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DJI provides users with an accidental tour of the Inspire 1 production line

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Like most manufacturers, DJI tests its products before they go out the door to ensure as much as possible that they’ll work as intended. They can’t find every fault, but if they do spot an issue, they can remedy it before it’s sold. Unlike most products, most of DJIs can record video. Testing those recording features, and drone gimbals means they have to shoot footage.

Occasionally, some of that footage slips through the cracks and gets shipped out to users. I’ve built drones before, but I think if I had to build them all day long, and only be involved in one small step of the process, I’d probably end up as bored as this guy.

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CNN now have their own dedicated drone division – CNN AIR

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CNN have today announced the launch of CNN Aerial Imagery and Reporting (CNN AIR). CNN AIR is their own dedicated Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) unit. The network will have two full time UAS operators on staff “to fully integrate aerial imagery and reporting across all CNN networks and platforms”.

Drones aren’t new to CNN, though, they’ve used them before to cover stories. Flint’s water crisis, and Anderson Cooper’s report on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina received the assistance of drones.

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Optical zoom finally comes to the mass drone market with DJI’s new Zenmuse Z3

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Everybody seems to have a drone these days of some sort or another for all kinds of different things. Most of them have cameras attached, but almost all of those have one limiting feature; they have a fixed focal length, which means the only kind of zoom you’re going to get is digital.

DJI’s new Zenmuse Z3 is changing that by integrating an 3.5x optical zoom lens and a “2x digital lossless zoom” to let you get a closer look at your subject from the skies.

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DJI Is Putting Micro Four Thirds Cameras On Their Inspire 1 Drones

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This has to be the week of DJI. After announcing their auto flight modes and a new set of drones, the company has announced a critical upgrade to their Inspire line – 2 new Micro Four Thirds cameras that can be mounted on the drones as a hardware upgrade: the Zenmuse X5 and Zenmuse X5R cameras for drones.

The cameras are capable of 4K @ 24FPS and provide 12.8 stops of dynamic range with a RAW video file (or 16MP stills). Kinda like the GH4.

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DJI Phantom 3 & Inspire 1 Add Auto Flight Modes Via Firmware Update

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When I talk to videographers who fly drones (dronists? I donno…) and the issue of DJI vs. 3D robotics comes up, the main point is always how the Solo from 3DR can do clever things autonomously while the DJIs need some babysitting.

DJI’s new firmware update closes that gap and adds some pretty clever flight modes to the company’s DJI Phantom 3 & Inspire 1. They are calling it Intelligent Flight.

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DJI Goes Head To Head Vs. GoPro – Announces A Gimbaled 4K Camera

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A while back we heard that GoPro are going to go into the Drone market and make their own drone (as opposed to being mounted on the popular DJI Phantom Drone). It seems that Chinese drone maker did not appreciate the move and is now fighting back by trying to take some camera market from GoPro.

Ben Popper of The Verge was visiting DJI’s booth in CES 2015 and discovered that DJI have took the 4K camera of their drone and made it into an independent gimballed camera. The gimbal includes a mounting point for a smartphone that can be used as a viewfinder, which is a plus if you are getting one of those. The camera is the same 4K camera that is found in DJI’s heavier Inspire 1 Drone, and it is DJI’s first camera that was built in-house.

There is no word on pricing yet, but nofilmshool speculates that it would be close to the Inspire 1’s $3,000 price tag.

If I were DJI, my next move would probably be to encase the camera and release it as a stand alone and go full head to head vs. GoPro. That, though, is remained to be seen.

[via nofilmschool]

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