Outlaw Drone Review | Altair Aerial’s New Cheap GPS Drone

Altair Aerial is a company known for their low-cost drones and great reputation for customer service. Just last month, they released their new Tomahawk drone, a stellar effort which our reviewer called their best aircraft yet. Now they’ve followed it up with the Altair Outlaw, their first drone with GPS capabilities. There’s no question that …

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Aeromao Announces Bellyflopping Amphibious Drone

Amphibious airplanes have been around for a long time – in fact, some of the earliest aircraft were designed to land on water because it was softer than crashing onto land. However, drones with a seagoing airframe are unheard of – or, at least, they were until Aeromao, Inc. announced the Aeromapper Talon Amphibious earlier …

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Uber Wants To Deliver Food With Drones By 2021

Uber, the billion-dollar startup best known for pioneering ride sharing and mistreating its workers, has more recently started expanding into a number of not-even-remotely car-related fields. In 2014, the company began its Uber Eats platform, a food delivery service that’s now available in 250 cities worldwide. In May of this year, Uber announced that it …

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DJI Launches New Version Of The Phantom 4 For Aerial Surveys

DJI is the most successful drone company in the world, and the Phantom 4 is their most popular drone. We’ve covered this product extensively in our articles here on the site, as well as its variants like the Phantom 4 Pro. But on October 15th, DJI released a new version of the Phantom 4 that …

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Drone Versus Airplane Wing: Watch What Happens

Any responsible drone enthusiast knows that flying a drone near an airplane is something you should never, ever do. Even if you live in one of the few countries where flying near an airport is still legal, doing so puts the lives of pilots and passengers in danger – and will almost certainly destroy your …

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DJI Drones and Farming: 6 Ways DJI Is Revolutionizing Farming

During the Neolithic revolution, humanity set aside its hunting and gathering lifestyle and turned towards agricultural life. Ever since then, farmers have led the world in adopting new technologies.
The result has been a more stable lifestyle with a marked reduction in global poverty.
One of the most recent pieces of technology adopted is the agricultural drone.
Drones aren’t exactly a new technology. But the way farmers use drones in agriculture breathes new life into their practical applications. It not only makes farming more sustainable but helps farmers get the most of every yield.
What relationship do drones and agriculture have? Here are six ways drones make farming sustainable, bountiful, and less expensive.

1. Irrigation
The irrigation of crops presents a two-fold issue for population growth. First, battling long-standing droughts challenges farmers around the world.
Second, agriculture eats up 70 percent of the freshwater used worldwide.
Moreover, water remains a finite resource.
Our goal then is to get water to the crops that need it to – but to limit waste whenever possible.
They can highlight patches showing signs of stress with thermal and infrared sensors.
With the help of drone technology, you’ll reach the areas that need water most without wasting water on healthy crops. Not only will you save our most precious resource, but also boost your yields in the process.

2. Health Assessment
The health of crops in the ground contributes to the overall return. Every farmer’s goal is to identify plants in stress as early as possible to both save the plant and prevent jeopardy for the field.
Early detection of disease in humans dramatically improves the likelihood for survival – and it does the same for plants.
The use of drones makes this possible – and inexpensive – for the first time. With near-infrared sensors, it’s possible to identify a plant facing stress very early. Some sensors see signs of trouble up to 10 days before it becomes clear to the naked eye.
Having a 10-day notice to check on a plant could be the key to preventing large-scale losses.
For example, if your field is contaminated by a pest, all farmers in the area will face the same threat.
When you identify the issue before it spreads, you prevent the loss of thousands of acres of crops.
Trials of the use of drones in health assessment extend beyond crops.
They also include animals and wildlife.
During an experiment in Kenya, drones surveyed a herd before the vets on the ground could get dressed and into their car. There’s also evidence that drones could be used to spots sick animals.
“When you identify the issue before it spreads, you prevent the loss of thousands of acres of crops.”
3. Planting
Drones won’t replace traditional planting equipment in the near future, but they do make planting more accurate.
Imagine creating a precise seed-planting pattern based on multiple data points, including nitrogen-levels. Drones produce 3D maps with little effort and expense, which serve as a basis for many seed-planting applications.
Drones won’t replace the physical planting process in the next few years. But the work is important because it reduces labor costs and improves efficiency.

4. Offer Better Fertilizer Prescriptions
One of the most pressing issues faced by the agriculture sector is preserving soil quality while improving agricultural output.
Drones are particularly helpful when used in combination with soil sample data methods.
At Heartland Soil Services, the team combined their soil sample data with real conditions found in drone imagery to draw correlations in the relationship between actual soil conditions the health of their crops.
Because they used from granular aerial imagery, they were able to come up with targeted nutrient and fertilizer applications that arrived already refined.
Want to learn more? Read the full case study here.

5. Spraying for Pesticides, Fertilizers, and Herbicides
Drones like the DJI Agras MG-1 offer new levels of efficiency for established tasks like crop spraying.
How could something so small be both faster and more precise?
The MG-1 boasts a powerful propulsion system that carries a 10-kilogram payload and distributes it powerfully across 4,000 to 6,000 square meters in only 10 minutes. It sprays crops an average of 40 to 60 times faster than the manual methods while applying an even, comprehensive spray.
Not only you save precious time, but the systems economize output. The pesticide goes where it should and prevents pollution where possible.

6. Replace Satellite Monitoring
Satellite monitoring represented the most technologically advanced method of crop monitoring. Despite that, it always came with significant issues. Unpredictable weather conditions, rising costs, and image quality plagued the system.
If you could afford satellite monitoring, you needed to order in advance. You also relied on images that were only available once a day and with quality failing on several days.
DJI drones, such as the Inspire series, provide cheap, real-time aerial imaging for crop monitoring. Rather than fighting cloudy images, farmers receive images from 12-megapixel cameras and 4k quality videos.
If something gets missed, putting the drone back in the in the air is simple, inexpensive, and convenient.

Drones in Agriculture Offer a Better World
Crop failures, droughts, and waste affect agriculture and our growing population.
The use of drones in agriculture can’t prevent weather or catastrophes. But it can mitigate damage by improving monitoring efforts, detecting disease, and ensuring accuracy in both planting and irrigation.
Of all the things we love about drones, this is one of the most significant value propositions offered by the industry. Ready to learn more? Visit our blog for a roundup of DJI’s products, tutorials, and drone guides!
By the year 2050, the global population will likely reach 9.7 billion people. To feed everyone, we need to increase our agricultural output by 70 percent within the same timeframe.
Farmers have their work cut out of them, but their use of new and established technologies will help.

Beautiful Drone Video Shows Autumn From A New Perspective

I don’t know about you, dear readers, but my favorite season has always been Autumn. It’s warm enough to enjoy the outdoors but cool enough to show off your jacket fashions. It’s a time for apple cider, pumpkin pie, and decorative gourds. Plus, give me spooky Halloween skeletons or a turkey feast over a Christmas …

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Game Of Thrones Uses A “Drone Killer” To Maintain Set Secrecy

As scripted television’s most popular show enters its eighth and final season, the Game of Thrones production team has had to pull out all the stops to make sure that no spoilers get leaked. The names on the scripts and call sheets were completely changed to try and keep shooting under wraps, and HBO has …

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The Best Drones and Accessories for Filmmaking

We take a look at some of the very best filmmaking drones and accessories out there right now.
If you are interested in filmmaking, you are probably intrigued by the possibilities of using drones in your work. But what is the best drone to choose? And what accessories will you need?
Expensive crane shots are now being replaced by the use of drones. Not only are drones able to reproduce these shots more easily, but are also capable of producing shots that would be impossible with a crane.
There is no doubt that drones are revolutionizing film and TV production.

Aerial photograph, showing a winding road and a colorful lake
DJI MAVIC PRO 2
Currently, the filmmaking drone market is dominated by one company: DJI.
DJI drones are the market leaders for a reason; their drones are simply phenomenal for filmmaking. And the Mavic 2 Pro is a perfect example. It’s a classic four prop drone but is designed to be foldable which makes it easily transportable.
The control and handling are as great as you would expect from a DJI drone with its 3-axis gimbal technology, but the key when it comes to filmmaking is the camera. And the DJI Mavic 2 Pro doesn’t let you down in this respect.
It gives the best images of any consumer level drone, thanks to its Hasselblad L1D-20c camera.
The camera boasts a 1-inch CMOS sensor with a maximum ISO of 12800. This means the picture is still incredible even in low-light conditions. It uses what is known as Hasselblad Natural Colour Solution technology to provide incredible color detail at 20MP.
The 10-bit Dlog-M color profile is capable of recording over one billion colors with an incredible dynamic range and supports 4K 10-bit HDR shooting.
The lens aperture is adjustable from f/2.8 to f/11 so you can capture great footage whatever the conditions.
There is also a built-in hyper-lapse mode for stunning full-motion timelapse shots.

The DJI Mavic 2 Pro with Hasselblad camera
DJI MAVIC 2 ZOOM
If you’re on a slightly tighter budget or need a wider range of shot options then the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom may be the choice for you.
The Mavic 2 Zoom is another foldable four prop drone. The differences are in the camera. At the heart is a 1/2.3 inch 12 MP CMOS sensor, but the real power of the Mavic 2 Zoom is given away by its name. It sports a 2x optical zoom, which can give up to 4x zoom when shooting in Full HD.
This has a number of benefits. The most obvious being that you can shoot at a safer distance from subjects such as buildings and vehicles whilst still getting great detail. It also allows you to make use of the telephoto lens for impressive parallax shots.
This means that when shooting a moving shot focussed on a subject, the background will appear to move more quickly giving a more cinematic feel than for wide angle shots.
There is also a very smart autofocus tracking system which ensures that your subjects stay in sharp focus even when you’re zooming in or out.
There is even an in-built dolly zoom mode for recreating those classic Hitchcock shots.

Tom David Frey flying his DJI Mavic 2 Zoom in the ancient city of Nazareth, Israel
DJI INSPIRE 2
The DJI Inspire 2 is probably the number one drone for filmmaking on the market right now.
If you’re looking for the best of the best, this is it!
First off, you don’t have to worry about damaging your investment. The DJI Inspire 2 is packed with tech to keep it safe. A forward-facing FPV camera and obstacle-avoidance system are mounted on the front of the body, whilst IR sensors scan for obstacles directly above, with terrain sensors keeping an eye on the ground below. It makes the Inspire 2 ideal for shooting indoors or out, even in cramped conditions.
The Inspire can be fitted with a choice of Zenmuse cameras, but we’ll take a look at the very top of the range: the Zenmuse X7. This camera boasts a super 35 sensor that shoots at 24MP. It is capable of an incredible 14 stops of dynamic range and can shoot in 6K CinemaDNG and 5.2K AppleProRes.
The camera comes with 16mm, 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm prime lenses, all at f/2.8 with aspherical glass.
The built-in spotlight pro feature locks on to a subject during flight so that you can film incredible tracking shots even without a second person manning the camera. This is a pro-level piece of kit and you won’t find anything better for drone filmmaking out there.

Tom David Frey preparing a DJI Inspire 2 for the flight
DJI CrystalSky Monitor
When it comes to accessories, the DJI CrystalSky can make a huge difference to your filmmaking.
It’s an ultrabright monitor that is four times brighter than mobile devices.
It means that you can get a crystal clear image of what you’re filming, even in bright sunlight.
The optimized video decoding ensures that you get jitter-free real-time monitoring with no painful lag.
If you’re shooting outdoors then the DJI CrystalSky is a must-have.

The ultrabright DJI Crystalsky monitors are available in different sizes and can be attached to all DJI drones
ND Filters
ND filters are found in every good photographer’s bag and are vital when it comes to drone filmmaking.
Neutral density filters are dark filters that reduce the amount of light entering the lens. The key to cinematic looking footage is to have some motion blur. That means shooting at slower shutter speeds. A slower shutter speed means more light entering the camera and on bright days this can lead to overexposed footage.
By using an ND filter, the amount of light entering the camera is reduced allowing slower shutter speeds and producing beautiful cinematic looking footage.
ND filters come in a range of strengths, and a full set is recommended to cover any situation from sunrise to bright snowscapes.
Are You Ready to Start Filmmaking?
Once you’ve made your decision on which DJI drone to go for, you’re ready to start your filmmaking adventure. But there is still plenty more to learn!
We have a ton of great content on the site to help you with your next steps. Check out our in-depth drone guides and tutorials, including our drone film school for more great tips and advice.

We wish you the best of luck with your drone filmmaking endeavors!

Drones With Laser Scanners Monitor Costa Rican Forests

“There are many ways of taking these metrics,” said Felipe Carazo, “but none with this level of resolution.” Carazo is the executive director of Fundecor, a private non-governmental organization that’s working to manage Costa Rican forests in a more environmentally sustainable fashion. In association with American technology company Intel and the San Jose-based Aerial Robotixs, …

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