There is no doubt DJI dominates the high-end camera drone market and many dealers are gaining great profit with DJI products.They provide superior quality and solid aftermarket warranty service.
In 2015, more than 100 drone startups arise in China but many of them just come up with duplicates of phantom, which can do nothing special. Some can barely get their works to the real world after promising fancy features like Lily camera.
It ends up that many drones startups are dead in 2016, neither can they provide quality products, nor to compete with DJI in performance and price.
However, there is an exception named Simtoo who creates dragonfly.
Unlike phantom, dragonfly auto-follow responsively with a GPS watch for hands-free control. The foldable body allows it to come in a portable hardshell case. More cost-friendly than phantom 3S, yet it still carries a 4K cam with 3D gimbal.
You can't find a easier quad than this with a few buttons on the watch to command all smart flights like auto-take off and return home. No pre-setup needed, no pilot experiences required. Even a kid can fly it when he get it.
Dragonfly is designed to meet the need of travel and sport aerial seflie, which DJI hasn't fulfilled entirely. As a consequence,dragonfly is bound to reach more mass consumers for its simplicity and portability, which indicates a larger potential market.
So, this is dragonfly, the world first follow me and portable quadcopter, and it's non-DJI!
If anyone has any comment about dragonfly, I am pleased to discuss with you.
Comments
Hi Tony,
I see now in the progressive slide show at the top of the Simtoo page the remote control / transmitter which also shows an attached phone displaying an FPV view.
Very glad to see you are not selling with watch only, I can appreciate how cool it is, but as the only communication possibility, not so much.
At $400.00 with 4K camera and gimbal it seems pretty compelling and more than competitive.
If it is reliable and takes decent HD 1080P video it should be a strong contender in the US consumer market.
For now at least in the entry consumer market for these 4K is simply a consumer hype feature, but so were 8+ transistor radios when they came out.
Best Regards,
Gary
Hi Guys thanks for comment!
first dragonfly has a conventional RC transmitter to take a full control. It is not shown in the video because the watch is what is special. And the watch is mostly used to lead follow me function.
Yes DJI phantom 4 has very good follow me mode but it is conducted by visual tracking. There is a little disadvantage that if the object goes too fast, the drone may lose sight of it and stop following, which will not happen to dragonfly with a GPS tracker.
I don't say anything bad about DJI. Personally I love phantom very much. But dragonfly can really do something that DJI cannot.
Dragonfly had actually been released in October last year. Its idea of foldable design is earlier than any other drones.
Good news is that dragonfly pro with a RC transmitter, watch and everything has been repriced to around 400 bucks now. Quanum is a copy of the very first version of dragonfly and only comes with watch.
You could learn more at their website www.simtoo.com
THE FIRST FOLDABLE QUADCOPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is a somewhat disturbing trend of releasing these quadcopters that don't even have a conventional RC transmitter control system.
There is the expectancy that everything is going to be handled automatically and the resultant potential for destructive encounters with unintended objects is not even addressed.
I am not even sure if these qualify at all for legal use in the US, because, the pilot in command is supposed to be in true control of their vehicle and it is not even clear that is an option with these systems.
While the nifty follow me and autonomous capabilities may be really neat, without a realistic full manual backup they are simply a disaster waiting to happen.
Quanum has made some very nice entry level quadcopters, but they have a long way to go to convince me that this one is either safe or reasonable.
And, indeed this Simtoo $600.00 one does appear to be identical to the $400.00 Quanum one Guy linked above at Hobby King.
I thought the DJI phantom 4 had object tracking for a follow me mode and the 3DR Solo has had follow me mode since it's release?
that's exactly how DJI Phantom and co.... Toy.
These toys are why the entire commercial copterflug & RC planes are limited in Germany