Fpv is flying unlike anything else

Antigravity A1 is what happens when Insta360 360-degree cameras are given wings and flying feels like a video game. As compelling as its brand, Antigravity’s DEFUT DEBUT DROPE is a giant Swing: a three-piece set with a drone that captures 8k 360-degree videos, FPV Goggles and a motion controller.

Challenging the dominance of DJI’s (many!) Consumer Drones are in great demand. Antigravity’s approach is to play to its strengths in 360-degree video and video editing. Much of the appeal comes from how the A1 captures 8k video in all directions, meaning you can edit, crop and change around your moment – ​​and hopefully rarely miss a moment trying to document. It’s great fun, too, if you can get the first pet issues, reviews and learning curve.

A drone

The A1 Drone is only 249 grams (0.548 lbs). This helps bypass some drone laws, although flying permits vary by state. The cameras mounted on the top and bottom of the drone’s body are one of its unique features. It is difficult to directly compare the A1 against competing Drones, as it offers a mix of features found across various categories and some unique tools of its own.

The A1 can capture 360-degree video with 8K resolutions, and thanks to Insta360’s Action Cam experience, it can magically remove the drone’s body from the video. This means you can capture video and never see the promoters or, well, any part of the drone itself.

On the base of the Drone, the two landing gears are lowered automatically when you try to land on A1, although you will have to retract them manually if you want to launch the drone. You can also lower the landing gear from one of the controller’s -how much buttons.

The removable battery has a gauge that is useful for using levels and provides more than 20 minutes of flight time, depending on the conditions and whether you are recording video. Antigravity suggests it should last up to 24 minutes during normal concealer use. My review device came with two spare batteries and a charging dock. It is very easy to exchange batteries, and the charging box can fully charge one cell in 45 minutes and charge all three slots at the same time. There is a microSD card slot on the back of the drone, next to the USB-C Port of USB-C for (slightly) Charging the battery.

Cameras with 1 / 1.28-inch sensors, iF / 2.2 lens actorture and ISO RACY from 100 to 6 400. To adjust those settings beyond auto, you will have to enter the menu inside the goggles, which can be difficult to navigate with the controller from the work. Fortunately, auto eye and White Balance are often good enough. Pro-Level content marketers may want to tinker with the levels here, and there’s a histogram you can modify or a zebra pattern to highlight shots and exposed areas. And the A1 can record 8k video at up to 30FPS or 4K at up to 100fps. You can also mix in between, with 5.2K recording mode.

There are also three different flying modes, which are easy to choose from this controller. Next to the normal mode, the sports mode increases the maximum speed of the aircraft and provides “flight enhancement,” improving the sensitivity of the control and sharpening the obstacle avoidance. The sports mode offers a noticeable difference when flying the A1: it doubles the horizontal flight speed compared to the normal mode. There is also a cinematic mode (C), which has a lower max speed for smoother video footage.

Controller and Goggles

The Flight Mode switcher is one of the -how much Controls, wheels, buttons and sliders pepper the surface of the A1’s Grip controller. However, surprisingly, the main way to control the A1 Drone is through gestures, not joysticks or buttons. Instead of throwing the control sticks left and right, up and down, it’s like a video game, where you point the controller where you want to go, and then pull the trigger. A1 then shoots in that direction.

The important part is that this doesn’t have to be where you are “looking” from the Drone’s POV. This means you can split up and fly in any direction without your view being forced by static cameras. It’s a concept unlike any other drone I’ve flown. It feels like playing a video game – like piloting a helicopter inside GTA 5. You can look in any direction, both while walking and while walking around.

There are video recording controls, which control the vertical flight and rotation of your POV without turning your head. There is even a job (back home) job that can be obtained by pressing the emergency button.

The included Goggles bring a Christmas view of everything, with a 1.03-inch micro-oled display with a resolution of 2,560 × 2,5hy frame rate. Some FPV drone goggles usually offer 100hz refresh rates, but mine didn’t. I was afraid that latency hiccups would make airsickness a problem while flying the A1, but I didn’t. My take is that being able to control your view completely makes nausea a problem.

Another nice touch, especially if you’re flying with friends, is the circular external display on the goggles, so everyone can see what the A1 sees. Naturally, it won’t fit the whole idea of ​​a drone pilot, but there is nothing more popular than watching someone else fly a drone. This provides gentle breathing. Another eepicepad is a touchpad for navigating menus inside the goggles without having to find and click a controller.

To do

While the antigravity A1 can provide a more focused drone-flying experience, in terms of pure numbers, it puts it behind some competitors. For example, even in sports mode, the A1 heads out at a top speed of less than 36 mph, falling behind the likes of the Avata 2 (60 mph).

I was surprised how responsive the A1 felt, especially in sport mode. An additional FPV mode (available from the goggles) adds some fine controls, although I couldn’t test it much because it was introduced with the latest firmware update.

For someone with more gaming experience than hours of flying drones, the antigravity central control system fits like a glove. I could fly where I wanted, confident in the controls and in the knowledge that I would capture what I wanted. According to antigravity, you can fly the A1 within a range of 10KM, although I was not able to shape that limit in the center of central London.

The first experience with the drone felt, at times, unnecessarily difficult. Pairing everything together must be done in a certain order: Power up Drone, power up goggles, power up. And turning off each item is not another long press of the power button. Instead, he uses a pressure-and-repetitive-hold technique that I forget every time.

Downloading video from the A1 to your phone also works, but that’s not something specific to this drone. Antigravity has tried other shortcuts, including a fast microSD card reader that connects to your phone or PC via USB-C.

However, during testing, manually connecting the microSD is less of an option and more of a necessity. The drone failed to reconnect to the friend’s app and reliably transfer video files. Some recorded video files seem to appear in between firmware updates, only to reappear later. Another file had been converted to two different circular views, one for each camera, which made it essentially unusable. I hope these tecore ting problems are solved by firmware updates and won’t be on retail devices.

It’s a shame it’s all extremely unstable, especially when both flying the A1 and using the antigravity programming software are both very early. It’s something I’ve mentioned before about the parent company’s Action Cams, but the ability to create barrel rolls, the flexibility of rotating with a single tap or click, and, well, it’s just fun. And because you can synchronize and take a tinker with video warping, create small planetary effects or simply take plants from the traditional, cinemaratic camera view, antigravity software offers a unique way to bring your drone paths. The intensity of deepTracking can be done both during recording and editing in post, to keep a moving subject or a focus point of interest like the A1 lips around.

There are also AI-powered video editing features to cut your 20 minutes of flying footage into something digestible and engaging with minimal effort. Because it’s a 360-degree video, the footage can be easily resized to fit both horizontal and vertical formats.

However, with a small sensor and 8k resolution spread with a 360-degree view, the A1 is not the best video drone. The video is nice crisp and clear, and while the footage is best recorded in sunlight or other well-lit areas, the murky BritabIst November days didn’t affect it too much. Since the A1 has to match its two sensors, there’s often a visible seam in your video, but it’s usually a very subtle light. It can prevent other video creators from justifying their casts. Recording video later in the day results in more noise and less detail. This is where the A1 Cinematic (and usually flying) mode is a good idea, but it still won’t make the drone’s sensors cover such wide angles. Most drones are video-centric

Finish it

The Antigravity A1 is available now, with a standard package including the drone, controller and goggles for $1,599. The infinity bundle ($1,999) adds two extra batteries, a quick reader dongle, a charging case and a charging case. That makes it more expensive than competing FPV drones like the DJI Avata 2, but the A1 is also a very different kind of drone.

Intuitive controls and the ability to observe everything around you make it unlike anything else currently available. A fun introduction to drones, FPV or otherwise, but it’s a shame those software glitches marred my tests. Also, pairing all devices can be overwhelming and frustrating at times.

If antigravity thinks what to do next, I might be interested to see a version with camera bonafides to take DJI Drones with the same price. But that shouldn’t detract from the company’s debut model because the A1 is arguably the most interesting drone for buyers since the Mavic Pro.