That is DJI's modus operandi. They did this with the GoPro Karma, Yuneec Typhoon H, Autel Evo, and many more that do not come to mind.The guy that owns GoPro is a ***** and somewhat deserved to take a bath on the Karma, but DJI is ruthless in crushing competition. I can't see a non Chinese company having much of a chance given the price advantage they have and the R&D they appear to be sitting on. I get the sense that if another company were to actually offer a drone that threatens the P4P segment that DJI would announce, before the competitor could start shipping, a new drone with greater capabilities at a lower price. What DJI did to GoPro was classic.
Brian
You will find the big boys in the enterprise area of the DJI website.I no longer see any reference on the DJI website for some of the larger pro drones like the S1000 and the singular pro drone listed is the Inspire. I take it that DJI has the Inspire positioned as a turn-key pro drone and the other large drones they offered, like the S1000, were for roll-your-own pro drones using high end cameras like a Red Epic. I'm not sure what's become of the S1000 and similar drones but I do not see any reference to them on the website.
At the consumer end the top of the line was the Phantom line, but, as I said, it appears that the Phantom line is being discontinued so that would leave either the Mavic Pro line or some as yet to be announced new line. A new line would make sense and I could see it being based on the more modern Mavic Pro body style being more compact that the Phantom but with a higher end camera and image/video processor. The only other thing could be DJI simply getting out of the higher end consumer drones altogether, but that doesn't make any sense to me.
Which brings me back to the points I made about DJI not improving upon tech that's now 2.2 years old with the very real prospect that the timeline for any real improvement might reach or exceed 3 years -- an eternity in the tech sector.
What I want is either a new Phantom or perhaps a new line based on the Mavic Pro that provides comparable/improved flight modes and collision avoidance and flight times (25min+) but with a one inch or M43 camera with true 4K60 and 150Mbps bit rate with H.265 that works without glitches. Interchangeable lenses would be nice but difficult to support on a drone weighing 1.5kg or less.
Sadly, with the demise of the Karma DJI appears to think they can rest for 3 years.
Brian
You will find the big boys in the enterprise area of the DJI website.
Matrice 600 would seem to be an upgrade from the s1000 which is a dated design now. They have an interesting 8 rotor designed for agricultural use that uses radar to follow the terrain.
Am I correct In believing that the Phantom series is finished? Phantoms have been out of stock on DJI's site for a long time, and B&H Photo shows them as 'discontinued'.
If so, it has been a great product. If not, it seems that someone would be selling them.
I got the v2.0 last year, and as long as I can get batteries, etc. I will probably never need another drone. I waited a long time to get exactly what I wanted and I really do think that I have succeeded in doing so.It's beginning to look like the Phantom is no more and that in its place will be a variant of the Mavic -- a drone with folding arms. I would not be unhappy with that move if a new version had genuinely superior flight and camera performance, but 2.3 years after the P4P was released DJI has nothing below the Inspire series that genuinely surpasses the camera performance of the P4P. The latest Mavic's are, perhaps, about equal to the P4P camera and in some respects a bit better, but the difference, if any, is small. Give me a new Super Mavic series with a 4K60 camera that has a bit rate in the 150Mbps range and 10-bit along with a flight platform as good or better than the P4P with 30 minutes or more flight time and I'd be quite happy jumping on that.
Brian
Except that DJI have already done it as has been seen in photos for well over a year.I don't think DJI would develop a multi-lens system for the phantom line because that's not really in the purchase range for the target market. I think it's a cool idea, but in my mind i can't quite square it. It would be expensive to develop, assuming it's a proprietary mount and back.
It's been explained as a special manufacturing run for a big Chinese power company who wanted a number of them for powerline inspection work.I think the phantom in the OP was a one-off, probably for a large studio that can afford such devices, but not necessarily an indicator of things to come.