Karma Gate battery off incident. The company is loosing money but still shows signs of life. In the 4th quarter of 2016 GoPro was profitable on a non-GAAP basis with income of $42 million.  With the stock closing price today of $8.90, a far cry from the nearly $90 it was worth in October 2014, there needs to be a change of epic proportions if the company is expected to remain viable.

There are threats from new technologies like AR, VR and Snapchat Glasses among others that threaten to impede the company going forward. How can a camera company evolve overnight to survive in such a market.  We believe the answer is by innovating it’s way out of the whirlpool that it finds itself in. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

DJI Mavic Pro vs GoPro Karma Slowmo!

DJI Mavic Pro vs GoPro Karma

There has been extreme excitement over the last month for both the GoPro Karma Drone and the DJI Mavic Pro being the first truly portable and collapsible drones that offer professional features and a quality camera. However when we focus on the video quality it is clear that by several measures the Mavic Pro seems to be a step down compared to the DJI Phantom 4 and here lies the main issue between these two competing platforms.

GoPro has not been a quality champ ever since the DJI Phantom 3 came out. The Hero Camera with much more wide angle distortion and less sharpness was a letdown by being pretty much the same since the last refresh of the GoPro Hero 3+ several years ago. The GoPro way has been footprint reduction and feature addition instead of image quality hikes. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

DJI Mavic Pro Drone Takes Aim At GoPro Karma!

dji mavic pro drone

DJI the maker of the Phantom drone has answered GoPro back with a direct competitor to the Karma drone announced last week. The new DJI Mavic Pro drone is extremely portable; even more so than the Karma and has obstacle avoidance technology along with ground awareness which is missing from the GoPro completely. It also has the follow me feature in more modes than ever which makes shooting with it a breeze. → Continue Reading Full Post ←