The Year in Photos : 2016

2016 was our busiest period yet and our blog reflected that with more articles and hits than ever. From tearing up trails in off-road buggies to drones chasing us across skateparks, it has been action packed year. We take a look back through our extensive archive of images to bring you 2016 : Our year in photos.  

January

Having neglected our cars a little, we started the year with Absima's bright green AB1. The 1/0 scale buggy tore up the skatepark and we got some interesting action shots and even a video for our review.

February

The long awaited FeiyuTech MG gimball for mirrorless cameras hit the store. We were quick to carry out an unboxing. We'd been following camera gimbal tech and were hopeful that this would fill the hole in the market for consumers whom a Ronin would have been total overkill. We also gave our in-house pilot an RC car to see how user friendly modern models are. HPI's super accessible Bullet ST was a great choice but perhaps the Flux model was a tad overkill for a beginner!

March

DJI launched the all-new Phantom 4 quadcopter We were one of the first stores in the UK to get our hands on one and you can see our review here. Eager to see what was new with the craft we had one of our engineers crack one open to 'see what made it go'. Besides that we had great fun flying the new drone and testing out the new object avoidance system.

April

With the weather improving we saw more and more customers taking to the sky with bigger video rigs. As such our engineers had plenty of work on their hands setting up craft like DJI's S900. With the release of the HDMI module, we saw an uptake in people ordering FPV goggles, we covered how to use the kit on our blog. Keeping it DJI, we also tested out the new Activetrack autopilot system at the skatepark to great effect.

May

The DJI Osmo is a brilliant piece of kit and it was great to see people really stretching the abilities of it. We had a look at an aftermarket solution for mounting the Zenmuse X5 camera onto the handle with mixed success. And shortly after came the official DJI solution allowing the Osmo to be pimped to the max. DJI continued to push the capabilities of the Osmo with the release of the Z-axis, a dampener smoothing out vertical motion.

June

As the summer began we spent a lot of time shipping drones out and sadly not so much flying. We did review a whole host of storage solutions including the excellent official Phantom 4 backpack. This did mean that our favourite drone of the year, the Phantom 4 could come with us for some extended testing of the excellent autopilot.

July

A few of our employees are big FPV fans and we slowly expanded our range of frames and components as the year progressed. The Diatone Tyrant was one of our more successful BNF kits for sale. Eager to promote the hobby, our tame pilot penned a guide for those new to the sport

August

Smartphone progression has meant that the newest models have some fantastic cameras on them. Aware of this, DJI released the Osmo Mobile, a handheld gimbal designed to smooth out your smartphone footage.

September

Making the most of the long summer days we spend our evenings flying all manner of craft, including the kickstarter born skye+ orbit quadcopter. Whilst not as refined to fly as some of DJI's offerings it had a fantastic aesthetic and was able to follow our reviewer autonomously.

October

The much rumoured folding DJI quadcopter was announced. The Mavic Pro was 'dropped' a week before GoPro released their long overdue Karma drone and appeared superior in many ways. Demand heavily outstripped supply but we managed to get our hands on one to unbox. Naturally our engineers pulled it apart to see what made it go.

November

We tested one of the DJI Mavic Pro's unique abilities, piloting via smartphone. It was clear that the Mavic Pro was our favourite craft of 2016. Meanwhile the. two updates we had been expecting were dropped. DJI launched the Phantom 4 Pro and the Inspire 2 and we attended the london launch.

December

Plenty of our fans on social media got caught up in the Tiny Whoop movement this year. Conscious that it wasn't as accessible as many of our customers might want, we held out for a ready-to-fly solution. So when we found out that the Blade Inductrix filled the bill we were eager to unbox one. With the Phantom 4 Pro in hand, we had a look at the new features. We also headed out to test it against the older craft.

Happy New Year!

From a new range of inexpensive micro FPV drones, to us getting our hands on an Inspire 2; There is plenty on the horizon for us in 2017. If there is anything you would like us to look into, leave us a comment below. So from everyone at RCGeeks, thanks for reading and have a great new year!