DJI Inspire 1 - 4K Quadcopter

[Paulo Teixeira]

Inspire 1 | DJI
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1097099-REG/dji_inspire_1.html
$2,900! For that price, it better "that" be good.

DJI – Introducing the Inspire 1 - YouTube

[Phil Goetz]

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

[Paulo Teixeira]

No.

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

[Charles W. Hull]

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.

[Jody Arnott]

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.

[Roger Gunkel]

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

[Rob Cantwell]

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!

[Robert Benda]

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.

[Roger Gunkel]

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

[Nate Haustein]

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.

[Mark Dobson]

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.

[Shaun Roemich]

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.

[Bryce Comer]

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

[Shaun Roemich]

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.

[Bryce Comer]

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