Category Archives: personal

Drone Time

aviation, equipment, informational, personal, photograph, presentation, reviews, sales, video, ,

Talking to Potensic Corp

Walking through the endless aisles at this past January’s Consumer Electronics Show I came upon a familiar name Potensic.

Since I have one of their Atom 2 compact drones, I stopped to talk to Dean one of their representatives. I wanted to find out if they had any other accessories that I might use with my device.

The first thing he pointed out were the grey propeller guards.
Clip of Atom 2 with propeller guards

I asked Dean about these and he said they were for users who fly their drones indoors and protect both the drone and any users from the rotating propellers. They are also useful for added safety when flying hear trees or buildings.

While they add a few ounces of weight to the drone and require slightly more battery power when taking off and flying the work well in windy conditions.

Targeted at the beginner drone pilot, the are not required but are helpful when learning to fly the device.

The second thing he pointed out is a new controller. It has a built-in screen, internal memory for video recording and slot for mini-SD card for expanded storage for movies and photos.

With their standard controller you have to attach a separate mobile phone (either iPhone or Android). The new PTD-1 saves you the trouble of having to use your mobile phone to operate the drone.

This was a short visit at the Potensic booth. For those interested the propeller guards cost about $30 a set and the new controller cost about $280.

When I returned home from CES I ordered a set of propeller guards. I’m closer to a beginning than an advance pilot so I feel comfortable using the guards.
This afternoon I fired up the drone with the propeller guards to video the roof overhang on our porch. I wanted to see if there was snow (it’s still cold here in Michigan). There were a few small areas of snow and you can clearly see the snow on the grass below.

The CES has been over for two months now, but I keep looking back to some of my encounters with so many interesting electronic devices.

Written by:

Arnie Lee

An Artful Visit

informational, personal, photograph, presentation, reviews, travel

Detroit Institute of Arts

From our home in Grand Rapids, it’s just over a two hour drive to Detroit. In the past, we were frequent visitors to the “motor city” however we haven’t traveled to Detroit for several years.

Yesterday four of us decided to take a day trip to visit the well-known Detroit Institute of Arts. DIA is located in the downtown area adjacent to Wayne State University

We arrived in the morning and walked through the many halls to view the collections from various geographic areas: Africa, Middle East, Korea, Japan, China.

Ezra and Eden are admiring this French Count and to the right is Kris communicating with a Hindu statue.

After a short lunch break in the museum’s cafeteria we continued viewing other collections for a few hours – modern, British, Dutch and Impressionist.

Below are some of my photos I took of the amazing works of art from our visit:

The museum is extremely well laid out and organized. It’s definitely a first class public attraction.

We definitely enjoyed our one-day visit. If you’re in the Detroit area, it’s worth a visit to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Written by:

Arnie Lee

Better Videos

equipment, informational, movie, personal, reviews, techniques, video, , , , ,

with your mobile phone

I enjoy attending the Consumer Electronics Show to see the plethora of different devices that are available to a gadget junkie such as myself. This past January I again walked through the miles of the Las Vegas Convention Center to see what might attract my attention. One of the booths was Hohen.

Hohen makes a series of handheld gimbal equipped devices.

These devices are for enthusiasts and professionals who want to shoot better quality movies by stabilizing their videos. They also have other features such as remote control, built-in lighting, subject tracking and more.

Their representative demonstrated a few of the features for me and I was impressed.

When I returned home, I ended up purchasing the V3 model
It has a builtin tripod, telescoping extension and auxiliary fill light.
This closeup shows the controller which is removable for remote use.
Here my mobile phone is mounted on the gimbal. On the left is a small fill light and the tracking sensor.
This short video demonstrates the tracking capability of the gimbal. The representative has ordered the gimbal to follow the movement of the yellow ball. You can see the camera moving on the gimbal as the yellow ball progresses on the track.

The unit communicates with your mobile phone with bluetooth. The mobile app has multiple templates to make it easy to produce fun and exciting movies. You can add various filters and create slow-motion and timelapse content.

Hohem’s V3 model sells for about $125 and has so far proven to be a good investment. I’ve happily added this gimbal to my photography accessory bag and am hoping that the quality of my movies improves.

The Hohem X3 model lacks the telescoping extension and the builtin fill light but sells for about $65.

Written by:

Arnie Lee