For a long time DJI have ruled the drone market but with increasing problems in the USA accepting electronics from China the USA are fighting back with this amazing drone.

American drone manufacturer, Skydio, has announced the release of the Skydio 2. A more compact, lightweight, autonomous drone with a superior camera, compared to its predecessor, the R1, it is going after the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Air markets.

The Skydio 2 retails at a competitive price point of $999. A 12MP camera, mounted on a 3-axis gimbal and built around Sony’s IMX577 1/2.3” CMOS sensor with Qualcomm’s RedDragon™ QSC605 technology, can deliver up to 4K/60p HDR video. Using 45 megapixels of visual sensing from six 200° color cameras, the drone can detect obstacles in every direction and avoid them. This is Skydio’s foundation for truly autonomous flight, an ‘Onboard AI’ that powers the ‘Skydio Autonomy Engine.’

The drone can reach a maximum autonomous speed of 36 mph and can remain in the air for 23 minutes with up to 3.5 km wireless range. To compare, the DJI Mavic 2 series can fly up to 45 mph remain air bound for up to 31 minutes. Nevertheless, Skydio is also selling the fact their latest release is 50% smaller, lighter, and quieter than the R1.

SENSOR TYPE Sony IMX577
1/2.3” 12.3MP CMOS SENSOR ACTIVE PIXELS 4056 (H) x 3040 (V) LENS APERTURE f/2.8 LENS FOCAL LENGTH 20mm (35mm format equivalent)

LENS DEPTH OF FIELD 1m – ∞SHUTTER SPEED electronic shutter 1 to 1/1920s ISO RANGE video 100-3200

Photo 100-3200 IMAGE SIGNAL PROCESSOR Qualcomm QCS605GPUAdreno™ 615CPU64-bit octa-core Kyro™ 300DSPHexagon™ 685, 2x HVX RESOLUTION and MODES

3840×2160 30 fps
3840×2160 60 fps
3840×2160 48 fps
3840×2160 24 fps
1920×1080 120 fps
1920×1080 60 fps
1920×1080 30 fps
BITRATE 100 Mbps
VIDEO FORMAT MPEG-4 (AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265)
STILL RESOLUTION 4056×3040 (12 MP)STILL FORMATS JPEG, DNG (RAW) STILL MODES Single, Interval DYNAMIC RANGE 13 stops
STORAGE Removable Micro SD Card
UHS Speed Class 3 / V30