Phantom-3 on test

[Denny Rowland]

Got mine direct from DJI and it's great, Clearly they have listened to what we wanted and done a great job. This is the results from it's first two flights straight out of the box.
OK the Sony 7s is better in low light and the GH-4 is a better stills camera. But this is not a 5 kilo machine and it flies for 25 mins and costs a fraction of what the alternatives are.

 

[Motopreserve]

Wow! I thought the internet froze up on that one shot - until you started talking about it being that still!

Thanks for the review.

 

[SleepyC]

Mine will be here Monday. I'm afraid I'll park all my big rigs! Thanks for the video!!

 

[Denny Rowland]

@SleepyC
I know where your coming from. You need a very good reason to risk a 5 kilo machine anywhere these days.
Working on a music vid. with it at the moment both inside and out, also using it as a hand held steady cam.
This is an awesome tool to have in the bag.

 

[SleepyC]

@SleepyC
I know where your coming from. You need a very good reason to risk a 5 kilo machine anywhere these days.
Working on a music vid. with it at the moment both inside and out, also using it as a hand held steady cam.
This is an awesome tool to have in the bag.

Seriously, I do a lot of full production, and there were times where we were tapped on the budget for an aerial shot as I was not going to risk a big rig for an afternoon for a few extra bucks. Now I can keep the P3 in the van, and if the feeling hits, pull out the lil guy, pop off an aerial and not even charge anymore of the job. I am super excited to get tis guy tomorrow.

Again I feel bad for my big rigs, the cob webs may get a bit thick!

 

[SamaraMedia]

Great little review Denny! How does it handle wind? My P2 gets tosses around quite a bit when it's gusty out, you video seems to be during relatively calm winds. Does seem like a huge improvement though over the current offering!

 

[Denny Rowland]

It seems to be very much better than the 2 series. The response to disturbance is really fast. I flew it yesterday in 25 m/sec wind. It needs regular calibration it seems. That could be to do with me having transported it near to metal objects in the back of my car. It took three attempts to clear the offset and get the safe indication before T/O.
Also be a bit careful with the customisable buttons on the back of the Tx. you can change function settings accidentally.
My best high wind machine is definitely the Align M480 because it is 5 kilos. but once in the air this little phantom delivered perfectly stable footage even when tossed about a bit.

 

[SleepyC]

@Denny Rowland what camera settings are you using for outdoors and then at night on the P3.
Anyone know what the native ISO is?

I just got mine up for the first time in 15 - 20 MPH wind. A little jumpy but still controllable. But I have to figure out how to control the camera better, I was under exposed a bit and wanted to bring the ISO up a touch and all I could do from the controller was change the shutter speed... (I know read the manual dummy, but who does that?!) I had the camera options opened but for some reason it would not let me drag the ISO setting. Hmm.

 

[Denny Rowland]

It is a fixed aperture lens and the exposure control is basically a gain control that changes the iso as you work the wheel.
I have had a flight where it was a little jumpy but that was due to it needing a calibration. The buttons on the back will change the functions to that which you assign, The default is a good place to start. You can set bad stuff that screws with the camera roll it would seem. When its dark just keep turning the wheel until you get a good picture. That will probably show as 1600 asa.

 

[SleepyC]

It is a fixed aperture lens and the exposure control is basically a gain control that changes the iso as you work the wheel.
I have had a flight where it was a little jumpy but that was due to it needing a calibration. The buttons on the back will change the functions to that which you assign, The default is a good place to start. You can set bad stuff that screws with the camera roll it would seem. When its dark just keep turning the wheel until you get a good picture. That will probably show as 1600 asa.

Ahhhh don't know where but I missed that I was trying to change the aperture. HAHAHA I should read a manual ONCE.

I calibrated the sticks and did a compass calibration and it was pretty smooth until the gusts hit it. It was a bit jumpy in the wind. Before I mess around I want to fly it on a calmer day.

It is a fixed aperture lens and the exposure control is basically a gain control that changes the iso as you work the wheel.

See I think mine was changing the shutter speed and the iso was remaining the same. I'm going to have to read more and then mess with the cam... but again, I'm not upset, this user just needs a few min to get used to the rig.

I have MANY rigs but most don't have the features this little guy has, meaning on the controller. Start, stop, "gain" picture... not gonna lie, that's pretty darn cool!

 

[Motopreserve]

Is the camera/gimbal the same as the one on the Inspire?

Looking forward to more feedback about where you guys get with this.

 

[SleepyC]

Is the camera/gimbal the same as the one on the Inspire?

Looking forward to more feedback about where you guys get with this.

Same specs as the Inspire 1 (so same internals), but looks like a vision 2+ camera.

 

[Motopreserve]

Aha. Thanks.

Will be interested to see how it handles the wind once it's dialed in - since people seem to rave about the Inspire in the wind.

 

[Denny Rowland]

Mine has now started to earn it's keep with this 30sec. intro sequence for a local company. Plenty of wind on that day....

 

[Denny Rowland]

Gimbal is not the same as inspire though the sensor and lens may be common to both. Gimbal is similar to the 2+ but not the same.

 

[Motopreserve]

Damn! That wind was pretty impressive. Nice work Denny.

 

[Denny Rowland]

Could be that you are not in video mode when you see shutter speed.

 

[SleepyC]

Well recalibrated the rig again today and flew and it was spot on. But still not sure if the bit of wobble was due to the high winds the other day. As I have a LOT of money in large rigs i was REALLY trying to not like this little white devil, but darn it they did good. I still have a few settings on the camera to figure out (seems to adjust settings on it's own even after I adjust them, I'm sure I just need to read ore) but man the rig is good. The GPS hold is so solid I would have no issues taking the P3 up, parking it, flying a RC plane while the P3 films, landing the plane and then bringing down the P3.

I bet the proprietary Motor/ESC/FC/GPS combo makes the GPS so solid. This thing really makes it feel like cheating...

DAMN YOU DJI.... I was not supposed to like this thing this much! My Vulcan Octo is going to be pissed at me!

 

[SamaraMedia]

Damn you Sleepy, Denny, DJI...gotta sell a few more things now...

Sleepy, how's the Lightbridge link compared to a normal Immersion setup?

 

[SleepyC]

Damn you Sleepy, Denny, DJI...gotta sell a few more things now...

Sleepy, how's the Lightbridge link compared to a normal Immersion setup?

OK ignore the Youtube compression, this is straight out the cam no color no stabilizing nada just cut a tiny section out in iMovie (have a big project loaded in FCPX) and thrown up to YT.

Nothing exciting... BUT... I was on the other side of the field about 200 yards away flying by looking at the tablet. The LB seems to have 4 antennas in all 4 of the landing gear so the signal is perfect, although a tiny bit delayed, like .25 sec or less.