Last year, DJI released their first FPV drone, which packs the brand’s premium camera equipment and software into a race-ready 87 mph quadcopter. It’s so great. While some may think that the FPV drone is a one-off for the outfit, it clearly won’t be as they have already released a second one in the form of the DJI Avata.
That’s right, DJI has a new FPV drone and it’s very different from its predecessor, coming in with a new design that’s smaller and more comfortable to fly. In particular, it adopts the increasingly popular cinewhoop form factor, allowing safe forward footage to be captured when flying in tight spaces.
The DJI Avata is not your average cloth drone, with its propellers placed under the drone, giving the front camera a perfect view. It’s also smaller, tipping the scales at almost half the weight of its predecessor at just 410 grams, while maintaining a compact shape that would allow it to slide comfortably into tight spaces. Like your typical chinewhoop, a quarter of the five-bladed propellers are covered by prop guards, allowing the drone to hit obstacles without compromising any of its movement. Those prop guards will come in really handy, since the drone has the same anti-obstacle sensors as the typical outfit drones, which is one of the things they left out to a smaller size.
While the drone avoids obstacles to avoid problems, it integrates some of the established safety sensors in the drone line. These include an infrared imaging system and down-pointing cameras that allow for a variety of autonomous functions, including low-altitude flight modes and flight modes, which should also be able to work on the planes indoors.
The front camera of the DJI Avata has a 48MP CMOS sensor capable of recording 4K video at 60 fps and 2.7K video at 120 frames, which is paired with a lens with an aperture of f/2.8 and a field of view of 155 degrees ultrawide. Note, it only uses a single-axis gimbal instead of the three-axis systems that DJI drones usually have, so while the design of the drone itself may be solid, the footage captured may not be as smooth, especially when you’re taking pictures outside and the winds are high. All recordings are stored in 20GB of onboard storage, as well as on a microSD card via an integrated memory slot. It comes with a 1800 mAh battery, by the way, which holds enough charge to keep it in the air for up to 18 minutes between charges.
Sadly, the new drone isn’t as fast as the previous FPV of the class, as it can only manage a top speed of 60 mph compared to its predecessor’s 87 mph, so the latter will still make a worthy contender. Being an FPV drone, it is designed to be flown while wearing one of DJI’s goggles. During flight, it streams 1080p video to the goggles at up to 100 fps, so you can see what’s in front of the drone in real time.
The DJI Avata is available now, starting at $1,168.
