Spend my money with me.

[fiveo]

If you need to step up to something with longer flight times and larger payloads you will be looking at at least 8x the cost of the Phantom.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration...my new F550 has only lightened my wallet 7x as much as my Phantom has :lol:

Seriously though, it is possible to put together a platform with better payload capability than the Phantom for twice the cost or less, if you're smart about it and don't go nuts like I did

Tell me more? I still may go Vision (simply because as verse I am with RC's, not sure I have the ability to build from scratch), but you have peeked my interest.

 

[fiveo]

For the price the Vision is the best bang for the buck if you stick to doing surveys. It is when you look to going beyond that that the Pantom/GoPro starts looking more suitable to your needs. I doubt you need a super steady image that a multi axis gimbal offers for a survey.

For you to get a Phantom, camera, and video downlink using a Phantom 2 as a starting point you will be spending about $1600. The Phantom Vision does these things out of the box for fewer dollars.

Personally I would recommend the Vision. Use it for surveys. Get comfortable flying it. If you need to step up to something with longer flight times and larger payloads you will be looking at at least 8x the cost of the Phantom. That level of spending may be harder to justify for business reasons.

Great points.

 

[OI Photography]

If you need to step up to something with longer flight times and larger payloads you will be looking at at least 8x the cost of the Phantom.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration...my new F550 has only lightened my wallet 7x as much as my Phantom has :lol:

Seriously though, it is possible to put together a platform with better payload capability than the Phantom for twice the cost or less, if you're smart about it and don't go nuts like I did

Tell me more? I still may go Vision (simply because as verse I am with RC's, not sure I have the ability to build from scratch), but you have peeked my interest.

Building one yourself is mainly just choosing, mounting and connecting all the parts which were already installed in the Phantom. The F550 I have is certainly not the only platform you could move to fairly easily which would expand your abilities, it just happens to be one of the most prolific...plenty of bolt-on/plug-in options are available.

What you would need to start would be the airframe (the F550 is ~$50), motors and ESC's (like the E300 set DJI is about to release: http://www.dji.com/product/tuned-propulsion-system/), and a flight controller, like the NAZA v2 w/GPS. What you need beyond that just depends on what you need to use it for.

 

[LeoS]

Unless you plan on making a business of providing automated drones to do security patrols for the customers, making your own drone just to do your own surveillance, demo and test patrols will be a timesuck.

If you need one for your business, just pay a pro to make one and maintain it for you so you can focus on the biz and just treat this as a tool.

 

[fiveo]

Unless you plan on making a business of providing automated drones to do security patrols for the customers, making your own drone just to do your surveillance, demo and test patrols will be a timesuck.

Yea, kinda leaning that way myself. My priorities with this thing are ranked as follows:

1: Range
2: Video Quality
3: Still Quality
4: Camera Stabilization
5: FPV

#Beatingadeadhorse.......The Vision seems like the easy, fast and out of the box way to get into this. Just don't want to get shaky video and wish I did the P2 with Gimbal/GoPro. I am sure these aren't hard to sell used but would like to just get something that I want right out of the gate.

What specific products do I buy to set up the Gimbal/GoPro with FPV to give it all the features of the Vision?

Am I still going to lose features that the Vision has which cannot be obtained with the P2? If so, what are those?

Where is the best place to buy a Phantom?

So far most of you have recommended the Vision. I am willing to invest up to about $2500 probably, although less would be nice. If that changes your opinion on what to get please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks again for all the time responding, it has been a good learning process for me and everyone has helped clarify some of my questions.

 

[Pull_Up]

I suspect you're not in the UK, but here's an example of a built-to-order rig that seems to offer most of what you want in a ready-to-fly package with a price (in GBP) that might give you a rough ballpark...

http://quadcopters.co.uk/dji-f450-naza- ... -831-p.asp

They also do a completely custom job that they specifically mention is good for security and similar purposes with deliberately quiet motors, long endurance and FLIR! There's no price quoted so we know what that means....!

http://quadcopters.co.uk/aerial-thermal ... -208-c.asp :shock:

 

[fiveo]

So, here is where I am. Really like the shutter control option of the Vision, and FPV but am really concerned about the fact it has no gimble and it's inability to interchange with other cameras, inclusive of swapping to a GoPro or other camera down the road if I wanted. It just seems (while the money is better) to be more restrictive for me down the road.

My concern is what am I giving up when I choose to not buy the Vision. So, can someone answer the following questions for me:

What do I need to buy with the Phantom 2 to accomplish the exact same functionality as the Phantom Vision?

Is this a good package to buy if I went this route: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... erial.html

Can I use my IPhone just like the Vision to do FPV on the Phantom 2? Or will I have a separate LCD?

What range will I get with the Phantom 2 and what range with the Phantom Vision?

How is the resale value on a Phantom Vision? Hypothetically, if I bought it and found it to be limiting for one reason or another?

If DJI comes out with a Gimbal for the Phantom Vision...is that a better option than the P2 with GoPro and gimbal?

Is anyone familiar with the Turbo Ace Matrix? Is it a good quadcopter?


Thanks in advance for anyone who can answer these for me.

 

[LeoS]

If you buy the Phantom 2 with vision, you'll be stuck with gopro hero 3.

If you buy Vision, you'll be stuck with FC-200 wifi camera.

None of these can be easily interchanged with other cameras of your choosing while retaining their 'features' (2-d gimbal on zenmuse, ip connectivity on the vision). So if you want to try different cameras by omitting said features, then either platform can be fairly easily jerry rigged to handle 'other' cameras by using zip ties, 3rd party mount options and whatnot.