Walkera's Voyager 4 has Zoom and can connect via 4G!

[MasterBlaster]

Wow, think about the possibilities with 4G....no more antenna mods!
And Zoom!
That will make some people uneasy
Walkera’s new superzoom camera drone can spot you a mile away


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[MPPilot]

Great! A drone that can actually do the things people have been accusing us of doing for years. More fuel for the fire. Personally, I got my P3P for the scenery grabbing wide angled shots produced, not as a spy cam. I can do that with my Nikon if that is what I wanted.

 

[Meta4]

And Zoom!
That will make some people uneasy
Walkera’s new superzoom camera drone can spot you a mile away

Talk about hype.
While the Gizmag piece is saying this lens has superzoom ability "with a 16x optical zoom that gives you the equivalent of a 10-1500mm lens."
Anyone spot the obvious problem with their arithmetic?
Gizmag goes on to suggest it is an amazing spy device " there's also privacy implications, because a superzoom drone can presumably map every pimple on your backside from a few blocks away, which is far enough that you can't hear it flying"

But looking at the promotional video from Walkera it's obvious that Gizmag has it wrong and the lens looks to have a max magnification about equivalent to a 150mm lens rather than 1500mm.
See for yourself here .. demo from 26-40 seconds in this video: Walkera - Walkera VOYEGER4 16x optical zoom

In 35mm photography a 150mm lens is not something you would use for spying.
It's a very mild telephoto and more of a portrait lens than a spy machine.
Reading between the lines, it also looks like it's an 8x optical zoom with 2x digital zoom.

Yes a zoom lens is interesting and useful but contrary to the hype, this one is not suitable for spying.
No mention of how big the sensor is, which is what really matters to photographers wanting a better aerial camera.

 

[MasterBlaster]

To be honest, I'm more interested in the 4G.
Then I can just focus on battery mods


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[Ptr]

Lily Karma Voyager4 all princes to the throne, the H was the new best kid on the block & seriously considered, now the word redundancy comes to mind, thanks for posting & please don't get me wrong I'm not trying to take a pop @ U, yes u have to look out the rear view mirror to see what's coming [emoji102], unless somebody shows me something I've missed the phantom ( lightbridge ) series rocks all, on a lighter note I'll walkera on sorry walk, 2:06 thru 2:12 I love these words

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[FASTFJR]

Wow, think about the possibilities with 4G....no more antenna mods!
And Zoom!
That will make some people uneasy
Walkera’s new superzoom camera drone can spot you a mile away


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Everything they have produced in the last few years has been junk!

 

[richwoodrocket]

Flying over 4g will eat up your data pretty quickly. Interesting to see how it works, if it has its own SIM card.


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[MasterBlaster]

I agree. They have always been more like toys to me. Like I said, I am more interested in the 4g and seeing how that pans out. If it is something that works well I am sure others will look into it as well. I just fear the FAA or others would squash it. Competition is good. It will continue to drive the manufacturers to incorporate the latest technology into their quads.



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[Ptr]

The sum of the parts is the equation, I agree also

 

[MasterBlaster]

I found a video with a short review of the Voyager 4
The props are huge on this thing!
Although they don't talk about the 4G, they do go over the zoom, which doesn't look to bad

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[MasterBlaster]

Is the sensor any good on this?
Here is what they say it has -

 

[Meta4]

Is the sensor any good on this?
Here is what they say it has -
View attachment 60485

Just another tiny 1/2.8 (6.40 mm diagonal size) sensor

 

[ftttu]

When I think of how a pro-sumer drone should be, I think of something like this. It looks like it is robust in design and isn't toyish like the Yuneec products. Again, I'm not caring about retractable landing gear and a zoom camera, but I still would cry if I had them. I know "Phantom" for DJI has a certain "look" that will probably be repeated in future models, but if they went this way with the Phantom line, I probably wouldn't be looking at other makes.

I don't know anything about Walkera, and I hope they compete head to head with DJI so most of the complaining on this forum will be about first world problems like unhappiness with the bird's color or something similar.