DJI have launched their new Drone into their Mavic series with lot’s of features in terms of obstacle avoidance and object tracking. Let’s see how well it does better than it’s competitor Skydio.
Basically, I’m in love with design not only this Mavic product like all the consumer drones from Dji as they could wind up easily into small one by folding up their arms and that’s really a great design concept from Dji and that’s need to be appreciated in terms of portability.
Camera
It has a ½ inch CMOS sensor with 48 Mega pixels, for the people who wonder it’s known as COMPLEMENTARY METAL OXIDE SEMICONDUCTOR, it’s a type of circuit technology used to several electronic components like analog circuits mainly in digital camera image sensor. Keeping aside, the technical aspect this camera it’s equipped with a gimbal which is really important for the stabilization.
This drone is capable of taking pictures and videos because that’s what it meant for. Jokes aside, This drone is takes HDR (High dynamic Range) images and HDR Panoromic images with high detail. In terms of the video capturing, This drone is equipped with a ton of features, starting off from 8K hyperlapse, which is incredible and shoots normal video at 4K 60fps with HDR capability.
And can shoot slo-mo videos for up to 240 fps And intelligent user friendly features like Cinematic shots where you just tap on your phone and it just flies on it’s own to get the best aerial shots.
Another interesting feature is the ActiveTrack 3.0 were you can give the object to be focused and as the object moves, the drone fly along the object Autonomously while avoiding objects like trees, And that’s a feature worth trying out.
These shots can be done easily for the people who are entering into the drone flying where just tap a few option and can nail the aerial shot very easily like a pro.
Sensors
This drone is equipped with lot of Ultrasonic sensors couple of them on Front & couple of them on the Back to not to get crashed. This forward sensor has a detection range of 0.35m to 44m. while the back sensors is capable of detecting the range from 0.37m to 47.2m.
In addition to that, I suggest the Dji to have a sensor on each side of the drone because, when flying adjacently The drones visibility is drastically reduced which I will be discussing below.
Even a couple of sensors at the Bottom with auxiliary light. Which is used to look after for the perfect surface to land.
So, you don’t worry about the getting crashed or landing perfectly.
Here, comes the important feature obstacle avoidance, Dji claims that it has better obstacle avoidance capability than any other Dji consumer drones. As this uses the APAS 3.0 system which is Advance Pilot Assistance System. This feature avoids things which comes on it’s way and even remembers where it started the journey and can return to the starting point without any hassle.
This APAS technology is based on the 3D mapping up of the environment as it flies, this APAS 3.0 is for better object following and improves the obstacle avoidance in complex areas in real-time. And with the help of auxiliary light at the bottom the visibility and automatic flight planning is improved while landing automatically and this feature is improved over it’s predecessors.
Remote Controller
You don’ t need any prior experience to fly this drone, Dji have done all the programs and is it’s optimised for layman’s use.
this drone can be flied with the help of a remote controller which comes with the box and is not sold separately like what apple does to their iPhones. This remote controller is named as OcuSync 2.0 were we need to attach our smartphones on to the controller, So that the flying can monitored and controlled by looking at the phone screen, And this controller can supports Apple Lightning connector, Micro-USB and USB type-C connectors. In addition to that we need to download the Dji Fly app on the smartphone.
And when all that is done, it’s a GO for a take off.
Post-Processing of Footage
Video editing on the footage is very easy and can do like a pro. And Dji gives the capability to edit your footage on your phone without the need of transferring it to your PC to edit. And for the Pro users, The video footage retains the colour profile with more information for colour correction.
The encoding is H.265 video codec which records more image information and uses less storage comparatively and preserves the dynamic range which is really great for video transmission.
Video Transmission (live footage)
This Drone can transmit the live stream video up to 10kms.
Yes, 10kms away with 1080p resolution which no other consumer drones provide on the planet. This got possible by using 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz band.
The difference between those frequency is that the 2.4 Ghz provides coverage at longer range but, transmits at SLOWER SPEED.
While, the 5.8 Ghz can provide less coverage with HIGHER SPEEDS.
This drone can automatically switch between these frequencies seamlessly when required, and stays up in the air for around 30 mins and Dji claims that this is one of their best flight time for Mavic series and this thing flies with the maximum flight speed of 68 kph in sport mode for fast and responsive actions.
Now, with all that is known, how well it stands out comparing to it’s competitor Skydio. The controller for the Skydio is sold separately for $179. If not, you can use the free Mobile app to control the drone.
This Skydio flies with the ton of AI and processing power powered by NVIDIA cores. Even though the Dji uses very subtle Ambarella processor, the algorithm Dji used in order to track and follow the objects autonomously is top-notch.
I have reviewed out the two drones which i have linked the video down below. Interesting fact is that even though the Skydio uses lot of AI power, the Dji clearly nails the obstacle avoidance pretty smoothly and tracks the subjects while, the Skydio just tries to be fancy and overthinks and loses it’s subjects pretty badly.
And this is where the DJI obstacle avoidance stands out from it’s competitor and this clearly show us even though we have high computational power the algorithms matter and in this case Dji algorithm is way better than Skydio’s algorithm And, I’m not saying that Skydio has a worst algorithms they are pretty good at FPV style which they try in the consumer drone which doesn’t turned out well. but, They are trying hard for their startup and doing really a great job. And in terms of price, the Dji is $799 bucks and Skydio is of $999 bucks.
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