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Good shake out flight... Outdoors.

jon buckland

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So now I understand what Tello is and is not.

It is:
A fun little drone. At close range, this thing flies great (really great) without GPS... Indoors!
You get respectable FPV via the fixed camera
Respectable battery life. My flights were getting solid 12 minutes and safe return
Able to bump into things and remain airborne (sometimes)

It is not outdoor capable in almost any wind conditions
It cant fly far enough away or go high enough to get a decent ariel shot (but you can fly in tiny spaces)
Once you go above 12ish feet, say goodbye to positioning, its ATTI only (but it does fly really well)
Video and photos record on your device and transmission quality via wi-fi is poor. An SD card on board would have been a huge plus.
The camera cant be pointed up or down and the stabilization is... OK?

So it is a super fun indoor FPV drone that does all kinds of tricks and shoots OK photos in good light. Good battery life (but there's no separate charger or spares available yet). The phone app is pretty neat and it flies better than ANY drone near this price. Top that, it is crash resistant, even able to survive bumps and remain flying.

Downside, it's not realistically an outdoor quad, its phots are OK for a post on facebook maybe but video isn't much use. Without an on-board SD card there is no direct camera record. Without a camera tilt, framing a high shot is next to impossible as the drone doesn't have the range to pull back far enough.

Recommendation
Buy this for kids and novice pilots wanting to gain flight experience before throwing down 400 bucks for a Spark or better craft. The indoor, in-range flight attributes are very similar to the rest of the DJI line... A pretty nice device and a missing spot in the crowded DJI line-up ( I know Ryse).

OK, Here's some footage outdoors today.

 
The photos in all fairness are a bit better. Here's an original shot in auto and the same shot with basic clean-up. Respectable I guess. Note: this was shot at the max height I could get.20180309173438.jpg20180309173438 2.JPG
 
Thanks for sharing. Mine says it just shipped from China today via FedEx so will be waiting for a few days before I can try it.
 
The video and photos actually aren't that bad considering. If it ever warms up a bit and stops raining, I may get to take mine outside.
 
Flew it last night. It did a lot better in calm winds. I was up about 40 feet but never tried to climb higher. Maybe test it more today. I put a strobe on it behind the battery just in case I lost it in the dusk. The weight of it kind of affected takeoff but it quickly stabilized and flew fine. Straight from the Tello no processing. Not a great image but what do you expect. At least you can adjust the EV while in flight.1520734210274.jpg
 
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Flew it last night. It did a lot better in calm winds. I was up about 40 feet but never tried to climb higher. Maybe test it more today. I put a strobe on it behind the battery just in case I lost it in the dusk. The weight of it kind of affected takeoff but it quickly stabilized and flew fine. Straight from the Tello no processing. Not a great image but what do you expect. At least you can adjust the EV while in flight.View attachment 31
Awesome sunset!
 
I got mine outside today for the first time, a very calm morning. It is delightful, like a little baby Mavic. It tries but it's little so limited but quite nice for the value, durable and uncomplicated. In a word, it's "cute." Sure need more batteries. I did find it still stable even up high. I can't get very high. Someone said they got up to 40 ft. above. In fast mode it does scoot along briskly. Will be nice also to finally get a controller. It'll probably be even more stable then. With every single drone at any price I've noticed there is always something to look forward to in the "next version." Same here. This drone, however, raises the bar in innovation and goals for all manufacturers. I never liked the tiny drones I could not control and had to constantly maneuver in atti mode. This one is different, a pleasure to fly.
 

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