Holy Stone produced one of the most popular drones in it’s price range.
F181 was released about two years ago and it achieved great success worldwide. In fact, this model presented Holy Stone company to western market.
The drone holy stone f181 is an affordable drone with above average flight time and control distance for it’s price range. Built of ABS elastic plastic that should not break if you crash it from low/medium altitude. Camera is handy and extra battery in package is always a plus.
One of the few bad things about this drone is that the Camera doesn’t have FPV. You’re not able to see live feed from camera on your controller or smartphone app.
CAMTECH FPV DRONE APP
HOLY STONE F181 SPECIFICATIONS:
Flight time : 8 minutes Battery type : 3.7 V 750 mAh Charging time : about 80 minutes Control range : up to 100 meters Camera : 2MP Features : one key return, headless mode, LED lights
CAMERA
This drone comes fully fitted with 2MP camera. This camera is able to record videos at 30 frames and take snaps 720p resolution. This probably doesn’t mean much to you so I’ll try to demonstrate it. This camera can’t be considered as a professional camera, it is far away from that. But that doesn’t mean it’s useless, truth is it’s really nice camera for “fun” purposes. It’s not better nor worse than other cameras in this price range drones.
Videos and photos are stored on the default 2GB SD cardwhich comes included in the package. 2GB should be enough for all your needs. In case it’s not, you can easily insert SD card with more storage space (4/8/16GB). At the bottom of this review you can see sample of video and photo it records/captures.
The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is without doubt the best choice if you want to have a good drone without spending hundreds of dollars . Parrot AR Drone 2.0 has everything you want to enjoy the world from the sky.
But, the drone would be nothing without its accompanying app, AR.FreeFlight, which acts as the controller. This is what you can expect from the pilot’s seat.
The app has everything you’ll need to get the thing off the ground, and thankfully it’s not like staring into the cockpit of a Boeing 747. Layman’s terminology is present throughout, with plenty of options to alter how much or little you plan on letting your drone do.
You also get a live video stream from the drone’s on board cameras, which can record in either 420p standard definition of 720p high definition. We should note that if you want to record in the higher video quality, it’s going to have an impact on the already limited battery life, which only lasts about 20 – 25 minutes.
The green ‘TAKE OFF’ button at the bottom of the screen will only do so much for you, launching the drone to about one metre where it will then hover and await further instruction.
After take off you’ll have two control pads, which you have to operate with your thumbs (kind of like a video game) – these allow you to change the height, direction and speed of the drone.
When you need to bring the drone back to Earth, you’ll notice that the ‘TAKE OFF’ button has
been replaced with a ‘LANDING’ button. Tap this when you’re near-ish flat ground, and you should be sorted.
The Good
Following a couple of wobbly initial flights, we found the drone wasn’t all that difficult to control. The biggest problem we came across was making it fly in the right direction – which wasn’t helped by the wind.
To control, you can either tilt the phone in the direction you want, or use the joy pads, which is fine if you’re looking at the drone from the ground. Of course, you can also fly it by looking at your smartphone’s screen for a first person view from the drone’s camera. This is a bit trickier because you have a very limited line of sight and if it’s windy, the feed will be quite shaky.
As a party piece you can double tap the screen to make the drone do a flip. It doesn’t make for very good video footage, but it looks cool from the ground.
WHAT COULD BE BETTER
Before take off we were concerned about what would happen if the drone went out of range – would it just drop out the sky? Thankfully it lands itself in this instance, but it would be good if it would make its own way back. This functionality is available in other drones, but maybe that’s why they’re a bit more expensive.
We would also have liked it if it came with a Full HD camera, and a battery that didn’t drain so quickly. Again, this is probably something to do with the fact it costs about £300, and not thousands.
Conclusion
The AR.FreeFlight app is comprehensive and allows users to alter a great deal of controls to make flying the AR.Drone as straightforward as possible. However, it would’ve been good to see a bit more of the instruction manual that comes boxed with the drone, on the app. Why include a paper version of something when you’ve got the option to condense it onto an app?
DJI+ Discover has been updated to bring you the world of flying like never before. Connect with other pilots in your area to fly together, join activities and groups, get training or even sell aerial services.
The updated DJI Store app takes you into the world of flying like never before. Connect with other pilots in your area to fly together, join activities and groups, get training or even find aerial work.
Of course if you want to pick up new gear, it’ll take you to the nearest DJI shop and the DJI Online Store.
If you have a drone or specifically DJI drone, download the DJI+Discover, an app that focuses on social networking, connecting drone enthusiast, allowing them to communicate and meet each other through an app.
DJI+DISCOVER drone free app
According to DJI drone users can learn from each other and share experiences, it is also for professional market palce for service provider and clients.
Features:
Make a Direct Purchase – Purchase products directly from DJI and receive our personalized after-sale service.
Augmented Reality – Learn more about DJI products with AR experience.
The DJI Phantom 4 is a very polished drone compared to its competition, and for those who’ve flown a quad before, you’ll have no trouble getting started with this one. The new Sport mode lets you get to your location faster or just have some fun. Its Obstacle Sensing System can help avoid head-on collisions as well as track subjects. Slow-motion video is a nice addition to an already excellent camera.
This is what DJI says about the Phantom 4
The drone
The Phantom 4’s sleek and aerodynamically designed body minimizes buffeting when flying in strong winds and against gusts from any angle, keeping its movements predictable and precise. The deeply integrated gimbal and the new placement of battery lift Phantom 4’s center of gravity, improving balance, enhancing agility and adding more accuracy to how it reacts to your commands.
dji phantom 4
Multiple Flight Modes
The Phantom 4 is flexible enough to meet different flying demands. In Position Mode you can use satellite and Vision Positioning, TapFly, ActiveTrack and Intelligent Flight Modes. Sport Mode adds extra agility and speed, reaching 45mph (72kph) while maintaining satellite and Vision Positioning systems. Atti Mode holds the Phantom’s altitude and level but switches off satellite positioning making it ideal for smooth film making movements.
Fly Far for Longer
High efficiency motors and a custom designed large capacity battery offers 5,350 mAh of power, giving the Phantom 4 a 28 minute flying time. Integrated power management, balanced charging capabilities plus smart charge and discharge protection keep the battery easy to charge and ready to fly at maximum capacity. Integrated Lightbridge technology allows you to see what the Phantom sees in 720p HD at up to 3.1mi (5km) away. This low latency video transmission technology is extremely resistant to interference, giving you more control over your flight.
Fly Far for Longer
High efficiency motors and a custom designed large capacity battery offers 5,350 mAh of power, giving the Phantom 4 a 28* minute flying time. Integrated power management, balanced charging capabilities plus smart charge and discharge protection keep the battery easy to charge and ready to fly at maximum capacity. Integrated Lightbridge technology allows you to see what the Phantom sees in 720p HD at up to 3.1mi (5km).
Vision
Sense and Avoid
We all use our eyes to see and interact with the world. A forward Obstacle Sensing System gives the Phantom 4 it its own pair of eyes, empowering it to see in three dimensions and to react. In Normal Mode if it sees an obstacle coming close it will stop and hover. In TapFly, ActiveTrack and Smart Return Home Modes it will avoid the obstacle, or hover to avoid a collision. It also gives you warnings so you always know what is happening to the Phantom. The downward facing Vision Positioning module contains dual cameras and dual ultrasonic sensors to offer five times more positioning accuracy than previous systems. Used indoors, it provides a GPS-like flying experience, giving you the confidence you need to fly indoors.
dji phantom 4
Camra
High Performance Camera
Capture moments that will last a lifetime or take aerial film making to a higher level with the powerful Phantom 4 camera, featuring 4K video capture at 30 frames per second and Full HD 1080p at 120 frames per second for smooth slow motion. An aspherical lens with a 94° field of view (FOV) reduces distortion by 36% and chromatic aberration by 56% when compared to a Phantom 3. A hyperfocal length of one meter allows you to get closer to objects while keeping them in pin-sharp focus.
This is what users say about the Phantom 4
Since this is Day 7 of our 7 Day Phantom 4 review, here’s an overview of what my thoughts are after spending 7 continuous days with it. For the price, It’s a really impressive drone. They were able to add the additional cameras, processors, use higher quality materials like magnesium instead of aluminum and stay under $1400.
The new machine vision features like obstacle avoidance are really cool and they do work as advertised. In Active Track, you can’t run really fast when your really close to the camera and in some conditions it will get confused, but it works in most cases. For people who want to use it as a Follow Me type of drone, just be careful when you’re around lots of trees with thin branches, or telephone wires.
Hover is the must have app for drone and UAV pilots! Features include: no-fly zone map, drone specific weather forecasts, flight logs, flight readiness indicator, and industry news feed.
Over 100,000 recreational and commercial pilots use Hover to fly safely and legally! Your quick and easy to use reference, with all the information you need to know in one place.
If you don’t have a newer drone then chances are you’re flying without the help of a smart phone app. If that is the case you might want to check out one of the highest rated drone apps in the app store called Hover.
Hover is a free, simple, no-frills flight app that provides pilots with a place to store analytical data about their flights through a flight log. Pilots can track flight times, locations, battery usage, and write notes and when finished they can send the generated reports off through email.
Hover drone app – Fly Zones
The app features real-time wind and weather information, sunrise/sunset times, a humidity report, compass, as well as a timer so you can track how long you have to fly until your batteries are low.
One of the more helpful features is the No-Fly Zone Maps that are powered by Airmap.io which pulls up no fly zones and temporary no fly zones from the FAA, US National Parks and the US military so you have a simple fly or no-fly indicator.
The different menus can be slightly confusing to navigate because you access them by swiping up, left, right and down but my favorite feature of the app is when you right swipe to reveal the drone news feed. If you swipe right one more time you can even personalize the feed and set the app to only include your favorite drone news websites.
HOVER DRONE FREE APP FEATURES
International No-fly Zone Map: With our simple, intuitive interface we help you navigate the skies safely (provided by AirMap.io).
Weather Data: Local current and forecasted weather conditions, along with a detailed breakdown of wind speed and direction, rain or shine, and temperature.
Flight Logs: Individuals and teams can seamlessly track, log, and maintain their drone fleet. Manage drones, equipment, and personnel.
Flight Readiness Indicator: Simple to understand flight status to let you know if its safe to fly your drone or UAV in certain weather conditions and locations.
News Feed: Stay up to date with what’s going on in the drone space with a live feed of content from company blogs, news blogs, and major media publications.
