A little before noon this morning, the big FedEx truck was in my driveway. I was surprised at how small the box was that he handed me! Did not take long to have it all open and sitting on the kitchen counter.
After a lot of looking and feeling, I must say that I am really impressed with the overall construction, good looks, and clean lines of the P4. The way they have hidden the antenna wires, beefed up the landing skids, strengthened the motor mount arms, and totally cleaned up the camera gimbals mount is fantastic! Coming from the P3, the new P4 is like going from a Chevrolet to a Cadillac. Great job DJI! ! !
I spent most of the afternoon going over all the settings, downloading and installing software, and making sure I had everything setup and ready to fly. Here in MI, we have been having winds gusting to over 40 mph the past couple of days, so I did not think there was much chance of the first flight today. As the day wore on, most of the clouds cleared from the sky, and the winds settled down to about 10 mph with gusts up to 18 mph. Toward sunset the wind was pretty steady at 7 to 9 mph, gusting to 18 mph. I waited until the sun was a full disk on the horizon and got setup for the first liftoff. With steady winds between 6 and 9 mph, I decided it was time to go.
The launch was perfect, I stopped at about 15 feet and exercised all the controls, everything moved in the right direction, and it is hard to believe just how steady the picture coming back looked. By now the sun was just disappearing behind the tree line, about one half a mile away. I was watching the bird doing a bit of rock and roll, looked at the screen and thought that the tabled had frozen up, the picture was firmly locked in place. I actually was considering what to do next! After about a minute of doing nothing, just watching the non moving screen, I decided I would take it up to about 150 feet and snap a few pictures, just to see if I could get anything at all. To my absolute surprise, I glanced at the screen as I pushed forward on the left stick and the picture was moving!
Setting in the gusting winds, doing a rock and roll in many directions, the image on the screen never moved! I am so impressed with the stability, my P3 never came close to that kind of stability, except in very calm air. This is one heck of a stable platform, and the picture quality, so far with just a few pictures taken, is outstanding.
Below is a raw file that I reduced in size for the web. It is one of about 10 pictures that I took this evening. I could not even see the disk of the sun from the ground, but at 150 feet up, the P4 was still seeing it!
I sure hope that all who get the P4 are a pleased as I am, at this moment, with their purchase. It is one terrific bird, and I have not even started to see all it can do.
After a lot of looking and feeling, I must say that I am really impressed with the overall construction, good looks, and clean lines of the P4. The way they have hidden the antenna wires, beefed up the landing skids, strengthened the motor mount arms, and totally cleaned up the camera gimbals mount is fantastic! Coming from the P3, the new P4 is like going from a Chevrolet to a Cadillac. Great job DJI! ! !
I spent most of the afternoon going over all the settings, downloading and installing software, and making sure I had everything setup and ready to fly. Here in MI, we have been having winds gusting to over 40 mph the past couple of days, so I did not think there was much chance of the first flight today. As the day wore on, most of the clouds cleared from the sky, and the winds settled down to about 10 mph with gusts up to 18 mph. Toward sunset the wind was pretty steady at 7 to 9 mph, gusting to 18 mph. I waited until the sun was a full disk on the horizon and got setup for the first liftoff. With steady winds between 6 and 9 mph, I decided it was time to go.
The launch was perfect, I stopped at about 15 feet and exercised all the controls, everything moved in the right direction, and it is hard to believe just how steady the picture coming back looked. By now the sun was just disappearing behind the tree line, about one half a mile away. I was watching the bird doing a bit of rock and roll, looked at the screen and thought that the tabled had frozen up, the picture was firmly locked in place. I actually was considering what to do next! After about a minute of doing nothing, just watching the non moving screen, I decided I would take it up to about 150 feet and snap a few pictures, just to see if I could get anything at all. To my absolute surprise, I glanced at the screen as I pushed forward on the left stick and the picture was moving!
Setting in the gusting winds, doing a rock and roll in many directions, the image on the screen never moved! I am so impressed with the stability, my P3 never came close to that kind of stability, except in very calm air. This is one heck of a stable platform, and the picture quality, so far with just a few pictures taken, is outstanding.
Below is a raw file that I reduced in size for the web. It is one of about 10 pictures that I took this evening. I could not even see the disk of the sun from the ground, but at 150 feet up, the P4 was still seeing it!
I sure hope that all who get the P4 are a pleased as I am, at this moment, with their purchase. It is one terrific bird, and I have not even started to see all it can do.
Last edited:
