The 02 is finally shipping and available for around $720 on the internet.
The GDU 02 is a radically different design than the first GDU product, but it maintains GDU's tradition for doing things a bit different, while delivering a fairly respectable compact 4K video drone that packs up nicely without any loose props or controller sticks.
Before we get started let me address a couple persistent stories about GDU, for starters, GDU's first product, the BYRD folding drone was released in 2015 about a year before the Mavic Pro drone arrived in the fall of 2017, when the Mavic was released, GDU was already working on making a smaller more compact BYRD, it is VERY safe to say GDU did not copy the idea of a folding arm drone from DJI. :-) Im not saying GDU did not adjust their work on the new mini-BYRD folding quad when Mavic hit the market, but interestingly, they have chosen a completely different solution for the arms. with that, lets move on and take a look at the GDU 02 (their second drone product)
Click here for my original 2015 blog-post about the BYRD
This Blog-Post opinion is based on a PRE-PRODUCTION unit, kindly provided to me by Frank at CarolinaDronz.com PLEASE visit his website and let him know you did see this writeup :-)
The controller snap to the drone when not in use, protecting the sticks and the arms snug into the body. the result is a incredible compact little kit that easily packs in your backpack.
The 02 is a completely different way of wrapping arms into a small drone, GDU have chosen to use slide-in arms, it works surprisingly well, but one important detail should be remembered.. ALWAYS pull hard at the end to make sure the arms have been pulled all the way out. Don't ask how I know.
CAMERA
The 02 Video camera sports a 4K sensor on a 3 axis stabilized gimbal, you can capture 13megapix still images (4208*3120 pixels) or 4K 30fps video in addition to 1080p and 720p.
Interestingly the camera have options for slow-motion and also a timelapse feature.
The camera also brings us to one of the unusual design choices on the 02, SOMEBODY figured nobody would want a microSD card. Yeah, really, there is ONLY internal memory and you will need to download using the app, so after you land or after you get home, turn on the aircraft and the controller, then download to your phone and then from your phone finally transfer to your laptop... Nuff Said.
The video range on the standard GDU 02 is advertised to be 0.6 miles, Im guessing it will be better if you fly from a high point, however thats still about 1km, which should cover 99% of the worlds drone-video needs.
I know that there are drones out there that will go 7km and I have tried that kinda flights, but in all fairness, once I tried it, I never really again flew that far. most users want to do a crane shot, and some long push or slide shots, or a circle object shot, all of which typically stays inside 300m, and the 02 flies 1000m+ so that ought to be plenty. If 1000m is not enough for you.. well then you know to look at one with longer range :-)
FILE Problems?????
OK so while everything else works pretty much as advertised. I am dumb-founded by GDU's choices in file-handling, for starters there are no onboard microSD card. instead images are stored onboard in ram, you can download the images from the bird to your smartphone.. but only in low-resolution, after contacting GDU I learned that to get the full-size images I must connect the aircraft to my laptop with a USB cable.... thats good in theory.. but in practical applications.. the GDU-02 is not visible to my MacBook. So to finally read the files I had to connect to a PC, then transfer the files to my Mac... I can only say as the Valley Girl "Like for reals dude?"
Very short verdict based on current (mar 2018) file handling, this product is ONLY suited for PC users, Mac lovers need not apply.. hey its not the end of the world. Mac users are maybe 10% of the world, however they probably represent 30-50% of the typical drone customers, so with that GDU have easily cut their sales in half before even starting.
DYNAMIC RANGE AND RESOLUTION
I did a series of exposure tests to get a measure of the dynamic range. this test is hampered by several things, both I had a hard time getting full resolution files, and secondly the 02 do not have a meaningful manual mode where I can fully control the ISO (lower=more DR) as such I "cheated" pushing a lot of light through the step-wedge to make sure the camera would chose a low ISO setting. Still when applying a negative S curve to the result, at most I get about 21 steps (21/3=7) the edges are suspect at best, so we are looking at probably 6.5 stop dynamic range with the current firmware, lets be generous and call that 7 stops.
*I normally test DR on the RAW file using lowest available ISO, JPG files typically are probably a stop short on what we can get out of a RAW file.
So what about the resolution then... well still working on that one.. that said, looking at still-images from the camera, there are several take-away's
Files are over-compressed, there are no RAW file option and no JPG compression choices.
4K video is also overly compressed and appears soft with over-sharpened detail edges.
REMOTE CONTROLLER
The controller works by itself or paired with a Android or iOS phone, it come with connectors for lightning / micro USB / USB-C plugs. that should cover most phones on the market.
The 02 control range is rated at 1km or 0.6miles, im thinking you might get a bit more if you fly from a high point, however thats not so important, 1km is more than mot will ever need for shooting personal drone videos / and random travel shots. so this should be fine.
The controller with a iPhone 6+
GDU have chosen to add a voice feature to the controller, so some actions like RTH will be confirmed by the controller speaking to you, thats probably easier to understand that colored lights indicating whats going on.
Like the battery, the controller takes about 2 hours to charge from fully empty.
*Note you can also fly the 02 using just the APP from with your smartphone phone's WiFi connection, however you should expect a range of less than 250 feet on a good day, then again, thats probably plenty for a quick crane-shot while traveling and being a tourist. I still prefer flying with sticks myself. but love the idea that the aircraft can get very compact and fit in a coat pocket if need be.
BATTERY
The battery is a 3S 4000mah battery providing a claimed 20 minutes of flight time, probably a little less in real world scenarios. it takes about 2 hours to charge a empty battery to full capacity with the included charger.
IN THE AIR
Yeah, that question, after all of this, HOW do it fly, to me the 02 feels a bit soft to the sticks, it like to hang in GPS hold, and you need to give it a bit of a stick movement to get going, but after that it slides through the air nicely, probably more a video-drone than a sports racing drone for sure, like I said the sticks feels slower to me than some drones out there. But here is the thing about that, its not a bad thing, its more a different thing, some people are going to love it and others will love it less. The RTH works as advertised, the drone returns to and land where it started, circle flying works as advertised and so do the follow me.
CONCLUSION
The real question is probably "who are it for". The GDU 02 represent a different approach to making a compact video drone, its not a bad drone at all, it is a different drone.
I think the bigger take-away with todays drone products is that they pretty much all work pretty well, just a few years ago this was not the case, but today they work, some brands feel sportier in the air, some feel slower, some are tuned one way and some another. Im starting to see todays drone market along the lines of the camera market, Im a Nikon kinda guy, I have friends who swear by the Sony's or Canon's and other friends who don't leave home without their Leica camera... and all along there are Panasonic and Olympus making a quite good living for themselves with m43 cameras.
The GDU 02 represent a number of design choices, its a bit slower than some, but it do what I expect it to do without surprises, GDU have had a bit of a hard time getting it off the ground and its shipping later than expected, this may very well be the biggest short-coming of the GDU, simply that this drone was much more competitive a year ago when it was announced compared to today when several other brands have similar sized products thats at least as good. $720 for the GDU-02 is a fairly good price, but is it aggressive enough to keep the GDU 02 interesting to the consumers, I don't know.
The GDU-02 is not outright a bad drone, but its also really not a good drone, and your question should be, do the design and design choices appeal to your drone needs, only you can really answer that. aside from the rather pedestrian camera, the GDU works well, it very much is an consumer drone..
NOTE. GDU promised a firmware patch to FIX the lack of Mac compatibility, this have yet to be released and instead of letting us test the patch to verify it resolved the issues, GDU asked us to return the test unit before the patch was released. We can only assume the patch is not existing and-or not working as hoped.. we can NOT recommend the GDU unless you full understand it is significantly less capable than most similar priced products and is not compatible with mac laptops.. ;-)
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