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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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Light painting a Porsche Panamera promotional campaign using drones

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Painting the skies with drones has become a popular activity lately, and we’ve seen some very impressive stuff produced. But this marketing campaign for Porsche, shot by visual artist and commercial fine art photographer Baber Afzal makes for some of the cleanest and most effective drone light painting images I’ve seen so far.

Created in collaboration with Porsche Middle East & Africa, the images were created for the campaign “Reflections of Passion”. The images also snapped up two silver awards in the advertising & conceptual category in the well-respected One Eyeland Awards 2021.

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Watch Sony’s Airpeak drone in action in this beautiful landscape video

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Back in 2020, Sony officially announced its entrance into the drone market. The official launch is getting closer, and Sony keeps building hype. The company took its Airpeak drone to field testing at Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan. The resulting landscape video is now published, so you can see how Sony’s upcoming drone performs.

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DJI confirms DJI Mini 2 battery issues – fix on the way

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There have been a number of claims about battery issues with the DJI Mini 2. Specifically, that the DJI Mini 2 has a battery discharge problem, potentially causing long-term harm to the health of batteries when stored in the drone or charging hub.

It’s not so much a safety issue, but one of cost. With shortened lifespan, you’d be buying them more often. DJI has officially responded to the claims now, acknowledging the issue and that they’re working on a firmware update to solve the problem.

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New Sony wind tunnel teaser video shows Airpeak drone holds steady even in 44mph winds

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Sony’s been teasing us with their new Airpeak drone system for almost six months now. Initially announced in November, Airpeak is designed specifically as an aerial platform for creators. These aren’t the hobby drones we might be used to, as Sony demonstrated in January of this year with the first full view of the drone with a Sony mirrorless camera mounted below.

Now, they’ve released a new teaser video showing some of the testing that they’re putting the drone through. In this case, that means flying it in a wind tunnel and ramping up the breeze to see how well it handles. And, well, it’s mighty impressive, showing some pretty stable holding power even in 43.62mph (19.5m/s) winds.

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DJI’s Air 2S drone comes with a cool new 1-inch sensor that shoots 5.4K video

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DJI has today officially announced the new DJI Air 2S drone, rumoured only last week. And it does indeed look as that leaked teaser suggested, with an extra pair of sensors on top and a large 1-inch camera sensor. But not only does the DJI Air 2S get a sizable sensor size upgrade over the Mavic Air 2, but it also gets a resolution bump, offering video at up to 5.4K resolution.

The DJI Air 2S offers up to 31 minutes of flight time with four-way directional obstacle sensors, APAS 4.0 advanced autopilot system, and a new MasterShots feature which uses automatic flight path planning to set the drone’s course while recording video and then automatically merges it all together in a neatly edited video.

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