Skip to main content

Versatile photography drone may just be a cinematographer’s dream come true

PowerEye Professional Cinematography Drone Available for Global Pre-Order
It wasn’t that long ago that we were happy with any drone-based photography we could get. That’s no longer quite the case. With both UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and camera technology advancing by the day, if you’re a professional drone photographer, you owe it to yourself to get hold of a pro-grade drone that can deliver the kind of high-quality images you and your clients are after.

Fortunately, PowerVision Technology Group has the answer, courtesy of its new PowerEye professional cinematography drone, which is now available globally for pre-order.

A veritable beast of a photography drone, PowerEye boasts a dual-camera setup, allowing users to watch two video streams simultaneously, either in split-screen or picture-in-picture mode. Then there’s the high-performance 4K UHD camera, and the option of a “PowerEye Thermal” variant that features a cutting-edge thermal and natural light camera. Oh, and did we mention that photographers can use their own lenses?

“A lot of people want to change the lens for this kind of drone, but they can’t,” Chih-Che Tsai, CEO of PowerVision Robot Corporation, told Digital Trends. “PowerEye allows you to change your lens as you want. By default, we have a very high-class lens that comes with the drone, aimed at professionals. But you can also change to your own lenses.”

It also has the ability to carry payloads of around 6.6-pounds, can log close to 30 minutes of flight time on a single charge, and features some impressive object-detection technology that will provide you with ample warning if your beloved UAV is about to collide with something.

It’s pretty much all you could want in a pro-grade camera drone — right down to the ability to easily transport it. “For PowerEye, you don’t need a big case when you travel,” Tsai continued. “You can put it inside your backpack. That portability, the ability to carry it around, is a big differentiator. You can fold its four arms to let you take it anywhere you want.”

If you want to pre-order a unit, you can do so on the company’s website, where a basic model (minus the thermal imaging) will set you back $3,988, which includes a range of accessories.

“We believe that we’re offering professionals a better option [than other drones,]” Tsai said. “That’s why we’re so excited.”

And, hey, if you don’t quite have the budget to cover a PowerEye of your own, PowerVision also offers a few lower-end, consumer-facing UAVs such as the unique PowerEgg drone!

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
AI turned Breaking Bad into an anime — and it’s terrifying
Split image of Breaking Bad anime characters.

These days, it seems like there's nothing AI programs can't do. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, deepfakes have done digital "face-offs" with Hollywood celebrities in films and TV shows, VFX artists can de-age actors almost instantly, and ChatGPT has learned how to write big-budget screenplays in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, AI will probably decide who wins at the Oscars.

Within the past year, AI has also been used to generate beautiful works of art in seconds, creating a viral new trend and causing a boon for fan artists everywhere. TikTok user @cyborgism recently broke the internet by posting a clip featuring many AI-generated pictures of Breaking Bad. The theme here is that the characters are depicted as anime characters straight out of the 1980s, and the result is concerning to say the least. Depending on your viewpoint, Breaking Bad AI (my unofficial name for it) shows how technology can either threaten the integrity of original works of art or nurture artistic expression.
What if AI created Breaking Bad as a 1980s anime?
Playing over Metro Boomin's rap remix of the famous "I am the one who knocks" monologue, the video features images of the cast that range from shockingly realistic to full-on exaggerated. The clip currently has over 65,000 likes on TikTok alone, and many other users have shared their thoughts on the art. One user wrote, "Regardless of the repercussions on the entertainment industry, I can't wait for AI to be advanced enough to animate the whole show like this."

Read more