FREEFLY Systems Freefly ALTA, RTF collapsible hexacopter

Motopreserve

Motopreserve

Drone Enthusiast
If you called me a fan-boy, simply because I was trying to describe my personal experiences, I might find that insulting. That seems to discount the possibility that the "potential problem" or "some kind of flaw" has not actually been found.

Perhaps I just have a different read on it - but I have not sensed that comments here have been biased toward omitting problems for the sake of shilling for Freefly - but rather descriptions of experience thus far. Like you, I haven't seen many (or any) negatives described - but I do not automatically assume that they exist, but are being hidden.

Again, you have every right to value (or not) the descriptions and their accuracy. But I would just suggest that accusing someone of being less than forthcoming because they're providing less than what you are asking, especially since this thread is not an official review of the product, is unnecessary.
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
@BogotaMatt

Matt, Trust me when I say that if Steve or anyone else has something unflattering to say about any product they're welcome to say it. We talk about everything out in the open good or bad. We only ask that bad things be discussed objectively in order to help the community while heavily discouraging a mob mentality that can overcome otherwise good websites.

Steve's an early user and I'd guess as such he'll defer to Freefly when he's got problems which isn't such a surprise since Freefly is a respected manufacturer and the ALTA is a brand new entrant to the market.

Give it some time, as more users pop up we'll begin to either get confirmation of Steve's positive experiences or we'll see higher hour airframes begin to show where the weaknesses might be.

I certainly hope that if you decide to purchase an ALTA you'll be here telling us jealous people all about it (although I still fancy my own builds :) )!!

Bart
 

stevemaller

stevemaller

Heavy Lifter
I am an unapologetically happy ALTA purchaser and user. I do quote from the website when I don't have personal input, like when folks ask about the limits of the copter. Am I going to load up my personal machine to the max and try and make it fail? Don't be silly. That's why I bought a RTF copter (for the first time). I've grown tired of being my own QA department when I'd rather be working with the rig. Is it perfect? No, of course not. But I'm not going to apologize for expressing my enthusiasm for this machine.
 
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J

Jjjkkklll

Member
Our Alta is still holding up. We refuse to carry our red or the Alexa mini with it because of the redundancy issue, but we've found it to be a great dslr platform.

Our x8's still do the heavy lifting but the Alta handles well in various environments at 28lbs auw. We've been in all sorts of different environments, all over the US the last few months and it's looking good. Normal payload is a canon 5d or c100 with tomahawk, m5, 2x16ah lipos. Weights are between 27 and 29lbs au and we get 10minutes conservatively.

I don't see how people are lifting red+ff+cine glass with this. Even red stripped down, we were at or slightly over 30lbs with 2x10ah. Not confidence inspiring at higher altitudes/temps. Sticking to x8s for all that stuff still. Happy overall though. Hopefully they release an x8 next
 

BogotaMatt

BogotaMatt

Big Kahuna @ AirLulo
I found out the same which had me rethink the purchase. I mostly fly at high altitude (Bogota is at 8900' and it's warm), so I can't really justify to shell out so much cash for basically a replacement for a perfectly able S900. What X8 configuration do you have ?
 

J

Jjjkkklll

Member
BogotaMatt said:
I found out the same which had me rethink the purchase. I mostly fly at high altitude (Bogota is at 8900' and it's warm), so I can't really justify to shell out so much cash for basically a replacement for a perfectly able S900. What X8 configuration do you have ?
Click to expand...

Well, Alta is dramatically better than s900 imo. We have an s900 frame collecting dust at our office.

We have several x8's and flat octos. All custom builds
 

BogotaMatt

BogotaMatt

Big Kahuna @ AirLulo
In what respect ? I've asked this question here only to be replied with some fanboy stuff... So if you are a power user working on large shoots, I'm all eyes... I've been lurking over the Alta forum and.... I didn't make the jump. This is a lot of money to fly a GH4 basically... Which my S900 does wonderfully for a fraction of the price...
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
BogotaMatt said:
In what respect ? I've asked this question here only to be replied with some fanboy stuff... So if you are a power user working on large shoots, I'm all eyes... I've been lurking over the Alta forum and.... I didn't make the jump. This is a lot of money to fly a GH4 basically... Which my S900 does wonderfully for a fraction of the price...
Click to expand...
Matt,

If you ask me a frame is a frame is a frame.....to an extent. a lousy frame can spoil an otherwise good build but once you've got a good frame picked out, the rest of the system is a matter of balancing the right components. If your S900 is reliable and allows you to continue what you're already doing then don't get too anxious to replace it. If it needs to be replaced because it's worn out or it's been crashed too many times then that's another story but don't go spending a lot of money in order to do what you're already doing.
 

BogotaMatt

BogotaMatt

Big Kahuna @ AirLulo
Exactly. I'm on Narcos and another big Hollywood shoot here and it's been working fabulous as is. Sorry missed you in NYC Bart.
 

J

Jjjkkklll

Member
BogotaMatt said:
In what respect ? I've asked this question here only to be replied with some fanboy stuff... So if you are a power user working on large shoots, I'm all eyes... I've been lurking over the Alta forum and.... I didn't make the jump. This is a lot of money to fly a GH4 basically... Which my S900 does wonderfully for a fraction of the price...
Click to expand...

more stable, heavier payloads, flexible lens and cam options, more durable, less flex, etc

If you only fly a gh4 with 12mm olympus then stick with the cheap option though if that's working for you.

Most of our rigs are custom builds because we can't find anything on the market to fit our needs. The Alta is the first one to come close. We've had very poor experience with DJI products over the years. Glad to hear that stuff is working well for you though!
 

BogotaMatt

BogotaMatt

Big Kahuna @ AirLulo
Yeah... Been thinking about it for a while... Having to buy all the batteries again is a Pita. There are no insurance contract available to fly Red or Alexa Mini in Colombia for now... We'll see in the future.
 

J

Jjjkkklll

Member
BogotaMatt said:
Yeah... Been thinking about it for a while... Having to buy all the batteries again is a Pita. There are no insurance contract available to fly Red or Alexa Mini in Colombia for now... We'll see in the future.
Click to expand...

Yeah, screw that if they are letting you fly the gh4. We only get real money when we fly red/alexa etc. Most of our clients here don't even consider gh4 or dslr as an option (we own a red though). I was really surprised when I saw team 5 down there flying the gh4 for season 1 of narcos. I'm even more surprised they're still flying it on season 2. The shots stick out like a sore thumb because production value is so high-end with the ground cams.

But that's a great thing for you that they're letting you fly it. I'd ride it out as long as possible if I were you.

By the way, we've done a bunch of work in Colombia this year and last with the red. Last time was in June in Cartagena and our US insurers added some sort of international rider to our policy....something to do with an insurance treaty or something. I don't handle that side of the business, so I don't know much, but I know insurance of some sort is available down there. AIG does our insurance here in US and I think it was USSI who does our international stuff.
 

BogotaMatt

BogotaMatt

Big Kahuna @ AirLulo
Yes. They're happy with the GH4. I don't see it that bad although Netflix is 1080 here, not 4K. The limiting factor is that we shoot just about everything in Bogota, and that's quite the limiting factor. In the US you can charge daily rates we can only dream about here, and it's all about a balance between money spent vs money made.
 




BogotaMatt

BogotaMatt

Big Kahuna @ AirLulo

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