Skydio 2 is here!!!

[Rehab1]

1 hour ago, travsformation said:

Thanks! That's a good point you bring up, might write to them asking if (as a US resident) I'd have any issues with it when I travel to Europe for my...table tennis tournament?

I just sent Skydio a message relating to your question. They usually respond in 48 hours. 
 

 

[Unventor]

2 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

I just sent Skydio a message relating to your question. They usually respond in 48 hours. 
 

 

I know most things are bigger in the US.... but still across the pond?

[travsformation]

14 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

I just sent Skydio a message relating to your question. They usually respond in 48 hours. 

Wow, thanks!

[Rehab1]

On 12/15/2019 at 7:34 AM, travsformation said:

Wow, thanks!

Here you go. No restrictions.

 

[Joker10]

Wish this was out when I rode motocross. 

[travsformation]

On 12/17/2019 at 2:08 AM, Rehab1 said:

Here you go. No restrictions.

Wow, great news!

I've been checking out tons of videos lately on auto tracking and obstacle avoidance and the Skydio 2 really does blow the DJI Mavic Air out of the sky, it's not even a competition.

If it doesn't have to do with EU regulations / restrictions, I wonder what has motivated their choice not to sell it outside the US...

[Rehab1]

1 hour ago, travsformation said:

I wonder what has motivated their choice not to sell it outside the US...

They are a small US company that wanted to keep their new technology close to home while maintaining  excellent customer support and service. 
 

If you have a chance to watch the video in my previous post I believe the CEO touches on that subject. 

[travsformation]

1 hour ago, Rehab1 said:

They are a small US company that wanted to keep their new technology close to home while maintaining  excellent customer support and service. 
 

If you have a chance to watch the video in my previous post I believe the CEO touches on that subject. 

I hadn't seen the video & just now checked it out. I like their approach.

Unfortunately, Spain and other EU countries can be real sticklers with regulations...no CE certification could be an issue...It's also not ideal to have no customer support/repairs, etc. outside the US 

I'm not in a hurry though. The winters here where I live are really windy, so between now and spring, who know...if Skydio2 isn't an option, maye by then DJI will have upped their game in AI in view of the competition...

In any case, I appreciate you looking into that for me!

Edited December 18, 2019 by travsformation

[Rehab1]

Finally!

 

[travsformation]

2 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

Finally!

 

Niiice! Looking forward to seeing your footage!

[Rehab1]

9 hours ago, travsformation said:

Niiice! Looking forward to seeing your footage!

You mean my winter footage. Last year I received the Skydio R1around this same time.  Skydio corporate in California must think we all live in a perfect year round climate.

[Circuitmage]

I was following up on drones over the holiday break...spent about 3 days looking at different drone specs, watching youtube videos, and seeing what's out there.

It looks like there are 3 main groups;

1) Cheap drones and knock offs, anywhere from $30 to $250. These are still quite amazing as I ended up picking one up for less than $100 to try out, with an extra battery and carrying case. It's a Mav Mini knock off, but has impressive specs, with 2 cameras, GPS and lots of SW functions. If it doesn't work out....no huge loss. A short range drone only good for a couple hundred meters.

2) The "average" consume drones. These appear to range from $250 to $10,000. Lots of good options with amazing video quality. From what I can tell, the upper end of this market consists of racing drones, experimental kits, and an array of optional hardware like FPV goggles, transmitters, motors, etc...looks like that starts adding up fast. Not sure I will get into that, but the racing drones are amazing.

3) High end drones for video production/other applications. These range from $2,000 to $250,000. How do I know the top end? I know someone that works for a private video production company and his boss is one of the few people that they spent $250K on a drone to carry their camera (~$100K camera). These appear to be heavy duty lifting drones with gimbals that produce top end smooth video.

It's pretty amazing what's being done with them now...and to be able to get a GPS drone for less than $100....looks like it should be a fun toy.

[scap]

looks awesome I just reserved one. Maybe I will be able to make some EUC videos now. Also if it ends up not living up to the hype I can just cancel the reservation and get my money back. No downside to putting in the deposit. 

[Circuitmage]

After a month of shipping from China (Ordered around 12/28), my SG907 4k came in this week. I must say I am impressed. The sensation of monitoring the camera as you are flying is pretty cool. The unit connected to 13 sat's in a minute or so, and seemed to work great.

I took it out immediately in 10-20mph winds and it held position! The camera is great (remember all the youtube footage you see is compressed and looks horrible). 

Winds are going to be down to 2 mph tomorrow, that will be my first full run on the 2 batteries I have; aprox 35 mins of fly time!

And, I've started looking at racing drone kits that are out now....there are some actually very good RTF (Ready to Fly) kits for $150-$250. Looking at the TinyHawk kit, Eachine Novice 3, or Emax Ez...not sure. If anyone has suggestions...I'm not going to be competitive, and really like the TinyHawk and Emax prop guards, they look durable.

 

[mango_fpv]

Hi!

Congrats on your drone adventure...A drone racer is how to really fly

[maltocs]

I just posted my first public video using the skydio and here are some of my impressions. 

Great drone for selfies, self as in ONE person in the shot. It's basically a follow me drone. You pick the clock position and the height. You can pick the clock position based on the direction of travel or compass position. Then you can do some one-off shots like dronie (up up and away and back) or rocket (straight up) or vortex or some others.

On the most part, you still have to actively play director and put the drone in the correct clock position based on how you want your shot with obstacles and backgrounds. Although it does a great job in subject tracking, it does seem to lose me quite a bit especially when I ride behind a group of trees. I'm talking a thick wall-like group of leafy trees. It does fine with just one tree or naked leafless trees or just the tree trunk. When it loses you, it defaults to GPS tracking until it can find you in the frame and continues to visual track. That can sometimes take a while.

The nice thing is you can do most of these functions with the beacon. There are buttons for altitude, distance, and clock position. you can also double tap for a dronie. You can even push the "skydio button" and just use it like a nintendo wand to point in the direction of where you want it to go.

A few days after I got it, I did my first test solo test run:

Here's 20 min per battery times two batteries in triple speed. I went under tunnels, went on a so cal river bike path, dirt trails, and even a lake. At the start of the 2nd battery, turned it on, set it down, rode across the park behind a large group of trees, THEN launched it and told it to follow me. It took a while to succeed in my game of hide and seek, but it found me. In the end, i felt it did pretty good.

Yesterday, I did ,my first group ride in the mountains:

I kinda did the same thing incorporating dronies and rocket mode. I tried to get the whole group with the with the beautiful views behind us. This was very difficult. The main problem is it won't go very far in tracking modes. Not far enough to get the entire group in the frame with the beautiful backgrounds to our side.  You'll notice most of the group shots are from behind or dronies. As beautiful as the views are in video, it's nothing compared to the actual ride. That being said, with two x 20min of flight time constantly recording with a few one-off cinematic shots, you're bound to get enough really good content. However, if there was ONE view or one attraction that was a MUST GET shot, you'd have to plan it properly to get what you want in the view because the only way to get the drone far enough to get the shot is to do the dronie or manually control the drone from the phone (I didn't buy the controller). You'd have to time the dronie just right. Manually controlling the drone for a shot is almost not an option. it's not that easy to control as the screen move buttons are NOT MULTI-TOUCH and to tilt the camera or move it around, you are swiping the screen. Basically manual mode is just to move the drone to where you want it to be. 

*EDIT screen move IS multitouch, but you still can't pan the camera while moving the drone

Because of this, TRUE cinematographers will still go to DJI as they need control of their shot. The range on DJI's occusync is FAR SUPERIOR. More often than not, I lose contact with the skydio on a dronie. It's not a real problem, as it will float back to me and during the floatback, it will regain contact, but the first few times freaked me out. I can send my Mavic Pro over a mile away in the city (with line of sight) and I will still have visual and control functions. Sometimes I lose the Skydio a hundred feet away, no kidding.

But I am not a true cinematographer. I will fully admit I'm not skilled enough to manually pilot a drone... sideways or backwards, while simultaneously pivot the camera on the shot and not run into a tree at the same time.

When I  need a drone, I will pull the Skydio out 95% of the time now. 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by maltocs

[Rehab1]

39 minutes ago, maltocs said:

just posted my first public video using the skydio and here are some of my impressions. 

Great review and advice!  Thanks! Wonderful that you’ve acquired that precious time necessary to experiment with Skydio and learn about it’s idiosyncrasies. 

Unfortunately I have only flown mine once following my wheel. I’m currently a homebody until my wife has her surgery.

Hopefully we can complement each other’s experiences in the near future. 

[maltocs]

6 minutes ago, Rehab1 said:

Great review and advice!  Thanks! Wonderful that you’ve acquired that precious time necessary to experiment with Skydio and learn about it’s idiosyncrasies. 

Unfortunately I have only flown mine once following my wheel. I’m currently a homebody until my wife has her surgery.

Hopefully we can complement each other’s experiences in the near future. 

best wishes for her speedy recovery!

[travsformation]

2 hours ago, Rehab1 said:

 I’m currently a homebody until my wife has her surgery.

That explains the addition of flame-throwers to your synthabeam

When's her surgery due?

[Rehab1]

3 hours ago, maltocs said:

best wishes for her speedy recovery!

Thanks!

44 minutes ago, travsformation said:

That explains the addition of flame-throwers to your synthabeam

When's her surgery due?

7am this Wednesday. 

[Circuitmage]

@maltocs Wow, that footage still looks amazing.

I just upgraded my first drone , now using a Hubsan Zino Pro. Follow me mode is still a bit touch and go, but I will be happy to get 1 or 2 videos of me on my EUC.

How are you editing your videos?

I've been looking at about a dozen apps for my Android phone to edit video. PowerDirector is awesome, but right now I don't want to spend $50 a year to edit videos. Most of the other apps either are not stable, underfeatured (too simple), or just don't work right. I really like PowerDirector, so hoping for find some similar fearture app, without watermark (or not as expensive). I really want to be able to edit on my phone as I already tried that with a couple small videos and it works great.

I did find YouCut to be VERY GOOD. No watermarks, free, and has some extra features (like free music overlay). It does NOT have transitions, but it does have effects you can use as transitions. 

And, FilmoraGo looks really good. For less than $4 you can get rid of the watermark, and it has lots of nice features.

Those are the 2 I am going to be using for my next videos.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Circuitmage

[.....]

I am SO close to pulling the trigger on one of these. SO damn expensive, but seems so damn cool. I merely wonder how many minutes I could fly one and it stay in one piece? Does the Skydio2 typically follow at a distance that is higher than the roof of an SUV? My 'riding area' seems narrow and has vehicles coming the other way at times. I wonder if the skydio would know to stay above roof line height if an suv comes at it around 40mph. If the skydio is traveling nearly 30mph and a vehicle 40mph, thats a fast combined speed. Even more important, if a skydio was filming me and got hit from behind, would I even get some badass footage of it? Paying to replace a drone, a windshield and some bodywork, along with repaint, would hurt even more if there wasnt any damn footage of the explosion.

Are you guys finding customer service with skydio to be superb? Over the top customer service would make it a little easier to accept the expense. Skydio being a usa company helps, but dang thats some pricey tech for a pitifully small  non-profit youtube channel.

@Circuitmage I use power director and purchased it outright. I don't go for the monthly BS software rental stuff. Leaves me limited in choices, but there still is a few. I am actually waiting for my update discs for PD atm, since my net wont allow me download the program. Sucks tho, I've been waiting 6 months now and the closest they have gotten is to send me a pair of dvd's that are unreadable.   By the time I get my upgrade installed, theyll prolly have another new version.

Edited August 7, 2021 by ShanesPlanet

[The Fat Unicyclist]

38 minutes ago, ShanesPlanet said:

I am SO close to pulling the trigger on one of these. SO damn expensive, but seems so damn cool. I merely wonder how many minutes I could fly one and it stay in one piece?

But surely with a set of Shane's Skydio Pads, it would be protected?

Our would you prefer a Roll.nz Skydio Bodyguard?

[.....]

On 8/7/2021 at 1:46 AM, The Fat Unicyclist said:

But surely with a set of Shane's Skydio Pads, it would be protected?

Our would you prefer a Roll.nz Skydio Bodyguard?

I've a skydio2 otw. You getting that rollNZ protector ready for me? I'm taking bets as to how many minutes of film I get, before it becomes a pile of plasitc bits. My guess is: less footage than itll take to fill one small sd card....

[Circuitmage]

Nice. I have not done drone stuff in months...need to dust off my drones.