DJI launched its new Phantom 3 drone to much fanfare yesterday with potential pilots most jazzed about the surprisingly reasonable price ($1,259 for the Pro model, and $999 for the Advanced) and the new features (4K video and live streaming) of this UAV.
DJI just launched a brand new camera drone: the Phantom 3 quadcopter, which features an improved video and still camera along with several new tools to make shooting and sharing aerial video and photos with this UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) easier.
By now, drone assisted cinematography (and photography) is really noting new but the people at the Brain Farm have just taken it to an entirely new and very exciting level. The idea behind this innovative experiment was to move beyond the usual “GoPro-style” set up by equipping a large pro quality drone (an Aerigon UAV model) with a massive Phantom Flex4K slow motion camera, at a total price tag of about a quarter of a million dollars worth of airborne gear.
Photokina 2014 in Germany has been covered widely on the Internet already—including our own extensive reporting on the show on Shutterbug.com—so there’s no need for me to rehash the major announcements from the event, such as the latest full-frame cameras from Canon and Nikon and the like. My photo report here is aimed at sharing some wider ranging thoughts and perspectives on this important biennial show and what it told us about photography today and where it might be heading tomorrow.
The moment imaging drone pilots have been waiting for with a mixture of dread and anticipation is finally here and there’s good news for aerial photographers...sort of.
Today drones are better known as unmanned military aircraft that appear in the news with ever-increasing frequency. There was less coverage years ago when they were used strictly for surveillance. But now, as they fire ordinance on suspected terrorist targets, these high-tech vehicles are rewriting the rules of aerial warfare.
If you haven’t seen this epic drone video yet, it should help you get over the Monday blues. (And even if you’ve already seen it, it’s definitely worth watching again for a few laughs.)
Will people ever get the message that it’s not polite to buzz wildlife with a flying drone? Last week we shared a video of a pride of a male lions chomping and chewing up a crashed Phantom imaging drone. Now’s here’s a similar clip involving a group of seven kangaroos.
Drone photography is here to stay, whether the government likes it or not. That’s one of the messages from an intriguing roundtable discussion piece titled “Those Daring Photographers and Their Flying Machines” in an upcoming issue of Shutterbug magazine. In the story, written by Lorin Robinson, three experienced imaging drone pilots share their thoughts on this controversial topic, in what amounts to part “state of the drone industry” and part call to arms.
PhotoPlus Expo in New York City may not have featured as many blockbuster photo gear announcements as photokina in Germany had last month but there was certainly an ample amount of interesting new gear and software at the show.
One of the cooler (or geekier, depending on your perspective) imaging products being shown off at the PhotoPlus Expo show in New York City is a high-performance, remote-controlled car designed to help shoot high-speed tracking video. Called the Tero, the miniature vehicle is being sold by Freefly Systems, which created the vaunted 3-axis MoVI stabilizer camera gimbal.
Imaging drones have become so popular, Think Tank Photo has now created a special kit that lets you fit one into a backpack for easy transport. With the new Airport Accelerator Phantom 2 Quadcopter divider kit ($34.75), photographers can easily convert a Think Tank Photo Airport Accelerator backpack (sold separately for $294.75) into a customized quadcopter transportation backpack.
Jeff Cable is one of many photographers these days discovering the glories of shooting aerial video and images with remote-controlled imaging drones. Cable recently turned his good buddy and Apple Computer legend Steve "Woz" Wozniak on to how easy and fun it is to fly these drones and shot a short video of the experience.