Mar 23rd 9am PDT Today is an exciting day at Freefly! We are launching a new product, the ALTA 8, and in a completely new way. The ALTA 8 is an 8-rotor version of the ALTA 6 that we unveiled last year at NAB. ALTA 8 expands the capabilities of the ALTA line for our most demanding customers who want to carry the largest cinema / gimbal / sensor packages. Along the way the team at Freefly has made some improvements: Enclosed receiver mounting bays Molded closeout panels for improved height hold performance Quick release bottom mount battery tray Quick release top battery tray Dimmable status and orientation LEDs FPV camera location improved And now the exciting part…... The ALTA 8 is in stock and ready to ship today in limited quantities. Freefly makes professional products - tools that help people create what was once impossible. We have decided to forego the normal pre-release and announcement of the product, and instead focus our energies on delivering ALTAs to customers. We are taking orders now and will be allocating deliveries based upon order timing. ALTA 6 customers If you are an ALTA 6 customer and are interested in an ALTA 8, we will be giving you priority allocation. Creating the ALTA has been one of the most difficult challenges this company has faced. It’s also been the most rewarding….. To see customers flying, creating, and embracing the ALTA has been incredible. Knowing that it's become a valuable tool for drone operators to wow their clients keeps us fueled to continue designing and innovating. On a personal note, I've been lucky enough to be a beta test pilot for the ALTA 8 (have not crashed into a tree, like I did with ALTA 6….knock on wood) and it's been a blast. The machine has been reliable, robust, and wildly powerful for my filming adventures…. Here are a few photos from our recent exploits. Keep climbing…..
I just don't understand how adding 2 arms can cost $7000 more than the original that was originally priced VERY well and then raised $3000 overnight. There are other options coming very soon in this category that will be roughly 1/2 the price of the Alta and M15 combo and offer 18 min of flight time. While I love our Alta, the pricing structure is just skewed. IMHO.
I love Freefly but it makes you wonder. After waiting years for Synapse to be released we all had to do a double take when we first saw that the Alta was a hexacopter. Freefly told us there was no way possible to get an octocopter in the same portable configuration. Here we are less than a year and $17,500 later. But this is America and I guess if you have people willing to pay that kind of money more power to them.
I'm all for people making money and if someone's willing to pay than so be it. Even the Freefly announcement email that went out this morning for the Alta 8 said its overpriced. "Never felt so relaxed while flying way too expensive equipment before.” However, when you tell potential buyers that an octo version isn't possible, sell them the Alta and then a year later give them the same octo you'd just assured us wasn't possible really stings a bit. I just purchased a complete Alta/M15 combo 2 months ago, so to now see this is extremely frustrating not to mention the absurdly high price for nothing more than the Alta 8 itself minus gimbal. As a professional who has enjoyed overwhelming success in the industry, I always want and appreciate the latest advances in technology but occasionally you run across something that however great it may be, is simply overpriced to where the cost outweighes the benefit.
Nice Machine but the Price is more than to high! When i need to fly with this expensive Drone ( 20K Drone and 12K Gimbal), the Customer have to pay much more for the Dayrates and im sure that this is not a solution for our Customers. previously the client will look for a lighter camera setup... Its only a good solution for sponsored freefly Operators... Personal i feel like a beta tester from Freefly with the alta6.. we had a lot of troubles and outfalls like the recall for the ESC Upgrade, recall for the Wiring problems, not that payload wich freefly promoted on the NAB etc. The minimum from freefly is, to give the alta6 Owners a big discount and a sorry for all of this.