Hopefully this post won't be removed for mention of a competitor's product, because I am sincerely looking for an answer. I am a long-term DJI fan/customer but this competitor's product does what I want, and it does it right now. I can't speak for the quality or any other features of the quad but the demo videos are impressive. DJI, do you have anything coming out this year with follow and obstacle avoidance capabilities on the same level as the Skydio R1? I'm planning out a purchase for later this year and would love to invest more with DJI equipment if you'll have a product that meets my needs.

I find it pretty unlikely that DJI would have something coming out in 2018 that's as good as the R1 for follow and obstacle avoidance. I've bought so many DJI products since the P2V in 2013, and was so disappointed in the Mavic's follow capabilities. Back in 2016 I made this video with a Mavic but it took an hour, 3 full batteries and I included all usable footage from that session. Not even really good enough to show off to my friends and certainly no where near good enough to actually use on my rides. - I tried again a year later and it was no better at all. Useless in real life.

Fast forward to Feb 2018 and I attended a Skydio demo day and then ordered one. I've been flying it for about 5 weeks now and it is astounding. Not perfect by any means but it's version 1.0 and will improve. It's only the R1 - if DJI gets it together to equal the R1, Skydio is probably hard at work on the R2, so for this niche (and it is a niche) I don't think DJI is likely to be a threat soon. I just hope Skydio can sell enough of these to stay in business as we all benefit from healthy competition and DJI just doesn't have enough.

I have a bunch of videos on my vimeo and youtube channels. Here's a sample:

nhoover Posted at 2018-4-11 14:47
I find it pretty unlikely that DJI would have something coming out in 2018 that's as good as the R1 for follow and obstacle avoidance. I've bought so many DJI products since the P2V in 2013, and was so disappointed in the Mavic's follow capabilities. Back in 2016 I made this video with a Mavic but it took an hour, 3 full batteries and I included all usable footage from that session. Not even really good enough to show off to my friends and certainly no where near good enough to actually use on my rides. - I tried again a year later and it was no better at all. Useless in real life.

Fast forward to Feb 2018 and I attended a Skydio demo day and then ordered one. I've been flying it for about 5 weeks now and it is astounding. Not perfect by any means but it's version 1.0 and will improve. It's only the R1 - if DJI gets it together to equal the R1, Skydio is probably hard at work on the R2, so for this niche (and it is a niche) I don't think DJI is likely to be a threat soon. I just hope Skydio can sell enough of these to stay in business as we all benefit from healthy competition and DJI just doesn't have enough.

I agree that it's not likely DJI will come anywhere close to something like the R1's capabilities. However, the lack of stabilization with the R1 makes a $2500 investment not worth it to me, even with what it offers. It's like, "It can track me beautifully, but the footage is horrendous".
Edit: Just watched the second video you posted and I may stand corrected on the "lack of stabilization" bit. The footage as not so bad there.

Yes somehow the idea that the R1 doesn't have any stabilization has been out there. Don't know why really. It has a nice gimbal that works pretty well. It is working a bit harder than DJI in that it is able to follow up to 25mph rather than just 22.4mph. In the final result there are times where it shakes a little too much doing an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision but I would rather edit those occasional sections out than have a crash like the Mavic does so easily, so often.  It's also shooting 4k-30 at 80mbps rather than 60 like the Mavic. Glad you liked the sample. There are more on my channel.

nhoover Posted at 2018-4-17 15:59
Yes somehow the idea that the R1 doesn't have any stabilization has been out there. Don't know why really. It has a nice gimbal that works pretty well. It is working a bit harder than DJI in that it is able to follow up to 25mph rather than just 22.4mph. In the final result there are times where it shakes a little too much doing an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision but I would rather edit those occasional sections out than have a crash like the Mavic does so easily, so often.  It's also shooting 4k-30 at 80mbps rather than 60 like the Mavic. Glad you liked the sample. There are more on my channel.

I personally got the idea from the footage I’ve seen online. The stabilization it has is not great compared to what many other aerial cameras offer. For $2500, even with the tracking capability, I would say the stabilization is not even good (again, based on previous footage I’ve seen). That’s just my opinion though. Perhaps gen2 will seal the deal for me.

nhoover Posted at 2018-4-17 15:59
Yes somehow the idea that the R1 doesn't have any stabilization has been out there. Don't know why really. It has a nice gimbal that works pretty well. It is working a bit harder than DJI in that it is able to follow up to 25mph rather than just 22.4mph. In the final result there are times where it shakes a little too much doing an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision but I would rather edit those occasional sections out than have a crash like the Mavic does so easily, so often.  It's also shooting 4k-30 at 80mbps rather than 60 like the Mavic. Glad you liked the sample. There are more on my channel.

I personally got the idea from the footage I’ve seen online. The stabilization it has is not great compared to what many other aerial cameras offer. For $2500, even with the tracking capability, I would say the stabilization is not even good (again, based on previous footage I’ve seen). That’s just my opinion though. Perhaps gen2 will seal the deal for me.

This video just caught my eye.

Something DJI could do to blow away the competition, would be to upgrade its active track to match these capabilities. Wow.

Danger Lampost Posted at 2018-7-6 07:33
This video just caught my eye.

Something DJI could do to blow away the competition, would be to upgrade its active track to match these capabilities. Wow.

Will take some serious hardware and software upgrades to accomplish this. The R1 utilizes 13 cameras and software developed from the ground up to do exactly what the R1 does.

nhoover Posted at 2018-4-11 14:47
I find it pretty unlikely that DJI would have something coming out in 2018 that's as good as the R1 for follow and obstacle avoidance. I've bought so many DJI products since the P2V in 2013, and was so disappointed in the Mavic's follow capabilities. Back in 2016 I made this video with a Mavic but it took an hour, 3 full batteries and I included all usable footage from that session. Not even really good enough to show off to my friends and certainly no where near good enough to actually use on my rides. https://vimeo.com/194118072 - I tried again a year later and it was no better at all. Useless in real life.

Fast forward to Feb 2018 and I attended a Skydio demo day and then ordered one. I've been flying it for about 5 weeks now and it is astounding. Not perfect by any means but it's version 1.0 and will improve. It's only the R1 - if DJI gets it together to equal the R1, Skydio is probably hard at work on the R2, so for this niche (and it is a niche) I don't think DJI is likely to be a threat soon. I just hope Skydio can sell enough of these to stay in business as we all benefit from healthy competition and DJI just doesn't have enough.

Great footages of R1, I love it when it follows you under the bridge and through the tunnel because R1 doesn't rely on GPS navigation.