Haye Kesteloo

AirSelfie introduces three new aerial cameras or drones at CES 2019. The company is known for the smallest, easiest, most portable drones unveiled three new aircraft at CES: the AIR 100, the AIR ZEN and the AIR DUO. The AIR 100 is the most affordable new drone, priced at $99.95. It features a 12MP camera and HD video. The AIR ZEN ($139.95) is the company’s first autonomous drone that flies without the need to connect to a smartphone. The third and perhaps the most interesting portable drone from AirSelfie is the AIR DUO ($229.95), a small portable drone that features two cameras. One 12MP FOV 80° and another 12MP FOV 120° camera. This way, you will always have the right lens available for whatever photo you’d like to take.

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Three weeks after the Gatwick fiasco, now Heathrow Airport halted departures and closed a runway after a possible drone sighting late Tuesday evening. About an hour later, the departures had resumed at Europe’s busiest airport. On Tuesday night, Britain’s transport secretary, Chris Grayling said that the military was ready to deploy the same military-grade counter-drone equipment that was used at Gatwick, “should it prove necessary.”

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One of the challenges with wide angles lenses is barrel distortion. The wider a lens gets, the more distortion becomes an issue. Some lenses are specifically designed to correct this distortion. These lenses are called rectilinear lenses and they stretch the objects in the image, especially towards the edges, to make them appear straight. These kinds of lenses are also called zero-distortion lenses. Canon and Nikon make them for regular cameras and so does Venus Optics. However, Venus Optics has now created a version of their popular Laowa 9mm lens for the Zenmuse X7 camera that can be mounted on the Inspire 2. It is called the Laowa 9mm f/2.8 DL Zero-D lens.

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State Farm is the first company in the U.S. that has been granted a waiver by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct drone operations over people (OOP) and flights beyond the pilot’s visual line of sight (BVLOS) for catastrophic assessments through November 2022. Previously, State Farm was only allowed to use drones for damage assessment for short periods in specific areas that were impacted by hurricanes.

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This morning DJI released their new DJI Smart Controller during CES 2019. Right after the official announcement at 9 am EST, the first reviews showed up on YouTube. At $649 the new DJI Smart Controller is not cheap by any means but the brighter screen will be very useful for many drone pilots. The price goes down to $400 when bought in combination with the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom or Pro drone.

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Right after we posted this article here, we received the official announcement from DJI about the new DJI Smart Controller. Here’s the entire official DJI announcement about the DJI Smart Controller. Attendees can find DJI in the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth #25602.

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Contrary to earlier reports, it seems that DJI is planning to launch the DJI ‘Pro’ Remote Controller at CES 2019. However, instead of calling it Pro, DJI has changed the name to DJI Smart Controller. Early this morning the promotional video of the DJI Smart Controller was released on YouTube. The video provides us with all the most important information about the new device.

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The ongoing partial U.S. Government shutdown is even effecting CES 2019. Some of the government speakers will not be able to make it to the consumer electronics show. Currently, it seems that about 10 speakers have cancelled but that the keynote from U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao will still take place on Wednesday at 11am.

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The last firmware update for the DJI Osmo Pocket was on December 12th, however, the software engineers at DJI must have been busy over the holiday season as there is a new firmware update today. V1.3.0.20 is the official version name of the new Osmo Pocket firmware update that was released today. It promises a number of new features but the ones that I’m most excited about are ‘optimized ActiveTrack’, ‘optimized focus’ and ‘improved auto white balance’.

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Yesterday, we wrote about a heavily customized DJI Mavic 2 Zoom drone that was outfitted with a FLIR Boson thermal camera. Today we have more details on the drone as well as pricing info and how to get one. Could this custom drone replace both a DJI Matrice 210 and Zenmuse XT2 and the DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual? It seems it very well could. Read on!

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Today these photos surfaced on Facebook. It is what seems to be a custom-made DJI Mavic 2 Zoom with a FLIR Boson thermal camera attached to it. One of the cameras apparently is the Boson 320 6,3 mm combined with the original optical zoom camera, according to the post on social media. For details and pricing, see here.

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A photographer with a massive lens was quick to capture an eagle attacking a DJI Mavic Air. Six spectacular photos show the ordeal as it took place in the air. The images were shared on Facebook and apparently, the eagle attacked the DJI Mavic Air three times before it finally got it.

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On January 12th, a new drone law will come into effect in Pennsylvania that aims to protect people’s privacy from drones. The ‘Unlawful Use of Unmanned Aircraft’ law will prohibit anyone from gathering aerial photos or footage of someone in a private place using a drone.

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In a White House press briefing on Monday, President Trump claimed that he knows “more about drones than anybody.” The self-proclaimed drone expert stressed that the country needs a physical barrier and that “everything else is bells and whistles.”

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As we reported last year, the NYPD had planned to use a tethered drone to help keep everybody safe during the famous ball drop at Times Square in New York during the New Year’s Eve celebrations. However, the rain, unfortunately, put a halt to those plans and no NYPD drone was deployed.

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The long-awaited DJI ‘Pro’ Remote Controller is likely delayed and might not be at CES 2019. The mystery remote controller for the DJI Mavic 2 that showed up in various official DJI photos and videos was rumored to make its debut at CES 2019. However, the latest information we just received, indicates that the remote controller will likely be delayed.

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The new year starts off with a movie, called The Drone. I guess it was inevitable that at some point a horror movie starring a drone would be made. Well, it is here. Perhaps a little sooner than most of us would have expected. In the movie, a DJI Phantom is possessed by a deranged serial killer and takes on a life of its own. The evil drone sets out to terrorize newlyweds Rachel (Alexandra Essoe) and Chris (John Brotherton).

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As 2018 comes to a close, we reviewed our most popular news stories of the last twelve months. We covered almost 1,200 drone news articles that reached millions of readers and gathered many millions of page views. It has been a very successful year for DroneDJ in which we were able to break a lot of stories and news to you. We are very excited for 2019 and are working on new ideas to bring you more drone news faster and over different channels.

As we end 2018, we wish you and your loved ones all the best for 2019. Here’s to happy (and safe) drone flying in the coming year! 🍾👍😀

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