With the official launch of the Phantom 4 drone on 1st March 2016, we finally have a drone with collision avoidance, subject tracking, dual-IMU and compass, and even a sports mode. Surely this would make many P3 owners sell their birds and snap up a P4.
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However, I think that most P3 owners would actually just stay with their current drones.
The problem with the Phantom line is that when the P3 came out, it was miles ahead of the P2, its integrated lightbridge technology was amazing and its 4k camera gave wonderful clarity in video. Many owners wished that the next Phantom iteration would include retractable landing gears or 360 camera. That though, would mean that the phantom would slowly creep into the realm of the Inspire 1.
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DJI cannot create a phantom product that will eventually become like what the Inspire 1 is, because that would obviously kill the sales of the Inspire. Unless DJI creates a revolutionary
Inspire 2, or find some other ways to improve the Phantom line without affecting sales of the Inspire, we could see DJI becoming like Apple, releasing products year after year with minimal changes from the previous product.
Here is what I think of the P4's system and what you can do with a P3.
- Collision avoidance: Do your homework and find out the height of your surroundings first, set an appropriate RTH height before flying and make sure you maintain proper LOS with your bird.
- Dual IMU and Compass: Having two IMUs and Compasses is good, but that does not mean that you P3 would suddenly fail because of it. The system in P3 works fine and that's that.
- Sports Mode: This is one physical advantage that the P3 doesnt have, but how many of us really need the sports mode? Surely not enough to want us all to sell our P3 and pick up a P4.
- Subject tracking: Sure this is amazing software technology, but how many of us will constantly use it? Most of us are recreational flyers and do not make movies for a living. So we won't be hard up for that software.
- Motors that sit higher: Hmmm ok. So just plan your shots first and adjust your gimbal on your p3 before you film anything then.
- 4K camera with new glass: The P3's camera is already amazing. With proper technique and flying and grading of video, I don't see how the new camera will be that revolutionary compared to the P3's.
- Larger battery: Sure, the P4 battery is huge and provides 28 mins of flight time. It comes at a cost however, it takes almost 70 mins to charge one battery. Unless there is a new way of fast charging the batteries whilst maintain long flight times, i doubt any of us would be happy to wait for an hour for a battery to charge.
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What are your thoughts? Would you sell your P3 to get the P4?
