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DJI Phantom 4 looks great and is clearly streamlined

It's one thing to create a flying camera. In that location are now dozens of drones with all mode of cameras for recording flights and chronicling events. However, despite having cameras — and other sensors — consumer-grade drones haven't much employ of vision to help them with navigation. DJI is changing all that with its new DJI Phantom 4. It does on-board vision processing to back up collision abstention, smart return to abode, and even automated discipline tracking. For those worried virtually crashing their expensive investment, the Phantom 4 makes that less probable than ever before.

Automated subject tracking

A simple tap of the brandish is used to lock the Phantom four onto your subject field. The drone will then track that subject, even if it twists and turns. This should allow some dandy footage of extreme sports or other hard-to-follow activities. This type of object recognition and tracking is common in very-loftier-stop drones — similar those used by the military — but it is novel to have information technology operating in real fourth dimension in a consumer-level (well, okay, high-end consumer level) unit. If the unit does land hard, its magnesium underbody should help information technology weather the daze. Its obstacle sensing capability is rated to piece of work from about 2 to 50 feet — every bit long equally it has at to the lowest degree fifteen lux of illumination to work with.

You can fly with the Phantom 4 Remote Control or use TapFlyThe Phantom 4 as well features an updated propulsion system and a larger battery, extending its flight time to 28 minutes (an increase of about 25% over the Phantom iii Pro). This will make those using one for long-range flights, or in windy conditions, breathe a little easier. A new Sport Mode enables higher-performance flying than before, fabricated possible past a redesign of the drone itself — an integrated gimbal, and new bombardment and motor locations — and an improved flight control system. In Sport Mode the Phantom 4 can achieve speeds of up to about 44 mph, similar to that of the new HEXO+ model nosotros looked at before this year.

For those desiring a simple interface for flying the Phantom 4, it includes TapFly — a touch-based control mode. In that way you lot simply tap a location on the display and the drone volition program a route and fly there — while avoiding obstacles. DJI specs a control range of upward to iii.one miles for the Lightbridge used with the Phantom 4.

Yes, it has a sweet camera, also

The Phantom 4 is chock full of sensors in addition to the main cameraThe congenital-in camera on the Phantom iv has a 1/ii.3-inch sensor that can record 4K video at 30fps, or 1080p at upward to 120fps, for practiced-looking dull-move scenes. DJI says the new model's 20mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.viii lens is also a major upgrade, and will provide sharper images than previous models.

Professional videographers will appreciate that there is a pick of video profiles including D-Log and Cine-D. Pro photographers will appreciate the drone'southward ability to capture RAW images (in DNG format) at up to 12MP, in addition to JPEG format, JPEG HDR, and time lapse images. The camera features an integrated iii-axis gimbal that looks streamlined compared with many others on the market. Images are stored on a microSD card, with cards up to 64GB supported.

The Phantom 4 also supports DJI's SDK, and so developers can work to add their own software and hardware functionality. The product is wait to ship in belatedly March, with a street price of $1,400.