DJI Mavic Pro Critic - part 1

What is the DJI Mavic Pro?

Before the launch of the recent DJI Mavic Air and DJI Spark, the Mavic Pro was the smallest quadcopter equipped with a camera in the range of DJI drones. At a price of about £1,099, the Mavic Pro weighs just 743g and, when folded down, measures only 83 x 83 x 198mm - more than compact enough to slip into a small bag. It comes with a battery delivering approximately 27 minutes of flight per charge, plus a top speed of 40mph, a 12MP camera mounted on a 3-axis gimbal, and a compact remote that works in tandem with your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.

DJI Mavic Pro - Design

Having stolen a lot of drones from the Phantom range, I would consider them incredibly compact and lightweight for their capabilities - but the Mavic Pro is in a whole different category of portability. When the mailman delivered the box to my house, I thought there had been a mistake - this package, smaller than a shoebox, could not contain a quadcopter over 1000 pounds, a controller, and a battery charger? But that's because the dji mavic pro is tiny compared to its Phantom cousins - about a sixth of the size when folded.

My immediate concern was that its small size would affect its stability in the air and its image quality. But even with this imbalance in the mind, I could not help but be impressed by the way the drone and its controller tipped cleanly. This is the first 4K drone I've seen that feels like it could really fly all day without any problems. Phantoms need to be carried around in special or bulky backpacks, but the Mavic Pro slips into the smaller bags.

It is solidly built too, with the majority of the quadcopter built from durable plastic - a practical thing to know, since anyone who buys a drone is likely to have at least one or two light air crashes during their ownership. The gimballed camera is trickier, but DJI provides a clear plastic cage that protects it from danger while you carry it.

DJI Mavic Air full review - part 2

Those of us who accidentally drive their drones to an untimely death will appreciate Mavic Air's "Advanced Pilot Assistance Systems", or "APAS", which use the UAV's embedded sensors to detect obstacles in its flight path and trace a road around them without pilot intervention. Since it worked flawlessly guiding the Mavic Air around a few trees, feeling arrogant and confident, I very slowly flew the drone to my head. Of course, the APAS guided the Mavic safely around my head. Do not try this at home (DJI was careful to point out that APAS works best when the drone flies slowly enough to find a safe route around a hazard).

With regard to the physical design of the Mavic Air, DJI has also made some important improvements. On the other drones, the battery is partially exposed. But on the DJI Mavic Air, it returned safely to the heart of the fuselage, which gives it greater protection. Antennas are integrated into the landing gear, a move that should improve the connectivity between the aircraft and the remote control. This remote control has an integrated cable to connect your smartphone, as well as removable joysticks for easy transport. And the camera cover snaps can be on and off more easily, a welcome change. These are small adjustments by themselves, but they add to a more refined experience than the models of the past.

Is DJI Mavic Air right for you? It depends. If you've ever thought of the Mavic Pro, it's worth looking at the Air very closely - it has comparable specifications, it's easier to pack and there are hardware improvements to boot. But if you do not need to shoot 4K videos or RAW images, going with the Spark could help you save money. If you get the Mavic Air, do not forget the spare batteries. During my tests, the drone remained in flight for about 21 minutes of autonomy announced. But it's so much fun to use that you're going to want to fly a lot longer

DJI Mavic Air full review - part 1

There is no group of gadgets that are more exciting than drones right now. With constantly improving camera specifications, smaller and smaller sizes and ever-increasing air capabilities, they are a blessing for tech fans who are bored of the same old man in the world of smartphones. And no dronemaker is as interesting as DJI, the Shenzhen-based firm that quickly wins the nickname "Apple of drones".

DJI Mavic Air 

The latest addition to DJI is the $ 799 Mavic Air, a collapsible drone designed to be packaged in a backpack and loaded with all kinds of adventures without sacrificing image and video quality. Unlike the cheaper and smaller DJI Spark, the Mavic Air can shoot 4K videos and RAW images, stabilized by a three-axis gimbal. It's also more portable than the Mavic Pro, making it an ideal choice for hikers, travelers, and others who want superior results without the need for a cumbersome installation. And 8GB of onboard storage saves you from being screwed if you forget your memory card at home.

After taking the DJI Mavic Air on a Sunday morning tour, I was impressed by the amount of punch it contains. Among the best features, there are two new "QuickShot" modes, which offer Hollywood-quality video shooting at the touch of a button. One mode, "Boomerang", commands the drone to swing around a subject in a grandiose way; it is best used for plans of oneself looking towards an epic view. Another, "Asteroid", tells the drone to retreat from a subject, film in the sky and create a wild multi-image panorama assembled as a tiny planet. These QuickShot modes are the culmination of DJI drones, allowing even novice drone pilots to create excellent video results.

But beginners are not the only ones who will find something to like here. The riders will also be able to enjoy the "sport mode" of Mavic Air. Switching a switch on the controller activates this setting and triggers a speed demon drone capable of moving at approximately 42 miles per hour. It may not be much in terms of a car, but it's an absolute explosion with something so small. Most people will probably use Air Mavic to capture photos and videos, but it's a real pleasure to fly for a while, burning batteries like crazy. It put a smile on my face to be sure.

The first flying car in the world!

According to the report of the British automobile media on March 6, PAL-V Liberty, the first mass-produced commercial flying car under the Dutch PAL-V company, was publicly presented at the Geneva Motor Show 2018. It is reported that the first mass production of flying vehicles in line with the European road and air traffic standards, has now begun to accept reservations through the company website. In addition, the car will be sold for a limited edition of 90, will be officially delivered in 2019.

The PAL-V flying car is divided into Pioneer Edition and Sports Edition. The pre-tax selling price of the Pioneer Edition officially is approximately 431,000 pounds, including flight instruction, personalized service, etc.; the Sports version is priced at approximately 25.4. Million pounds, including flight teaching and other costs, but the personalized service content are different with the Pioneer Edition. The car adopts a twin-engine, three-wheel, two-rotor design. The propellers and tail rotors are released and they can be turned into rotary-wing aircraft. They are equipped with a dual-propelled power system and the roads are driven and the two-pronged approach to flying. The car body is almost the same as a normal car, and the suspension system is lower. The double cockpit can also be tilted to better adapt to the curvature of the ground.

According to the official, PAL-Liberty takes only 5-10 minutes to complete the deformation process. When it enters the flight mode, the wind drum thruster will automatically expand, but the driver only needs to push out the tail part to open two rotor blades and start it. Propulsion unit will be ready for flight. Before trying the real flying car, I guess you’d better try some Multi Rotor Parts for RC players first.

This flying car, named Liberty, is a combination of a two-seat hybrid car and a rotary-wing aircraft that can switch between driving mode and flight mode within 10 minutes. With a two-seater design, the maximum speed on the road is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour, the maximum speed in the sky is about 112 miles (about 180 kilometers) per hour, and the highest flight altitude is 11,000 feet. Landing mode maximum life is about 1315km, the maximum life in flight mode is about 500km.

In addition, in order to drive this flying car, the driver must hold a flight license in addition to the driver's license. Users of the PAL-V Liberty flying car must have a flying driver's license and a road car driver's license. Given its type of rotorcraft, a flight record of 35 hours is also required for the flight license. 

Take you to visit CP+ for our beloved DJI products - part 3

After launching the first generation of Osmo and OsmoMobile from DJI, it is officially entering the stabilizer industry, and DJI stabilizes developed very quickly in the past two years. Although the price of the product was higher at that time, the experienced users must know that it really works well. Take our video channel for example, we now design video projects, such as camera introductions, video tutorials for outings using Osmo or OsmoMobile with mobile phones.

1. DJI Osmo+

Now, Osmo has already launched the second generation of Osmo, the new product in addition to further improve the video and stability, the biggest upgrade is to support 3.5x optical zoom and 2x lossless digital zoom. In this way, we can experience a farther perspective when we use it in peacetime. The equivalent focal length of the lens is raised to 22-77mm.

2. DJI OSMO Mobile 2

DJI's Osmo Mobile 2 is this year's new product. This series of products is to set up mobile phones making mobile phone shooting more stable, perspective changes more smoothly. Mobile phone PTZ makes the entry threshold lower. Before, me myself experienced the first generation of products, it really improves the shooting effect of the mobile phone. First of all, whether it is still or moving, the picture will not produce jitter, and the perspective of the conversion screen is very smooth.

3. DJI Ronin

In addition to Osmo, a hand-held stabilizer for camera, and an OsmoMobile for mobile phones, DJI also has stabilizers for professional camera equipment such as Zenmuse and Ronin. The stabilizers of the Ronin series are all geared to professional equipment. The biggest difference is that they are more load-bearing, and they can also bring very good stability and smooth transitions.

From DJI’s booth, we can see that everything is centered on the product itself and the product’s technology, especially the drone flight test area. Apart from seeing a better quality lens, drone's own flight performance, stability, intelligent AI recognition, etc. have been highly mature. Stabilizers are even more so. Looking forward to the future of DJI will bring us better products and related technologies.

Take you to visit CP+ for our beloved DJI products - part 2

The just-concluded CP+ (photographic equipment and imaging exhibition, is one of the most influential digital camera equipment exhibitions in the world) showcased the latest digital imaging equipment products from major global manufacturers this year. There are many companies participating in CP+ this year, including Canon, Nikon and so on. One of the most representative companies is DJI. The big booth of DJI exhibited almost all their popular products. In the previous article, we already talked about the Mavic Air drones. Now let's take a look at the other star drones of DJI.

2. DJI Inspire

The four-axis flagship quadcopter of DJI, Inspire, was also shown on the CP+ site, which was installed the new lens launched by DJI last year. The new lens highlights the lightweight features and highlights the use of different formats such as APS-C. Inspire is equipped with a new intelligent system design in DJI, better stability, and can track the movement of people to dynamically adjust their shooting direction, the effect is excellent. This shows that DJI's AI design has been very mature.

3. DJI Phantom, DJI Spark

At the exhibition site, we also saw dji spark, a popular product in the previous year and the year before last, and Phantom, a classic product of DJI. That is, at the CP+ exhibition site, DJI showed us a full range of four-axis aircraft products. Regardless of the old and the new, we can see that DJI always seizes the market from the products and does not rely on the propaganda and public relations to enhance the brand influence. This kind of strategy based on R&D and product will be able to stand firmer in the future and will be able to retain its absolute market share.

In previous years, when we mentioned DJI, we would certainly talk about DJI’s drone aerial photography and we also talked about DJI’s market share in the drone industry. But now, again referring to the DJI brand, we have a brand new topic: its stabilizer, which is the handheld product that we will talk about next.

Take you to visit CP+ for our beloved DJI products - part 1

The CP+2018 show really can be said to be brilliant. All major technology brands have shown their trump card products. Among them, we can not ignore it, of course, UAV ace player - DJI. DJI is currently the leader in the drones and aerial photography industry, and it occupies an absolute market share. Now it has also made outstanding achievements in the field of stabilizers. At the CP+2018 site, DJI also brought us a wonderful display.

First of all, we are certainly looking at DJI's many well-known drones.

1. DJI Mavic Air

The new UAV drone now is Mavic Air. This product is designed for the aerial photographers and other users, so in the design, it reflects the lightweight side of the carrying characteristics. Its camera is integrated with the drone so the takeoff weight is fixed.

In terms of shooting performance, Mavic Air is equipped with a 1/2.3-inch 12-megapixel sensor that supports up to 4K 30p 100Mbps video recording and can shoot full HD 120p video at the same time. In terms of aircraft specifications, DJI Mavic Air is equipped with a three-axis stabilized head, equipped with binocular vision sensors in front, bottom, and rear. The overall performance is very interesting.

The biggest selling point of DJI Mavic Air is intelligence. It is even better for gesture and face recognition. From the live demonstration we can see that it performs very well. Whether it is to operate the direction of flight, landing, etc., these gestures can be accurately implemented through gesture recognition. Four cameras were designed separately in the front and rear, in order to support its obstacle avoidance function, this can be more intelligent during the flight.

In the past ten years, it was a hard time for camera manufacturers all over the world. Digital camera shipments decreased by nearly 80%. The popularity of smartphones represented by the iPhone led to a hard time of the protagonists on CP+ like Canon, Nikon, and Olympus. Although the quality of the photos taken by smartphones is not as high as that of cameras, they provide the convenience of taking and sharing anytime, anywhere, making the quality of photos not so important. Revolutionarily, smartphones make everyone a "photographer." The new consumer drones represented by Mavic Air will bring a whole new revolution to the industry.