The upcoming release of the DJI Avata 360 has been followed by the announcement of the best deals yet on the Antigravity A1 – the only drone so far with similar tech. The A1 is already on sale now, has the same 8K resolution DJI is touting, and has just had a significant drop in price.
As the Digital Camera World drone expert, I tested the Antigravity A1 at a press event while it was still in the late stages of development, and reviewed the release version, and I was stunned with the way a new entrant to the drone market solved tech problems that DJI hadn't yet tackled.
First and foremost, of course, this is the first drone with a 360 degree camera. Let's be fair, the table-toppers in our best 360 camera guide, Insta360, are closely related to Antigravity so there was help there, of course.
To my surprise, though, the A1 was even more ambitious. The slightly steampunk goggles didn't just give the pilot a view from the cockpit (using motion sensors so you can look in any direction), but added a screen on the outside (the 'left eye') so that anyone with you can get an immediate view of what you're seeing. No phone connecting, passwords, logging in or anything. It's a brilliant idea.
The controller, admittedly, seems to owe a bit of its concept to the floating joystick idea that DJI has already introduced with the DJI FPV through to the DJI Avata 2, but that is not a bad thing at all, and Antigravity has put its own s
The drone, too, has an impressive array of features beyond the 8K 360 camera, which means video can be re-framed after the flight (including AI subject tracking). It also boasts collision sensors, motion control, and subject tracking.
Personally, if I were taking this leap, I might be tempted by the bigger bundles – more batteries certainly don't hurt with something so fun to fly:
And it's very hard to forget that you also get to use the software developed by Insta360 which, as far as I'm concerned, is the best 360-degree post-processing software there is, and it works on your phone, your computer, or even as a plugin to your editing app.
The DJI Avata360 is now essentially confirmed – or at least an announcement is on the Marchy 26 – but what that will bring is uncertain. We only know that the main camera resolution will be the same.
