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Parrot Bebop 2 Drone Takes To The Sky Epic Video!

Posted by Action Gear · March 09, 2016

Like kids at christmas, the BlackSheep were super eager to try out the new Parrot Bebop 2 drone quad copter, with Skycontroller.

What a rad machine this drone is. Nifty and convenient, the time we spent with the Bebop was always completely awesome! Every flight, exhilarating! Every shot, mesmerizing! We wish we had another two batteries to extend the already long (25 minute) flight time that the Bebop has. The Bebop 2 is a fun drone to play with.

Firstly, what comes in the box.

The Bebop 2 comes separately, and the Skycontroller is an add on package. we got the full package here, so:

1x Bebop 2 drone
1x Skycontroller (w/safety lanyard)
2x Batteries (w/charger)
Plus a few extras, like spare props, prop tool, matte box (for sunny days), iPad holder etc.

FreeFlight 3 is the app to download to connect to your Skycontroller and/or Bebop 2 in order to gain access to the settings and view the FPV function. The app enables a person who hasn’t got the Skycontroller to be able to fly the Bebop 2, via Android or iOS.

The Skycontroller itself is an amazing contraption. With quite a cool aesthetic that makes flying the Bebop 2 tons of fun. Space in the centre of the controller to place either a smartphone or a tablet; A huge satellite antenna to increase it signal range up to 2km; Big but sleek controllers to create ease of flight control, we loved flying with this controller every time. and it’s very unique.

The Bebop 2. Incredibly easy to fly and outstandingly well poised in both good and windy conditions. With a push of one button it takes the air and just hovers there awaiting a command. Even at height the Bebop will just hover steady awaiting to be told its next move via inputs on the Skycontroller, all thanks to the stabilisation settings. Understanding the controls, Gaz, Yaw, Trim and Roll can be a bit tricky to learn, and keeping your orientation is the craft to master. But the Bebop makes all that quite easy to learn. It’s a great little machine to coax a willing learner into understanding the basics of quad copter flight.

The Bebop 2 like its predecessor has a built in camera designed in a way to make it quite sleak and slender and aerodynamic. A nifty little camera that shoots 1080p HD with it’s 14MegaPixel sensor, it’s capable of capturing some truly awe-inspiring imagery that this new age of drones has allowed us to capture. The camera has a digital stabilisation system that works wonders. It does compromise a bit of quality, but is quite effective.

Overall this is really great product from Parrot. With its ease of flight, great range and battery life, it’s easily a good choice amongst the market of drones out there. It’s small and convenient to quickly whip it out.

A couple downsides; it does take a while to connect to the sky controller, camera quality is not the greatest (but acceptable), parts availability is difficult, camera button on the Skycontroller was getting stuck and is not very user friendly, a few landing kinks including some hard landings, built in internal memory (8GB) without an option to increase, minor issues with dumping footage.

Compared to a professional drone, the Parrot Bebop 2 is really just an expensive toy.

BUT a really fun toy at that, with a pretty awesome cool factor!

We at BlackSheep certainly love it!

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Drones
Parrot

Why The Phantom 3 Is Still The Best Buy

Posted by Action Gear · March 07, 2016

All the hype in the last couple of days has been on the Phantom 4 with its cool new features, but we don’t think that upgrading from your Phantom 3 to a Phantom 4 is worth it at this point. Yes, the phantom 4 is an impressive new drone and is an excellent aircraft to buy if you have never flown a drone before.

A lot of people feel that they need to get the latest technology as soon as it is launched, but we are going to tell you how great the Phantom 3 actually is and what impressive results you can get out of it which will keep you on par with the Phantom 4. After all it’s all about creating great aerial images in stunning locations. Here are the reasons why we think you should be happy with the Phantom 3:

From a film making perspective, very little has changed. The camera still uses the same sensor, the exact same processor and controlling the drone is still mostly done manually. While DJI have made a few minor improvements to the drone, such as a new gimbal and new motors, these changes do not result in better footage.

The Phantom 4 has obstacle avoidance, but if you can already fly a drone, why do you need that feature? DJI implemented the obstacle avoidance feature so that anyone can fly their drone. It is definitely a nice safety backstop, and could potentially prevent some crashes, but is realistically not necessary for skilled experienced pilots.

Batteries and accessories will become cheaper over time for the Phantom 3. This trend has shown itself before, with both the Phantom 1 and Phantom 2. There is also no reason to worry about discontinues spares, as DJI still produce spares for all of their models.

DJI are still backing the Phantom 3. Previously, new models that were launched have replaced the existing models. However, this time DJI have released the Phantom 4 to compliment the existing Phantom 3 range. This tells us that DJI will still continue to promote and sell the Phantom 3, and will continue to release firmware updates to improve the drone's features.

The Price. While the Phantom 4 is expected to sell in South Africa for around R30 000, the Phantom 3 range starts at less than half of that price. The most popular Phantom 3 models, the Advanced and Professional, have both received Price drops following the launch of the Phantom 4. This means that it is now more affordable than ever before to own a professional level drone.

Click here to view our DJI Range

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DJI
Drones
Phantom

Extreme Lights Xph Headlamp Review

Posted by Action Gear · March 02, 2016

A lot of things are better in the dark, but without a good headlamp it’s going to be tough tackling your nocturnal adventures. I recently had a look at the Extreme Lights XPh Headlamp on some of my night-time training sessions and wanted to share my experiences with it.

Extreme Lights is a local adventure light manufacturer based in Stellenbosch. They’ve developed a loyal following thanks to their high quality products with many swearing by their bike and running lights. Even Landie and Christiaan Greyling gave their stamp of approval and appear on the box of the XPh Headlamp.

So let’s get into it…

FIT

The XPh Headlamp is a rechargeable unit and is constructed with the lamp on the front and the battery pack at the back. At first sight, I expected it to be heavy. However, I was completely mistaken and it was really comfortable – you don’t even notice the battery pack at all.

Battery housing at the back

Connector between lamp and battery

It charged pretty quickly and comes with a spare battery cartridge for a back-up set of alkaline batteries when you are out for long periods of time. I went on about four missions in the mountains and it showed no signs of letting up, but I charged it again just for peace of mind after the fourth training session – safety first!

A sunset hike with some the cave exploration on Lion’s Head was my first test of the product. It fit comfortably over my trucker cap even while running. When the sun went down is when we got into the real testing.

PERFORMANCE

The XPh Headlamp makes use of synergy drive technology which changes the apparent brightness of the lamp. It’s not very noticeable (which is a good sign) and results in really comfortable wear. You can read more about synergy drive here.

With three levels of brightness (Low, Mid and Boost) you can get up to 670 lumens which shines warm white. The Mid setting is fine for almost all sporting activities. Be warned that the Boost level can catch you off guard with its bright spotlight effect – so try not to blind fellow hikers

The Boost setting probably really comes in handy if you’ve dropped something in the dark, but you might also find things you weren’t necessarily looking for either – like the big spider I ran into while descending Platteklip Gorge one evening!!!

The only negative I have on the light is my experience while running. The XPh Headlamp uses a single Cree XP-L LED bulb in the lamp. I’ve become used to other brands which use multiple LEDs in the lamp unit and find that with more bulbs the broader the area which was lit up.

Single bulb construction

Multiple LED construction from other brands

For trail running, I found this was the one area where the XPh Headlamp fell short. I found myself not getting enough information about the surrounds due to the smaller area of focus to comfortably run as fast as I wanted – especially when trying to run on anything other than jeep track. Adding a few more bulbs to broaden the area of focus is the only thing that I would change about the lamp.

Platteklip training session using the XPh Headlamp

VERDICT

I think the XPh Headlamp is a great product especially for hiking, fishing, camping, caving, cycling, you name it. It is waterproof and shines brightly for hours and hours without any sign of giving up – with a competitive price point as well.

Besides the issue I had with running, I definitely understand why so many have vouched for it.

If I have left out anything in particular that you may think is a critical feature/experience that you’ve had with the XPh Headlamp, please feel free to comment below.

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Introducing The DJI Phantom 4! The Sexiest Drone That DJI Ever Designed

Posted by Action Gear · March 02, 2016

The exciting new features include:

- Obstacle avoidance

- ActiveTrack, allowing the Phantom 4 to follow an object or person just by touching them on the screen

- TapFly, allows the pilot to touch a destination on the screen, and the drone will fly to it automatically

- Intelligent RTH

- 28 minute flight time

- 5km range

- Max speed 72km/h

So far, DJI have not given us an official launch date for South Africa, but stock is expected some time in the middle of April. We also do not yet have a South African price yet, but it is estimated to be just over R30 000.

The good news is that the Phantom 3 range will still be available for the foreseeable future. DJI have announced that they will not be discontinuing the Phantom 3 range, but will rather be reducing the prices of the Advanced and Professional models. This means that the Phantom 3 is now more affordable than ever!

If you would like to be put onto a waiting list for the DJI Phantom 4, please contact us on 011 781 1323, or email sales@actiongear.co.za

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Tags:
DJI
Drones
Phantom

What To Expect With The New Phantom

Posted by Action Gear · March 01, 2016

By Wouter Du Toit

DJI have released a video the past week and have their website setup to launch an event today (Tuesday 1st of March).

If you want to see what is coming, I recommend you tune in today at about 6:40pm on the DJI.com website and see what tech they are bringing to the drone industry. As the leaders in the field, I believe it will surely be of interest.

From the first Phantoms to the Phantom 2 with great advances we’ve been fortunate to see how the company has improved on the tech with regards to photography, gimbal stabilisation and flight, and it has brought it all together in a fun and usable way with the Phantom 3 range. It even launched a new Infra Red camera for the Inspire range to be used to analyse buildings that are on fire to see where the fire’s core is, to analyse water distribution with regards to irrigation and land optimisation. They then launched the DJI OSMO which made the idea of capturing some professionally stabilised 4K video a possibility at a fraction of the cost of renting high-end production equipment.

The drone casings are mainly made in a white polymer, but this isn’t the only reason the company can be compared to be Apple. When considering Design, usability and the capabilities it offers it’s inline with one of the largest companies in the world.

So what do we know about this event tonight and what can we expect from the DJI team?

The rumours we have are the following:

That the new Phantom is rather shiny instead of the matte white we know.
The motors will be enclosed from above so it is more and ‘protected’ and ‘weather-sealed’.
The gimbal has been moved to the inside of the casing which will reduce issues with it.
It will most likely be called the Phantom 4.
They won’t launch anything for the Inspire range because the Inspire 1 is relatively new on the market.
It won’t be waterproof
It won’t have retractable landing gear like that of the Inspire Pro
The camera can have a 6K sensor but this is unlikely due to most people not even having 4K televisions yet.

It seems as though they will focus on the camera mainly. Let’s see tonight!

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