Freefly Astro: FINALLY a Competitor to the Inspire!

atmosphericarts · Sep 2, 2020

Looks like Freefly is coming out with a competitor to the I2, which appears to be a mini Alta X with an integrated Sony mirrorless cam. Up till now you couldn't buy a competitor to the I2 at ANY price. This will likely be more expensive than the highest-spec I2s, but thank god for a bit of competition. The fact that it's designed, engineered, and built by Freefly in the USA will make me sleep a bit better at night as well with how US-China relations have been going.

Starz · Sep 2, 2020

Will be interesting to see the pricing.

Donnie Frank · Sep 3, 2020

Argh....I hate these teasers. At least they're not "crowd funding" or doing "pre orders." I HATE that. At least the sound track is a drum solo. I'll give them credit for that....<;^)

D

Brett8883 · Sep 4, 2020

very cool thanks!

Mr.Burns.666 · Sep 5, 2020

The Sony A7R IV is a good camera for pictures but not that good for videos...at least compare to the new Sony A7S III who is much more video oriented.

Brett8883 · Sep 5, 2020

Mr.Burns.666 said:
The Sony A7R IV is a good camera for pictures but not that good for videos...at least compare to the new Sony A7S III who is much more video oriented.

Good call yea can’t really be an Inspire competitor at 8 bit and no RAW video. The full frame is pointless on that camera for video since it records video with only a super35 sized area of the sensor.

Even the A7S III only records RAW externally.

Dave Pitman · Sep 5, 2020

Donnie Frank said:
At least they're not "crowd funding" or doing "pre orders."

Coming from Freefly, it's likely a very real product already at this point rather than a hope and dream project.

Phillip DeVore · Sep 6, 2020

atmosphericarts said:
Looks like Freefly is coming out with a competitor to the I2, which appears to be a mini Alta X with an integrated Sony mirrorless cam. Up till now you couldn't buy a competitor to the I2 at ANY price. This will likely be more expensive than the highest-spec I2s, but thank god for a bit of competition. The fact that it's designed, engineered, and built by Freefly in the USA will make me sleep a bit better at night as well with how US-China relations have been going.

I’ve been looking at their products for quite awhile but they’re so darn expensive

licensed pilot · Sep 6, 2020

atmosphericarts said:
Looks like Freefly is coming out with a competitor to the I2, which appears to be a mini Alta X with an integrated Sony mirrorless cam. Up till now you couldn't buy a competitor to the I2 at ANY price. This will likely be more expensive than the highest-spec I2s, but thank god for a bit of competition. The fact that it's designed, engineered, and built by Freefly in the USA will make me sleep a bit better at night as well with how US-China relations have been going.

Built with Chinese parts? Just asking.

davidjmurray · Sep 7, 2020

So many compelling selling points... then this:

Did you see that thing? Not my idea of adorable. Koala bears are adorable. Flying spiders are scary.

On a more serious note, the ""Linux Companion Computer" feature sounds misguided. I already have a few pretty powerful computers. Do I really need to buy a specialized one to get full use of my drone? I started writing code on Unix systems almost 5 decades ago, so its not like I'll find that a problem. But my system design instincts tell me that, if they need a custom companion computer these days for this class of drone, they are heading down a rabbit hole.

Dave Pitman · Sep 7, 2020

davidjmurray said:
On a more serious note, the ""Linux Companion Computer" feature sounds misguided. I already have a few pretty powerful computers. Do I really need to buy a specialized one to get full use of my drone?

I suspect they are talking about a processor on the drone; Not one needed to operate it !

davidjmurray · Sep 7, 2020

Dave Pitman said:
I suspect they are talking about a processor on the drone; Not one needed to operate it !

I would have expected them to call that an "onboard computer" rather than "companion computer". But I certainly could be wrong! I was thinking the companion computer might be used pre and/or post flight for advanced flight planning or processing of data gathered during flight (such as mapping or agricultural analysis). Or that it might be a crystalSky type Linux-based tablet used to run the control app during flight. We shall see.

BlueCollarSky · Sep 7, 2020

Hopefully they will release something similar without a camera specific gimbal. It would be nice to see a Mini Alta with a Mini MoVI, a gimbal sized to handle cameras ranging from the RED Komodo and ZCam E2 to the Panasonic SH1 and Canon R5. Ultimately it would have an HD transmitter and some camera control built in. Sell that setup for around 10K and I think they would have a winner. They could even utilize their existing MoVI controller for the gimbal/camera side.

Dave Pitman · Sep 8, 2020

davidjmurray said:
I would have expected them to call that an "onboard computer" rather than "companion computer". But I certainly could be wrong! I was thinking the companion computer might be used pre and/or post flight for advanced flight planning or processing of data gathered during flight (such as mapping or agricultural analysis). Or that it might be a crystalSky type Linux-based tablet used to run the control app during flight. We shall see.

I have no idea either. It just seems unlikely that they would go down the road of requiring a seperate peice of hardware when software will do the trick even if there is some sort of translation that needs done. But who knows for now!

The Editor · Sep 9, 2020

BlueCollarSky said:
Sell that setup for around 10K and I think they would have a winner.

Agreed - 10,000 Yen would be a fantastic price....

BlueCollarSky · Sep 9, 2020

The Editor said:
Agreed - 10,000 Yen would be a fantastic price....

Thanks for adding something constructive to the conversation. But yeah I see where people would get confused when someone posting from the USA commenting on a US company might be referring to who knows what currency.

Wait is this in the classifieds?

The Editor · Sep 9, 2020

BlueCollarSky said:
Thanks for adding something constructive to the conversation.

You're welcome.

licensed pilot · Sep 11, 2020

Starz said:
Will be interesting to see the pricing.

The pricing is all we want to know.

There is no question American know-how can match DJI...but at what cost?

slim.slamma · Sep 12, 2020

licensed pilot said:
Built with Chinese parts? Just asking.

Who Cares ? ?‍

atmosphericarts · Sep 14, 2020

Freefly just did a livestream on their IG showing some closeups and more details for the Astro. The iteration they showed had RTK and the A7R4 camera, which they said was optimized for industrial mapping rather than cinema. They also said they'd be releasing several payloads within the first year, including what sounds like just a gimbal with no camera. It doesn't have ActiveBlade like the Alta X due to cost and complexity, and it has several battery options including one that's under 100 Wh for travel. The closeups that they showed of the camera also make it look like the camera is just an off the shelf A7R, so you should be able to take it off and at least have a kick *** ground-based camera if you need it. Props I believe are 21.5", so quite a bit bigger than the I2.

Based on all of this I'm thinking $20k is probably on the low end of what this could end up costing, as it's probably going to be equivalent to a completely maxed out I2 plus RTK which unfortunately costs a fortune.

The want is strong.