Hobbico ORA: The New RC Drone for Aerial Photographers

RC drones were all the rage at CES 2015. Hobbico took the opportunity to announce the Hobbico ORA, the first camera-equipped drone that displays your aerial snapshots on an integrated 7-inch touchscreen on the RC drone’s receiver. The ORA sports an onboard 1080p HD camera and delivers the best image quality, reliability, and will have the longer range than its competitors.

The Hobbico ORA is aimed at those that want aerial views of action sports, outdoor weddings, real estate — or pretty much anyone that wants to take some great outdoor shots. The ORA will allow both photo and video capture, and will not require any previous RC piloting experience to use. The drone uses 5.8GHz radio instead of the usual 2.4GHz, which gives the ORA a lengthy 500-meter range for both flight control and video signal, giving it the longest range out of any of the other RC drones.

The device will also come with a large 7-inch FPV (First Person View) touchscreen that is housed within the ORA transceiver, displaying exactly what the Hobbico ORA is seeing in real-time. This eliminates the necessity to use an external device to view captured images. One, two and three-axis gimbal options are available, with all of them able to accept GoPro cameras. The transceiver will also have an integrated Android device, allowing you to program functions for the ORA through the touchscreen. There is also a second screen that displays GPS coordinates, altitude and battery levels. The Helimax transceiver is the most advanced — and most impressive-looking — radio we’ve ever seen.

The ORA will have a whopping 30 minutes of flight time for each charge, and will allow for auto-pilot via built-in GPS programming, which will support up to 32 separate GPS waypoints for an incredibly accurate route. The ORA will also have a “Return to Home” command, as well as a failsafe that deploys the RC drone home if the battery is getting too low.

The Hobbico ORA is currently scheduled to be released at some point in early 2015, with a suggested retail price starting at $1,500 and scaling up to $2,000, depending on what battery, gimbal and camera configuration the buyer chooses. The 10-channel touchscreen transceiver will be included with all drones, as well as the gimbal, batteries and a charger. By the sound of it, the Hobbico ORA will likely be added to our Top 5 RC Drones list upon its release.