New Auto Follow Water Proof Camera Drone..

[Mike Serra]

I can see a lot of fun uses for this. https://www.lily.camera

 

[ncnmra]

I saw this a few months ago, but I'm not sure if its not a crowd funding pipe dream, as I haven't seen anything new on the topic

 

[Mainah]

Would love to see something this simple take great video and come to the market soon. Reality is still a bit off. The waterproof and floating part have yet to be demonstrated and I think it will be a very difficult task. It would seem based on their own updates that they are a long way off from a final product hitting the streets and their product video was likley creatively shot and edited prior to them fully developing many of the features. Not to mention the aerial shots the video would have you assume was from their drone likey were not.

The biggest thing lacking in their design is a gimbal. DJI and Airdog and others all have gimbals for a reason. For now I think DJI is king of the prosumer drones and will not be dethroned anytime soon.

Check out the DJI Phantom 4 if you want most of this functionality right now from a well established benchmark brand. Sorry not waterproof or floating but that is going to be a tough nut to crack for any high quailty drone that you may need to replace parts on. It will auto follow a suject and has a return home feature. Airdog may be another to check out but they are relatively new to the market.

 

[Ronnie]

I bought in early, they are based in my area and I get an occasional status report via email. To date they have sent out a few units to beta testers and they are still dealing with technical as well as regulatory issues. Their target ship date was in May so they are already around two months behind. I have asked for an updated release date but they have not provided one, just excuses and a reminder that I can get a full refund if I like. I was hoping to use mine this Summer but was never willing to bet on it.

One big issue that they haven't been able to overcome is that the battery is integrated/hardwired into the quad copter, so after you deplete the energy in the battery (after 10 to 15 minutes of flying) you have no choice but to wait two hours for the battery to recharge. Another issue is how to handle dead batteries. When I asked what the options or plan is they stated that they are working on a return/replace program for the battery and/or a complete exchange program for the entire quadcopter.

Given the above, my hopes are high regarding the functionality but expectations low timely delivery.

 

[Mainah]

Really would like to see them succeed in everything they have promised from a feture set as it would be a game changer for the market from an ease of use perspective. The lack of a gimbal in any type of wind will likely result in poor video performance regardless.

Keep us updated if you get your hands on one. I would love to be proved wrong on this one.