A new FAA report is confirming what we imagine many responsible camera drone enthusiasts fear: the number of idiotic drone pilots is on the rise, and they're threatening to ruin it for everyone or, far worse, cause a full-scale air disaster.
DJI better watch out, because the camera that is commonly attached to its most popular line of Drones might soon have a drone of its very own. That's right, we're talking about GoPro, and the Wall Street Journal claims the company is planning to release its own line of drones next year.
The FAA has been working on a set of regulations for commercial drone use for months now, and according to the most recent reports, the results of all that work are some extremely strict rules that include requiring a full-blown pilot's license if you intend to sell what you're capturing.
A group of drone pilots in France have found a very different use for their custom-built camera drones than your typical, beautiful or incredible aerial images of a landscape. Cameras rolling, they instead race their flying machines through an expertly laid out forest track... Star Wars style.
In a bill meant to bring California's privacy laws into a drone-heavy 21st century, the state just signed an act into law that will make it both illegal and very expensive for anybody seeking to invade someone else's privacy by taking photos of them with a camera drone.
Government agencies aren't exactly known for speed or efficiency. Hank Green once said that, "if Congress was on fire they couldn't pass the 'pour water on Congress' bill," and most people would probably agree with him.
Fortunately, the FAA is defying the stereotype somewhat by taking concrete steps towards allowing properly regulated commercial drone photography and cinematography, the first of which was giving six production companies an official stamp of approval.
An Australian man learned earlier this year that just because you’ve disassembled your drone and packed it safely away in a number of Pelican cases, it doesn’t mean it can’t cause troubles when undeclared in the cargo bay of your international flight.
Yellowstone is no longer taking a slap-on-the-wrist, "we'll let you off with a warning" approach to people who violate the park's ban on camera drones. Egged on by several incidents since the ban went into effect, the park is starting to file criminal charges against violators that could mean $5,000 fines and/or 6 months in jail.
Photography drones are facing a perilous atmosphere of distrust and legal chaos. In these circumstances, even small mistakes can have big consequences. A shift in public sentiment against private drone usage could easily result in the application of restrictive regulations, or perhaps even conditional bans.
Just got your hands on a drone and can't wait to use it to shoot aerial photographs? First, make sure you only use it where it can legally fly. If you're not sure where to look for this info, there's a new website designed just for you.
It's called Don't Fly Drones Here (DFDH), and is an interactive map that shows off limit areas of the US by shading them in with red.
A group of researchers from MIT want your next lighting rig to be autonomous and airborne. Set to be on display this August at the Symposium on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization and Imaging, they've actually developed a drone that automatically and dynamically lights a subject (living or otherwise) for a photographer while he or she focuses on getting the shot.
Yesterday, the story of two DJI Phantom quadcopters endangering an NYPD helicopter made the rounds online. Initial reports claimed that the two 'drones' were flying right at the helicopter forcing the NYPD pilot to take evasive action before following the Phantoms back to their source and taking the RC pilots into custody.
The air traffic control recording and several statements from the pilots themselves, however, seem to run contrary to what the NYPD is claiming, making it look like the helicopter was never in danger and, in fact, chased down the pilots with no idea what to even charge them with.
Update: Initial reports that the 'drones' flew at the helicopter may not be entirely accurate. Click here to read our followup coverage.
Earlier this week, two drones narrowly avoided a collision with a New York Police Department’s helicopter just over the George Washington Bridge. It took aversion maneuvers by the quick-thinking helicopter pilot to ensure no collision took place. But just because there wasn’t any critical harm done doesn’t mean the individuals behind the reckless drones are getting off free.
It looks like Photojojo aren't the only ones getting into the drone rental service. Student at the University of South Florida will soon be able to check out the controversial, camera-toting, remote-controlled flying machines straight from the campus library.
The inevitable has arrived. After a number of individual national parks placed a ban on drones, The National Park Services is telling the Associated Press that it will soon ban the use of drones in all 401 parks across the United States.
Photojojo comes from humble beginnings as a newsletter for the photography community, but it is a humble newsletter no more. Since those days, it has evolved into one of the go-to resources for the latest trendy gear, gadgets and accessories, and today, they announced their expansion into yet another market: rentals.
It's only an idea, a thought experiment that is equal parts cool and terrifying from a privacy perspective, but the Gofor concept is definitely turning heads. Right now, getting into drone photography is pretty pricey, but Gofor imagines a world where you could rent one right from your smartphone.
One of the judges of the National Transportation Safety Board (the NTSB) ruled yesterday that the FAA has no authority to regulate drones, striking down a six-year-old ban on commercial drones and saving a Swiss drone operator $10,000 that the FAA was trying to fine him.
Under the FAA's remote control guidelines, most photographers and videographers can get away with doing as much UAV photography as they want. Problems arise when you try to turn your aerial photography into a business, as one Minnesota-based company found out earlier this week.
What do you get when you combine 368 5MP cellphone cameras into a mosaic and add some other super-secret parts? You get the DARPA-funded Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (or ARGUS-IS), and this puppy can see your house from, well, wherever it darn well pleases.
Altogether, ARGUS-IS is a 1.8 Gigapixel drone-mounted surveillance system that took 30 months and $18.5M to become a reality. The video above is a clip from a new PBS documentary titled "Rise of the Drones". It offers a fascinating peek at what the drone cam is capable of.