Advanced vs Professional

edonovanl · Apr 21, 2015

Ditto on the X5 - what a tough little bird that thing is! I've played basketball on the grass with mine and it just refuses to stop flying! Amazing!

For sure, the Phantoms are much easier to fly but you can't bounce them off of solid objects like you can the X5...

CPantom59 · Apr 21, 2015

Piloting a Phantom "is" easy. Piloting an airplane is also easy. It's keeping them in the air that takes skill and knowledge.

NXPRSS · Apr 23, 2015

I think im going to go with the advanced model, not sure if the 4k is worth the extra $259... I read somewhere the 4k takes forever to upload on youtube and takes up alot more memory on your sd card... I think I rather have the 1080p version, can you really tell the difference? both look GREAT!
but I rather buy once/cry once. so if you guys have any better reasons to go with the pro model over the advanced, im all ears...
and oh ya, this will be my first drone, (ordered the hubsan x4 the other day to get the hang of it).

KillerCut · Apr 23, 2015

for a non professional who is flying for fun, there is no reason to spend the extra $260. the lightbridge alone is worth the $999, hd live view will be awesome. and if u lose it, thats $260 less of a loss... i'm expecting a p4 or i2 soon anyway, likely with full hd live view, so i'm saving my $ for that...

Meta4 · Apr 23, 2015

KillerCut said:
i'm expecting a p4 or i2 soon anyway, likely with full hd live view, so i'm saving my $ for that...

A P4 soon? That would be extremely unlikely when the P3 hasn't even shipped yet.

Apparition · Apr 23, 2015

KillerCut said:
for a non professional who is flying for fun, there is no reason to spend the extra $260. the lightbridge alone is worth the $999, hd live view will be awesome. and if u lose it, thats $260 less of a loss... i'm expecting a p4 or i2 soon anyway, likely with full hd live view, so i'm saving my $ for that...

Seems somebody doesn't value the gold stickers. I paid $259 for the stickers and $1 for the 4k and charger.

Pinch1020 · Apr 23, 2015

NXPRSS said:
I think im going to go with the advanced model, not sure if the 4k is worth the extra $259... I read somewhere the 4k takes forever to upload on youtube and takes up alot more memory on your sd card... I think I rather have the 1080p version, can you really tell the difference? both look GREAT!
but I rather buy once/cry once. so if you guys have any better reasons to go with the pro model over the advanced, im all ears...
and oh ya, this will be my first drone, (ordered the hubsan x4 the other day to get the hang of it).

Cry once! ....if you buy the P3A, you will always look back, if you buy the P3P, there's no looking back. As 4k becomes more popular with the masses, I'm sure YouTube will make the necessary updated to accommodate the 4K file sizes. Eventually you will buy a 4k TV, the prices are coming down. It's only $250, that's 5 times going out for dinner,or 35 six packs of beer, twice your cable bill, 100 cups of D&D coffee, I'm sure you can make some adjustments, to justify the $ 250 difference.plus there's no crying!

-terry · Apr 23, 2015

+1 on that Pinch.

KillerCut · Apr 23, 2015

i had a 4k tv, the picture from my sofa was worse than my 1080p tv.... it wasnt a samsung series 8 like my 1080p, but you wont be able to buy a samsung series 8 or higher for a decent price yet... and likely not till at least next year... not to mention that humans cant tell the difference from like a 55 inch 1080p from a 55" 4k from normal sofa distance... so unless u watch tv from 1-2 feet away 4k is pretty useless.

KillerCut · Apr 23, 2015

hold up, let me get my @55 off the sofa so i can see those fine details, lol

KillerCut · Apr 23, 2015

other people will argue, ohhh but i'm gonna get a 60" or 65" or 85" or whatever. so 4k will be important. watching tv on those larger tvs becomes uncomfortable, and most likely you would want to only use larger tvs when distance from the sofa is further than normal, so in essence you still will never see that extra detail.
i have a pretty good eye, and everytime i go to costco and walk past the tvs i usually have to double check the boxes under the tvs to figure out if they are 4k or 1080p... the only benefit to the pro is that its taking 8mp pictures 30 times a second vs 2mp 60 times a second, but both will take 12mp pictures anyway... also that you can crop the 4k to 1080p, but u realize you can just get closer.. u are fpving with 1mp resolution so most likely you will want to get closer anyway... and i'm sure cropping 4k to 1080p and keeping it fairly stabilized isnt as easy as it seems...

Mako79 · Apr 23, 2015

KillerCut said:
for a non professional who is flying for fun, there is no reason to spend the extra $260. the lightbridge alone is worth the $999, hd live view will be awesome. and if u lose it, thats $260 less of a loss... i'm expecting a p4 or i2 soon anyway, likely with full hd live view, so i'm saving my $ for that...

I'm a non professional too. 4K TVs are nice. But that means I need a 4K PC to edit.
And I have little faith on PV2+ gimbal and how fragile they are. I hope DJI have learnt and not used the same magnetically held press shaft. I hope DJI have some sort of gimbal guard to stop the camera from tearing the ribbon on impact. But I think not as the damaged gimbals and cameras from the V+ funded for the P3's. This is why the P3 is priced so well.

And not proven yet, but I think the P3A camera will only work with the P3A, and obviously P3P camera with the P3P.
What does this mean? If the camera gimbal was damaged and the price was $400 difference to replace??? But this is all speculation.

Pinch1020 · Apr 23, 2015

I'm getting a 4k TV and the iMac 27 inch 5K, so for me it's P3P, it fits my needs. Everyone needs to do what's best for them, they are both good choices, which ever one you decide to buy. Just don't be pissed when you open your P3A, I warned you... Good luck.

JayB · Apr 24, 2015

KillerCut said:
i had a 4k tv, the picture from my sofa was worse than my 1080p tv.... it wasnt a samsung series 8 like my 1080p, but you wont be able to buy a samsung series 8 or higher for a decent price yet... and likely not till at least next year... not to mention that humans cant tell the difference from like a 55 inch 1080p from a 55" 4k from normal sofa distance... so unless u watch tv from 1-2 feet away 4k is pretty useless.

I researched buying A 4k TV, I sit about 10 ft away from the screen, I found out that to tell any difference I would have to go over 85".

We all justify to our selves why we make our choices, I certainly won't be crying into my cornflakes over wishing I'd gone for the pro. I do agree with pinch on one thing though, they both look amazing and if money was no object I'd buy the pro just for the gold stickers...

And remember it's not the size that matters, it's what you do with it..

DaveDorn · Apr 24, 2015

KillerCut said:
i had a 4k tv, the picture from my sofa was worse than my 1080p tv.... it wasnt a samsung series 8 like my 1080p, but you wont be able to buy a samsung series 8 or higher for a decent price yet... and likely not till at least next year... not to mention that humans cant tell the difference from like a 55 inch 1080p from a 55" 4k from normal sofa distance... so unless u watch tv from 1-2 feet away 4k is pretty useless.

I'd be interested to know what source material you were viewing on the 4K telly.

On technical notes, 4K footage compressed down to 1080 gains an increase in colour space - goes from 4:2:2 to 4:4:4. Cropped to 1080 gives pixel for pixel resolution and allows for less than accurate "aim" from the camera platform.

Finally, you don't need a "4K PC" to edit in 4K - by using proxy media, you'll see your footage in whatever resolution your graphics card allows, but the rendered footage will maintain its 4K-ness. Doesn't mean it will be real-time edits (you'd likely need a fully loaded Mac Pro to get that without proxy media) but you'll still get decent result.

Gadger · Apr 24, 2015

These are two interesting questions raised about the P3P 4K version and the second about both (please note not my questions). But I thought I would raise them here too.

"First, I want to be clear that I am a fairly satisfied with DJI products. I'M not here to knock the company nor the P3. But I do have some concerns about the Phantom 3's ability to handle heat distribution. I already own an Inspire 1 and I am very happy with the operation of that quad. But it is from the operation of the Inspire that gives me pause about the P3.1. I ordered the AdVance model, partly because I already have 4K with the Inspire. But the Inspire camera has a fan and still gets warm when shooting 4K video. I wonder how the 4K on the P3 will handle this heat load.

Question about both versions

2. All the P3 components are on the same board, from the LB to the ESC. If one component fails...the whole board must be replaced. Of larger concern is the LB and other components are going to generate quite a bit of heat. The Inspire design is fairly open to air flow....but on the P3...the components are enclosed in a shell. Will this limit the amount of time the P3 can fly before overheating. The Inspire can recycle flight after flight without a heat buildup. Will the P3 be more limited by having to let it go through a cool-down period?

I hope someone out there who has tested the Phantom 3 can address these concerns."

Meta4 · Apr 24, 2015

The P3 has a fan too ... but it's in the gimbal base.
Testing hasn't brought up any problem with heat

jadebox · Apr 24, 2015

The cameras are the same size, with the same sensor and lens. So, the difference in quality of the video cannot be substantial. Of course, the bit rate is higher and the electronics will use more of the sensor in 4K mode, so there will be some improvement. But, it won't be as dramatic as scaling up to a larger camera with a bigger lens.

Nevertheless, I ordered the Professional even though I'm sure I would have been happy with the Advanced. Even in 1080p mode and compressed into YouTube videos, the videos from the Inspire and P3 are obviously better than the video from my P2V. Once video I found had cars in it recorded on a sunny day. I compared it to a similar video I had, choosing a scene where the lighting was about the same and the distance to the cars was similar. In the P2V video, the cars looked blurry and bloated (a bit like Pixar characters). Details were lost and the edges shimmered due to to, I guess, some attempt to sharpen the image in the camera. The cars in the P3 video looked more like cars. You couldn't read the plates on the cars in the P3 video, but at least you could tell they had license plates on them.

I ordered the Profession because I'm a nerd that has to have the latest and greatest. But, also because any improvement in video quality is welcomed especially since I'll be locked into using the camera for a few years.

-- Roger