SKYDIO 2 REVIEW for filming watersports đâ | IN-DEPTH REVIEW after 50 flights over water đââïž
VloĆŸit
- Äas pĆidĂĄn 1. 07. 2024
- In this honest in-depth review you will discover everything you need to know about the new Skydio2 drone for filming watersports: đ
â We completed at least 50 flights over water
â The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - examples of good and bad takes
â Everything that went right and what went wrong
â Missing safety features (Return home, Altitude floor for water filming)
â 8 Important tips for filming watersports with Skydio 2
â Only real examples. We tried Skydio Beacon, App, Controller.
â Is Skydio 2 the best drone to film watersports?
â Skydio 2 vs old Staaker self following drone
â Skydio 2 Pros and Cons, honest opinion and suggestions.
â Skydio 2 tracking Onewheel?
â Filming three surfers instead of one?
BONUS:
đ TESLA MODEL X tracking with Skydio 2
In case you want to check FULL RAW footage here are the links to couple of them:
Skydio 2 RAW FOOTAGE 1 OVER WATER
âą Skydio 2 RAW FOOTAGE 1...
Skydio 2 RAW FOOTAGE 1 (FILMED OVER WATER)
âą Skydio 2 RAW FOOTAGE 2...
Both Beacon and App are with a surfer at all times.
P.S. As promised Here is the Staaker footage from 2017
âą Santa in Paradise 4K d...
It was amazing self following drone that worked EVERY time but the company went out of business during covid pandemic so for now Skydio2 is really the best option for filming watersports.
Timestamps
00:00 SKYDIO 2 IN-DEPTH REVIEW FOR FILMING WATERSPORTS
00:25 Skydio 2 tracking over the ground
01:17 Skydio size vs DJI Mavic mini
01:33 Skydio app, Skydio Beacon, Skydio Controller
01:50 Main problems with Skydio 2
02:30 Cool features of Skydio Beacon
03:00 Skydio tracking Onewheel
04:40 Skydio 2 tracking examples over the ocean jetsurf and efoil
11:10 Comparison to Staaker drone footage
11:36 Tips for filming watersports with Skydio 2
15:10 Bonus - Skydio 2 tracking Tesla Model X
===========================
Enjoying my videos? Join me on my mission and spread a good word about this new exciting sport of Jet surfing and efoiling.
I am Mike, the world's okayest surfer and passionate jet surfing fan and I welcome all Jet Surfing Pioneers to my new video channel: Jet Surfing Nation: Make Your Waves.
The new exciting sport of jet boarding and efoiling is evolving and together, we can be on the edge of the new next generation jet surfing technology to test electric and petrol jet boards, motorised surfboards and efoils! Iâm involved in testing Jetsurf, Fliteboard, Liftfoils, Onean Carver, Radinn, Lampuga, JetSurf Electric, efoils, Boosted fin, Scubajet, OneWheel, Mako, eSurf, eWave and much more!
My main blog with news and updates about jet surfing, efoils and artificial waves
đ Jet Surfing Nation: Make Your Waves jetsurfingnation.com/
đâ JetBoard Testing Tour jetboardtestingtour.com/
đ The new exciting sport is evolving and together,
we can be on the edge of the new next generation surfing technology to test electric jet boards and efoils
#skydio2 #drone #tesla
đâ Follow Mike and Jetsurfingnation on social media:
/ jetsurfingnation
/ jetsurfingnation-46349...
/ jetsurfingnation
/ jetsurfnation
đ Get awesome jetsurfing t-shirts and other merch here
/ @jetsurfingnation
Use a promo code 777777 for your special 30% OFF - Sport
In this honest in-depth review you will discover everything you need to know about the new Skydio2 drone for filming watersports: đ
â We completed at least 50 flights over water
â The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - examples of good and bad takes
â Everything that went right and what went wrong
â Missing safety features (Return home, Altitude floor for water filming)
â 8 Important tips for filming watersports with Skydio 2
â Only real examples. We tried Skydio Beacon, App, Controller.
â Is Skydio 2 the best drone to film watersports?
â Skydio 2 vs old Staaker self following drone
â Skydio 2 Pros and Cons, honest opinion and suggestions.
â Skydio 2 tracking Onewheel?
â Filming three surfers instead of one?
BONUS:
đ TESLA MODEL X tracking with Skydio 2
Good review dude! Exactly things I was always wonder about
This not your usual review "I tried it once it's awesome drone". We completed over 50 flights over water during the last 3 months using all kinds of setup - beacon, app and remote. We share what worked and what did not work and some tips. Hope you find it helpful if you plan to film watersports!
This was the best review of the Skydio 2 I've seen.
GREAT video! You guys did an amazing job, hopefully it works much better right now thanks to all the feedback given.
Great video !! I almost lost my SKYDIO at the beach. It flew away but ran after it and force landed it. Your tips now makes it clear why this happen to me. Keep it up !
Sorry to hear that, be careful and try to hand launch it.
great review, thank you! i look forward to get skydio
Hope you enjoy it!
Amazing Review!!! Great jobđđœđ„
Great!
Nice Review! This is what im looking for! Hope that i can get my hands on Skydio 2 and test and review it too.
Cheers
GREAT REVIEW and cool watersports, Have always been concerned over skydio 2 and its ability over water. Great Feedback from you, lets hope skydio starts listening as there are some crazy faults that need to fixed or upgraded. Nicely done guys!
Thank you. Yes the purpose of my review is to show the pros and cons and hopefully Skydio will listen and improve the features so I can make an updated review in future. The most critical for me is the lack of return home button on the beacon.
i look forward to film in summer ! thx great review pros and cons!
Any time!
Hey guys, great video, you guys have captured some pretty amazing footage! Thanks for the feedback, we're always looking to improve the product!
There were a couple things we'd like to address:
1. Skydio 2 does have a height floor feature, this can be enabled and disabled in the app.
2. Lots of these tips are covered in our Skydio Flight School series, so check that for more good tips on getting the best performance: czcams.com/play/PLBWSebOmZerkFergPf3yTnnEuuarikc2X.html
Thank you for reply Skydio!
1. The standard "height floor" feature was always enabled on my drones but the problem seems to be with glassy surfaces like seen at 7:45 - it does not detect the floor properly and sees the underwater ground as a floor. To solve this old Staaker drone had a mode called "waterstaak" in which the high floor is not dynamically recalculated but instead is set as a fixed value in relation to the launch point. Lets say launch point altitude is 10m and height floor is 3 meter. It means that it NEVER will go lower than 13 meter even if you go downhill compared to the launch point. But with with Skydio if I go lower than 10, it would still go lower and can end up underwater. Hope it makes sense. In my example I think the water ripple is what saved it from going underwater but I saw it sank in someone else video when they tracked the car.
2. I hope you can improve the features we mentioned such as "Return Home" button on beacon + "Auto Return home on low battery" feature and develop some sort of waterproof case for the beacon. It would be useful not only for watersports but for any other sport like dirt bike, snowboarding, trail riding where the water and dirt can easily ruin the beacon.
I read in some post that there is a feature within the app to let the Skydio know its flying over water. That post mentioned the water surface at times had sufficient reflection to disrupt the bottom facing camera sensors. By changing this setting, the water reflective properties would not be a factor. Perhaps its a feature late 2021.
Great review and good to see some in depth real world honest feedback
cheers!
thanks, best reviem sofar
good indepth review, I like showing pros and cons ane examples !
Glad you liked it!
very helpful and honest review
Thank you đ
Great review. I just bought a Skydio. 2 + . Do you know if some of the problems has been resolved on the 2 + along with the accessories (Skydio, Beacon) ?
Cheers. I doubt anything was changed aside of longer flight time and better range with new antennas. But please update me later with your experience!
Great review
Cheers
Hey great video - found it while researching Skydio 2 water flying; ironically though, my question involves the Tesla tracking. At 15:32, you manage to get a super-close shot of the left front wheel. In over two hours of experiments with my car in a giant empty lot using the beacon, I was never able to get the drone that close at that height. Did I miss a setting? Was it luck? Groundfloor was off, obviously. I was trying for a parallel track shot of just the lower half of the car. If you have an answer and/or settings tip, would love to hear it. Also, a car tip I was able to replicate consistently: If you make a sharp high-speed turn to say, the left, with the beacon tracking full left, and switch to full-right (or vice-versa) at the apex of the turn, with the S2 at about 2.5-3 meters above, it pulls off a great shot every time.
I just ordered mine. This is an excellent review. Surprised to see they didnât add RTH. I was planning on recording a moving Yacht but clearly Iâll need to carry my DJI drone with me too
Cheers
Thanks for the (proper) video review .. Iâve been looking at this drone for a while but personally I donât think the video quality produced is as good as the DJI equivalent - the mavic air 2 (which everyone is comparing it too!), unless itâs just been the bad delivery of video from those users? Iâm hoping weâll see DJI camera quality with the tracking features of the Skydio 2.
Glad it was helpful! I am not sure, I complained about many things but camera quality was not an issue for me. These days I fly with DJI FPV and it's super fun but skydio quality is better. We don't really need to compare to mavic 2 since it's not near as good for self tracking anyways, it's more like a cinematic drone for a pilot
Great honest and funny video
Cheers đ»
You should send your logs to skydio, there is an option within the app that allows you to send flight logs. This will allow them to analyze what's going on with those weird camera moments.
I was in contact with Skydio back in november when i was doing most of the flights however they replied they are too busy and have no interest in developing features I requested. So I lost interest in further cooperation as well and use it "as is". I do realize that watersports market is too small for them to bother and most users will be using it on the ground.
@@JetSurfingNation I guess they're so busy with the truck loads of money they're getting that they can't even spare a little time improving the trash tracking for water sports. No offense to anybody here but you kept saying 70% of the footage was ruined. That's a 30% chance of actually having usable footage. But I guess skydio is ok with 30%.
Well I take what I get... Can't say I am too happy but there is no better solution on the market after my old favorite Staaker went out of business. Still when I fly two times in a row, each flight gives me 30% of solid footage to use!
i just spent thousands of dollars on a skydio 2 and have not even used it. After seeing this review, wow i'm already disappointed. Time to send it back.
Great review. I was going to get one to film my surfing but not anymore. You can get nice b-rolls on the ground though. Any chance you could review DJI Mavic 3 Active Track for surfing?
I am currently using staaker again for surfing filming
thank you - I just got one and had all sorts of trust in it. Now I found two videos that are more honest. BUT this was last Feb - almost a year ago. Have you updated firmware and how has that gone? how does it work NOW?
From what i see on facebook owners group looks like the company lost interest in retail and switch full attention to enterprise edition of skydio, I have not seen any updates or improvements. After my skydio2 flew away and got lost at sea I lost interest in their product and now use again good old Staaker for watersports, it was much better in tracking. Unfortunately Staaker is no longer in business. So the niche remains open ...
fair review, got Skydio, works nice but there is a long road ahead. Anyways, it is a wonderful robot.
A friend of mine suggested this video. Very good review and awsome board. Would be nice to have a jet sistem on my surfboard to get to the lineup quicker đ
Thank you. I heard of boost fin attachment for surfboards
@@JetSurfingNation thank you for the information... iÂŽve just watched your video interview with the boost fin company! :-)
Probably software update can fix many of issues you mentioned. I have DJI MAVIC AIR, I was even able to use it for any of my action sport video. I lost it yesterday on swamp off Florida coast despite its return home function. Oh well, I was never happy with its performance though I shot some good non-action sports video. I am not going to buy DJI mavic again. Skydio 2 is the way to go at least, I can shoot action sports video with it.
Awesome! đ
Thank you! Cheers!
Have you ever tried the DJI Mavic Air 2 or 2 Pro using its Active Tracking 3.0? Would be interesting to see how it is functioning in watersports environment...
For slow sports like going slowly on a jetski or following a boat where you can have a second person act like a pilot, DJI might be a better option. However for a fully solo and fast sports like jetsurfing where it's very easy to lose the target, I think gps tracking with a beacon like in Skydio or Staaker is necessary. For me it's all about autonomous flight, most cases I am filming myself alone.
Hi Mike, Like you Iâve been pleading with Skydio to create a low-battery-RTH option for the beacon since I got mine last year. Was kinda of hoping theyâd eventually get the hint from this great video posting, but looks like no luck at all. Itâs ironic since they love to repost user video of Skydio2 tracking surfing, windsurfing, kiteboarding and a bunch of other water sports. Iâve had fun using it on dry land but never had the guts to use it while kite foiling or wing foiling due to the lack of an auto-RTH. Luckily my 5 year old Staaker is still running well and Nordic-Unmanned still seems to have leftover Staaker inventory for sale. Think I might put my Skydio2 up for sale (still debating). Cheers!
Yes I eventually gave up, lost my first Skydio at sea and sold second one. Now using Staaker again
@@JetSurfingNation I just bought Skydio but didn't see your video until now. Had a lot of trouble filming surfers yesterday! I'm hoping they make some updates soon.
Sadly, a year later, with the newer release of SD 2+ , this simple RTH feature is still missing. It seems they just donât care all those water sports users.
Really?? Oh no, I thought they added RTH to SD2+ long ago. Oh well, we still keep waiting for skydio 3. I keep using old Staaker for now!
Wow I was planning to buy it thanks for the info- no go for me
Cheers
First off, I WANT ONE OF THOSE JET BOARDS!
I agree with just about everything you state in this video! I am curious if Skydio chimes in here and what they may say to address your points. I have had my Skydio 2 since December but have not had the opportunity to fly as much due to weather. But my experience is pretty much identical. One flight it seems like a blind monkey and the next flight it seems flawless. I have also discovered I seem to get more consistent correct behavior if I hand launch.
Completely agree with you on the Beacon not being waterproof!
There is a height floor option that is on by default. However it only works while in a tracking mode so I wonder if this feature becomes deactivated if the Skydio 2 loses track and begins to "hunt" around like a blind monkey and potentially not seeing water and crashing.
On page 20 of the manual there is a statement about Low Battery. It states that if a Home point is selected then the Skydio 2 will return to that point on low battery depending on distance from the home point. If there is no home point set the Skydio 2 will land at its current location.
If you set a home point I would make sure it is on a wide surface with no sand, dirt or debris because I do not know if the Skydio 2 can do a case landing while performing a low battery landing. Normally, when RTH is initiated manually the Skydio 2 only returns and hovers. It does not land.
Looking forward to future videos from you!
Thank you for detailed comment Airwolf, really appreciated. Nice location you got and those sand circles! May I ask, did you test yourself the "Statement about Low Battery" that you mentioned? this is not something I dare to test in the water.
I talked to Skydio about it in the past but did not get any clarity. From what I understand if you have a beacon - there is no way to "Return home" and the drone will stay with beacon "till the death" and will land in water. If home position is set manually we can click on app to return home but I can't be clicking any apps while surfing.
The height floor is not helpful if the surface of the water is transparent, it recalculates the level in real time, looking into the water and thinks that ocean floor is a new floor. We need same fixed heigh floor set on launch altitude like Staaker has so it does not recalculate and never would go lower than launch point + 3 meters.
@@JetSurfingNation Again, I completely agree. I only tested the Low Battery return feature with the app and controller. I have not tested it with the Beacon. One thing I might try when I get a chance is to use the app paired with the Beacon and set the home location, then fly off with the Beacon far enough where the phone loses signal. This will test to see if the Skydio 2 returns with the loss of the APP or continues with the Beacon. If it continues with the Beacon then my hope would be to see if the Skydio 2 returns to the home point when a low battery occurs. Obviously, if it does not return even in this scenario then Skydio really has a potentially fatal flaw because as you pointed out, it makes no sense to be carrying your phone around while surfing, and surfing is a perfect excuse to have the Skydio 2 assuming there is a proper height floor. Which of course is another great point. I have not tested this scenario but I hope to. If you try this method and it works or doesn't work please let me know. Otherwise, I'll reply back when I get around to testing it.
Could both the RTH while using the Beacon and the fixed height floor be implemented with a firmware update? I hope so because the Skydio 2 needs it. Unfortunately, I don't have much hope that Skydio really wants to devote too much time on this since they are really focusing on their enterprise edition.
Agreed with the water issue. All the more reason we need the fixed height floor.
Thank you again! Please update us later to see how your tests went with return home idea?
I am sure return home can be easily implemented in the beacon with a software update - for example double tap on a red button would call "return home". I hope if enough users request it, they might listen. I encourage everyone to email skydio with "feature request" for it.
Iâm not so sure a âreturn to start at 30%â is the best option. For us guys mountain biking that would be a disaster haha maybe make it an option during prelaunch settings or something? Or a toggle switch on screen during flight?
Itâs an on/off feature that you can set in the app depending on your use
fantastic footage and content.... really nice review. Hope someone at Skydio sees this and takes your feedback more seriously than they did prior
well done.
Thank you for your kind words David, I hope Skydio will improve it in the next software updates.
Also just ordered new DJI FPV, should be a fun summer!
When can we expect the Skydio 3 to be released?
Also, how did you get the Skydio 2 delivered to Portugal?
I used shipito service for forwarding it to Portugal, it was 350 eur extra in shipping and import tax.
@@JetSurfingNation Thanks a lot!
Great review đđœ unfortunately I found out the hard way - still a decent follow me drone 70% of the time
Had the same results but realized I was using 'Motion Track'. Once I switched to 'Fixed Track' it performed better and no longer had the unexplainable tracking challenges. Hope this helps ... ThX
I tried fixed track it doesnât do anything better for me unfortunately. I now have two skydios and two beacons same poor performance
@@JetSurfingNation I think you need a phone connected as well to fully utilise it? From what I've seen after watching 20 review videos
My phone and beacon are connected
Awesome review! hope they would make the drone smarter in low battery situation with new software upgrades
I hope so too
Thank you for tris review. Did you say how long time the battery last per flight?
I get around 10-14 minutes depending on the winds, but usually I want to return home with at least 30% left.
oh that's what I really want
Cheers
Great video .... my skydio crashed last year
Sorry to hear that. mine too
bela praia
Fun video, good job. It would be great to have a waterproof beacon but the drone isn't waterproof and no drone is meant to use over water. You sure are showing that flying over water is risky but very possible. The Skydio is a new drone and using very new technology. At this point, I think you are expecting far too much. It would be great if Skydio could do what you want at all times. You can't do any of this with a Mavic drone - the active track is terrible and Mavics can't fly autonomously. That alone is a huge plus for the Skydio. I'm using the Skydio for cycling and being able to use the beacon is fantastic. Still, I can't expect it to avoid branches or wires that are thin or moving in the wind. There are lots of risks with using drones. Like you said, fly like it's your last time using it.
Cheers. I am comparing to Staaker drone that I have been using for over 3 years, it was exceptional for self-following and tracking every time, so the bar is set high. I agree about Mavic - it's pretty much useless for autonomous flights.
What other opinion is there then this right now? I donât think the maverick air 2 is comparable with the tracking.
I don't think there are better options on the market. Staaker was of course awesome but they are out of business. Mavik does not have an atonoumos tracking
Staaker still rules the game!
yes i still use it, sold skydio
I'll be trying it with a whitewater kayak soon enough. will post results.
Looking forward
czcams.com/video/wnnRBRr_85g/video.html
My Skydio 2 had a very hard time landing on a boat. I was about the ship the deck
Did you ever contacted Skydio over the issues that you pointed out and did you get a reply?
Yes and even provided logs but they donât seem to be interested and i lost hope after my Skydio flew away into the ocean
@@JetSurfingNation Thanks for the quick reply, such an advanced drone but not perfect at all.
dude, you can set the return to home in the drone settings. Thats not a lack of feature, its lack of information.
When i made the review the feature was not available
GREAT VIDEO!
4:50 SONG: 'Leon Bolier - Ocean Drive Boulevard' đ”đ¶đŒ
I'VE LOVED this song for like 12 years!
#subscribed
Cheers đ» me too
Have you ever used a Splash2 drone, its waterproof...???...
No I have not tried Spash2 and waterproofing of the drone does not really matter for me. I am not going to fly in the rain anyways or put it underwater. What matters for me is reliable tracking and autonomous following features.
What about launching and retrieving from a boat on the ocean
I wouldnât do it
@@JetSurfingNation did it from a boat in the ocean today. Just made sure I can manually get it back to the boat, then pick it out of the air
Thanks for in-depth review, though Skydio2 still has deficiencies itâs the best tracking drone out there DJI is nowhere close
Agreed
Good video and in the end it appears they addressed a number of RTH options in the latest software update. This does not solve the beacon only RTH but with the phone you can set it to return to a launch point or map location with options. So your testing contributed to better control, bummer yours flew off so you wonât be able to update with another video. Hereâs the link of their video with the updates. czcams.com/video/8h6cxFworhU/video.html
Does anybody know where I can buy a stalker?
Itâs out of business. Last update was 2 years ago staaker.com/ but maybe somewhere you can find a used one.. mine sank down last year after hitting the rocks. Rip
Update 10 July 2021.. After about 100 flights it finally happened, it's gone forever.
Farewell old friend. 2020-2021 đž
Skydio was always great at avoiding things and today it decided enough is enough and decided to avoid me alltogether, at some point it refused all controls and flew away into ocean horizon. Good bye old friend. A great promising technology but it's just not there yet.
I still can't believe a basic automatic return home features on lost control is still not implemented. For the record I flew with a beacon only. I highly recommend avoiding flying with a beacon alone without an app but sometimes in watersports it's just not an option to have a phone on you. I had some close calls like that before but saved it by the app, but not today. RIP.
I'll link my review in comments.. all tips still stand especially the last one.
The same thing literally just happened to me this past weekend as well! I was using my Skydio to track jet ski runs with just the Beacon. It lost track at some point and rather than returning to the launch point, it just hovered until it ran out of battery and landed itself into the ocean. I completely agree with you that the Beacon needs to have a return to home feature or we should be able to set the drone to return to launch point when it loses connection to the Beacon. Hovering in place or flying off in weird directions is not a good solution.
I'm confused. Skydio explicitly says it has the feature you say is missing in their FAQ:
"If you set a home point on the map within the Skydio 2 app and are tracking a subject, Skydio 2 will continue to follow the subject for 20 seconds, or until the vehicle needs to return home due to a low battery (whichever occurs first). After tracking has stopped, Skydio 2 will return to the home point."
Did you set a home point in the app, and it didn't function as expected? Older firmware? Or did you assume (quite reasonably) that it set a home point automatically, and this is more about bad UI in combination with what they would probably call user error?
Or are you only saying that with the beacon alone there's no way to set a home point? The way it's described by Skydio, it sounds like setting a home point in the app then flying with the beacon would solve this issue.
Yes you can set a home point using the app. However if you don't have an app and just fly with beacon itself, there is no way to set a home point or press "return home" button. This is a serious safety feature missing here which I reported many months ago but it still was not corrected. All other drones return to the launch point on low battery or lost signal, it's pretty basic idea.
@@JetSurfingNation Thank you very much for clarifying. 100% agree that should be the default behavior.
My use-case is launching from a boat to film the moving boat. Because the boat doesn't remain at the launch point, an automated RTH to that location would actually be a bigger problem for me because it would always land in water.
Ideally, there would be a default home point with an option to disable the feature.
Sorry about your loss, and thank you for the in-depth review.
I watched a video about a Mavic with a float czcams.com/video/cBX1CZryZV4/video.html Have you tried it with Skydio ? Or maybe there are other ideas ? I also want to know what lift Skydio has. Can it lift a GoPro or dual battery like the Air2+ does ?
I assume Stalker was in California. Too bad they didn't move to a free state. They'd still be in business.
They are from Norway
you are an idiot
I priced this board here in Australia 2023, they asre $15,000 USD? Wholy shit.
Thats like opppsâŠ. Its water
Definitely some basic features lacking!
I noticed that there wasn't any dislikes on this video yet. Had to balance the ratio and slap that dislike button for ya. Nice vid!
Hehe cheers
give you thump up for the tesla, not the drone =))
hehe
#Skydio2NoSubstitute
Why they not make drones water proof especially when every one flying over water and if U hit the water there fried. Even cheep $70 drone are waterproof. They make drone none waterproof to make more money. Every one should stop buying there drone . untill they start being honest and make them water proof. But Chinese what I expect
Your video is AWESOME!! Your AUDIO quality.. Sucks. :(
alright! I do my best. Thank you for critics.