Although first-person view (FPV) drones are outside the wheelhouse of most photographers, DJI’s latest FPV solution is designed with content creators in mind and has superior imaging capabilities.
The DJI O4 Air Unit Series is a digital video transmission solution for an “unmatched first-person view flight experience”. there are two new productsDJI O4 Air Unit and O4 Air Unit Pro. The latter is far more interesting in terms of imaging capabilities, but for the sake of completeness, the standard O4 Air unit sports a Type 1/2 image sensor and captures 4K/60p video.
The Pro version, on the other hand, has a larger Type 1/1.3 image sensor and can record 4K/120p video. The Pro unit also supports 10-bit D-Log M color mode for video. DJI says this video mode offers extended dynamic range, meaning users can capture more detail in shadow and highlight areas. The sensor is paired with a 155-degree ultra-wide lens, which is similar to the field of view offered by many action cameras. This is equivalent to a 12mm lens on a full-frame camera, and the maximum aperture is a fairly bright f/2.8.
This ultra-wide view makes sense considering how people are expected to use the DJI O4 Air Unit Series camera module. The module connects to a separate drone to provide video transmission to the FPV goggles, enabling first-person flight and capturing cinematic scenes. Traditionally, drone pilots stick an action camera to their drones to capture this kind of dynamic video, but now they can use the DJI O4 Air Unit Pro instead.
The O4 Air Unit Pro is actually the same camera module that is in DJI’s own FPV drones, avatar 2This means that DJI’s Avata 2 ND filter set, which includes ND8, ND16, and ND32 filters, fits the new O4 Air Unit Pro camera module. As Cinedie notes In its coverage, like the Avata 2 camera module, the O4 Air Unit Pro cannot record 24p or 25p video, which may be a limitation for typical filmmaking applications.
The DJI O4 Air unit can fit any drone frame smaller than two inches, so it will work with a wide range of drones from many different manufacturers. The O4 Air Unit Pro fits drones three inches and larger. The O4 Air Unit weighs just 8.2 grams, while the Air Unit Pro is a little heavier at 32 grams, though that’s still not a significant amount of weight to add to the drone.
The O4 Air Unit can transmit video up to 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) with 20 millisecond latency, while the dual-antenna design of the O4 Air Unit Pro can transmit video up to 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) with 15-millisecond latency.
Another notable difference is that the O4 Air Unit Pro also has a microSD card slot for storing additional footage – the module only has 4GB of storage – whereas the standard O4 Air Unit doesn’t have a card slot but has 23GB of internal storage instead. .
Pricing and Availability
The DJI O4 Air Unit Series is now available to order from DJI and authorized retailers. O4 Air Unit is $109When O4 Air Unit Pro is $229,
Image Credit: DJI