Am I in my right mind?

[4wd]

You can bet the Vision plus successor will be more expensive - and will have some good features but other things that don't give it much edge over earlier models.

The camera will be better, the battery design will probably change significantly and give in the region of 30 minutes flying.
It will probably be bigger all round and very little will be backwards compatible with earlier phantoms.
The controller has hardly changed so far, I think that will have a major makeover.
All these things sound expensive don't they.

With the recent P2 range price drop, now is probably not a bad time to buy.
The Vision Price did not drop much more after the V+ came out even though the number of units sold must have taken a dive.

 

[HarryT]

the battery design will probably change significantly and give in the region of 30 minutes flying...

Very doubtful. Sticking in a bigger battery doesn't automatically give you more flight time - it often gives less, because the battery is heavier. The Phantom is already pretty much at the technical limit as far as flight time is concerned; a 30m flight time is probably not feasible without an advance in battery technology. If you look at DJI's larger multicopters you'll see that they all have shorter flight times than the V+.

 

[ProfessorStein]

+1 to Harry for keeping it real.

 

[Koz]

...without an advance in battery technology.

It's amazing that with all of the technological advances we have had over the past 50 years that we still have not perfected a long lasting, light weight battery. We've made incremental advances, but nothing revolutionary.

If someone ever invents a long lasting, light weight battery it will literally change the world.

 

[HarryT]

It's amazing that with all of the technological advances we have had over the past 50 years that we still have not perfected a long lasting, light weight battery. We've made incremental advances, but nothing revolutionary.

If someone ever invents a long lasting, light weight battery it will literally change the world.

If you compare LiPo batteries to NiCads, we've come a pretty long way.

The next advance in battery technology will be Lithium-Air cells, which will probably give 2-3x the energy density of LiPos, but they're still a few years away from commercial production.