Last month, DJI released the Phantom 3Standard drone, which slotted in below the Phantom 3 Advanced and Phantom 3Professional in the company's lineup. At the time, DJI promised compatibilitywith a series of intelligent flight modes would be forthcoming in a softwareupdate and the company has now delivered on that promise.
Announced at IFA, the new firmware updatethat will be available on September 7 will bring a total of five intelligentflight modes to all Phantom 3 models, four of which will also be available forthe Inspire 1. The modes, which all require a strong GPS signal, are as follows:
- Waypoints: allows the recordingof a complex flight path that the drone will follow autonomously. Pilots canadjust the angle of the camera while following the flight path, which can besaved for repeating at a later time.
- Point of Interest: will see thedrone circle a point, keeping the camera centered on a target the entire time.The pilot only needs to set the point of focus, altitude, distance and speedand the drone will do the rest.
- Follow Me: as the namesuggests, the drone will follow the pilot (well, technically the transmitterand smartphone) at a fixed altitude and distance. This is the one mode notavailable for the Inspire 1.
- Course Lock: activating thismode will make all flight controls relative to the drone's current heading,regardless of the direction the camera is pointing.
- Home Lock: similar to courselock, but makes the flight controls always relative to the pilot.
DJI also announced the firmware upgradewill up the maximum video resolution of the Phantom 3 Advanced from 1080p/60fpsto 2704x1520p/30fps, which brings it in line with the Phantom 3 Standard.
Source: DJI