DJI Flip Hands-on (ad-free)

Hello from my family's yearly vacation in Aruba! I'm writing to you from a very sunny beach, and I only have one complaint: My M1 MacBook Pro is at full brightness, and I'm still struggling to see it. 😂 But wow, it was a whirlwind getting here.

I landed from CES on Friday, swapped out my Vegas clothes for beach clothes, and unboxed DJI's latest drone, the $439 Flip, on Saturday, and then boarded a flight to paradise on Sunday.

Because of all this travel, I knew I only had one day to play with DJI's newest entry-level drone, the Flip. So yesterday, I set out to not only do that but also write, film, and edit an entire hands-on video about it.

I started with the script. I wrote down all the main specs, the features I wanted to test, and the questions I wanted to answer. Then, I got to filming, starting with the intro. I opted to film this inside because I was deeply afraid that Aruba's notoriously strong winds would sweep the smaller DJI Neo away. In true becca fashion, I couldn't help but edit the intro together right after I filmed it and before I headed outside.

But with the intro done and a clear idea of what I needed to shoot next, I headed out on a desert path. And holy cow, it was HOT, but also very fun.

I've mentioned this before, but I'm trying to improve my ability to speak off the cuff and truly "vlog" my experiences. Now that I'm working so hard at this, I realize why it's missing from TechTube—it's very tough to do. It requires you to be confident in your filming skills, articulate specs, thoughts, and feelings about a product, and troubleshoot any problems that come up simultaneously.

For example, and this may sound silly, I am incredibly afraid of snakes—like Indian Jones's level of ophidiophobia. So yesterday, while I was out filming and attempting to think about all of the above, all I could think was, "I hope I don't see a snake" repeatedly. So, I decided to film myself feeling this feeling. The only reason that you didn't see that in the video is that in my flurry of trying to do it all at once, I also accidentally formatted an SD card and lost 16 clips. I'm still mad at myself for that mistake. Dammnit, Becca!

So after making many mistakes and filming SO much broll of me exploring and chatting about the Flip, and seeing no snakes (thank god!), I headed home to edit the night away. By 4 am, I had everything uploaded and scheduled for embargo time.

My biggest takeaways from this first hands-on are:
-film absolutely every thought, feeling, and experience
-DON'T FORMAT SD CARDS MID-SHOOT. Just bring more!
-always script first so that you know exactly what you need when you are in the field.

Ok, that's all I got. I think I'll take a nap on the beach now. As always, send any thoughts and questions—I'm all yours!

-Becca