DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter
DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter
- Auto takeoff and auto return home with GPS technology, makes controlling easy. App enables monitoring/camera operation easy
- Capture 4K ultra HD video at 30 fps, supported resolutions include: 12.0MP (4000 x 3000) photos. The f/2.8 lens with a broad field of view delivers crisp, clear images
- Gimbal stabilization technology, along with a hover function allows you to capture smooth, clean footage while the camera is in the air
- Use DJI director software with a built-in video editor to add music, text, and more to your videos.
DJI Phantom 4 The DJI Phantom 4 is the smartest flying camera DJI has ever created. Able to fly intelligently with a tap, automatically create seamless tracking shots, fly intelligently over or around obstacles and much more. Flying has never been this easy or as much fun. Sense and Avoid We all use our eyes to see, and for the first time the Phantom 4 does too. Two small forward facing cameras give it its own pair of eyes and an ability to not only see but react. In normal flight modes if it se
List Price: $ 1,399.00
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Honest review. What to expect from the Phantom 4: from semi-professional videographer and RC pilot.,
The Good/Bad/Ugly —–Good News First—–
1) Easy to fly: the stabilization in P mode is amazing. The drone doesn’t drift and has rock solid shots when hovering. A new pilot can easily pick it up and learn without the nuances and risk of a RC helicopter.
2) Smooth Cinematic Shots: I shoot in 1080P60FPS and get smooth shots not only high up, but close to the ground. You aren’t limited to a camera slider, or crane, and have all the control in your hands to frame the perfect shot.
3) Raw video/pictures for good post production color correction.
4) great price for all of the features – there really is nothing better at this price point, unless you want the phantom 3 adv/pro which is about half and not much worse than the phantom 4
5) fun to fly in sport mode – it goes really fast! This is where you may actually crash it as you want to fly low and fast
6) DJI Go App records video to your device that you can edit and share in app. Great stuff. User friendly. Intuitive
7) intelligent flight modes -point of interest is great as you can control camera and distance while it orbits your shot. Way points are smooth so you can focus on getting the shot after setting your points rather than flying the craft. Active track and follow modes are in the bad section.
—–The Bad—–
1) BUGS: following tradition, DJI releases a product that has significant flaws and bugs that may never be fixed – all of which they don’t tell you about. So let me tell YOU what to expect before you buy it:
a) gimbal calibration bug: the gimbal will not calibrate (i experienced this) and fails at 71-72% calibration on a perfectly level surface. Eventually it calibrated and all was fine.
b) propeller warning in sport mode – this random warning told me my propellor was loose or fell off, when in reality it just triggered when I was flying in sport mode. Freaky, but no big deal.
c) horizon leveling: previous models had significant gimball drift (horizon shows at not level). So dji put another compass/IMU for reliability purposes. Once you get your horizon calibrated on a perfectly level surface, you should be fine. However, when you need to make some adjustments in app (like trimming) the horizon will change to level, but then immediately “snap” back to skewed left or right and there is nothing you can do about it. This is a problem I doubt DJI is willing to address as it was present in previous models, and is STILL present in the P4.
d) artifacts in video: DJI put a “3D smoothing” selection as on in the app for better video. It works great at night for their highly compressed video to keep things looking ok, but actually makes video quality very very very poor especially in the lower half (think low quality choppy youtube video at 240p) at day. Thankfully you can turn it off, but you STILL get artifacts in the video, but not as pronounced.
d)FPV -or first person view cuts out randomly when in clear line of sight within the advertised range, then just randomly begins again. Annoying to say the least. Previous models did not have this issue. You can improve video quality and range by reducing the quality sent to the receiver, but you sill have issues with intermittent 1 second cut outs. Luckily your video on the drone isn’t affected, so its just annoying when you see it on your device.
2) camera is NOT anything professional, and 4K means nothing for image quality. There is significant image distortion at the edges of the camera, and is very ‘cheap’. If you set up the wrong frame rate, and sensitivity settings, you see ‘jello’ image distortion in the center of the videos. I am able to see some significant chromatic aberration as well. Faint blue and brown tones are present in water videos. with all that said though, the camera does do a good job with HD video. Just don’t expect professional quality. If you arent looking critically at the video, or are a complete novice, you may never notice these things. However, I do and am a little put off by it.
3)Range: Now this is in the BAD category, not because of the range, but because of the range. What? Let me explain. The advertised range is for the remote controlling the drones movements, not for the video feed part of the remote that goes to the remote. So you can ‘technically’ fly it very far away, but you lose video feed at half the advertised distance of the remote. This is deceptive marketing. You really only get about a mile and a half (which is plenty) rather than the 3 point whatever. Also, when DJI says it must be in ‘clear line of sight’ it really must be in clear line of sight or your video cuts out. You can literally be flying around a leafy tree 30 yards away, and few seconds after going behind that tree, you lose video signal. Keep line of sight, but know the limitations, especially when flying close to the ground. If you cant see it, you WILL lose video feed.
—–The…
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|AMAZING, worth every single penny,
Pre-ordered through the Apple Store and received on March 14th, actually a day before you could buy in store. My company gets a discount through Apple as a partner, and I was able to get a discount there on this as well. I also own a Yuneec Typhoon Q500 4K, so this is my second quad.
Here is what I can say about this incredible machine:
1. Build quality is amazing. The weight is substantial, it is a solid machine. Compared to my Q500, this thing is built like a tank and makes the Q500 feel flimsy and toy-like (and I love my Q500). Although smaller than the Q500 this gives me the feeling of I got what I paid for, hands down.
2. The included styrofoam box is pretty amazing. My Q500’s inner is styrofoam as well, but falls apart and leaves flakes of styrofoam on the machine. This is coated with something that makes it hard so it does not flake apart. The latch that locks is solid. Opening the box, it is amazing how compact the package is inside this small case. Compartments for storing two batteries (though one is included), and technically you could hold 3 with 2 in the case slots, and one in the quad. Batteries store on the left side. On the right side compartment for the charger, cables, and the nylon bag of two sets of rotors. The rear is a snug compartment for the controller, and it does fit in snugly. The front slot has the documentation. A very nice free case, compact, solid, and not bad for people that just want to pack the quad from location to location and do not require a more expensive plastic case. More than meets my needs.
3. It took well over and hour for me to unpack this, setup the controller and settings (based on a lot of reviews I read on YouTube), updating the software on both the quad, and the controller (a nice thing is there is an included cable that links your iPad, or Phone to the quad to update, where the Q500 requires you to pull out a cable in the battery compartment, and connect to a computer). You probably could fly this with everything set to the defaults, but you would not be fully utilizing the software.
4. The DJI Go app is complicated. I am using with an iPhone 6+. In comparison to the Q500 settings, the Phantom 4 is way more of a professional device, with far more settings and options to go through. Whereas the Q500, you could literally take out of the box and get flying in about 15 minutes, with this machine you will certainly want to know what all of the settings and controls do before you simply get in the air. My fear was not knowing what everything did in case something went wrong and I had to assume total control in a bad situation. Automation is good, but you need to know how to operate this machine with all those automated functions turned off.
5. The camera- I am on the fence about in comparison to the Q500. I know it is basically the same camera as in the Phantom 3 Professional, with some minor improvements, and I am still tweaking with the camera settings, but I still think the quality of the Q500 4K is slightly better with respect to sharpness and detail. Perhaps when I fully get the settings manually adjusted I will change that statement, but out of the box compared to my Q500 out of the box, the Q500 is a bit clearer. There are way more gimbal settings and adjustments on the Phantom 4, which I like. I did find that the Phantom 4 does not record sound from the camera at all (I did not know that). The Q500 4K does record sound. It probably makes no difference in the end, but I find that the sound of flight in my Q500 videos adds something extra. Lastly on the camera, I will certainly be investing is a nice set of ND filters in the future so I can slow down the shutter speed and get a more cinematic look to the video. The rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should be twice the frame rate- and to get proper exposure with those manual settings you will need filters to achieve that. Most people will shoot video for fun, so it likely would not matter if you were to keep the settings to auto. Unlike things I have read about the stock UV filter on the camera, mine unscrewed with ease. I have also read that Phantom 3 Professional filters fit the Phantom 4. The included filter installed I have read is already a UV filter. The plastic gimbal / camera guard is nice, one piece that just snaps on for storage and covers the camera lens. I ditched the included 16GB MicroSD card from the start for a 64GB card, and have no issues with a budget priced card that met the published specs. You don’t need a super high end card to record on this machine. Save your money for a second battery.
6. The controller is amazing. It charged fast, and the balance in my hands with the iPhone 6+ is perfect to the point that I feel that I do not need a neck strap for it. Perhaps with something heavy attached like a full sized iPad I could see my arms getting tired holding after a while. Love the tilt…
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|DJI Phantom 4 Review: Finicky Connectivity, Firmware & Hardware Issues – DJI Phantom 4 Amazon,
We have had issues with some of the consumer level drone offerings from other companies, so we were anxiously awaiting the release of the P4 – having had a good experience with the DJI P3 and Inspire. Unfortunately, after purchasing as soon as it was avaialble via Apple, this was not the product we hoped it would be. We have had three different P4’s sent/returned, over a months time, all with various issues.
P4 #1: The controller would not connect to an iPad mini – no matter what. We got it to connect to an iPhone 6s, but it was an intermittent connection. This was not a cable or interface issue, but something deeper. Item returned/replaced.
P4 #2: Showed up in the normal sealed box, but was haphazardly packed with missing parts, covers, etc. Item returned/replaced.
P4 #3: Came in good condition, iPad mini connected right up to the controller and performed a firmware update. All was looking good and went to upgrade the drone using the latest version of DJI Assistant. The firmware process started as expected, the drone connected, current and new firmware versions showed correctly, the new version downloaded, got to 100% and failed. Rebooted the computer and drone several times, re-installed assistant, etc. Same failure after getting to 100%. Now, the controller and drone firmware versions are out of sync and will not function.
We contacted DJI support on the non-functioning P4 #3, with no solid support offered on a P4 that had been in our hands for less than a few hours. It came down to “send us the logs from your computer and we’ll see”. We offered that perhaps this one was defective as well, and we should return this one too. The customer service rep said “OK” and abruptly ended the support session.
Based on our experience, it seems to us that this product has some serious flaws and has some bugs to be worked out in the hardware and software, as well as the support process. Disappointed that DJI support has a cavalier attitude towards their customers. We are not new to this, having been involved on the technical side of remote aerial camera operations and advanced RC for quite some time.
P4 #4 update 5/1/16: P4 #4 was sent to us. Tablet connected, check. Firmware update on controller and unit, check. Calibration, check. Settings good, check. Could this the one? Nope, BAD CAMERA GIMBAL!!
Sitting out on DJI for the time being.
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