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Drones are flooding both corporate and recreational sectors because they’re inexpensive, valuable tools for business and hobbies. Domino’s and Amazon are looking at these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with dollar bills in their eyes, as drones could dramatically lower costs and expand clientele. Hobbyists are building local communities in their towns, finding new ways to surf, and getting kids into physics and engineering via drones. The possibilities are endless, but one of the early advantages of UAVs, aerial photography, is continuing to advance. More specifically, the ability to have a drone follow you and record whatever it is you may be doing. You could be jogging, riding a bike, climbing a mountain, or swimming in the ocean. It may appear odd to those unfamiliar with drones, but as an enthusiast, it’s thrilling to successfully capture yourself in action, in perfect HD quality, and use that footage however you see fit. Enter AirDog’s “action adventure” drone, the ADII.
The premise is simple: the ADII is there to follow you around and record your outdoor activities, safely and pristinely. The emphasis is on sports, of course, which is sort of hinted at with the waterproof “AirLeash,” a wristband that communicates with the drone, letting it know where you are, how much distance to keep, etc. Similar to the DJI Spark and drones of that ilk, the ADII offers you a variety of light modes to choose from. Do you want to be tracked from a fixed position? Would you like the ADII to rotate as it tracks you? Well, AirDog thought of all this and came up with four separate flight modes.
“Fixed Follow” is exactly what it sounds like: the ADII will keep the same distance from you—or rather, from the AirLeash—throughout the duration of your adventure, and record you from the same fixed angle. “Adaptive follow” has the drone follow you from the front, while “Circle Mode” commands the ADII to follow you while circling around you. Think of a Michael Bay shot, in, well, any of his films. Lastly, there is the ever-present “Panorama” option found on all photograph-capable machines, ever. These are all well and good to include in your action-adventure drone, but what’s really impressive and makes the ADII stand out are the presets for various sports.
According to Forbes, there are 11 presets. If you’re having the ADII capture you surf all day, it would be smart for the ADII not to get too close to the ground, or rather, the water. If you’re playing basketball, it’d be swell if the ADII didn’t fly around the court at eye-level. Thankfully, AirDog anticipated these issues. One minor gripe, however, is the limited flight time of 20 minutes. This curbs your freedom a bit, having to keep that number in your head as you seemingly freely do your thing. Hopefully, this improves with AirDog’s next model. We’ll just have to wait and see. According to Forbes, the ADII will be shipping this August for a price of $1,500.
