It was almost a year ago that rumors first surfaced about GoPro building its own consumer quadcopter, with the company finally confirming the news back in May.
To many it was a no-brainer – the company already makes the camera gear seen on so many remotely-controlled flying machines these days, so a drone of its own made perfect sense.
Although it’s been pretty quiet about the project in recent months, on Wednesday GoPro posted a teaser video showing off some of the footage shot by its copter-camera combo. And it looks awesome.
What really stands out is the silky-smooth stability of the captured footage, which the California-based company is keen to point out was not achieved in post-production.
Sure, the footage was taken in what look to be very calm conditions, but the copter’s apparent steadiness in flight and clearly impressive gimbal suggest GoPro could have a hit on its hands when its machine finally lands on the market. What we really want to know are key specs such as flying time and price, but the company is for now staying tight-lipped.
GoPro describes the current model as an “advanced prototype quadcopter,” while the video’s closing shot indicates the camera used to shoot the footage was a Hero4. However, we can expect that GoPro’s final drone design will allow buyers to choose from its full range of available cameras, with the devices able to be swapped out.
The machine should be on the market in the first half of 2016, and judging by the teaser, the company could soon be well placed to take on the likes of DJI, currently the leader in the consumer drone market.
