Drones have been in the news a lot recently thanks to some fairly idiotic people flying them near airports. It's an issue that will probably not go away, but drones are great fun and have some cool uses.
No one is producing more exciting hardware than DJI, and at CES 2015 the company showed off the Inspire 1 drone, along with a hand-held gimbal mount for the drone's 4K camera. Basically, when you've finished flying, you can detach the camera and carry on shooting on the ground.
The drone itself has a lot of new features. DJI relies heavily on GPS to keep its drones stable in the air, but that can make flying them indoors a bit of a struggle. The Inspire 1 has cameras mounted on the underside that allow it to track the floor, and give you stable indoor flight.
From a camera perspective, the DJI has also upped the game considerably. There's a 4K video camera built in that shoots at up to 30fps, and can record 1080p at 60fps. Still shots are possible too, at 12-megapixel resolutions.
The camera is stabilised by a 3-axis rotating gimbal, which can spin a full 360 degrees. This is incredibly impressive and will produce some stunning video.
Another clever feature is the retractable legs - having these move up allows your drone to shoot video without any obstruction from the landing feet. That make a lot of sense with the fully rotating camera.
The Inspire can fly for 18 minutes on a single charge, and be controlled from as far away as 2km.
To make this as safe as possible, the drone monitors its distance from you, and how much charge is left in its battery, and is able to warn you when it's time to fly back to your location.
The Inspire 1 costs around $3,400 but various options may increase that price.
