Stupid Noobie questions...

[Sinjin]

Hello,
I am interested in purchasing a P2, mostly for real estate, but also for playing. My original thought was a P2, and a Hero GoPro. I understand the GoPro set up produces smoother video, but the quality of the stills may suffer.
So I guess my questions are:
If I purchased a P2 vision, how sturdy is the gimbal, as opposed to the HD-3D? Is there significant loss of quality in the video?
How well could I do stills with the GoPro?
Is there anyway to hook up a FPV with the GoPro?
Could someone provide a link, or an explanation of the ground station? Is it compatible if I use the GoPro?
In the US what companies offer insurance?

And anything else you might think I should know?

Thank you for your time. If this isn't the right forum for these type of questions, please let me know.

 

[QYV]

P2's are fairly sturdy (imo) I've crashed just the phantom several times from like, 20 feet up onto concrete before and I've only suffered some broken props. Gimbals on the other hand are way more sensitive... which one is better I'm afraid I can't say I have no experience with a Vision /V+ I've never held one but I bet one isn't "significantly" more sturdy... the type of crash that's going to bust up one gimbal would probably hurt the other fairly severely too. Look into this more but I think the Vision gimbal is more expensive to replace, whereas if you bust up a H3-3D there are certain parts like if it's just the mounting bracket you can replace cheap, or even the whole thing is like $300.

what I DO have the most knowledge about in your questions is FPV. it's rather inexpensive and easy to add FPV to a P2/gopro, under $450 and that's with premium $110 antennas (longer range than your Phantom has on a single battery) and no soldering.

The biggest thread I've seen here regarding insurance is here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15375

the debate about which camera takes better stills I'm leaving to other people. I'm one of the lazy types that just takes a capture from video when I want a still, mostly I care about videos and the GoPro Hero3+ black is easily a superior camera for video

 

[cmt56ss]

Let me add my .02 cents.

I bought a PV2+ -- I've been in RC for about 12 years, and my thought was, if stock is good, aftermarket is better. So when I got my PV2+, I removed the stock gimbal/camera and installed the H3-3D gimbal and a GoPro Hero 3+. I also incurred the $400 cost to buy an FPV setup. I crashed my first flight as trees got in the way of my signal and the bird tried to return home, but met the tree first. I destroyed the 300 gimbal and thought oh well, it's cheaper than replacing the $679 gimbal/camera setup on the PV2+.

I ended up reinstalling the stock gimbal/camera because I wanted to show it off for family coming over for a party. I have to admit, I was truly amazed at the functions I "lost" by not having the PV2+ gimbal/camera setup. I had no control over the GoPro to start/stop the video or take stills -- if I bought the controller for it, I could have done video & pics. If I had purchased the correct Phantom, I could have been able to control the angle of the camera.

For what it's worth, I say go PV2+. I took mine on vacation with my family, took quite a lot of videos and pics and nobody could get over how clear they were. I even showed the people in my office the pictures and video from the PV2+ and they were amazed, and that's without editing them. The PV2+ has so many features, the ability to easily change settings for pics/videos on the fly, to view the pics and videos you've taken on your phone while the bird is still in the air, etc.

The PV2+ is the most bang for your buck and offers a lot of features. And it is ready to fly out of the box, except for charging the batteries.

 

[HarryT]

Yes, if you want to take stills, the P2V+ is the clear winner. The P2/H3-3D/GoPro is a better video platform, but there's no easy way to use it for stills.

The disadvantage of the P2V+ is the very, very expensive camera/gimbal unit which is fragile, and which can only be replaced as a single unit. If you are a newcomer to quad flying, it really is a question of how often you'll crash, not if you'll crash.

 

[Sinjin]

Thanks so much for your quick responses.

Just a couple more questions if I could.

Would it make sense to buy just the P2, and get comfortable flying it, and then buy a gimble/camera set up?

Could I get both gimble set ups (vision +, and HD-3D), and interchange them?

Is DJI's customer service as horrific as their reputation implies? Has anyone had a problem with their customer service?

 

[QYV]

Yes, if you want to take stills, the P2V+ is the clear winner. The P2/H3-3D/GoPro is a better video platform, but there's no easy way to use it for stills..

that's not exactly true... the GoPro Hero 3+ Black (not sure about other models) has a video + stills mode where it records video and snaps a still every X seconds

or there's timelapse mode where you tell it to take a still every 10, 30, 60 whatever seconds and you can just fly around FPV in that mode with it snapping stills

there's argument going on elsewhere which camera is better for stills (the gopro owns in terms of video of course) , but I'm just saying it 'is possible' with the gopro
cheers