I’ve always fancied getting a drone. The trouble is, with anything of the ‘domestic’ variety I just know I would not be satisfied with either the stability of the platform or the quality of the pictures.
This one is the DJI Phantom FC40 and it’s available from Maplin in the UK for £369.
Now then, it shoots 720 p at 30 frames per second (fps). I want 1080p at 25 fps, so I can edit and burn British/European standard DVDs and Blu-ray disks without all the jerkiness of frame rate conversion.
Here comes the rant
One thing almost all manufacturers of almost anything with a video component forget is that video standards vary across the world. In this case, do they therefore produce a version of the drone that shoots British, PAL, 25fps video format to sell in Europe? No. You can have American NTSC 30fps and lump it. It’s as if they are saying “It shoots video – what more do you want?”
To compound the problem, let’s be honest, most of the British and European customers are too ignorant of the technicalities to realise they are being ignored! I suppose if all they want is to take a few shots of their house, or the beach, from 100 ft up and put it on YouTube they won’t know any different. However, should they happen to want to edit it properly and mix it with genuine British 25fps 1080p ‘telly, it’s going to look awful.
Given the lack of knowledge on the part of the customers, I suppose it’s hardly surprising that manufacturers ignore them. After all, they probably sell no fewer due to having an American format camera built-in. So . . . why should they care – they’ve already got your money.
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