Inspire 1 | DJI (http://www.dji.com/product/inspire-1)
DJI Inspire 1 Quadcopter with 4K Camera and 3-Axis CP.PT.000300

$2,900! For that price, it better "that" be good.

DJI – Introducing the Inspire 1 - YouTube

Did you wait for the countdown and see the livestream today? I had a client asking about the phantom and we went to the DJI site and saw the count down.

Chinese Drone Maker DJI Unveils More Powerful Model - WSJ - WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/articles/chinese-drone-maker-dji-unveils-more-powerful-model-1415840471)

No.

First I saw leaked images of it and then B&H gives me an email talking it.

The most interesting to me, the camera seems to be fish-eye distortion free; a big plus over GoPro for drone flying. The specs say 20mm equivalent. Looks nice, but I'll wait for someone else to buy it and evaluate the camera.

Looks good.. retractable legs, 4K camera (looks free of distortion), HD digital downlink, ability to use 2 controllers.. for that kind of setup, previously you had to spend thousands more on an S900 or S1000 + a camera. I think this will be very popular.

In saying that, I'll still be sticking to my Align M690 pre-order.

For me there were several steps forward, particularly the real time HD streaming, backed up by an hdmi output from the controller to an HD monitor. That makes live broadcast from the air a reality and fantastic fpv flying possibilities with record as you go.

The other big steps forward were the 90 degree non fisheye field of view, but more importantly the 360 degree rotation and controlability of the gimbal. Ability to hold ground station even with no gps is interesting for those wanting to cover events, and the 19 minute flight time is very useable.

Is it just me, or do others think that the live coverage was pretty amateurish for a multi million dollar company on an international product launch? The fixed camera in front of the stage semed to have been operated by someones Mum, as the exposure was constantly being changed, at times going to total blackness for many seconds. There was no variation or slow moving in or out to add a bit of interest. There was also what appeared to be a handheld camera, particularly during the Mythbusters spot, which was amazingly unstable. My 4 year old grandson could have done better. The blatant product and app sale promotion for the mapping programme company also seemed a bit embarrassing.

Seeing as the whole live launch was about the Inspire quad, the finale with the take off and hover, breached just about every safety regulation. The operator trying to get a downward shot had several tries to line it up, as if he had never used it before and the camera link, one of the main selling points, kept intermittently blacking out. The whole thing reminded me of an enthusiastic but amateurish first year media student show.

Overall, 9/10 for the new product and 3/10 for the launch.

Just my opinion,

Roger

my thoughts last night watching the launch, I found myself critiquing the whole show, I mean why position their cam so that the first row of the audience was poking their heads into the shot! I would have thought a small bit of elevation would have cured that.
And yeah the hand held shots werent the greatest.
The footage out of the Inspire 1 however looked good, pity about the screen blanking out every few seconds tho!

Can anyone tell me if the waypoint auto-flying will also allow you to assign camera changes in advance?

For instance, I'd love to be able to pre-assign a route like the show-off video where the Inspire backs out the doors, then raises elevation while tilting the camera down.

What you can do Robert is programme in your waypoints and flight path, then using a second controller you can concentrate on controlling the camera while the quad takes care of itself. Dji specifically stated that the Inspire is compatible with two controllers.

Roger

It was my understanding that the blanking out was an effect of when the operator was taking a photo. Looks good but kind of expensive for what it is. I could maybe see $2199.

Its the whole package that's so inviting and especially the 360° camera and full HD monitoring.

And it's similar to the step up from filming with a DSLR to purchasing an integrated large sensor camera such as a C100/C300 etc. The similarity is in the amount of equipment you have to strap onto a phantom, with all the FPV wires and components stuck to the base of the unit connecting through to the Zenmuse H3-3D and Gopro camera.

The integrated camera / gimbal removes all of that hassle and add to that the level of operator control available through the tablet / iPad app and you have got something that, if you were to add up all the bits you need to get a phantom 2 working properly, is really good value.

The question for me is how the quality of the shots from DJI integrated 4k camera / gimbal matches up to the Gopro 4 4k shots. The lack of exaggerated fisheye in the new camera is attractive as one has to crop into the gopro images to remove edge distortion once they have been 'de-fisheyed'.

I've yet to see any high quality Inspire 1 4k images posted onto Youtube or Vimeo. I think it is the 'Soar' promo that has some shots with severe jello problems which is strange as the unit actually ships with an ND filter to put on the lens.

I can only think that there will be other video camera options being developed for this unit because similar to Apple DJI seem keen to open up 3rd party technical and software partnerships.

So it looks like my Phantom 2 / Zenmuse setup is going to end up on ebay.

I've seen it in person and in operation - a good buddy of mine received the second or third unit for testing purposes as he is sponsored by DJI and I can tell you this is a magnitude of order leap forward.

Hi Shaun,
Have you seen and or worked with the footage from it? Just wondering as i'm sure many are, how good it is.
Bryce

My buddy flew it in my parking area for ten minutes to demonstrate it for me after he had been out shooting and flying it all day. Nighttime, security lights... can't say much other than it is seriously cool and a major step up from the Phantom.

Thanks Shaun,
Good to hear. Looking forward to hearing what the footage is like.

I found some beta review that may be of interest: DJI Inspire 1 - Mark and Romeo's Aerial Adventures ... (http://visual-aerials.com/dji-inspire-1.html?lang=en)

The footage from their review was pretty disappointing. While the images aren't too bad, there's way too much rolling shutter / jello effects all over the place for me to even think about using that footage for a professional shoot.

Really disappointed.

I'm now back to looking at the Align M690 (waiting for some decent reviews) or the S900.

DJI has always had the cool factor going for it but IMO this is much less of a game changer than the Phantom was.

I think the integration of Lightbridge into the Tx is a good idea but the fact that you have to use that camera, and even if it was a decent camera it doesn't appear that you can use it for anything else the way you could with a GoPro, is like putting 13" bias ply tires on a Lamborghini.

Why spend so much money, R&D and marketing on a product thats considerably more expensive that provides arguably not that much more functionality.

The concept is great and I'm sure they'll sell a lot of them but do we really need another way to fly a GoPro? So DJI fancy's themselves a camera manufacturer...

I agree.

This would have had twice the game-changer factor if they'd made this new bird with all those features and no camera. The statement would be "we're going to own the R/C aerial market, and let the camera manufacturers do what they're best at". Instead, the statement is "we're going to do a slightly-above average job at everything, and you're going to need a whole new bird every time there is an advance in camera technology".

Mike, isn't this the quadcopter that they specifically say the camera is swappable, so that its upgradable?

I think the criticisms are spot on, though that is one thing they did right.

Swappable with something else made by DJI, yes, I believe so. I am not led to believe it is swappable with anything third party.

I think we are limited by the fact that DJI is making the camera. It will never be anything better than the best camera a helicopter company could design. When I go to KFC, I order fried chicken. They have a hamburger on the menu, but if you wanted a burger, why not go to Burger King?

In terms of the whole package the camera definitely seems to be the week point at the moment. But I also get the impression that few of the people who have posted raw footage online have much experience in getting the best out these small cameras mounted on aerial gimbals.

The camera comes with an ND Filter but whether any of the footage has been acquired using this filter would be guessing. Philip Bloom has used the Inspire 1 on a recent shoot and given it an overall thumbs up. He mentions that DJI are planning to release a 'protune' type flat profile setting via a firmware update but regrets that the low data rate that this camera ( like the gopro 4 ) ships with. Not sure if this can be changed?

To be fair none of these tiny cameras are going to get anywhere near something like a GH4 and we will have to wait till the beginning of December to get a bigger range of sample videos to assess.

Big Movember Prize added! DJI Inspire One AND Ronin together! Plus my initial thoughts after a week of flying the Inspire One. | Philip Bloom (http://philipbloom.net/2014/11/20/inpsireone/)

I think we are limited by the fact that DJI is making the camera. It will never be anything better than the best camera a helicopter company could design. When I go to KFC, I order fried chicken. They have a hamburger on the menu, but if you wanted a burger, why not go to Burger King?

It is said that the sensor in the Go Pro and the DJI Inspire 1 is the same one and it is made by Sony. From the footage I don't think it is much different. However, we will know only when someone does a side by side with a Go Pro 4.

Any one here in the preorder list?

That's what I like about DJI, they're Inspire to shoot with a GoPro.

I was recently looking into the DJI Inspire after learning that they showed a hand held gimbal at CES 2015 for use with the Inspire camera. Like others though, I'm keen to find out if DJI is going to offer a mount for other cameras on the existing gimbal.

Things I do like are that the feature set of this bird seem to be an attempt at appeasing the FAA's requirements for commercial operation (ie provision for second controller dedicated to camera operation). I also like the underbelly sonic sensor and camera for indoor stable positioning in the absence of GPS signals. The rectilinear lens for eliminating fish eye is what I wish GoPro would offer.

Mini rant alert:

It just seems a bit ironic to me that all those years back in the early 1990's when I was flying model airplanes, no one seemed to care. And those airplanes didn't have the luxury of HD FPV, GPS position hold and return to origin, auto land (the Inspire can do this because of the belly sensors). Now we have all this advanced on board tech that makes RC flight so much more precise, and everybody wants to ban or severely limit their usage.

-gb-

I'm happy report that the Inspire 1 is potentially a great product.

I say potentially because, as many of you will be aware, there have been, and still are some fairly dramatic teething problems. For me this is all par for the course with a quadcopter that is so radically different from anything else DJI have manufactured.

The most dramatic fault reported is of props coming loose in flight. To fix this DJI have now designed and manufactured a simple and well designed prop lock which should get people back up flying next week if reports are accurate.

I've flown my Inspire about 3 times now in my local park and it is a joy to fly. Very robust controls and a comprehensive pilot app that makes changing any settings a lot easier. And compared to aerial filming with a go-pro it is now possible to just start and stop the recording.

But it is really quite a big beast. Much larger and heavier in real life than in the photos I saw. And the auto take off and land option is really luxurious and fun to use as it automatically raises or lowers the legs depending on whether you are going up or coming down.

It accelerates and stops very quickly and overall feels well set up. I anticipate a fair amount of time flying before I get up to speed with all that it offers.

I will post a link to some trial clips when I've processed them.

Thanks for that info, Mark. I hadn't heard about the prop issue. Will look forward to your additional reports on reliability.

Still wondering about alternate camera options in the future. I've looked into other quad rotors, but nothing that ties it all together as well as the Inspire.

-gb-

Some interesting footage with the DJI Inspire 1 in this first test.

Inspire 1: Sausalito and Las Galinas estuary on Vimeo

Nice, very stable shots, did you use a gopro?

Noa, not my film!!!!

But, yes, shots are pretty stable, except when a pan is started/ended. Nice not to see the fish-eye of typical GoPro footage too. It's (deliberately) a "warts and all" first test so you can see how the DJI Inspire 1 performs. Notes on the Vimeo page (and on PVC website) are well worth reading. Sure, there are artifacts in the footage and some bits that would obviously be edited out in any final "real film" - but I have to say I'm pretty damn impressed.

Ah ok :) The laws in my country are very rigid when it comes to flying one of these so I will just have to look how others do it.

Here is a link to a few clips from a recent trial flight with the Inspire 1 in my local park.

If anyone wants to it's possible to download the 1GB H264 file to see the shots in full 4K.

DJI Inspire 1 (Horsham Park 4K) on Vimeo

DJI Inspire 1 (Horsham Park 4K) on Vimeo