Bwine F7GIM review: A decent beginner drone that has a couple of stumbling blocks

Bwine is a drone company you’ve probably heard of, but it’s certainly not as well-known as DJI, ZeroZero, or Potensic. Instead, it sits alongside Ruko and Holy Stone and similarly produces a range of camera drones to suit the needs of different beginner pilots. The Bwine F7GIM is a new beginner model, and you’ll have to read on to find out whether it could be one of the best beginner drones.

This is a beginner drone that ticks many boxes for me, not least the smooth flight controls and the equally smooth gimbal. Image quality is reasonably good. It has a lot going for it, but since it’s priced similarly to the DJI Neo, the DJI Mini 4K and the Potensic Atom 2, it may be trying to fight a losing battle.

This is the main issue with the drone, and if the F7GIM price was lower than its competition, it would be a much more attractive proposition. The camera is extremely basic, being fully automatic, but image quality is pretty good with the maximum JPEG size being 5700x3200px. Depth-of-field is, however, shallower than you’d expect, so closer subjects are sharper.

Video tops out at 4K 30fps, which is pretty much the standard these days, but faster frame rates are offered when shooting at 2.7K and 2K. There are a couple of subject tracking modes available, but these aren’t the best, so they’re certainly not major selling points. Flight and controls, however, are as good as you’d expect.

Bwine F7GIM: Specifications

Bwine F7GIM: Price

The Bwine F7GIM is a beginner drone that will appeal to many new pilots, not least because of its ease of use in terms of flight and the automatic camera. But, with a cost of $400 / £296, it does seem to be on the expensive side in my opinion. Especially when you consider that the DJI Mini 4K and the Potensic Atom 2 are similarly priced.

I like the F7GIM, but I like those two drones more. Price aside, the F7GIM comes in a kit including the drone, controller, two batteries, an extra set of propellers, phone cables, USB-C cables for charging, a spare set of controller sticks, a carry case and other accessories.

Bwine F7GIM: Design & Handling

The F7GIM looks and feels compact and lightweight, and it is. But despite looking and feeling like a sub-250g model, this drone tops the scales at 12.6oz / 357g. This does mean that it will face the same restrictions as larger drones, including the need for US-based pilots to register the drone, even for recreational use.

UK pilots would have to register as a pilot anyway, but will face more restrictions in terms of proximity to built-up areas. One mitigating factor here is the 60mm equivalent lens, which does allow you to shoot from greater distances when compared to the average 24mm equivalent lens. We’ll look at the camera in more detail later.

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The F7GIM, as previously mentioned, looks like it would weigh below the useful and regulator-friendly 250g mark. At just 6.50x3.54x2.56 in / 165x90x65 mm when folded and 14.17x11.02x2.56 in / 360x280x65 mm when unfolded, it’s certainly compact. The drone comes in a dark gray with orange accents on the propellers that add an eye-catching visual flourish.

The controller is a standard design that we’ve seen used across Bwine, Ruko, and Holy Stone drones, and is differentiated by more orange accents that match the drone. Overall, the controller is of a reasonable build quality and is comfortable to hold thanks to rubberized grips on the sides and back of the unit.

Image credit: James Abbott

Image credit: James Abbott

The controller offers a range of direct access controls including speed, gimbal adjustments, Return to Home and a shutter button, so all the usual suspects. There’s a small screen that shows basic information, but it’s not bright, so it can be difficult to view in sunny conditions.

The phone holder extends from the top of the controller with space to store the phone cable when not in use, while the control sticks can be stored at the bottom of the controller when not in use.

When it comes to battery life, the F7GIM is claimed to offer flight times of up to 35 minutes with its 3200mAh batteries. This is undoubtedly on the optimistic side, and when testing in windy conditions around 25mph, flight terms were around 22 minutes before the low battery warning sounded. Lower wind would extend flight times, but certainly not to the claimed duration.

Bwine F7GIM: Drone Performance

While the subject tracking modes aren’t great, standard control of the drone is more than acceptable thanks to smooth flight controls and a smooth gimbal tilt. The former allows for precise maneuvers, while the latter means you can incorporate gimbal tilts into drone movements to capture more dynamic videos.

This may seem like an inconsequential point to make, but some beginner models from smaller manufacturers don’t provide smooth gimbal tilts, making vertical panning impossible. The flight speed of the drone isn’t available in the specs; it’s certainly not as fast as the competition, but it does offer two flight speeds: Stable (Camera) and Sport.

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The F7GIM may not be the fastest drone you’ll come across, but it does offer level 5 wind resistance, which equates to wind speeds of up to 24mph. The drone was tested in winds of this speed and slightly faster, and it performed well without any issues. This wind resistance rating is the same as many other smaller drones.

As expected, there’s no obstacle avoidance, but there is GPS, like all camera drones, which provides Return to Home (RTH) functionality. This can be initiated by the pilot using the RTH button on the controller, when the battery is low, and when the controller connection is lost. Smart RTH allows you to also control the drone during the return process to avoid obstacles.

The subject tracking functionality available is crude, and I’ve seen much more effective examples on other drones. The DJI Neo and HoverAir X1 drones are some of the best available. Of the two modes available on the F7GIM, GPS follow was the most reliable since it tracks the controller, but this does mean the subject being tracked must be carrying the controller.

This mode doesn’t always keep the subject in the centre of the camera frame, while Orbit rises to its programmed altitude and is far from reliable when it comes to flying around a desired subject. You’re much better off orbiting manually using the controller. Fortunately, the controls are smooth enough to do this.

Other features include Route Planning (waypoints), VR Split Screen, Digital Zoom, Night Mode to increase brightness in the app camera view, creative filters and a few other options. There’s also Cruise Control, which can be useful if you want to capture videos in a perfectly straight line over longer distances, but it’s not a feature I typically use myself.

Bwine F7GIM: Camera Performance

The F7GIM camera features an 18MP 1/3.2 in Sony sensor, while the lens offers a 60mm equivalent focal length and f/2.0 aperture. Most single-camera drones have a much wider-angle camera than this, typically around 24mm, but 60mm does work – probably because it’s close to 50mm, which has a field of view similar to human vision.

The camera is fully automatic and has fixed focus, so there are no settings that can be changed except for resolution and framerate. This means that you can’t adjust exposure, and unless you’re shooting in bright conditions with the sun behind the drone, photos and videos have a tendency to underexpose slightly.

Exposure control through EV or exposure compensation, at the least, would be useful. The camera is also supported by a 3-axis mechanical gimbal, which helps to produce smooth video.

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Image quality is surprisingly good despite the fully automatic camera, although depth-of-field is shallower than you’d expect with distant objects falling out of focus. The centre of the frame is also characteristically sharper than the outer area. Photos can be captured in three resolutions up to 5700x3200px, with video available up to 4K at 30fps.

Video can also be captured in 2.7K 50/30fps, 2K 50fps and 720p 30fps. 720p video is stored on your phone, alongside photos, with higher-resolution videos and photos on the microSD card you install in the drone. I find this annoying because it fills up your phone storage and can’t be switched off, although other people may find it useful.

Bwine F7GIM: Verdict

The Bwine F7GIM is a respectable drone in several ways, including manual flight performance and the good, not perfect, but not bad image quality from the fully automatic camera. Subject tracking leaves something to be desired, but this is a basic beginner camera drone, and there are better models available specifically for subject tracking.

My biggest issue with the F7GIM is the price, which is, ultimately, too high for what’s on offer. But, if you’re looking for an easy-to-use DJI alternative with basic camera functionality, it might be a drone to consider, although I prefer the Potensic Atom 2 in this price bracket.

Alternatives

Potensic Atom 2

The Potensic Atom 2 is another attractively priced beginner drone. It also offers advanced camera control for capturing photos in Raw and JPEG format and videos up to 4K. Plus, the feature set is impressive.

DJI Mini 4K

The DJI Mini 4K is a fantastic beginner drone that’s available for a competition-beating price. The drone produces great image quality for videos up to 4K video capture and photos in Raw and JPEG formats.