DJI Releases Smartphone-Friendly Stabilizer & More

Drone-maker DJI has been releasing new products at a pretty frenzied clip and CES 2017 was no exception. The company unveiled a new OSMO stabilizer, a new professional flying app for iPads, a special edition Phantom 4 drone and a preview of new external monitors that are ideal for outdoor drone navigation.

Among the new releases is the Osmo Mobile stabilizer. Similar to the original Osmo (reviewed here), the Osmo Mobile is designed to steady smartphones. It’s designed for use with the DJI GO app and supports subject tracking, motion time lapses, long exposures and 9-shot panoramic images.

The Osmo Mobile features a Beautify mode that taps automatic identification and processing technologies of the DJI GO app to do minor touchups. The stabilizer will also work with the FiLMiC Pro app. You’ll enjoy about 4.5 hours of run time on the Osmo Mobile’s battery.

The Osmo Mobile will ship this month for $299.

Original Osmo owners can purchase the new Zenmuse M1 gimbal, which will enable them to mount a smartphone to the original Osmo stabilizer. The M1 will set you back $169.

While DJI didn’t have any completely new drones at CES, they did trot out a custom Phantom 4 designed by Martin Sati. The Chinese New Year Edition Phantom 4 sports a phoenix as the centerpiece, which is a symbol of good fortune and happiness in Chinese mythology. This special edition drone will be sold exclusively through Apple and DJI retail outlets this month for $1,199.

DJI is also releasing a new iPad app dubbed Ground Station Pro (GS Pro) that lets pilots plan and control autonomous flights. The app lets pilots create 3D maps of routes they’ve flown that can be saved for reuse. You can program up to 99 waypoints per flight and each waypoint can have 15 consecutive action (aircraft rotation, gimbal pitch, start/stop recording, photo capture, and hover) unfold automatically. The app also supports a virtual fence to stop a drone from flying beyond a given zone.

The app is free and compatible with most DJI drones.

Finally, DJI showed off a new outdoor monitor for its drones. The CrystalSky monitor offers a brightness of 2000 cd/m² and can decode both H.264 and H.265 video. It features an HDMI output, micro SD card slot to record footage and comes with the DJI Go app built in.

DJI says the monitor’s external battery has been designed to operate in temperatures as low as -4°F (-20°C) and, with its internal cooling system, functions normally in temperatures as high as 104°F (40°C). The company plans two versions of the monitor– a 7.85-inch version and a 5.5-inch model with up to 5 and up to 6 hours of battery life, respectively. Pricing and availability were not announced.