LaCie DJI Copilot review by Pieter Uys at Kaimara Studios.

When our client booked us for a shoot in Mozambique for 11 days, we knew that we would have to be smart about packing the right gear. Kaimara was heading for the Limpopo National Park, Maputo Special and Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserves.

Preparing for such a long trip in the field takes proper planning. We needed to be able to back up our footage daily and often on-the-go between shoots. Taking a laptop with was risky because we knew that we would have limited access to electricity and we had to travel light so we needed another solution.

Map of Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park
Map of Maputo Special Reserve.

An absolute must-have travel storage solution

Allow me to introduce the DJI Copilot BOSS* external hard drive from LaCie. When the friendly staff at Outdoorphoto showed it to me for the first time, I knew that it was going to play a key role in my workflow – it is the ideal solution for managing your footage on the road. The hard drive has 2 TB of storage which is perfect for 11 day-long trips. At the end of our trip, we had taken took over 10 000 photos and filmed about 1.2 TB of footage.

The DJI Copilot is equipped with slots for an SD card, a USB, USB-C and micro USB. Included, you also get a micro SD card adapter for the SD card slot. We often filmed with our DJI Mavic Pro and could simply use the micro SD card adapter to dump the drone footage onto the DJI Copilot.

*Backup On Set Solution.

LaCie DJI Copilot review by Pieter Uys at Kaimara Studios.

During our trip, we worked under very harsh conditions, drove on bad roads, filmed in extreme heat on the Massingir Dam, Mozambique and on the ocean. Even though it is built like a tank, I kept my DJI Copilot safely in a B&W Outdoor Case. When it comes to data, rather be safe than sorry.

Battery and charging

The DJI Copilot battery lasted for three days before having to recharge it. Luckily, we found power points at some of the locations where we filmed. Charging was a very easy process: I just plugged the USB to USB-C cable into my iPhone’s charging block – easy does it!

Manage files from your phone

The Copilot BOSS app (App Store/Google Play) is also a brilliant feature: You can connect your phone to the DJI Copilot to manage the folders and even view files on the drive as needed. I could even download some of the clips to my phone for sharing on social media. This was incredibly helpful and efficient.

The file management system works according to dates which makes it very easy to locate your files. All you need to know is the date on which you filmed the clip you are looking for.

Clear LCD status screen

Another great feature is the screen on the hard drive itself. It is very clear to see what is going on while you are doing your backups and you can see clearly even in harsh sunlight which is a big plus!

The DJI Copilot has quickly become a tool that our team simply cannot go without. It enabled us to shoot as much footage as we needed to without worrying about storage limitations and we never had any worries about keeping our files safe. I highly recommend this product to anyone who needs stable storage solutions on the go wherever you are.

Key features

  • Holds up to 2 TB (+- 60 hrs of 4K video)
  • USB 3.1 Type-C & 3.0 Type-A interfaces
  • Integrated SD/microSD card reader
  • Review footage directly from drone/mobile device
  • Integrated LCD status screen
  • Drop-, splash- and dust-resistant
  • Windows, Mac, iOS & Android compatible
  • Backup battery pack for USB devices
  • 3 Years’ of data recovery included