Drones are fun for getting great video angles that you just can’t recreate just with a handheld smartphone. But for some, drones are a luxury expense at USD$400 or more. This is why an outfit called xCraft is putting up the “PhoneDrone Ethos” up for a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign – because it’s a cheaper drone and it uses your phone as the camera, if you’re ready for that kind of risk and commitment.
The question the developers ask is why spend a lot of money on a drone and a separate camera when your smartphone already has that? So they developed a drone that can carry your phone up in the air and use its camera to give you the footage you need. Of course, your camera will be a purely “look down” camera if that happens, so they also developed a mirror system so you can get footage from forward views (using the front camera), and side views.
It’s not the same thing that you can get with a drone mounted GoPro camera, but if you can get it for USD$195 (early bird price), then some people might consider this a deal. The developers “kind of” ensure the safety of your phone with shock protection and a redundant nav system that brings your phone home in case it fails. Also, to reduce risk, you can always buy a cheaper secondary phone (something you might already have) to load onto the drone.
Does this sound like a good deal to you? The drone is compatible with most modern Android devices (and iOS devices as well). The developers are already well over their USD$100,000 target, but the ship date is still almost a year from now – September 2016. Let us know if you think this is a good product to fund.
SOURCE: Kickstarter
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