DJI unveils the Mavic Mini, its lightest and smallest drone yet

DJI keeps its newest drone palm-sized. It's small and lightweight enough that in the US, it doesn't even need an FAA registration (make sure to check local laws and regulations!). The Mavic Mini weighs in at just 249 grams. But its feature set isn't lacking. It's designed to be accessible for beginners to hobbyists who want a compact drone to take aerial photography and videography with. 

The Mavic Mini can take 12-megapixel photos and up to 2.7K Quad HD videos at 30 frames per second. There is no 4K support here, unfortunately. The drone has a maximum range of 4km and gives you a substantial flight time of 30 minutes. It has GPS receivers and downward visual sensors so you can expect precise hovering and stable flying. What it doesn't have is obstacle avoidance features, so if you aren't careful, you might crash it. We suggest getting used to flying it in open spaces.

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CES 2019: DJI launches Smart Controller with built-in display for your drone

Don’t want to use your phone and tablet to see what’s happening with your drone? DJI just released a new Smart Controller with an ultra-bright display and all the controls you’ve come expect from a DJI controller. With the 5.5-inch display built into the controller, that’s one less thing to have to setup when you want to fly your drone. At the moment, it’s compatible with the new Mavic 2 Zoom and Mavic 2 Pro. The Mavic 2 Enterprise series will be supported in future updates.

The Smart Controller comes with an ultra-bright display that has an output of 1000cd/m2, which is twice the brightness of standard smartphones. The display also shows flight video in Full HD resolution, making it easier and clearer to see what you’re shooting. The controller comes pre-loaded with an Android dashboard with support for DJI GO 4 and DJI Pilot applications. The DJI GO 4 app gets SkyTalk feature, which lets the pilot livestream the drone’s camera feed to social media. It promises a battery life of 2.5 hours and can operate in temperatures as cold as -4° Fahrenheit and as hot as 104° Fahrenheit. Charging time is set around two hours as well. It’s going to set you back a pretty penny though. The Smart Controller retails for US$649 and will be available in early 2019. DJI plans to release a bundle with the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom, but we don’t know how much that’ll retail.

Source: Drone Life + Digital Trends

DJI outs new 4K folding drone

The latest addition to DJI’s lineup of drones is one that picks the best features of the US$999 Mavic Pro and the $399 Spark and sits comfortably in the middle of these two price-wise. The $799 DJI Mavic Air borrows the Mavic Pro’s foldability and gets its smaller footprint from the Spark. It’s now 41 percent lighter than the Pro. If what’s preventing you from getting the Spark was its specs, the Air’s specifications are closer to the pro.

It has a 1/2.3-inch sensor that can shoot 4K video at 24 or 30 frames per second and 12-megapixel stills with its 24mm wide-angle f/2.8 lens. In terms of its flight capabilities, it tops out at 42.5 miles per hour and can withstand winds of up to 22 miles per hour. With its new antenna, it has a 2.5-mile range, within visual line of sight, of course. It also has a new ventilation system to prevent it from overheating and a new 3-axis gimbal casing for better, smoother footage. You don’t have to worry about flying into objects too much with its seven-camera obstacle avoidance system, which can also help it avoid and move past these obstacles instead of just stopping in front of them. And yes, you get a new remote, too. On the software side, DJI promises new shooting modes, including a 32-megapixel panorama option or tiny planet mode, and better gesture controls. Flight time is at 21 minutes.

Source: The Verge

CES 2018: Chinese startup Ryze Tech uses DJI & Intel technology for US$99 drone

Drones are getting cheaper but not fast enough. Drone maker DJI’s cheapest model is the US$499 Spark. So if newbie drone operators want to play around with one, it’s going hurt the wallet a bit, especially if you end up damaging the machine. That’s where the likes of this new drone from Ryze Tech could help newbies, especially the younger crowd, to get used to flying one of these machines. The Tello is a US$99 drone that comes in at just 80 grams but it features a camera that can record 360-degree video and stream live footage to a tablet or to an unspecified number of third-party virtual reality headsets. It has a 13-minute flight time and can take 5-megapixel photos.

The Tello comes with a number of nifty features you might have seen on other more expensive drones, including automatic takeoff and landing as well as hover in places more consistently or respond to hand gestures. The Tello is able to do this with the help of Intel’s vision processing chip Movidius Myriad 2 VPU and DJI’s flight stabilization tech. Having these technologies will help the younger audience Ryze Tech wants to target not think too much about flying but focusing on capturing videos or programming flight patterns with the help of simple coding tool Scratch. The Tello is expected to launch in March, whether it’ll make its way here is something we can’t say.

Source: The Verge