Insta360 is making its Antigravity A1 drone way cheaper – with a catch

The Follow Me bundle promises to make it easier than ever to record 360 video of yourself from the air, but comes with a battery that puts it over the weight limit.

Last year, Insta360 announced that it was entering the drone market with its Antigravity brand and A1 drone, which comes equipped with a 360 camera. Now, the company is launching a new "Follow Me" bundle, which pairs the drone with a few new accessories aimed to make it even easier to film yourself. It also provides a substantially less expensive way to buy the drone, though there's a big catch to anyone looking for a drone to use casually.

Like many other drones, including models from DJI, the A1 is able to track a recognized subject, following them without needing to be manually controlled. With the Follow Me bundle, Antigravity is introducing a watch you can wear to make tracking more reliable, even if the drone loses sight of you behind an obstacle, such as a row of trees.

The watch has a 1.7″ display, which you can use to watch a live view from the drone's camera and to control things like recording, video mode and which subject the drone is tracking (though it'll be best equipped to follow the person wearing the watch). According to the spec sheet, the drone has a maximum tracking speed of 10 meters per second (22.4mph).

The bundle also includes a new ring accessory, which the company says enables a "Drag-to-Fly" mode where you can "grab" the drone by pointing at it and pressing a button on the ring. You can then move your arm to control its position. Swing your arm over your head, and it'll go from following you from behind to filming you from the front, or move your arm left to right to have the drone execute a pan. You can also do a twisting motion to have the drone fly away from you, showing more of the surroundings.

This is somewhat similar to how the drone works already worked in its "FreeMotion" mode when paired with the motion-sensitive remote that came in the standard bundle, but the ring will theoretically be a bit harder to notice in the actual footage. The A1 offers 8K 360 capture at up to 30p, recorded from two cameras with Type 1/1.28 (76mm²) sensors and F2.2 lenses.

Both the ring and the watch are IP67 rated, so you should be able to wear them even during sweaty or water-based activities.

The bundle also includes a new set of propeller guards that Insta360 says will fully enclose the blades for added safety, along with four extra propellers, a crossbody bag, a USB-C cable for charging the drone (though no charging brick) and the brand's high-capacity battery. That latter inclusion is a critical one, for reasons we'll cover in just a moment.

What the bundle doesn't have are the "Vision Goggles" that came with the standard A1 bundle. Nor does it come with the motion controller. These let you fly the A1 from a first-person view, and look around your scene while doing so, thanks to the drone's 360-degree camera. Of course, the standard bundle will still be available alongside the Follow Me one.

The A1's headset and controller were a large part of its original identity, but aren't included in this bundle.

Not including the headset apparently means Antigravity can sell the drone for substantially less than it has previously. The "Standard bundle," which until now has been the entry point for the A1, costs $1599 but the Follow Me bundle, which is available starting today, comes in at just $799. If you already own an A1 and want the watch and ring, the company is also making those available for $340 at retail, though it says it's offering a 20% discount for "existing A1 users" (which, to me, seems to encompass everyone who would be interested in buying them).

You'll have to take some extra steps to fly it legally in the US and EU

The Antigravity press release says that the new bundle makes the drone a good option "for family outings and sporting activities, giving people an easy way to capture memories while staying in the moment." While the price makes it seem like a reasonable pick for those scenarios, especially in the US where DJI's models are harder to come by, the use of the high-capacity battery rather than Antigravity's standard one means that the drone included in this bundle has a takeoff weight of 351g. Consequently, you'll have to take some extra steps to fly it legally in the US and EU, which isn't the case for the Standard bundle version of the A1, as it comes in right at the 249g limit with its non-extended battery.

The spec sheet for the Follow Me version of the A1 has some other differences compared to the one in the standard bundle, too, with substantially shorter flight time and max flight distance than even the version with the smaller battery, lower top speed, and less wind resistance. However, Antigravity says this is this is only the case with the full-coverage propeller guards installed; without them, it will perform the same.

All of this makes it hard to know what to make of this bundle

All of this makes it hard to know what to make of this bundle. Had it included the standard battery, it'd be a much more straightforward story: a cheaper version of the drone that's a bit better equipped to follow someone for vlogging style content and more casual shooting. But, at least to me, the people in that audience are the least likely to want to have to get a license to fly a drone, especially when the higher-end version doesn't require that (at least, until you get into the even more expensive bundles that come with the high-capacity battery).

Still, the A1 is an interesting drone, and this offers a less expensive way to buy it for those who are interested and willing to go through some hurdles to fly it, be they registering the drone or buying one of the standard batteries to try and get it under that 249g weight limit.

About the Author: Mitchell started taking pictures at 10 and hasn't stopped since. It's been a wide-ranging adventure, spanning a wide variety of genres and locales, and occasionally dipping into fascinations with video and filmmaking. They honed their technical knowledge doing documentation, programing and QA, writing for The Verge, and just generally messing around on the computer to see what breaks.

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