Snap

[Tamj]

Specs for Snap 4K flying camera from Vantage Robotics

As you all know, I've been keeping an eye out for a portable second drone to keep with me. As much as I love the Solo, it's like lugging around a DSLR and sometimes you just want to use your phone to take a quick decent picture in the moment.

I just found out about Snap developed by Vantage Robotics. It has an astronomical price point just like the Solo did but it seems somewhat promising. The feature set and 20 minute flight time are all very realistic.

One of the future specs is a one hour flight time though so I don't know what else is sketchy about this product. I also find it strange they don't really specify their warranty policy in their own faq.


I want to believe that this is a great addition but am also skeptical of the results. What do you think?

 

[Maddog]

I think it's just a drawing on paper right now. The performance claims are just that- claims.

When Solo came out it was advertised as having a 25 minute flight time. Anybody getting that even without the gimbal? I don't think so.

Personally, I wouldn't get interested until it is in the hands of users who can verify the claims.

 

[Tamj]

I agree. One of my predictions of what could go wrong is the propeller cage is weak and prone to breaking so you can't just toss it in the bag like they show in the video. I say this because they don't ever mention what it's made of.

I'm going to guess that flight time is usually 5 to 10 minutes less of advertised flight time for any drone on the market so I'll say it's 15 minutes. That's not too terrible for a portable drone.

I see the gimbal may snap off easily and the cup design of it will cause it to have a hard time flying in the wind when facing headwind.

All speculation and would love to be proven wrong though. I hope they do deliver because the feature set is interesting. I really like the idea of aiming with your camera and it'll fly to that position, for example.

 

[dronesquid]

Looks very promising. Seems like a lot of things the market needs right now are being crowd-funded. I just pre-ordered a removable, waterproof wireless gopro gimbal. If I hadn't spent so much money on the solo I might have pre-ordered this one too. Maybe if I book a few extra gigs, it would be dope to have both like the OP mentioned.

Looking at the short amount of footage they have in the youtube highlight, it appears that the gimbal, while efficient and compact, is not nearly as smooth as the solo or similar larger drones.

 

[Maddog]

Looks very promising. Seems like a lot of things the market needs right now are being crowd-funded. I just pre-ordered a removable, waterproof wireless gopro gimbal. If I hadn't spent so much money on the solo I might have pre-ordered this one too. Maybe if I book a few extra gigs, it would be dope to have both like the OP mentioned.

Looking at the short amount of footage they have in the youtube highlight, it appears that the gimbal, while efficient and compact, is not nearly as smooth as the solo or similar larger drones.

You might want to check out how many of these crowd-funded projects never get into production, meaning you just lost all your money.

 

[Tamj]

You might want to check out how many of these crowd-funded projects never get into production, meaning you just lost all your money.

Is that actually true? I thought you get your money back if it does not go into production.

The challenge is for the company not to send you a piece of junk as production and then bail.

 

[Maddog]

Is that actually true? I thought you get your money back if it does not go into production.

The challenge is for the company not to send you a piece of junk as production and then bail.

If the company sinks all the money into R & D and doesn't have enough money for production (for a variety of reasons) how are they going to refund your money? What guarantees do you have?
When you sign up do they guarantee a refund? What if they file for bankruptcy?

 

[Tamj]

All valid points.

At least with this company, they specify that they won't use the fund other than for production. If read from a certain view, it can be interpreted as "we'll try our best to make sure you get your order but it's not guaranteed that we'll make enough for you to get one. First come, first serve."

 

[Maddog]

@Tamj, I just ran across this article. Near the end it talks about crowd-funding. Thought you might be interested.
Why are there so few bad reviews on drones and quadcopters?

 

[Tamj]

@Tamj, I just ran across this article. Near the end it talks about crowd-funding. Thought you might be interested.
Why are there so few bad reviews on drones and quadcopters?

That was a really interesting read. Thank you for sharing.