Venus Optics has released two new wide-angle Laowa lenses for DJI drones. Both lenses are super-compact and lightweight but promise sharp image quality and well-controlled distortion performance for extraordinary wide drone shots.
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The NASCAR dirt track race on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway marked the first time drivers were allowed to pick a lane on a dirt restart. And giving a rather high-tech twist to the whole process was a drone hovering above the racing surface, carrying a bright orange LED marker to indicate the “choose” area.
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Named the best international short ski film of 2021 at High Five Ski Film Festival, FLOW captures world-class freeride skier Sam Favret’s recent adventures (on empty slopes, no less!) amid COVID-19 lockdowns. The mind-blowing film is made 100% from aerial footage – using FPV drones, DJI Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X7, and DJI Mavic 2 Pro. It showcases the majestic beauty and high-intensity action of skiing Europe’s famed Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in such a grand manner that you simply must take out a few minutes to watch it now.
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We know that the DJI Inspire line is well due for a refresh. The Inspire 2 drone has had a great run, and a lot of cinematographers consider it as an iconic device, offering plenty in terms of value. But it looks like the Inspire 2 is being officially discontinued to make way for the Inspire 3.
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Take a moment and grab a cup of coffee or whatever you like to drink. Find yourself a comfortable spot to sit. We’re going to take you on a tour, with some of the best drone video production we have ever seen.
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We recently highlighted a video that caught our attention. It was post-processed to give it a tilt-shift appearance. As a result, another drone tilt-shift video came to our attention that further elevates the tilt-shift effect. And, trust us, it’s worth a minute or two of your time.
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Man, the leaks just don’t stop. Nor, apparently, does DJI’s ability to create a stream of new products. There’s word – and a photo – today that Zoom lenses are coming for the X7 system.
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DJI’s Inspire 2 is one of the most popular drones around when it comes to aerial cinematography. So why can’t you buy one? Good question.
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Drone footage is becoming increasingly popular all around the world. With all the different drones available, I want to go over a few reasons why the DJI Inspire 2 is superior to many other models on the market today for professional photography and cinematography.
The DJI Inspire 2 is still one of the leading commercial drones today for aerial cinematography. While other larger drones are around that can fly bigger payloads, the Inspire 2 provides a more versatile filming experience.
We’re waiting for DJI to release their latest update for the number of people that have been rescued around the world with the help of drones. That number must be getting close to 300 hundred now. It was 279 during the DJI Airworks event that took place in October in Los Angeles. This story was shared by Romeo Durscher, DJI’s Senior Director of Public Safety Integration, and it is about an 84-year-old man who had been lost for more than 48 hours but luckily was found with help of a DJI Inspire 2 drone (DJI, Amazon). As the fall season in Estonia tends to get pretty cold, we are happy to report that the gentleman is safely back home now.
DJI also released a new firmware update for the DJI Inspire 2. This latest firmware update enable the Inspire 2 to work with the DJI Multilink that was released on January 21st. It can be used as a master or slave controller in the master-slave controller network. Let us know what your experience has been flying the Inspire 2 with the Multilink setup. Keep in mind that updating the firmware on the DJI Inspire 2 can take quite some time. Probably best not to do it right before a job.
A few months ago we saw the first photos of the DJI Multilink in Amsterdam. Now the Chinese drone maker issued a statement, officially announcing the DJI Multilink for the Inspire 2 Cendence controllers. The DJI Multilink retails for $99 and there is a combo of three DJI Multilinks that sells for $282. It is available starting right now. See below for more details.
Late last year the first reports surfaced of drones unexpectedly falling out of the sky in the UK. Affected drones were from the Matrice and Inspire series. DJI issued an official statement and started an investigation into the issue. The Chinese drone maker subsequently released two different firmware updates to tackle the issue and now concludes the TB55 battery investigation, saying that the most recent firmware update resolved the problem. See below for DJI’s official statement.
If you want to fly your drone over crowds of people, you need a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The first such waiver was awarded to CNN using the Snap Drone from Vantage Robotics. Indemnis started working with DJI in 2017 to develop a parachute system for DJI drones so that flights over people might be allowed by the FAA. Today, Indemnis and DJI announced that the Indemnis Nexus parachute system for the DJI Inspire 2 drone has been validated as compliant with the new international standard for drone parachutes. The company hopes to be able to offer parachute systems for the Matrice 200 series and Matrice 600 series drones by late 2019.
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.
One of our readers just notified us that the DJI Inspire 2 Cinema Premium Combo is no longer available online. I have checked a number of countries around the world and it seems that it is no longer available anywhere. Even a Dutch DJI retailer lists the product as “temporarily not available.” We do not think this is an indication that an Inspire 3 is around the corner, although we sure do wish it is. However, we do wonder if this is related to the supplier issue mentioned by DJI that caused the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 to be out of stock for more than 5 weeks now.
DJI resolves battery issue for the Inspire 2 with their latest firmware update (v01.02.0300) for the drone as well as the controller. The firmware update promises to address the battery issue for the Inspire 2, we reported on earlier. It also contains a number of other bug fixes, such as “the X7’s inability to hold a straight horizon”. See below for more details.
Earlier this week, official DJI retailer, Heliguy in partnership with DJI, organized the Emergency Services Roadshow. During this event in the UK, the Chinese drone maker provided an update to the battery problem that affects some of the DJI Matrice 200 and Inspire 2 drones. The batteries that are impacted are the TB50 and the TB55 series, as we reported before.
Now here’s a photo you don’t see every day. A DJI Inspire 2 with all the Zenmuse X5s lenses on display. Interestingly, DJI does not even include all these lenses on their website. They just say that “more compatible lenses will be available.” Which seems to be a message that needs to be updated. Including the Panasonic 14-42mm and 45-175mm lenses.
The DJI Inspire 2 is an aerial cinematographers dream drone with its seemingly endless versatility in the air and unmatched performance. My drone of choice has been the Phantom 4 Pro for the past 2 years but since upgrading to the Inspire series I haven’t looked back. The Inspire 2 aircraft is sold separately from the various cameras DJI sells so while I won’t be showcasing any footage today, I certainly will be focusing on what makes this one of the most powerful drones DJI has produced.
Avid drone flyers often times buy their aircraft depending on the transmission system it operates on. Depending on your needs, this could be the first thing you worry about or the last. Being one of the largest drone companies, DJI uses a range of proprietary transmission systems and it’s incredibly important to know the differences between them. Let’s go over a quick summary.
Yesterday and today two new drone videos were posted on YouTube, that show the Apple’s head offices being cleaned and prepped ahead of this year’s WWDC 2018. The first video was shot by Duncan Sinfield with the DJI Inspire 2 and the Zenmuse X7 camera and the second video was shot by Matthew Roberts, who used a Phantom 4 Pro to capture the spaceship-like building. Surprisingly it is still possible to fly your drone over Apple’s office building, in Cupertino, California, after a DJI Phantom 4 crashed on top of the roof back in February.
Earlier today DJI posted a video on YouTube that shows you the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of the Amazon Prime Original series “You Are Wanted” and how DJI’s technology is used. The crew uses the DJI Inspire 2 drone with a Zenmuse X7 camera and the DJI Ronin 2 camera gimbal to achieve creative and surprising shots that otherwise would have been much more difficult to capture. The video is in German but if you activate the English subtitles it will be quite easy to follow.
