Reviews |The Gladius Mini could be the ultimate underwater drone

The Gladius Mini could be the ultimate underwater drone

Gladius Mini announced
News

Small is the new big as we’ve seen in the photographic world. The market turns it’s back on large DSLRs in favour of the latest CSC’s and this has been compounded by both Canon and Nikon finally throwing their weight behing the format with the Canon EOS R and Nikon Z7. Likewise in the sky, the Mavic Pro 2 has all but eliminated the need for the larger Phantom series and now we see the launch of the Gladius Mini.

We looked at Chasing-innovations Gladius Pro earlier in 2018 and were impressed with the image quality and control from this underwater drone offered.

The Gladius Mini has now arrived, smaller redesigned but just as impressive. It measures just 8.9 x 15.2 x 5.4-inches and weighing in at 5lbs, roughly the size of a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

We reported a while back that the company had received investment and it looks like that investment has boosted the design and development of the product line.

The new drone sees everything redesigned including the controller, the one weak point of the Mini’s larger sibling.

Arriving in a portable backpack the new drone features a 4K UHD camera, one-touch lock-depth mode, 45º adjustable tilt lock, one-touch social share, 330ft dive depth, live stream and 2 hr battery life.

The 4K UHD camera packs in a video resolution of 3840×2160 30fps and alongside video the Gladius Mini will also shoot 12mp stills through the f/2.8 95º FOV lens.

As with the larger model the Gladius Mini features powerful LED lights at the front which help to illuminate the seabed at depth. These lights kick out 1200 lumens of illumination at 4500k CRI:80.

There are essentially four parts to the Mini; the drone itself, the base station, remote controller and winder.

The tether that comes wrapped around the winder is available in two lengths, either 165ft or 330ft.

Aside from the new design, Chasing-Innovation has really worked at the Mini’s usability and as such, there has been a huge investment in the control and experience.

Social sharing is a big part of the new Gladius Mini which makes it ideal for anyone with a love of being in the water.

The fun side of the Gladius is only the start of the drones intended applications and having the high-quality camera will also mean that it has plenty of business applications as well.

The price has yet to be announced, we’ll bring you that and more details as we find out.

We’ll bring you the full review soon, in the meantime check out what the new drone has to offer at www.chasing-innovation.com