Haye Kesteloo

Last day! E-commerce giant kicked off Amazon Prime Day with some of the best DJI deals on products such as the Mavic Air, Ryze Tello, Goggles RE, Ronin-S, Osmo Action, and Osmo Pocket camera. Some of the biggest savings are on the DJI Mavic Air ($120 off), an ultra pocketable 4K DJI drone, or the Ronin-S ($100 off). See below for all the details, pricing, and links to the DJI products.

There are about 175 hours left to take advantage of these and other deals on Amazon.

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DJI Osmo Pocket Waterproof case and other accessories are now available at the official DJI online store. The DJI Osmo Pocket was first introduced late last year, and many accessories were shown and promised at the launch event in New York City. However, it has taken more than a half year for DJI to bring these items to market. We can only guess why there has been such a delay, as many of these add-on products are necessary to get the most out of the DJI Osmo Pocket.

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Yesterday we reported that DJI is rumored to bring back the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 in mid-October. Today we’ve learned that Skydio will also bring a new drone to market around the same time. A successor to the Skydio R1 drone that we think might compete directly with the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. Let’s take a closer look at what we think Skydio might have in store for us and if it might indeed compete with the DJI Mavic 2 Pro.

Updated with message from Skydio

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It seems that DJI is finally getting a break from concerns that various government agencies have expressed about the security of the data captured by DJI’s drones. After an independent 15-month testing program that included thousands of drone flights with models such as the DJI Mavic Pro and DJI Matrice 600 Pro, the Department of the Interior (DoI) has validated and approved the DJI Government Edition.

When the DoI started testing in April 2018, the newer Mavic 2 Pro, Zoom and Enterprise Edition had not yet hit the market, so were not included in the test. DJI told DroneDJ that testing has not yet started on the newer Mavic 2 drones, as the Mavic Pro and Matrice 600 tests have just been finished.

See DJI’s press statement below for all the details.

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Here’s something new for your drone: Have you heard of anamorphic lenses? Moment is introducing a new product line called Moment Air. It includes an anamorphic lens for your DJI Mavic 2, ND and CPL filters, and an ultra-thin photo case for your phone that fits in your DJI Remote Controller and allows you to mount an anamorphic lens as well. Anamorphic lenses create a wide, cinematic view with horizontal flare. Check out some of the videos below to see what I mean — it’s very cool. Moment is launching their new products on Kickstarter.

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According to experts, the reported drone sighting that shut down East Midlands Airport for about an hour might have been a bird. The police are still investigating reports of a drone sighting at the airport on Wednesday morning. Police said that ‘the movement’ of the unknown object suggested it might have been a drone, however one expert said it was “extremely unlikely” that a drone would have been able to fly so close to the airport.

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It took a bit of a workaround to hide my ass before I was able to watch the BBC Two documentary Britain’s Next Air Disaster? Drones. The hourlong documentary is presented by former Royal Marine commando, sniper, and now self-proclaimed high-risk adviser Aldo Kane. The term documentary is a bit of a misnomer in this case, as the short film tries to instill a fear of drones among its viewers. Rather than looking at all the ways in which drones can benefit our society, it focuses almost exclusively on how drones can disrupt air traffic at airports, severely damage airplanes in a collision, how terrorists might use drones to attack innocent civilians, and how little we can do to protect ourselves from these unmanned aircraft. Not much time is spent on how drones have saved people’s lives during search-and-rescue missions, aided firefighters (Notre Dame), restored communication networks, helped assess damage after natural disasters and wildfires, and delivered life-saving medication and in the future possibly organs to people in need. Instead, the documentary, produced by Horizon, paints a very negative and one-sided story about drones and how they might impact our society.

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A drone video shows the partially burning remains of what used to be a Jim Beam warehouse filled with 45,000 barrels of bourbon at its distillery in Woodford County, Kentucky. The massive fire occurred on Wednesday. It was so hot that it melted the lights on the fire trucks, first responders said.

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According to an article on Bloomberg, Amazon wants to hire more than 2,000 workers in the UK for its latest technology ventures. Amazon is reportedly looking to hire software developers, engineers, and data scientists, 170 of whom will be employed in development centers in London, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. They will be focused on developing technology for Alexa, Prime Air drone deliveries, and video service.

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During a drone demonstration by local fire and police departments in Ohio, a demo flight turned into a real search and rescue operation when a father asked Fire Chief Brian Miller and Police Cpl. Justin Alloway to help locate his nine-year-old daughter. It all happened during the Fourth Friday event last week in Westerville when thousands of people crowd the streets of the Ohio town. Hannah, the missing girl, had walked ahead of her family and the father couldn’t find her anymore. Luckily, the DJI M210 drone located the girl within minutes and reunited the family. Drones for good!

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Shenzhen we have a problem! Currently, professional videographers, drone mappers and serious hobbyist pilots cannot buy a new DJI Phantom 4 Pro. DJI has stopped the production and discontinued the Phantom series. See their website and listen to Romeo Durscher. At the same time, the Chinese drone maker also informed us that all new drones over 250 grams from January 2020 onwards will have ADS-B receiving capability built-in (great news!), however, this implies that we are almost certainly not going to see any new drones from DJI at all this year. This puts many drone pilots in a tough situation. May we, therefore, suggest to DJI to start up the production of the DJI Phantom 4 Pro again to carry us through to the next year.

Please vote in our poll below if you support this and let us know in the comments below how not being able to buy a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone is affecting your business or hobby right now. Thank you.

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Photographer and drone enthusiast Dan Watson flew his DJI Mavic 2 Pro during a family outing to the beach last week. As he was getting ready to get some aerial shots of his family playing around in the ocean, he noticed a dark shadow in the water. Dan instantly realized that the dark shadow was likely a shark approaching his family and he shouted for them to get out of the water immediately. While his they ran for safety, he kept firing shots with his DJI Mavic 2 Pro, which he later shared on Instagram.

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We knew it was coming and now we know when. The FAA announced that Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) would arrive sometime later this summer. However last week, during one of the FAA webinars it was made public that LAANC would be available to hobbyist drone pilots as of July 23rd.

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Ten of tips on how to shoot amazing drone photos with your DJI Mavic 2 Pro, and even the DJI Mavic Pro from Dutch, award-winning photographer Albert Dros. If you haven’t seen his work yet, go grab a cup of coffee and take a few minutes to see these photos and learn more about how he uses his DJI Mavic 2 Pro to create these stunning images.

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A Canadian drone company just finished testing if it was possible to deliver an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) faster by drone than by ambulance. And the answer is, yes. Drone Delivery Canada showed that a drone can deliver an AED faster than traditional transportation can. Every time they simulated an emergency situation, the drone arrived on site ahead of the response team in the ambulance.

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