PowerEYE • PowerVisions m43 camera platform finally ships

The PowerEYE is a m43 camera quad I have been waiting for in a big way.  since InterDrone 2016,  and  I want to say its the first production aerial platform with a m43 camera outside of DJI products.  but its not entirely so.... More on that later.
Back to the exciting parts here,  PowerVision is new on the drone stage,  and what we are looking at here is a proper m43 camera platform with almost 30 minutes of flight time, 3+ mile range with HD video download. DUAL Operator option and a Pilot flight camera, not to forget forward looking obstacle avoidance...  For $3800.

Im still updating this article,  lots of details are becoming clear as i get more flight time,  PLEASE ASK questions in the comments below,  I will try to answer and also add the answers to the article.   so help me by asking the obvious stuff that I have not touched on yet. :-)

In-depth unbox video.. dont forget to check out the rest of the article by scrolling down 

One more video with Jon & I talking about the PowerEYE in Vegas 

A couple years ago we would have paid in excess of $10.000 for a aircraft capable of lifting a micro four thirds camera, or a DSLR for that matter.  now suddenly we have choices,  the inspire products and now the PowerVision PowerEYE.  

Skipping straight to it.   What do we get for $3800 these days?
The PowerEye is a 650mm size m43 camera platform, which is larger than its competitors the inspire 1 & 2 , yet it come in a surprisingly small case,  it travels in a "carry-on" type case, a bit thicker than the average carry on.  the size is the result of a couple interesting design choices by PowerVision.  specifically the folding arms with locking rings, and removable landing gear for transport.


PowerEYE wheeled case on the left,   Yuneec Hpro backpack and original Inspire-1 case,  the inspire 2 case is a bit larger again but not that much.

The PowerEYE's signature feature is the m43 camera.
There is no question about this,  all the other features on the PowerEYE is simply supporting actors to the m43 camera.
The m43 camera means a large sensor,  and interchangeable lenses.
Unlike the typical drone camera with a fixed focal length typically very wide-angle. with a interchangeable lens camera, you the cinematographer can chose the field of view best suited to your scene and subject.
The PowerEYE is capable of lifting most m43 lenses from 8mm to 45mm.  
Im a huge fan of drone shots with long lenses, framing your subject with a long lens combined with a slow move with the aircraft creates a slow movement in a tight shot.
* Got a question about settings options.   You CAN adjust, ISO, ShutterSpeed, Aperture while flying,  (and tap to focus)

PowerVision list the following lenses as recommended for the PowerEYE
Panasonic Lumix G 14mm F2.5 ASPH INCLUDED in the kit.
Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8
Olympus M.Zuiko ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ(zoom)  
Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f1.8
Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f1.8


With the lens removed you can clearly see the m43 sensor in the camera.

VIDEO... 
Sooooo.....  well, in the current app there are really no wide selection for video modes.  
The bandwidth is  60mbps.  You get to chose resolution and frame-rate. 
Aside from that there are adjustments for ISO, Shutter, Aperture and WhiteBalance in the app.
By default each variable is set to AUTO.  auto iso, shutter, aperture and AWB. 
Odly, you there is no ISO selection on the video page, you jump to still-shot to set the ISO.
I would like a quick select to switch into auto made and have ALL variables on ONE page, regardless if its video or still shot.   maybe a toggle on top of that screen to toggle Video and still.

The inspector pane from QuickTime player, 4K is 4096x2160 24fps 58.70mbits *you can select FPS in the app but not bandwidth options.

Adjustable aperture MJAH.
One feature Im personally not that keen on in the aerial camera platform is shooting fast lenses wide open.  this works great for portraiture etc, but when shooting from 100 feet in the air,  shallow depth of field just don't really do much for the shot.  I do open up, but mostly to get the shutter speed I want in the evening.

FLIGHT MODES
The PowerEYE have 3 flight modes,  E - N - P  
The mode selector is a TINY switch on the top right shoulder of the controller.  I realize why the switch is small, they don't want you to flick it by accident... so that rules out a BIG switch, but maybe a slider with a long movement?
E - Mode - or EASY mode, which most of us would be calling "Orientation mode"
The mode is described like this:   The Flight Control system use GPS signal to make operation of easier and more intuitive, the forward direction is defined by the line from the remote control to the aircraft, making it easier for the pilot to operate the aircraft regardless of the devices actual orientation.  
N - Mode - or NORMAL mode,   this would be what most of us call "GPS-hold mode".
The mode is described like this: The flight control system support hover and hold using either GPS or the optical guidance system.   When there is strong GPS signal available, the system use GPS for flight, otherwise, it use the optical guidance system.   IF the flight control system is unable to get reliable data from either the GPS or Optical guidance system, the system will switch to P mode.
P - Mode - or PROFESIONAL mode,   this would be what most of us call "attitude".
The mode is described like this:   In "P mode" the flight control system provide only stabilization and altitude maintenance, utilizing the sonar system on the bottom of the PowerEYE,  all other flight control is the responsibility of the operator.

FORWARD OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE  and pilot camera.
The two big forward looking eyes is the optical obstacle avoidance system,  the system starts beeping when you get close to a object.    In the app, you will also see a grid overlay in the top half of the image, which goes from green to red when obstacles are ahead of the camera.
The pilot camera, is HUGE, it give the pilot a strong understanding of the aircrafts orientation, and you can fly FPV with the camera to get more accurate positioning at a distance.  that said, there is a small delay and you should not try to fly low-level FPV with the pilot flight camera. 

DOWN FACING positioning and altitude sensors
Unlike the forward sensors, down-facing sensors have been standard on most better quads for several years now.   Same on the PowerEYE,  the two fins on the rear of the body house the down facing ultrasound sensors for altitude control and on the front of the body you find the down facing positioning camera.  I call it the "Drift Camera"  because it looks at texture on the ground and prevents the aircraft from drifting at low level.   in the "good ol days" we would see a quad sliding a bit sideways on take off,  this is gone with drift-cameras and nobody miss the sideways drift on take-off and landings.


The Ultra Sound sensors mounted on two fins to keep them well clear of the camera.


The downwards looking optical sensor mounted all the way to the front to avoid being blocked by the camera.

DUAL OPERATOR
The PowerEYE was born to be a dual-operator platform from the beginning, designed to be operated by a pilot and a camera-operator.   from the dual-operator perspective, the build in pilot camera is a big deal,     it mean the pilot can fly using the fixed forward camera. and the camera operator can pan freely without worry about the moving camera image confusing the pilots orientation.  interestingly the PowerEYE was introduced at InterDrone 2016 in Las Vegas,  several months before DJI's inspire2 was announced with a revolutionary new feature "the pilot camera" which the PowerEYE already had.

SMART BATTERY
You can't help noticing the ENORMOUS battery,  its HUGE.  turns out its little two batteries stuck together,  each unit is 6S 4500mah,  the click into the battery control unit which become the top of the battery and also contain the remaining power indicator.  pushing the clip on the battery-control-unit release the batteries and you can now travel with them as 4500mah batteries.   
There is a big advantage to the monster battery,  lots of power, and the PowerEYE handles the m43 camera with more power to spare than my inspire1,  and gets longer flight time because its literally twice the size of the inspire1 batteries. 

SPECS:
650mm quad
3950grams with camera and batteries
Flight time,  close to 30 minutes
SMART battery two-in-one 9000mah
*legal for traveling because its TWO 6s 4500mah's essentially.

 

PowerEYE shipping case.

Here you can see the PowerEYE case from the top, its smaller but deeper than the original inspire case

Inspire1 vs the PowerEYE,   the PowerEYE camera have a smidge more ground clearance, well at least my inspire-1 is lower because I did not put the taller feet on the legs of the inspire and instead pick a nice flat landing spot.  the vertical lights under the motors is the long-distance antennas, the inspire have essentially the same antennas, except they are embedded in the landing gear on the inspire.   on the rear of the PowerEYE body you can see the structure holding the down-facing ultrasound sensors.

A better look at the PowerEYE camera,   mounted is the Olympus 14mm stock lens that ship with the aircraft, this lens equals a 28mm on a full frame camera,  you can fly lenses from compact 8mm to 45mm comfortably on the camera,  notice the silver-ish dial on the back of the camera, that is the rotating counter balancer, rotate to balance your lens perfectly.   its a brilliant move as you don't need to put extra metal rings on the front of the camera to balance it, on in the case of larger lenses I have been using double side table to stick quarters on the back of my inspire camera.  on the PowerEYE you simply dial the balance until the camera balances. done.  ready to fly.

Top view of the PowerEye and the Inspire 1.    the PowerEYE diagonal size is 650mm


My inspire X5 camera with the Olympus EZzoom 12-42mm which also works on the PowerEYE.... while it "works" that zoom is budget plastic and can best be described as "CrapTastic"   its soft in the corners and not particularly great glass (plastic)  BUT it serves a purpose,  there is something cool about being able to zoom a shot in the air,  if I really like the shot, I tend to land and put on the focal-length I liked with the zoom.   however for inspection use the EZ zoom is awesome, nobody cares about fine photographic issues but simply want to have a close look at the details thats being inspected without having to land and change lenses every few minutes.

The PowerEYE vs the Yuneec Hpro,  honestly, the Hpro is not even close to being a competitor to the PowerEYE,  the PowerEYE is ALL about the camera,  with its m43 interchangeable lens camera,  its unfortunate that Yuneec did not come out with a 1" class sensor camera that would mount on the original H series, the camera is only accepted on the new H520, personally I feel thats a huge let-down to the original H pilots who jumped on board know that Yuneec was talking about upgradeable cameras.     hint for Yuneec,  make the new 1" sensor camera compatible with the original H and you will see them fly off the shelves. (its possible only a firmware issue)

One more view of the 3,  you get a good feeling of the size of each of these.  the PowerEYE is not dainty by anybody standards, but then again, it hauls a full on m43 camera.  while the inspire is smaller,  lets remember the inspire2 is a larger beefier aircraft,  I'm thinking DJI found that slightly larger was a better fit for hauling a m43 camera.  

Conclusion.. kinda.
Sooo what is the PowerEYE anyway?   including the PowerEYE there are a total of 3 interchangeable lens m43 flying camera systems on the market. 

ALL of these can be had with dual-operator stations for dedicated pilot and camera operator.
The PowerEYE compare closely to the inspire non-raw x5 camera options.  The camera matches the inspire1 /2 pretty well in that regard,  but the PowerEYE brings the longer flight time in the 30 minute range,  and forward looking pilot camera and obstacle avoidance of the inspire2 for about $1000 less out of pocket expense.

Camera wise the PowerEYE compares pretty close to the Inspire1 pro with the x5 cameras.
The PowerEYE do NOT compare to the RAW and h.265 recording options on the Inspire2 with the x5s camera because this camera have higher bandwidth recording, up to 200mbps on a standard SD card, and you can choose between h.264 and h.265  now that said... using h.265 pose a number of serious requirements to your computer for editing, so using h.265 is mostly for the same people who would be shooting raw.  but by the time you get the SSD option for RAW you are north of $6000 so not really interesting in this comparison.

The question probably come down to RAW and high bandwidth h.265 recoding,  IF you must have these options,  then you are probably shooting for movies and the money dont matter that much anyway.  however if you are shooting real-estate,  video commercials,  documentary establishing shots, that I typically shoot in 60mbps anyway and never get complains.. Then the PowerEYE with the long flight time, forward looking obstacle avoidance and Pilot camera have a distinct advantage over the inspire1 and bring essentially the features of a inspire2 with less damage to the credit card.

The Money.
Inspire1 w. X5                    $3400
PowerEYE w. M43      $3900
Inspire2 w.  X5s                 $4900
Inspire2 w. X5s RAW       $6300+ ish.

Only the criminally insane would bring this lens to a job, but mounting a old PENTAX 110 50mm lens on a m43 adapter, and sticking on the PowerEYE camera - proves a point and show you some of the fun things you can do with a interchangeable lens camera drone.
PS.  that lens have no aperture and would need a ND filter during the day, and you need to focus it manually before flying, but it works, kinda.

 

Comments

[Bo Lorentzen]

Joseph - lay off the PowerEye at this time - they have not updated anything since the day it first shipped - the company is focusing on stuff that sails on water.

[Jospeh Brown]

I was thinking of buying one of these but they are costing way to high right now and its really hard to buy these now a days.

[Doug Stewart]

Hi Bo, many thanks for your speedy and valued reply.

As suggested, I did email powervision, only to be sent a link to the quick start guide!.

I have not yet been able to fly the powereye at all since I purchased it three days ago, as I have serious wifi issues? I am thinking that it could possibly be down to the fact that as I live in the highlands of Scotland UK, that the wifi frequency may be different?

I am an experienced done user and I own a Inspire 1, a Yuneec Q500 and a DJI Spark, with no issues!.

I have tried to connect with three separate Android tablets (which I use to fly my Inspire and my spark) but, these tablets do not recognize to wifi signal as sent by the power-eye?

I have tried it with my Samsung galaxy note 4 phone, and I can get a connection which is unreliable and only lasts about five minutes?

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated , before I may be unfortunately forced to return the drone to the dealer.

If powervision would only have provided a alternative tablet/phone connection, like DJI's OTG cable?, that would solve my problem, “maybe they do?” as there is a unexplained usb socket on the controller?

This is why I need the full User manual, which is apparently unavailable?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

“Cheers, aye yours, from bonnie Scotland”

Doug

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Doug, unfortunately I never had a file for that, PowerVision had me send everything back right after I did the review, shoot a email to PowerVision for the full document.

[Doug Stewart]

Hi Bo, I have just bought the powereye, I was wondering if I could get a link to the fULL user manual? as there is a lot that is not said in the quick start!.

I am very impressed with your review. Well Done!

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Gregory, I returned the PowerEye to PowerVision a while back, so can't check, but 99% sure there is a firmware check / upgrade option on the tablet under the aircraft settings.
Also give PowerEye a call, they can definitely explain the correct procedure.
Bo

[gregoryruger]

do we need updates or how do we know id the powereye is up to date. dji lets ya know and its easy to update.
I just got this last week and am very used to dji and was wondering how do i check for updates on the bird and how to change altitude settings on return home function if i ever have to use it.

[Court Johnson]

Do I understand correctly; there are no programmed fail safe modes to return the quad to home should a failure in communication (lost link) or low battery level occur? If this is the case a system failure easily escalates into a lost quad.

Thanks for your input...

Court Johnson

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Dhruvil,
Not sure how they are doing this, maybe shoot a email to them at their website at www.PowerVision.me :-)
Bo

[Dhruvil]

How many frames per second can camera work?

How do you do object detection?

I am using 3dr solo and using Hero 4 go pro camera for object detection. I am using opencv library but I am getting blurred image some how.

I just want to know, Do you process video or image?

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey David, Yes and no...
With a iPhone or iPad tablet, since the connection to the handset is WiFi hotspot based. You can use apples lightning to HDMI out adapter and double tap on the screen to hide the control interface. double tap again to show the control interface.
Same thing with a Android tablet with a HDMI out port.

[david peterson]

Hey fpv guy! I only want to know about live broadcasting and hdmi out; does it do this? Secret Agent productions!

[Bo Lorentzen]

Hey Richard,
Great questions.
1. yes its a full on dual operator quad. you bind the second radio to the first and it controls the gimbal yaw-pitch. and the camera operator see the gimbal cam, the pilot can chose which one to see.
2. its 180deg rotation to each side from front center. less than the inspire, and it dont do the "flip" for the never ending rotation trick.

[Richard Gilmore]

Hi Bo, so its really a dual operator machine, how about Gimbal Yaw? Is it 360'or does it have limits? If it is limited by means of a mechanical stop.... does the aircraft do the spin like inspire 2?? Or does pilot have to yaw the craft to allow a full rotation? Thanks