Picked up my Solo today + First day footage

[Digital Dove]

Pre-ordered May 5th from 3DR. Saw on the forum that people were picking them up at Best Buy. Jumped in the car to BB, San Marcos, CA. Two on the shelves. Bought one, extra battery was in stock and given to me. Tried to use USPS 10% off coupon - no go, even pleading with manager. She said because the Solo is a Unilateral Minimum Resale Price (UMRP) item the coupon can't be applied. But I did apply and get approved for BB credit card, gives you 10% store credit with first purchase. That is worth something, ($99.99 store credit.)

I was like a celebrity at Best Buy, they were saying, "You're the first one to buy this! Did you know it can do this thing called orbit?" There must have been half a dozen employees talking to me about it.

When I got home I saw the email 3DR that my Solo would ship next week. (Too late.) Have to cancel my order tomorrow.

After charging and giving it a go, everything works great! I took about 20 minutes of footage. Here is is condensed into 1 minutes. Sorry to the purists for the GoPro studio edits: Only some speed changes + background music. (No stabilization or fisheye removal.) I filmed in wide mode, thus you can see the Solo legs in the shots.

Overall, super happy, and I can't wait for the gimbal.

Feedback on the video? Hopefully not your wife is fat and you are a bad person for flying so close to babies and children.

My First Day with Solo in the Park

By the way, I lost contact with the Solo at 1:04 in the video. I walked (well ran) closer to it, and regained connection and brought her back manually. I think it was already in return to home mode.

 

[DattaGroover]

I lost contact with the Solo at 1:04 in the video, thus the sudden cut-out. I walked closer to it, and regained connection and brought her back.

Thanks for all that - very enjoyable and informative.
But- doesn't the Solo do a "return to home" if it loses signal?

 

[Digital Dove]

Thanks for all that - very enjoyable and informative.
But- doesn't the Solo do a "return to home" if it loses signal?

Yes, I think it probably was on it's way back home, but I ran to intercept and got connection again within a few seconds. I hit pause immediately, and then maneuvered it back manually.

 

[DattaGroover]

Yes, I think it probably was on it's way back home, but I ran to intercept and got connection again within a few seconds. I hit pause immediately, and then maneuvered it back manually.

Got it.

 

[Raybro]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Still waiting for mine.

 

[Rothgarr]

Looks like you are having a lot of fun! Enjoy. Also great that you can share the fun experience with your family.

This doesn't pertain specifically to you, I think all these videos will be a lot better once the gimbal is out. For now these all look like old FC 40 shaky/jello (but in HD). Until then I think a lot of videos posted will get negative comments and it's not the photographer's fault.

One thing that I have been noticing in a lot of videos, though, is that the Solo's legs seems to be in the shots. Is that due to the lack of gimbal? Or will people have to crop all their videos in addition to running lens correction filters? On my Phantom 2 Vision + I used to on a rare occasion get the legs but on my P3P they moved the camera forward so I've never ever seen the legs yet. Just curious.

 

[Yourviewfromabove]

Excellent, glad to see your seems to be working well

 

[TaniaGail]

Thank you for sharing your initial impressions of Solo. What a lovely park you chose to fly around. As others have stated, the video will be much improved with the addition of a stabilizing gimbal. I still am on the fence about investing in this quadcopter and appreciate those who take the time to post their reviews on this site.

 

[Dirby]

Pre-ordered May 5th from 3DR. Saw on the forum that people were picking them up at Best Buy. Jumped in the car to BB, San Marcos, CA. Two on the shelves. Bought one, extra battery was in stock and given to me. Tried to use USPS 10% off coupon - no go, even pleading with manager. She said because the Solo is a Unilateral Minimum Resale Price (UMRP) item the coupon can't be applied. But I did apply and get approved for BB credit card, gives you 10% store credit with first purchase. That is worth something, ($99.99 store credit.)

I was like a celebrity at Best Buy, they were saying, "You're the first one to buy this! Did you know it can do this thing called orbit?" There must have been half a dozen employees talking to me about it.

When I got home I saw the email 3DR that my Solo would ship next week. (Too late.) Have to cancel my order tomorrow.

After charging and giving it a go, everything works great! I took about 20 minutes of footage. Here is is condensed into 1 minutes. Sorry to the purists for the GoPro studio edits: Only some speed changes + background music. (No stabilization or fisheye removal.) I filmed in wide mode, thus you can see the Solo legs in the shots.

Overall, super happy, and I can't wait for the gimbal.

Feedback on the video? Hopefully not your wife is fat and you are a bad person for flying so close to babies and children.

My First Day with Solo in the Park

By the way, I lost contact with the Solo at 1:04 in the video. I walked (well ran) closer to it, and regained connection and brought her back manually. I think it was already in return to home mode.

i used the usps cupon and got 10 percent off my bill.

 

[Digital Dove]

i used the usps cupon and got 10 percent off my bill.

I went back today with a receipt showing someone else was able to use the Best Buy 10% coupon, and they gave me $108 back! Awesome! I think it really depends on the manager. When I went back, I just went straight to customer service, and didn't see that manager that denied me.

 

[DattaGroover]

Thank you for sharing your initial impressions of Solo. What a lovely park you chose to fly around. As others have stated, the video will be much improved with the addition of a stabilizing gimbal. I still am on the fence about investing in this quadcopter and appreciate those who take the time to post their reviews on this site.

Ditto on that.

 

[DattaGroover]

I went back today with a receipt showing someone else was able to use the Best Buy 10% coupon, and they gave me $108 back! Awesome! I think it really depends on the manager. When I went back, I just went straight to customer service, and didn't see that manager that denied me.

What is the USPS coupon? I assume something that came from BB via snail mail? I'm still out of the country so I wouldn't know.

 

[Digital Dove]

What is the USPS coupon? I assume something that came from BB via snail mail? I'm still out of the country so I wouldn't know.

It is a 10% of coupon for one item at Best Buy included with a change of address pack. People have been using it to buy the Solo $100 cheaper.

You can get it by snail mail if you go to the post office and get the change of address pack or you can get it instantly:

Go to https://www.usps.com/ and on the left hand side, click on "Change of Address". Go through the change. (Forward to your family for a week?) Make sure you give a valid email and they will email you the Best Buy 10% off coupon.

Note the coupon WILL NOT work under normal circumstances because the Solo is a UMRP product. (See terms below.) I was not able to get the manager (in San Marcos, CA) to accept the coupon, she said they'd be fined $20k if they got busted for discounting a UMRP product, BUT others have been successful into talking them into it, or trying to show a receipt where someone has done it and asked for a price match. Mine wouldn't budge, but I went back the next day and went to customer service, avoiding the manager, and they were able to credit me the 10% ($108! - 8 being the CA tax).

Coupon details:

"Offer valid in store only. Excludes Unilateral Minimum Resale Price (UMRP) products, gift cards, services (both in store and in home), Marketplace & special order items. Not valid on BestBuy.com. Visit BestBuy.com/newhomecoupon2 for a complete list of exclusions."

Hope this helps!

 

[DattaGroover]

It is a 10% of coupon for one item at Best Buy included with a change of address pack. People have been using it to buy the Solo $100 cheaper.

You can get it by snail mail if you go to the post office and get the change of address pack or you can get it instantly:

Go to https://www.usps.com/ and on the left hand side, click on "Change of Address". Go through the change. (Forward to your family for a week?) Make sure you give a valid email and they will email you the Best Buy 10% off coupon.

Note the coupon WILL NOT work under normal circumstances because the Solo is a UMRP product. (See terms below.) I was not able to get the manager (in San Marcos, CA) to accept the coupon, she said they'd be fined $20k if they got busted for discounting a UMRP product, BUT others have been successful into talking them into it, or trying to show a receipt where someone has done it and asked for a price match. Mine wouldn't budge, but I went back the next day and went to customer service, avoiding the manager, and they were able to credit me the 10% ($108! - 8 being the CA tax).

Coupon details:

"Offer valid in store only. Excludes Unilateral Minimum Resale Price (UMRP) products, gift cards, services (both in store and in home), Marketplace & special order items. Not valid on BestBuy.com. Visit BestBuy.com/newhomecoupon2 for a complete list of exclusions."

Hope this helps!

Great, thanks!

 

[erikgraham]

i always land upside down at full speed. Is there another way?

 

[Digital Dove]

i always land upside down at full speed. Is there another way?

I did that once... Solo was drifting into a tree and I grabbed its leg, and it flipped over and rotored into the grass. Not a fun situation.