Drones

Review: A critical look at DJI's Phantom 3 Professional

Review: A critical look at DJI's Phantom 3 Professional
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - a huge upgrade from the Phantom 2 Vision+
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - a huge upgrade from the Phantom 2 Vision+
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DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - a huge upgrade from the Phantom 2 Vision+
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DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - a huge upgrade from the Phantom 2 Vision+
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - the clear leader in the all-in-one camera drone segment, with daylight second
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DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - the clear leader in the all-in-one camera drone segment, with daylight second
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - downward facing camera and ultrasound sensors combine with improved GPS and added GLONASS system to give much more stable flight inside, outside and in strong winds
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DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - downward facing camera and ultrasound sensors combine with improved GPS and added GLONASS system to give much more stable flight inside, outside and in strong winds
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - hard shell backpack makes this a very portable system, even for motorcyclists
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DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - hard shell backpack makes this a very portable system, even for motorcyclists
DJI Pilot app, as used on the Inspire One, is a vast improvement on the old DJI vision app
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DJI Pilot app, as used on the Inspire One, is a vast improvement on the old DJI vision app
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - superior 4K imaging and now even easier to fly
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DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - superior 4K imaging and now even easier to fly
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
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Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 controller - your device is now connected via a USB cable instead of WiFi
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Phantom 3 controller - your device is now connected via a USB cable instead of WiFi
Phantom 3 controller - left finger controls include start/stop video, the mode switch and the camera pitch control wheel
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Phantom 3 controller - left finger controls include start/stop video, the mode switch and the camera pitch control wheel
Phantom 3 controller - right finger controls include a button to shoot still photos, the exposure compensation wheel and playback button
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Phantom 3 controller - right finger controls include a button to shoot still photos, the exposure compensation wheel and playback button
Phantom 3 controller - improved phone/tablet holder now takes much larger tablets, but not a full size iPad.
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Phantom 3 controller - improved phone/tablet holder now takes much larger tablets, but not a full size iPad.
Phantom 3 controller - fold-out antennas and USB connection make it a quicker setup when you get to your shoot location
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Phantom 3 controller - fold-out antennas and USB connection make it a quicker setup when you get to your shoot location
Phantom 3 Professional camera - 12 megapixel RAW stills, and 4K video
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Phantom 3 Professional camera - 12 megapixel RAW stills, and 4K video
Phantom 3 Professional camera - stabilised by a Zenmuse 3D gimbal
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Phantom 3 Professional camera - stabilised by a Zenmuse 3D gimbal
DJI Pilot app is vastly better than the old Vision one.
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DJI Pilot app is vastly better than the old Vision one.
DJI Pilot app - automatic flight logging
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DJI Pilot app - automatic flight logging
View gallery - 25 images

China's DJI made a gutsy move with the release of the Phantom 3. The Phantom 2 Vision+ was already more or less unchallenged as the best prosumer-level all-in-one camera drone on the market, while the Inspire One offered a clear step up for early professional users. The Phantom 3 could easily have been an incremental upgrade, but instead it got a complete overhaul, to the point where the Professional model now actually looks better than the Inspire One in some areas, for less than half the price. We've picked up a Phantom 3 Professional to go along with our old Vision+ review unit, so let's take a very critical look at the new big kid on the block.

Phantom 3's upgraded flight gear

The Phantom 3 might look almost the same as the Vision+, but there have been some big changes. Gone is the piddly low-res transmitter, in favour of a superior DJI Lightbridge unit that streams video back to your controller in 720p, Where the Vision+ sent back a horrible, blocky low-res feed, the P3 lets you really see what you're doing.

Range is up from ~500 m (1,640 ft) to a whopping 2 km (1.2 mi) and beyond, although the video feed gets a bit blocky beyond a few hundred meters.

DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - downward facing camera and ultrasound sensors combine with improved GPS and added GLONASS system to give much more stable flight inside, outside and in strong winds
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - downward facing camera and ultrasound sensors combine with improved GPS and added GLONASS system to give much more stable flight inside, outside and in strong winds

Stability in the air is noticeably improved with the upgraded GPS system, as well as an added GLONASS unit (Russia's version of GPS). There's a downward facing camera and ultrasound unit, just like the Inspire's undercarriage, that gives you improved stability close to the ground and is claimed to make it much easier to fly indoors. In practice, the Phantom 3 hovers very stable outdoors, even in a fairly strong coastal breeze, and the visual positioning system does indeed make it a lot more stable indoors – unless you're over carpet, which to be fair is a lot of indoors.

The Phantom 3 is a little more responsive in the air than the Phantom 2, but the experience of flying one is pretty similar, which is no bad thing since the old Phantoms were already smooth and easy to fly. Top speed remains about 60 km/h (37 mph), which is good enough to have a decent crack at shooting a car or motorcycle in motion, but around 20 km/h (12 mph) down on the Inspire One.

Phantom 3 controller - your device is now connected via a USB cable instead of WiFi
Phantom 3 controller - your device is now connected via a USB cable instead of WiFi

The hand-held controller is now the same as the Inspire's and connects to a smartphone with a USB cable instead of a Wi-Fi signal, so it's a fair bit easier on your phone battery. There's also a bunch of extra buttons, including a return-to-home button and a bunch of camera control gear that now lets you start and stop video, and take still shots when you don't have a phone or tablet connected – very handy when batteries run low. Additionally, the new phone/tablet holder can extend to carry a small 7-in tablet, if not a full sized iPad.

Flight modes

Little has changed in terms of flight modes. You've still got P mode for full GPS/GLONASS/VPS stabilization, which is where many Phantoms will spend most of their time. A (attitude) mode switches off the GPS and VPS gear and allows the drone to drift, which can result in smoother shots if you're finding the drone is correcting itself too roughly in P mode.

Phantom 3 controller - left finger controls include start/stop video, the mode switch and the camera pitch control wheel
Phantom 3 controller - left finger controls include start/stop video, the mode switch and the camera pitch control wheel

Switching to F mode will only make a difference if you've pre-enabled Intelligent Orientation Control (IOC) in your flight settings. Right now, all it lets you do is enable Course Lock mode, which for want of a better description separates directional control from which way the drone is pointing. Forward on the right stick will always move in the direction the Phantom was pointing when you turned it on, or when you reset the IOC. This is a really nifty tool if you're trying to, say, follow a car. You can go top speed alongside the car while rotating the camera to keep it in view and frame your shot without having to correct your direction stick to account for a change in orientation. Hard to explain, but it makes sense quickly when you fly it.

A future update will enable Home Lock mode, which will permanently orient the drone's directional controls so that backwards always points to the spot it took off at, and a new Point of Interest mode, which will automatically circle a GPS point at a fixed distance while keeping the camera centred on it for a nice circling shot. The Phantom 3 also retains the old model's ability to fly along a pre-programmed route that's programmed visually in the app.

Phantom 3 Professional camera - 12 megapixel RAW stills, and 4K video
Phantom 3 Professional camera - 12 megapixel RAW stills, and 4K video

Phantom 3's upgraded camera gear

Stability and range be damned. The camera is probably the most significant upgrade from a Vision+ owner's point of view. It's basically the same as the Inspire's, packing a rich, 4K ultra high-def Sony EXMOR sensor and processor that shoots DNG RAW stills. The lens is the same 20 mm f/2.8, which cuts down markedly on distortion from the old Vision+ lens. It's mounted on a very effective 3-axis gimbal that corrects pitch and yaw instantaneously, and smooths out yaw movements.

Like the Inspire, control of the camera is now through the DJI Pilot app, which is a vast improvement on the DJI Vision app. You've now got full manual control of the camera, and access to a stack of other flight settings that were previously only accessible by plugging the Phantom 2 into a laptop.

DJI Pilot app, as used on the Inspire One, is a vast improvement on the old DJI vision app
DJI Pilot app, as used on the Inspire One, is a vast improvement on the old DJI vision app

Still shots

When it comes to shooting stills, the P3 is a clear market leader. It beats a Phantom 2 with a GoPro on board due to the fact that it shoots in RAW, and you can see what you're doing as you compose and shoot. The RAW images process up well in Lightroom. We've got our best results exposing to save the highlights, then bringing up the shadows. You've got a fair bit of leeway to lighten up dark areas before things get too noisy.

If you're shooting a scene with a flat horizon, you'll still notice a fairly marked bump due to wide angle distortion, as well as a fair bit of colour fringing, neither of which show up in DJI's heavily processed sample images… Fancy that! Both of these disappear as soon as you tick the Profile Correction box in Lightroom CC, which now has a built-in Phantom 3 profile – just don't be surprised if your horizons are distorted straight out of the camera.

Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown

One very odd issue with RAW stills is that they seem to come out of the camera with a ton of hot pixels in them – hundreds of little white spots you can see on every photo in the same places. This is normally a symptom of a sensor that's had a hard life, but DJI is obviously aware of the problem because you can download a "DNG Cleaner" app from the Phantom 3 website.

Once we ran our photos through this app and stuck them back into Lightroom, the hot pixels were gone. This app is also supposed to make the DNG files "more compatible" with RAW editors. which is handy to know, as they simply wouldn't open in Lightroom on my home computer, even though it's the same software as I run in the office. Why this "cleaning" algorithm can't just be built into the camera software, I have no idea.

Video shooting

Video quality on the Phantom 3 Professional is at once vastly better than the Vision+, and also a bit disappointing. On the plus side, 4K resolution is absolutely massive, and brings out some beautiful details.

On the other hand, those distortion and chromatic aberration issues are still there, and much more annoying to correct for in post production. Dynamic range drops markedly in video, even in the flattish LOG colour mode, meaning that the Phantom 3 struggles with shooting in harsh light or towards the sun, and you get some high speed shutter banding when things get really bright.

DJI Pilot app is vastly better than the old Vision one.
DJI Pilot app is vastly better than the old Vision one.

Auto exposure correction does a pretty good job most of the time, but it's very noticeable as it steps through shutter speed and ISO settings, so you'll want to shoot in Manual mode if you want to avoid that. Histogram and zebra striping options help out in that case.

When the light's good, your shots look great, but the same can be said for just about any camera. The GoPro cameras seem to fare a little better when the situation gets less favourable, even if you have less control over their output, and you're stuck with the way-too-wide-for-most-things 170-degree camera angle if you want to shoot in 4K on a GoPro.

All these issues are present when shooting with the Inspire One, but the Phantom 3 adds one extra problem. Without the ability to pull its legs up out of the way, you're going to get some propellers and landing gear in your shots. It's worth keeping that in mind as you angle your camera and compose a moving shot.

We're being very critical here, but although the P3 is streets ahead of the rest of the market right now, this space is going to get crowded in the next few years and video quality is an area that could definitely improve. While the Inspire's camera is removable and replaceable if DJI comes up with something better, you'll likely have to toss the whole Phantom 3 in the bin to upgrade it in the future.

DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - the clear leader in the all-in-one camera drone segment, with daylight second
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - the clear leader in the all-in-one camera drone segment, with daylight second

Pro considerations

If you're a licensed operator that needs to log flights, the P3 gets the same automatic flight logging system as the Inspire, including battery use logging.

DJI Pilot app - automatic flight logging
DJI Pilot app - automatic flight logging

On the topic of batteries, the new LiPo cells charge significantly faster than the batteries on the Vision+, going from 20 percent to 100 percent in around an hour. What's more, since LiPos don't like staying charged for long periods of disuse, the intelligent batteries slowly discharge themselves back down to around 60 percent if you don't use them for 10 days or so, in order to increase their service life.

The batteries and controller charge off separate connections from the same charger, which would be really cool, except you're not supposed to plug them both in at the same time.

Phantom 3 alternatives - what's the competition like?

The Phantom 3 is vastly better than the Phantom 2 Vision+ in nearly every way. Compared to DJI's own Inspire One, the P3 Professional delivers the same video quality at less than half the price, while also flying for about 5 minutes longer on a battery, and being vastly more portable – especially when loaded in this nifty hard shell backpack accessory.

DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - hard shell backpack makes this a very portable system, even for motorcyclists
DJI's Phantom 3 Professional - hard shell backpack makes this a very portable system, even for motorcyclists

The Inspire One is faster and more powerful, plus it offers the ability to control the drone and camera with separate controllers thanks to its rotating gimbal, and the whole camera assembly is removable, paving the way for future upgrades. It probably looks more "professional" to bystanders, which might get you more respect on certain shoots, and it pulls its legs out of the way for unimpeded vision, but in every other way the Phantom 3 is its equal. I'd be pretty annoyed about the P3 if I had just paid for an Inspire One.

And right now, in terms of what's actually on the market and flying, that's really about it. Parrot's 1080p Bebop puts it close to the old Vision+, but trails significantly behind the Phantom 3.

3D Robotics is about to finally launch its Solo drone, which will put a GoPro 3 or 4 camera in the air with an HD video feed and full camera control relayed back to the handset. That looks like the first serious competitor to the Phantom 3, as the GoPro's superior camera should allow better quality video. But you'll be limited to ultra-wide 170-degree views in 4K recording, which will doubtless include a whole heap of legs and propellers and make any subject look absolutely miniscule in the frame – plus the whole package including gimbal and camera will end up costing significantly more than the Phantom 3 Professional.

The Solo is said to include a "follow" mode that keeps the smartphone it's attached to in view and flies autonomously like the as-yet-unreleased Lily drone that's been doing the rounds on social media. That could make things interesting, even if not entirely legal in many jurisdictions. Until we get our hands on one, it's hard to say whether the Solo or the Lily will actually push the game forward, but at least there'll be a decent mass-market alternative to the Phantom 3 that's not just "stick a GoPro on a Phantom 2 and fly blind."

Surely within the next few years, this space will get very crowded. Next year, GoPro will launch its own aerial action camera with all the vast product and promotional muscle it can command, and those guys know a thing or two about getting to the pointy end of the market.

Overall

The Phantom 3 Professional is an awesome piece of kit. It flies beautifully, it takes great footage and even better still shots, and a lot of thought and learning has gone into making it a solid tool for solo aerial shooters. It's arguably a much better buy than its big brother the Inspire One.

As good as it is, it's by no means perfect, and DJI has some clear opportunities for improvement as it marches toward the Phantom 4. But for the time being, you're looking at the king of the castle and a seriously cool aerial camera system.

Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown
Phantom 3 sample image - post-processing unknown

Special Note

Doubtless you've noticed that, other than the product shots, we haven't used any of our own photos or video in this post. I promise you this upsets us more than it does you, because frankly they're pretty awesome. Sadly, under drone laws where we were flying, publishing our own footage would be illegal. We've done the training and submitted our forms to become a licensed drone operator, but in addition to costing an absolute bomb and requiring more paperwork than the birth of a new human, there's currently a 7-8 month waiting period before the gears of bureaucracy turn far enough for a certificate to pop out. So for the time being, please accept our apology and know that sometime next year we can edit our own shots back in.

UPDATE: Check out our video review of the Phantom 4 which is compared in detail to the Phantom 3:

Review DJI Phantom 4

View gallery - 25 images
8 comments
8 comments
sirslarti
A couple of other quads that are closer to the P3 are the Walkera Scout X4 and more so the Yuneec Typhoon Q500+ 4k. The Typhoon has just been released and has the pretty awesome CGO3 4k camera and 3D gimble. Slightly larger that the P3 and slightly dearer. The outstanding feature of the P3 though is lightbridge! It's a shame it doesn't HDMI out like the inspire though. My 2 cents worth.
droneagonyuncle
@sislarti you can get HDMI out on the Phantom 3 using an adaptor called the 'HDMI Output Module' from DJI. Check out the store at the DJI website.
droneagonyuncle
@Lars Wonderfully detailed article ! You mention the following in the piece "...The Phantom 3 also retains the old model's ability to fly along a pre-programmed route that's programmed visually in the app...". Are you sure that's correct? As of today, I'm not sure that the Phantom 3 has the pre-programmed Ground Station flight-planning capability that the Phantom Vision/Phantom 2 Vision+ had...
deekaybee
Well written article. I own a P3. The P3 does not currently have the capability to fly a preprogramed route. Besides return to home the only automated feature available is "Course Lock" which once activated, allows the direction of the quad to be lock in the current direction of the front of the vehicle. In other words which ever direction it is facing when course lock is activated, the quad will fly a strait line forward and backward no matter with way the quad is turned or orientated. Good for shooting a moving vehicle. According to the DJI P3P owners manual page number 55, Home Lock (HL) [not to be confused with return to home] and Point of Interest (POI) "...are coming soon". DJI seems to favor coding for Apple versus Android. The Apple app has the additional simulator feature, which is not offered on the Android app. In addition the Apple app doesn't seem to suffer the lag I've experienced using various Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S5 which is one of the phones approved/tested by DJI. The Android app also locks up or crashes nearly every time I use it. The S5 is my old phone and with the exception of the DJI Pilot app, has been reset to factory default, but is still very buggy. All of the other cool stuff that some of the other quad manufactures are building into their software, like follow me etc., DJI has said, they will leave that up to third party developers. The problem is, at the time of this writing, third party development via the DJI SDK package has been locked out via the last firmware update. DJI is a billion dollar company but they don't seem to put enough emphasis on post sales customer service. A company called Litchi is making money selling an app for the P2. DJI should buy them and keep their team on to develop for their quads. DJI is producing a lot of new products but not supporting them. If you read the forums, I believe you'll get my point. I've had my P3 for a few months and love the integrated camera but without an Apple product to use for piloting, the software is glitch at best. The quad has so much potential, but DJI isn't doing anything for it's current customers, they're focus seems to be on new craft and accessory sales. I hope they wise up before it's too late. A reputation for poor customer service is hard to shake. Ford suffered for years due to it's reputation for providing poor customer service.
GlennEdgar
This is as of 11/7, and unverified rumors have DJI's customer service vastly improved. I can see then getting caught by surprise, re the sales volume. The horror show stories I've read are 6 months dated. But I'll get to see. :-(.

I have never seen any blockiness or anything negative out past 1 mile back to my Samsung S6 smart phone. Incredibly sharp, it boggles my mind. Never a hint of interference. I've only looked at the actual high res recording several times, and the video suffers from the hot pixels. Just occasional, but unacceptable flashing. I've heard there is an app to fix it from DJI. I just haven't had a computer with a good SD card reader, and downloading from the camera, even over the USB cable, takes a while.

This is one awesome gadget that is for sure. Be careful though. It's SO easy to fly, you can get complacent. LOS vs "physically in sight" are very different too BTW, as you'll quickly see. The HD FPV video is SO PERFECT it makes keeping the thing physically in sight seem irrelevant. And a lot of the time it is, but when its not, know it ahead of time. As small as it is at 200 yds, and it's gone. Without binoculars. The FPV is so perfect, that you should be able to tell if you're flying over something you shouldn't. I flew 2 miles over the pitch blackness ocean the other night. The view back to shore was a thrill. A risk, but only to my $. BUT, there is a big condo next to mine. I am came over it via using the map. I was a fool. If something might be 100' tall, use 150', NOT 95'.

It came home, minus the camera and amazing gimble. I thought they had just fallen off. Telemetry, via the stored map, had a little "jig" in my flight path over the building's metal roof next door. There is a small dent in one of the gear legs. At 25mph, a discontinuity in a flight path means: A telemetry recorder error (undersampling would come to mind), or hitting something. I clipped an edge on the roof, God only know the attitude it threw the P3 into. It corrected itself, camera was STILL functioning, as it came in view. Stupidly close, but nothing to suspect a collision. I went to look down via the Gimble, and somewhere on the beach, in the bushs it lies. "No signal", no picture, but I had all the bars. It needs the camera to send the picture. I landed, no camera!

But at night, flying purely via its telemetry, and I still had to be an idiot to injure it, and what a determined gadget. Oh, I think I could try the same thing 1000 times and not make it. Flying away from a collision, much less with a building, is freaky good luck. We're not talking any people around,and I'm sure I barely made a dent next door, but it is SO good it can make you forget some things. 95' what a dummy.

Don't forget if an engine is lost, they will come tumbling down! "After 760 flights,my P3 tumbled out of the sky" post sobered me. DJI is looking, but he probably lost an engine. Very rare, but a quads 4 engines dint offer redundancy for safety, they offer 4x the chance of a disastrous engine stoppage. "Engine failure" is misleading. There are many reasons that a prop can stop providing thrust: Prop, engine, wiring, ESC, flight controller... And it still is rare. Falling on someone's head, that would be trouble. "Rare" wouldn't mean anything to the persons head it fell on.
Skyviewdrones
https://vimeo.com/144934737
Not a happy 4 month old P3P owner. This is what happend to my P3P WITH 70% battery. Just fell from the sky while on the job. I have a FAA 333 and a pilots license, I know how to fly. This thing fell from 80'. Like a switch was flipped off. Fell in the water and it is totaled. Battery still in place with just the middle light blinking on it. DJI need to figure this out. Mass producing drones is cousing problems. Glad no one was hurt. Its hard to run a drone business when your tools don't work. No help from DJI yet.
JamesTaylorStables
Thanks for this awesome article. I have a question:
Can the Phantom 3 also have the GoPro attached to it?
My thinking is: What if the gopro becomes such an awesome camera that it succeeds the Phantom camera in the near future. Are Phantom 3 drone owners stuck with the older technology? ... or can the Phantom camera also be upgraded.
I guess I am thinking long term before I fork out $1200 for the Phantom 3 drone.
Thank you
LarryJFoster
I've been flying the P3 standard for about two months now. The camera [for stills] is sub par. Noisy at 100 ISO. I know camera phones that shoot cleaner. No adjustable aperture - so you video guys may need some ND filters. The video I have shot has looked very good. On the plus side, it flies much easier than my P1. There are lots of comments around about the P3 losing connection with the tablet/smartphone. This appears to be a common problem so do not expect to fly it outside of your visual range. Overall, I like it, but for my high quality photography I'll stick with my P1 with an A6000 strapped to it.