Selfie Drone. . . .Not!

I have been looking at the new trending market of "Selfie Drones". My plan was to enhance my kayak wildlife photography, "Paddling Places - Florida" video series and kayaking product reviews with this new addition to my ever growing inventory of cameras and support gear.

Advanced Elements Expedition XL

Now as you can see all or most of my photography is taken from a kayak. Currently I have to place my camera on a dock, a floating tripod, a GoPro mount on the kayak or a pole. Adding an aerial perspective would enhance my productions 10 fold. But I must trust it. I have to be able to hand-launch and hand-land these type selfie-drones. Also altitude hold is a must. You can see why, one failure its gone, sunk to the bottom of the lake, or river I'm reviewing.

Now selfie drones are not to be confused with mini-drones. A Selfie Drone is a close proximity
multi functional, autonomous still and video drone. Whereas a mini-drone is a smaller version of the standard drone. There is a huge difference.

With that in mind I have some requirements that must be met in a real selfie-drone.

• Face aware Hand Launch
• Hand Land-able 
• Self holding
• Max height 100 ft
• Max distance 100 ft
• Auto Pull Away
• Altitude hold
• Compact
• Folding prop arms
• 4K or 1080p 60fps stabilized
• Automatic Subject Tracking
• Facial Tracking
• Follow-me
• Orbit Mode
• Gesture Recognition
• Flight Time of 10+ minutes
• Maintain connectivity 
• RELIABLE APPLICATION
• Android and IOS application with no compatibility issues

Well, does that sound like a lot? Not really the technology already exists the problem really is the simple definition between a selfie-drone and a mini-drone. Many manufactures are really mixing up stuff with a selfie drone but jamming in some stuff that is in the standard drone like speed, height and distance and calling it a selfie drone. Lets take a look. 

A selfie drone at 150 feet is not a selfie. It is a postage stamp! If one wants to take high altitude videos there are a lot of standard drones on the market currently and now also in the mini-drone market. A standard drone is not for everyone. It's a specialized market and so that same thought should be in the new selfie-drone market. It's not the case though. It is a mixed bagged at best. But that's not the real problem here.

All these mini-drones and so called selfie drones all have the same problems. Their manufacturing of the drone itself is beyond outstanding in most cases. Just looked at the new DJI Spark, all I can say is wow! But as with all the others their cell applications are horrible, undependable and just not ready for prime time use. Look you're flying a mini or selfie $500 drone and it takes off never to be seen again, or goes way high and looses connection and slams to the ground shattering in to pieces. All because the Cellphone App fails. All this great technology in these great minis and selfie drones is worthless with horrible Application support. Also with many of these applications have major compatibility issues. Now they don't give you these compatibility problems on their websites so you assume all is good. NOT!!!

So lets take a case in point. We are going to look at 2 Selfie-Drones I personally tried out and both I had really high hopes for only to be dashed by horrible Cellphone Applications. Firstly, the Yuneec Breeze. The technology packed into this great drone was outstanding. Went out the first day downloaded the "BreezeCam App" turned on the Breeze and the app. The App walked me through the WiFi connection process. Yup went to my wifi on my Pixel XL shows connected. Returned to the Breeze Cam app and it kept asking me to connect to my WiFi. I checked several times and each time it shows connected but not on the app. So, apparently there is a compatibility issue with either Android phones some or most of them. However IOS devices, well most of them there is no problem. I did launch and fly this outstanding selfie drone using a 2 Gen iPad. But with a tablet (IOS) kind of defeats the purpose of this selfie-drone. Breeze 4K compact selfie-drone being flown with a large tablet. Kinda defeats it purpose. Well unless you own a iPhone. Also, I could not hand-launch or hand-land this drone and the prop arms were not collapsible. So I decided to return this item and try the Dobby. 

The next day I had a Zerotech Dobby. This drone is controlled by an application called Do.Fun. Well it should say No.Fun. The same exact problem with my Pixel XL, also Samsung. The application would not recognize my Wi-Fi connection even though it was connected. Same thing again I hooked it up to my iPad and connection was great. Had one excellent flight. But other issues reared their ugly heads like constant App crashes and turnoffs. Also, inconsistent satellite connections. One minute 8, then 10, then none then back to 8. Just would not show any consistency which is a must with any drone. The Dobby was the closest to meet all my qualifications. Voice activation did not work and the hand-land icon was not on the app as advertised along with a couple others. The hand-launch (once I found it) and hand-land worked flawlessly but the Application killed this drone. It was a shame. 

Then more research, and more research. It seems this is the current theme with all these Selfie-Drones. I looked at several. Like the HoverPassport. This particular seemed to meet all my qualifications, but again Application issues. Connection issues, compatibility issues and the feared fly away issue. 

Look, all these Selfie-drones are jammed packed with features. The R&D placed into the development of these drones is spectacular. But they have failed to place the same attention into their flight applications. It's funny, well not really, this problem is rampant throughout this entire market. It doesn't matter what type of wifi drone you have or want. Until this WiFi Application issue is fixed you will own a $500 paperweight.

So here they are some of the best Selfie-Drones all with the same problem...Application support.