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Autel announces two new series of drones including a tiny one to take on the DJI Mini

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Autel Robotics has announced two new series of drones, the EVO Lite and the EVO Nano, the latter of which is a sub-250g drone aimed at taking a share of the license-free market from DJI (and the recently announced Hubsan Zino Mini SE). Unlike the DJI and Hubsan offerings, though, the Nano comes with obstacle avoidance – a feature notably lacking in the other two.

The EVO Lite series is a little larger (more like a DJI Mavic), weighing around 820g, with the world’s first 4-axis gimbal, resolutions up to 50-megapixels, sensor sizes up to 1″ and video capabilities up to 6K at 30fps.

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How high am I? A tip for seagoing drone pilots

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This is a quick tip for drone pilots shooting boats. Rather than looking at the screen on your controller to see what altitude your drone is at, look at the horizon.

If you’re photographing boats with a drone it is very important to know how high you are above the wet stuff. Too low and you risk clipping a wave, not high enough and you could run into the boat you’re shooting.

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Three ways to shoot night time photography that aren’t astrophotography

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Heading out to shoot at night time in the middle of nowhere usually brings visions of astrophotography to mind. But that’s not the only kind of photography you can do at night, as this video from Adam Karnacz at First Man Photography illustrates. Adam heads out to England’s picturesque Lake District to show off three ways you can shoot nighttime photography and open up your creative freedom.

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The Hubsan Zino Mini SE has a flight time of 45 minutes. weighs 249g and costs $349

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It looks like DJI might have some competition in the license-free (in many countries) sub-250g market. Hubsan has just announced their new Zino Mini SE drone and it looks quite impressive. It’s a clear response from Hubsan to the recently launched DJI Mini SE, and while it does cost slightly more than DJI’s drone, it offers some nice improvements.

The Hubsan Zino Mini SE shoots 4K video at 30fps (2.7K at 60fps), has a very impressive flight time of 45 minutes, weighs 249g and costs only $349. It also flies at up to 6 metres per second (twice as fast as the DJI MIni SE) and supports up to 6km of range with 1080p 30fps video transmission and even YouTube live streaming support.

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Watch: Alligator turns into smoke-billowing dragon after chomping down on drone

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An almost unbelievable video showing a Florida alligator ingesting a drone has gone viral this week. The TikTok video shows a small drone (the DJI Spark) hovering extremely close to the alligator’s mouth. The alligator, quick as lightning, snaps up the drone and holds it in its jaws. Smoke starts billowing out of the alligator’s mouth, appearing to be on fire.

The TikTok user @devhlanger posted the video clip online earlier this week while on a tour of the Everglades and is captioned “Trying to get a close up of this alligator in the Everglades… Wait till he chews through the drone’s battery.” He then explains “we were trying to get a close up of the gator with its mouth open and thought the obstacle avoidance would make it fly away. It was only the 2nd time using the Spark”. Presumably, the sensitive lithium battery inside the device didn’t take kindly to being eaten by a gator and exploded in its mouth.

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More images of DJI’s new Mavic Mini SE – It’s not coming to the USA or Europe, though

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New images have been released of the DJI Mavic Mini SE. Unfortunately, however, the new drone from DJI isn’t going to be coming to the USA – which is odd, given that it popped up in the listings at Walmart. It likely also won’t be appearing in Europe, either. Oh no, the drone is destined for Southeast Asia and South America.

The reason for the markets its target is to try to bring drones to areas where they’re not already popular. As DroneDJ notes, this is a shame because this $299 sub-250g drone, based on the original DJI Mavic Mini (but with some elements of the DJI Mini 2), would make for an excellent starter drone in those regions.

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Watch: Drones fall from the sky during 1,000-drone flying light show in Shanghai, China

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Drone light shows have become all the rage over the last couple of years across the world, but probably no more so than in China, where most of the world’s drones are developed and built. Drone shows have almost become the new fireworks displays in China, with every team attempting to outdo not only each other but their own previous displays.

Inevitably, though, something was going to go wrong one day, and it seems that it has. During a show in Shanghai, China, involving almost 1,000 drones, some started plummeting from the sky in the middle of the show, possibly causing injuries – maybe? It’s a little unclear. Also unclear is what caused the drones to suddenly fall from the sky in the first place.

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FAA releases TRUST – yet another training and testing requirement to fly drones legally

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released The Recreational UAS Safety Test (TRUST), which is a free online training programme that recreational drone users are required to take and pass before being allowed to fly their drone. Interestingly, even if you have your Part 107 certification for commercial use, you still need to do this, too.

And don’t think you can easily get away without it (not for long, anyway), as you’re legally obligated to present proof of having taken it if asked by the FAA or law enforcement when flying recreationally. And it appears to apply to all drones, even those under the 250g minimum limit.

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SkyeBrowse lets you make 3D models with your DJI drone videos in minutes

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As 3D printers have become more popular over the last few years, so has the idea of 3D scanning. No longer in the realm of only high-end games companies and movie studios, everybody has relatively easy access to create 3D scans of the real world these days. You can even do it with your smartphone and free software. But it’s still a fairly laborious task that typically takes a long time to process.

SkyeBrowse seems to have solved this time sink problem, though, with an iOS app that processes 90-second videos from DJI and Autel drones into high-resolution 3D models. It uses a patented new technology called videogrammetry – which it says is different from the more traditional photogrammetry many of us have been using for years.

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Sony has officially launched their new $9,000 Airpeak S1 Drone

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Sony has now officially announced their new Airpeak S1 drone, hailing it as “the world’s smallest drone that can be equipped with an Alpha mirrorless camera”. I wonder if that comes with similar caveats as the “world’s smallest full-frame mirrorless camera” claim of the A7c? Still, it’s certainly smaller than the DJI Matrice 600 and boasts an impressive set of specs.

The new Sony drone features proprietary motors with 17″ blades for a top speed of 55mph – significantly quicker than much of the competition – wind resistance in wind speeds up to 44.7mph and the ability to attach a gimbal for mounting your Sony Alpha mirrorless camera. Oh, and it will cost $9,000.

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