We already have a new toy to connect the self-selfie drone to the smartphone. Possibly the image I have chosen for this article has caught your attention, but really, and at the rate this drone thing is going, I see myself as the well-known Jedi Luke Skywalker, trying to defend myself from all this gossip.
Can you imagine a horde of Asian tourists, all armed with these gadgets? With what they like to take photos of anything……… No, better not think about it. At first, it may arouse curiosity and admiration, but for sure, if these drones increase their number a lot, they will become very annoying and unpleasant, especially for those who enjoy both traditional photography, and for those who simply seek the tranquility admiring a spectacular landscape.
Maybe this may seem a bit exaggerated or absurd, but this scenario is not improbable, perhaps not immediately, but over time, I am convinced that it will happen. So, nothing, we will have to get used to the presence of these (drone translation) drones with their monotonous, stressful hums flying overhead.
At the moment there are already two models of these drones:
- one created by an Australian company The iot Group model ROAM Flying Selfies.
- and the other, manufactured by a Chinese company Zero Zero Robotic with the model Hover Camera
Both models are designed to perform the only function capture de picture and video, and its management will be controlled from our smartphone.
So I do not roll over, and let's see what are the characteristics that each one of them offers us.
Table of Contents
ROAM Flying Selfies Self-Selfie Drone
At the moment, the information on this model is quite limited, and I have not been able to find out everything that I would have liked.
- It has a size of 8,5 cm.
- The blades or blades are folding.
- It has a flight autonomy of up to 20 minutes.
- The charge time of its interchangeable battery is 2 hours.
- It has 3 flight modes:
- Explorer.
- Navigation o automatic. In this mode, you can achieve a navigation autonomy away from the user of up to 25 meters.
- Navigation selfie. For selfies mode you can achieve facial recognition with flight autonomy of up to 3 meters.
- Camera equipped with 5 megapixel CMOS sensor.
- ARM Quad-Core Cortex A7 processor dedicated solely to flight control.
- Price 350 dollars
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The autonomy of this drone in the three navigation modes, detailed above, is thanks to the fact that its processor is equipped with facial recognition software, capable of automatically following the user at a distance of up to 25 meters. Beyond this distance, it would be necessary to control the user through his smartphone
It has some very interesting functions, it can take 360º photos, panoramic photos and streaming video in real time to the smartphone screen.
At the moment the official website of the manufacturer does not detail much more, and as I said before, I miss some important information such as; the types of memory that it brings, if it is internal, external or both, if it is expandable, or if an additional battery is included in the price.
Hover Camera Self-Selfie Drone
Here we have the second model of drone or “drone” for the self-selfie developed by the Chinese company Zero Zero Robotic and as a first impression, taking into account only the information on the characteristics, which by the way, is much more complete, it surpasses and easily compared to the previous ROAM Flying Selfies model.
Let's take a look at its features:
- Dimensions 182 x 132 x 32,5
- Weight 238 grams.
- Frame made of carbon fiber which makes it very resistant to shocks.
- It has four propeller motors that allow excellent stability in flight.
- It has two cameras, one front and one rear:
- The front camera is equipped to record video in 4k, and capture images with a resolution of up to 13 megapixels. All this, we can see it in real time on the smartphone screen.
- And the rear camera has a resolution of 3 megapixels, and a navigation system that allows you to control your height from the ground, your position and avoid objects that are in your way.
- It has a Wi-Fi connection to connect it to the smartphone, from which and through an app, you can individually control both the movements of the camera and the management for flight control.
- The app is available for both Android and iOS
- Supports 4G connection.
- Its battery life is only 8 minutes, so it will come equipped with a set of four interchangeable batteries.
- 801 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 2,3 quad-core processor. This processor is the same that we can find in some smartphone models such as; HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5 or Sony Xperia Z3 among others.
- Price 530 €
To be honest, the truth is that it surprises the performance and its technology but it has two drawbacks, which throw a lot back.
The battery life:
The poor battery life of only 8 minutes, and despite bringing a set of four units, it must be downright cumbersome to handle all these batteries. Being of such a short duration, it will always be necessary to carry all of them, and of course, with their full charge. Curiously, and despite publishing this problem, to date I have not found what is the charging time for the batteries. However, we can get an idea that it will not be less than one hour, which means that for 32 minutes of use (8 minutes x 4 batteries), no less than 4 hours of charging are needed.
High price
If you are a lover of photography, when you saw its price of € 530, surely a lot of cameras came to mind, which except for flying, have nothing to envy and are even superior, and all, for a price significantly lower.
However, we must consider the cost that the development of this toy has entailed, which has amounted to the surprising amount of 25 million dollars.
The creative company will do everything possible so that this drone is available throughout this summer 2016 to take advantage of the season where cameras are most used.
So nothing, if money is not your problem, you want to give yourself a real treat and you want to be among the first to buy a toy like this, you can subscribe on their website and be attentive to its commercial launch.
