Forget selfie sticks: the next big thing in travel photography might be drones. Meet Lily, a personal flying camera that automatically tracks you, capturing video and high-quality photos while you ski down a mountain, ride the rapids, or wander down a city street.
To use the camera, you just throw it into the air and go. Lily hovers above you and follows your movements by tracking a small waterproof controller you wear on your wrist. The controller also has a "take off" button if you’re a little too nervous to throw the drone off the side of a bridge or into a snow-covered hill and can be used to adjust the drone’s flight path so you get the perfect shot.
Lily has a range of 10-30 feet and can capture 12-megapixel stills and both 1080p high-definition video as well as slow motion video at 720p. The camera can follow you around as long as you’re traveling under 25 mph, or be set to hover above. As you shoot, you’re able to see what Lily does on your smartphone so you can adjust to get just the right angle. If for some reason it loses you, it will enter into a hover mode until you come back into range.
The drone’s battery lasts for roughly 20 minutes on a single charge, so you’re not going to use it to capture a whole day's worth of activities. Instead, the camera is designed for things like action photography that are hard to capture yourself, even if you have a friend with you to hold the camera.
When it comes time to end your recording, you summon Lily back to you using the controller on your wrist. The drone will fly to your hand and hover above. When you tap its bottom, it will power off and gently land in your hand. If your friends weren’t already impressed by your self-tracking drone, we’re pretty sure that trick will do it.
Lily is available for preorder now for $499 from the company’s website. It’s expected to ship in February 2016, and will retail for $999 when it finally comes to market.