Most wanted feature

macoman · Oct 1, 2017

I would love to see in the future DJI adding zoom in capability to their drones like the walkera voyager 4 who have 18x zoom in. I saw a video about and it’s just mind blowing. I hope DJI takes notes about it for future products.

Sagebrush · Oct 1, 2017

Doesn't the Phantom 4 have a digital zoom?

macoman · Oct 1, 2017

Sagebrush said:
Doesn't the Phantom 4 have a digital zoom?

Don’t know... I have a phantom 3 standard.

Sagebrush · Oct 1, 2017

macoman · Oct 1, 2017

2x digital zoom is nothing compared to the voyager 4 18x. I don’t like walkera but 18x zoom in is sick!

With The Birds · Oct 1, 2017

macoman said:
I would love to see in the future DJI adding zoom in capability to their drones like the walkera voyager 4 who have 18x zoom in. I saw a video about and it’s just mind blowing. I hope DJI takes notes about it for future products.

Agreed it would be nice, all possible hiwever the challenges are principally weight and the requirement for a much better gimble stabalisation given the magnification- I think the walkers is close to $20K....

anotherlab · Oct 1, 2017

The Walkera Voyager 4 has a 18x optical zoom, but it's not competing with the Phantoms. Not at a price at around $4700 US. That's competing with the Inspire and Zenmuse cameras. While they don't have an 18x zoom, you have a choice of lens and a much better sensor.

You also have to know that "18x" doesn't mean "super zoom". It just means that the maximum focal length is more or less 18 times the minimum focal length. Which for the Voyager 4, means 6.7mm to 134mm. It uses a 1/2.3" Sony sensor, much smaller than the 1" sensor in a Phantom 4 Pro or the Micro 4/3 from the Zenmuse. With a tiny sensor, that lens will seem like a large zoom, but it will be noisier than the Phantom sensors.

With The Birds · Oct 1, 2017

anotherlab said:
The Walkera Voyager 4 has a 18x optical zoom, but it's not competing with the Phantoms. Not at a price at around $4700 US. That's competing with the Inspire and Zenmuse cameras. While they don't have an 18x zoom, you have a choice of lens and a much better sensor.

You also have to know that "18x" doesn't mean "super zoom". It just means that the maximum focal length is more or less 18 times the minimum focal length. Which for the Voyager 4, means 6.7mm to 134mm. It uses a 1/2.3" Sony sensor, much smaller than the 1" sensor in a Phantom 4 Pro or the Micro 4/3 from the Zenmuse. With a tiny sensor, that lens will seem like a large zoom, but it will be noisier than the Phantom sensors.

I’d say It’s fair to call this a suoerzoom, anything over 10 times qualifies- with a 35mm equip focal length exceeding 700mm the image stabilisation must be pretty fancy. What is really interesting is that it allows flight over 4G. Probably not a huge seller however, not if your pricing is correct. List price is $16000USD on Walkera website.

macoman · Oct 2, 2017

Wow that's an insane price... Hopefully these lens will drop in price and can be add to a modest price for regular consumer drones. It will probably take years for that to happen.

anotherlab · Oct 2, 2017

With The Birds said:
I’d say It’s fair to call this a suoerzoom, anything over 10 times qualifies- with a 35mm equip focal length exceeding 700mm the image stabilisation must be pretty fancy. What is really interesting is that it allows flight over 4G. Probably not a huge seller however, not if your pricing is correct. List price is $16000USD on Walkera website.

I took the price from Amazon, it's listed for $4699 USD and being sold by Walkera. Yes, it's a 35mm equivalent of 700mm, but it's going to a tiny sensor. That's going to have a real impact on image quality. If you going to spend that amount of money on an aerial platform, I think you would want a better sensor.

With The Birds · Oct 2, 2017

And there is the real issue- we have real compromises to consider in a flying platform. My canon 100 to 400 zoom weighs close to 1.5 kg, the 500mm prime is 4kg (lens only). For someone who needs a high magnification zoom in the air the only practical option is to reduce size and especially weight, smaller sensors become a necessity. As to quality I still have some great images from the phantom 3 (1/2.3 sensor). My full frame gear pulls the pants down in it yes but I can’t get it in the air.