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Snap launches its first drone

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Re: Snap launches its first drone

#341

Post by whatshisface »

majormajor wrote: post #290
roughly wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is going to be one of those things where we learn that nobody actually cares about any of that outside these forums. MP3s were garbage, early camera phones were garbage, Snap picture quality generally is garbage, bluetooth headphones suck, all of these things were and are decried by the tech community, and it turns out that people just don't care, because even at garbage quality it's still cool to have a…

Even without the robot angle "cool" aspect of a drone, it's a step along a progression that's shown clear demand: first selfies, then selfie sticks, then no-stick-needed non-selfie selfies.

Drone photography predates selfie sticks.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#342

Post by notjulianjaynes »

throwaway413 wrote: post #136
isp wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video appears to imply that 30 seconds is the default flight time. So I'd estimate 2.5 - 4 minutes of flight time per battery.

So almost 1/10th of the Mini 2 flight time, for 6/10ths the price, and like 2/10ths the featureset and quality of capture. Do people really love Snapchat that much that they’d choose such a trade off for app integration alone? Seems like a tough sell.

I think there's a psychological component at play here where better = worse.

Imagine you're at a party, and someone pulls out their sleek, expensive looking, 4k video drone.

Now imagine someone pulls out this obnoxious yellow square frisbee thing.

Which of these are you more likely to "act natural" around?

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#343

Post by bigiain »

slg wrote: post #137
olafura wrote: post #36

Refreshingly honest about the video quality you should expect in the main promo video. Typical problems like dynamic range, color profile, light bleed and tracking problems with the top of the head being cut off at one point. Pretty typical unless you spend more money on your drone or camera equipment. There are so many companies that fake the footage or pick much easier shooting locations.

That is nice, but there is still intentionally misleading marketing fluff like this: >Each rechargeable battery allows you to capture content for 5-8 flights, depending on the flight mode(s) selected. Rechargeable batteries can be swapped for easy use... Why phrase it like that? That gives zero impression of what the actual battery life is because I have no idea what a "flight" means as a unit of measurement. Just te…

So far as I can tell there are no real spec numbers anywhere. No video size/framerate/resolultion specs I could find (admittedly I only spent 1 or 2 mins clicking around looking for them).

Which kinda indicates the target market they're gonna aim this at. This is for people who want to know "Can I upload the video to Snapchat?" not for people who are wondering "Is this 1080p? Or 720? Surely it can't be 4k?"

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#344

Post by notjulianjaynes »

marstall wrote: post #89

cue my dystopian paranoia self: in a few short years technology like this will enable the effortless creation of a perfect, stylish, witty video of each and every day of your life, shot and edited in complete autonomy. Which shows you at your best. And expresses none of your fears, anxieties, inelegancies, loneliness, family trauma, time wasting or thoughtless cruelty. Fast forward another nanosecond in the singulari…

A drone with the battery life to be able to 24/7 document my

> fears, anxieties, inelegancies, loneliness, family trauma, time wasting or thoughtless cruelty

would be, to put it lightly, a miracle.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#345

Post by ceejayoz »

whatshisface wrote: post #341
majormajor wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without the robot angle "cool" aspect of a drone, it's a step along a progression that's shown clear demand: first selfies, then selfie sticks, then no-stick-needed non-selfie selfies.

Drone photography predates selfie sticks.

No, it doesn’t.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/23/photograph-1...

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#346

Post by robbiemitchell »

andrewgioia wrote: post #12

I think this is such a fun/playful idea, kudos to Snap! Their first hardware product pretty much bombed but this is oddly one of the first consumer tech toys in a while that I've felt I wanted. I can definitely see this being a fun thing to bring out in the backyard or to cookouts/parties, especially as a dad with young kids too. A couple things I'd be a bit worried about: * Battery life would need to last long enoug…

Audible hum won’t matter, the video will be covered with an audio track.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#348

Post by robbiemitchell »

They focused on something obvious: influencer videos are filmed by someone else. What if you didn’t need someone else?

Most drones are aimed at people who want to fly something. This is for people who want to be filmed. Totally different UX and priorities.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#349

Post by NoPicklez »

mNovak wrote: post #19

The camera quality doesn't look great, even in the promo videos. You'd think a software company can put on some some decent color balance at least. Also the video is very wobbly because it's such a small platform and no gimbal. That can be fixed in large part in software too. I suppose they're going for the artistically constrained angle, more like a disposable camera.

Snapchat's video in general is average, their model is all about quick clips as opposed to edited and curated content like Instagram.

I send and receive many snapchats from people, if they were all high quality they would be a pain to load and send.

The people that want great color and stable video will likely be a demographic who do it professionally or are enthusiasts.

Re: Snap launches its first drone

#350

Post by adriand »

tomtheelder wrote: post #309
mitchdoogle wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this supposed to mean? "Flights" is a bad metric if they don't define it. Whatever your age, gender, income, it doesn't change that it's meaningless.

Each flight is a snapchat story appropriate sub-minute interval, like 15-40 seconds sort of thing. I really don't want to sound condescending, but if that isn't immediately obvious then you aren't the target audience.

I’m not a Snapchat user and I just looked through the videos on my phone and I have tons that are in the 15 to 25s range. In fact I have hardly any that are longer than 30s. Short segments of drone video from a durable device you can throw in a bag seem fun and useful.
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