Whether the company name was intentional or not, EHang paints a picture of what its product does. China-based EHang creates unmanned aerial vehicles that hang in the air taking video or photos of what’s below. Ghost, one of the company’s drones, is an Indiegogo crowd funding success story. The company has far surpassed its original goal of $100,000 by raising $596,702 with 26 days to go.

Ghost landing gear sets the drone down gently.

Ghost does not require a cumbersome RC controller. You guide it with your iOS or Android smartphone and a small G-Box with 2.4GHz 80mw standard Bluetooth communicator. Auto Mode points the drone head first towards its destination and allows you to concentrate on the visuals you want to capture instead of worrying about piloting. You’ll want to use the micro control mode to pinpoint a specific location by simply sliding it in the direction you want to drone to go. It can get there tail first if necessary.

A simple finger tap points your drone to its destination.

GoPro equipment is compatible with Ghost including the Hero 4 and is assisted by the 2D gimbal which keeps your shots stable. Flying at night is possible due to Night Mode with LED lights to visually keep track of its position. Ghost is wind resistant to 21 knots and waterproof so weather won’t ground the aerial vehicle. If anything goes awry, Ghost incorporates automatic return if the connection is lost.

You can still get in on the Indiegogo Ghost project. Support starts with a $5 fan club contribution and goes to $49,000 with a list of perks in between including a $355 DIY kit that includes parts for you to assembly the Ghost yourself. Cyber Monday offered the following:

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The campaign started November 10, 2014 and will close on January 9, 2015 at the end of CES. The company will be exhibiting in the Las Vegas Convention Center, LVCC South Hall 2. BSN* will be able to provide our readers with a hands-on opinion of this and other unmanned systems after the show. In the meantime, you can tell EHang what you want them to do to improve on their Ghost with the cash they have raised beyond their original goal. Vote at their survey site.  One option is to expand the white ghostly finish to other colors. Maybe one of these? Or ask for your favorite color – neon orange perhaps?

In addition to Ghost for recreational use, EHang also develops the larger Skyway for commercial use. The Chinese company also has offices in San Carlos, California.

The post Indiegogo Drone Project Raises Half A Million Dollars appeared first on VR World.

The GoPro Hero4 has long been awaited by consumers as the company’s affordable 4K camera. And when they announced the GoPro Hero4 Black, a lot of people were excited to finally get their hands on a GoPro that can finally do 4K at 30 FPS as opposed to a semi-slideshow 4K 15 FPS which the GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition was capable of in the previous generation. So, they increased the camera’s capability of recording 4K video from 15 FPS to 30 FPS and somehow they are now claiming that this camera is now worth an extra $100. Yes, it does have an improved Wi-Fi chipset that has better signal and consumers less power, but none of that is really relevant if the only thing consumers can measure is the 4K video performance. GoPro has always released new cameras and their latest and greatest was always $399, so a 25% price increase is going to be hard to chew for some.

We go into this review of the GoPro Hero4 looking to see how it performs overall as a 4K video camera, photo camera, and an overall action camera.

In terms of specifications, the GoPro Hero 4 has the following hardware specs and video recording format capabilities.

Specifications and Features

In terms of specifications, the GoPro Hero4 Black, weighs a tiny 3.10 oz or 88 g camera only and 5.36 oz or 152 g with housing. It has dimensions of 41 x 59 x 30mm, which are identical to the GoPro Hero3 and Hero3+ that came before it. It comes with a 3.8 VDC, 1160 mAh Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery which GoPro states will get up to 1.5 hours per charge. These are the estimated battery life times depending on the camera settings (shown below) and whether or not Wi-Fi or the GoPro app are being used.

GoPro Hero4 Battery Life

Capture 12MP Photos at 30 fps
Ultra Wide Angle Glass Lens + SuperView
Camera Housing Waterproof to 131′
Improved Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Connectivity
Interval Capture for Time Lapse
Protune Mode for Video and Photo (manual exposure, exposure compensation and temperature)
One-Button Operation with QuikCapture
Auto Low Light and Night Photo Modes

GoPro Hero4 Video Resolutions

For those curious, Superview is GoPro’s own way of stretching their 4:3 footage into a 16:9 ratio in order to more properly fit the screen in playback.

The camera itself also has MicroSD, Mini USB and micro HDMI connectivity in addition to the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi which it uses for the remote and GoPro App (Android or iOS). The MicroSD card slot only supports microSDXC memory cards up to 64GB, which is really enough for almost anyone seeing as you can record up to 2 hours 10 minutes of footage on the camera before you run out of memory card space based on our testing. The biggest disappointment, however, is GoPro’s decision to continue to use the archaic standard of Mini USB which pretty much died with the Blackberries of 2008-2010. Yet, in 2014  GoPro is still launching brand new ‘cutting-edge’ products with Mini USB, they should really be ashamed of themselves. Why? because nobody and nothing uses Mini USB anymore and having a mini USB cable is a chore and might as well be a proprietary connector because so few things use it nowadays. If anything, GoPro should have adopted microUSB a long time ago and should now be moving towards USB Type-C which should be a smaller connector and have higher bandwidth capabilities and industry-wide availability than mini USB (which is by default USB 2.0). So, instead, you have to take out your memory card in order to properly transfer 4K footage at a reasonable speed because USB 2.0 and mini USB are capped at 30 MB/s and most UHS Class 3 memory cards are 60-90 MB/s read. Basically, the mini USB connector on the GoPro Hero4 is a huge mistake by GoPro and possibly the biggest fault of this device.

Packaging and Accessories

When you buy the GoPro Hero4 Black you get:
Rechargeable Battery for HERO4
Standard Housing
Skeleton Backdoor
Curved Adhesive Mount
Flat Adhesive Mount
Quick Release Buckle
3-Way Pivot Arm
USB Cable
Limited 1-Year Warranty

Watch the video below to see what that looks like, or look at the picture below that to see exactly what it all looks like in one photo.

GoPro Hero4 Standard Accessories

On the next page, we’ll discuss our experience with the GoPro Hero4 and include some video and photo samples as well.

The post GoPro Hero4 Black Review: You're Not Ready for It appeared first on VR World.

The GoPro Hero4 has long been awaited by consumers as the company’s affordable 4K camera. And when they announced the GoPro Hero4 Black, a lot of people were excited to finally get their hands on a GoPro that can finally do 4K at 30 FPS as opposed to a semi-slideshow 4K 15 FPS which the GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition was capable of in the previous generation. So, they increased the camera’s capability of recording 4K video from 15 FPS to 30 FPS and somehow they are now claiming that this camera is now worth an extra $100. Yes, it does have an improved Wi-Fi chipset that has better signal and consumers less power, but none of that is really relevant if the only thing consumers can measure is the 4K video performance. GoPro has always released new cameras and their latest and greatest was always $399, so a 25% price increase is going to be hard to chew for some.

We go into this review of the GoPro Hero4 looking to see how it performs overall as a 4K video camera, photo camera, and an overall action camera.

In terms of specifications, the GoPro Hero 4 has the following hardware specs and video recording format capabilities.

Specifications and Features

In terms of specifications, the GoPro Hero4 Black, weighs a tiny 3.10 oz or 88 g camera only and 5.36 oz or 152 g with housing. It has dimensions of 41 x 59 x 30mm, which are identical to the GoPro Hero3 and Hero3+ that came before it. It comes with a 3.8 VDC, 1160 mAh Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery which GoPro states will get up to 1.5 hours per charge. These are the estimated battery life times depending on the camera settings (shown below) and whether or not Wi-Fi or the GoPro app are being used.

GoPro Hero4 Battery Life

Capture 12MP Photos at 30 fps
Ultra Wide Angle Glass Lens + SuperView
Camera Housing Waterproof to 131′
Improved Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Connectivity
Interval Capture for Time Lapse
Protune Mode for Video and Photo (manual exposure, exposure compensation and temperature)
One-Button Operation with QuikCapture
Auto Low Light and Night Photo Modes

GoPro Hero4 Video Resolutions

For those curious, Superview is GoPro’s own way of stretching their 4:3 footage into a 16:9 ratio in order to more properly fit the screen in playback.

The camera itself also has MicroSD, Mini USB and micro HDMI connectivity in addition to the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi which it uses for the remote and GoPro App (Android or iOS). The MicroSD card slot only supports microSDXC memory cards up to 64GB, which is really enough for almost anyone seeing as you can record up to 2 hours 10 minutes of footage on the camera before you run out of memory card space based on our testing. The biggest disappointment, however, is GoPro’s decision to continue to use the archaic standard of Mini USB which pretty much died with the Blackberries of 2008-2010. Yet, in 2014  GoPro is still launching brand new ‘cutting-edge’ products with Mini USB, they should really be ashamed of themselves. Why? because nobody and nothing uses Mini USB anymore and having a mini USB cable is a chore and might as well be a proprietary connector because so few things use it nowadays. If anything, GoPro should have adopted microUSB a long time ago and should now be moving towards USB Type-C which should be a smaller connector and have higher bandwidth capabilities and industry-wide availability than mini USB (which is by default USB 2.0). So, instead, you have to take out your memory card in order to properly transfer 4K footage at a reasonable speed because USB 2.0 and mini USB are capped at 30 MB/s and most UHS Class 3 memory cards are 60-90 MB/s read. Basically, the mini USB connector on the GoPro Hero4 is a huge mistake by GoPro and possibly the biggest fault of this device.

Packaging and Accessories

When you buy the GoPro Hero4 Black you get:
Rechargeable Battery for HERO4
Standard Housing
Skeleton Backdoor
Curved Adhesive Mount
Flat Adhesive Mount
Quick Release Buckle
3-Way Pivot Arm
USB Cable
Limited 1-Year Warranty

Watch the video below to see what that looks like, or look at the picture below that to see exactly what it all looks like in one photo.

GoPro Hero4 Standard Accessories

On the next page, we’ll discuss our experience with the GoPro Hero4 and include some video and photo samples as well.

The post GoPro Hero4 Black Review: You're Not Ready for It appeared first on VR World.