ITALIAN_MARC Posted April 19, 2017 Report Share Posted April 19, 2017 Has anyone got or had a drone with a follow me feature? Are they good is the battery life good for taking snowboarding? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKcarver Posted April 21, 2017 Report Share Posted April 21, 2017 I'm working on a dji mavic pro deal with a friend for some longboarding sessions. He claims the follow me features work but I'm skeptical. Other sites barely mention its capabilities for this instead focus on it's other features. He's in South Africa for a few more weeks so our ventures are slated for late May/early June. Stay tuned for full report! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITALIAN_MARC Posted April 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2017 Ye I'll keep my eye for your report Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svr Posted April 21, 2017 Report Share Posted April 21, 2017 We used an Airdog on my last trip to Austria ?? for the longboard classic and it worked very well and battery lasted about 20 minutes. There is a new company called Staaker that basically looked at the airdog and improved on all of its capabilities. Here are some photos from the GoPro we had mounted on the airdog. cheers, sandy 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITALIAN_MARC Posted April 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2017 Whats the battery life life? And how easily they transported because i wouldn't want one use then have to go back to take it in especially off pieste could be a good while to have to go back or carry a huge fuck, if you know what i mean Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITALIAN_MARC Posted April 21, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2017 Whats the battery life life? And how easily they transported because i wouldn't want one use then have to go back to take it in especially off pieste could be a good while to have to go back or carry a huge fuck, if you know what i mean Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svr Posted April 21, 2017 Report Share Posted April 21, 2017 Battery life was a true 20 minutes and the airdog folds down to fit easily inside a Dakine pack. http://www.airdog.com/ Staaker claims 30 minutes and comes with a case as well http://www.staaker.com/ It was very quick to setup and also to stow when we were finished. It belongs to a friend of mine and he also uses it for MTN biking and has great footage from it from both snowboarding and biking. I was impressed enough that I want one now, but they are still a bit pricey. cheers, sandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunnertoao Posted May 10, 2017 Report Share Posted May 10, 2017 DJI Phantom 4 Advanced works great. Battery life up to 25 min. It's only a bit to big to carry it around for the rest of the day. Mavick is foldable should work better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKcarver Posted August 3, 2017 Report Share Posted August 3, 2017 Two catastrophic crashes with the dji pro led to some epic video but we were left with residual pangs of a better follow me feature. Airdog just released a side by side comparison of the two...hopefully this helps your decision making. Both are nearly identical as far as battery life flight time speed but your investment in an airdog is much greater unless you already own a go pro. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted August 14, 2017 Report Share Posted August 14, 2017 That's a misleading video: Airdog need to find the "enable obstacle avoidance in Active Track" switch and turn it on. Duh. Their comparison is against Airdog waypoint flying, which is not at all the same thing as Active Track. You can of course record waypoints like that with the Mavic Pro, and include the camera angles in there. The Mavic disadvantage would be that the rider would need to "keep up" with the camera, but the footage would be vastly superior (because the camera action would be set by cameraman not by Airdog). The Airdog appears to combine Waypoint flying with automatic camera orientation, which I don't think you can do on a Mavic Pro. There's no reason why it couldn't be added as a feature - it's similar to the Mavic's "Follow Me" functionality. I'm not sure anyone would bother though . --- I have the Mavic.... for real world snowboarding use... The Mavic is easy enough to carry around, you don't need cases. The battery lasts about 30 minutes in summer - presumably that will be worse in winter. You can of course take along spare batteries. 30 minutes is plenty for normal use, but if you're going to set up shots then you may need more than you think. You will get better video shooting someone else, rather than yourself. There is a rumour that Active Track won't descend, eg: https://forum.dji.com/thread-67136-1-1.html You could I suppose start it from where you intend to end up, fly it up, then track down, but that sounds unworkable to me. The Airdog video actually suggests that descent is possible, although it's not clear precisely what the chap was doing. Note that you have collision detection forwards and downwards, so those are easy directions to fly in. If you want to go backwards you have to override a setting, but you have no collision detection then. I suspect the use of drones may be restricted somewhat both at resorts and also by helicopter operators. So fun toys, but if you look at all the advanced "waypoint" work the airdog chaps did to produce that amateur looking video, that should set your expectations of what's really achievable. The Mavic looks significantly more useful to me, but even so we're a way of being able to get something to really "follow" a rider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted August 23, 2017 Report Share Posted August 23, 2017 Just came across this when looking for something to use from my sailboat. Know nothing about it, but looks cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted August 24, 2017 Report Share Posted August 24, 2017 ;-) Ah, that's the one with the amusing story: https://www.recode.net/2017/1/16/14274254/lily-drone-lawsuit-refunds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted September 23, 2017 Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 Sorry I'm late to this party, I just saw this now. I have a Mavic Pro. Ironically, I bought it specifically to take videos of my kids skiing and my friends and myself carving. I thought it would be a working version of what the ill-fated Lily was supposed to be. For that purpose, thus far, the drone and I have been a total failure. But I love the thing for everything else it can do and I use it for real estate photography. I say it has paid for itself and then some through that pursuit, so much so that I treated myself to the $450 goggles which are completely frivolous but fun. I tried taking a video of carvers once. The active track would lose the snowboarder if they went into a shadow near the side of the trail, which on this particular day was almost unavoidable. It was a bright sunny day so the drone probably couldn't see into the shadow. Also, the drone would lose the snowboarder if the background changed from snow to trees. But more importantly, as suggested above, indeed the Mavic Pro will not descend below the takeoff point itself. You can use the controller stick to make it descend while Active Track does the rest, but that was tricky. I have not tried takeing off at the bottom of the run, flying up to the subject and then turning on active track. I think in theory that should allow the drone to descend itself, but again, haven't tried it. Airdog makes bold claims, but if they're true it could be a better choice for the task of filming snowboarding. https://www.dpreview.com/news/1424144326/the-airdog-adii-is-a-lightweight-autonomous-extreme-sports-drone However I'm very pleased with my Mavic Pro. The portability is a huge plus. It easily goes right in my camera bag. Folded up, it's about the size of a 70-200 lens, and much lighter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted September 23, 2017 Report Share Posted September 23, 2017 (edited) Snowboarding - thought as much. The Airdog people were recording way points - given enough time and energy you could set that up for a snowboard run too, although it'd be a faff. I was thinking that I'll take it out next season if I have some lazy days and I'm sure it could be made to work, but it definitely going to be easier to shoot with someone else, rather than the implied "selfie" thing. I was thinking that the obvious shot is one which starts out as a pole-cam video into some big white-out turn, then apparently continues... except you switch to a drone at that cut, and after a few meters of the same it just flies up and away... So I'll be trying to program that some sunny day next winter. The sailboat reminds me of one I captured this summer with the Mavic, if it works here. Not my boat... Edited September 23, 2017 by philw Remote attach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Ace* Posted September 25, 2017 Report Share Posted September 25, 2017 Most ski areas have policies against the use of drones. Its probably a good idea to check before going out. Ted Ligety has his tuning guy follow him on a run with a long stick and a camera with a gimbal device(GoPro Karma Grip) attached to it. Results look pretty decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted September 25, 2017 Report Share Posted September 25, 2017 Yeah Ace, that really is the best way so far. The only problem is that you need a competent person to follow you. Sugarloaf actually quietly revoked their no-drone policy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted September 25, 2017 Report Share Posted September 25, 2017 The Johnasmo chase drone is the best I've seen. Able to predict whatever you can possibly do. Goes all day without a recharge. Search YouTube or this forum for more. Quite expensive though; needs a steady diet of Coilers, onesies, and beer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack M Posted September 25, 2017 Report Share Posted September 25, 2017 Speaking of drones... this guy has large balls... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BKcarver Posted November 2, 2017 Report Share Posted November 2, 2017 Nice vids!...FYI I was on the LILY kickstarter which never took off ha Sorry to see a concept not make it to market. They were wrapped up in some really bad PR. Most manufacturers use available tech to produce media platforms to showcase abilities. Class action lawsuit ended in an easy full refund no questions. A virtual leash is what I've been dreaming of...or show me a pilot who can follow shot at 3 meters. Money dropped on the airdog ADII...stay tuned. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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