Buy an extra phantom as spare?

[herkam]

I'm thinking about buying an extra phantom using the current offer from dji. For 1020 euro you get a phantom with extra battery. I bought my first phantom a couple of weeks ago but 2 batteries is not enough and it would be nice to have another charger and once you crash it the wait for spares or sending it to dji is just too long!

If I buy a camera gimbal, 2 batteries and a charger as spare parts I'm not that far away from 1020 euro or?

/Hakan

 

[loganboyd]

Are you talking about a Phantom 2 Vision+ with Extra Battery? Currently at 15% discount?
https://store.dji.com/product/phantom-2-vision-plus

The H4-3D, 2 Batteries and a wall charger = $696USD
The Phantom 2 Vision+ setup is $1,169USD for a difference of $473USD... Not quite an even break.

 

[herkam]

Maybe a bad example with just the gimbal and some batteries.
If you list the typical things you break after maybe 50 flights (with some bad luck) and all the lost photos and movies due to wait for repair or spares a second phantom might be worth it?

I plan to use the phantom to survey shallow waters for rocks and shallows by taking time laps photos and running in a snake pattern over the water using the ground station app.
That means hand launching and hand catching from a small boat and no possibilty to land..so I might need an extra phantom

I will defisher the photos, rotate them using the heading of the phantom (Vision Utility pro logging) and stich them together, geo refo the mosaic and import the mosaic in a navigation software. The next step in the process will be to use an echo sounder with down vision and side vision to map the area using reefmaster. The photos will be used to avoid the rocks and also map them.

It all depends on the statistics for breakage due to pilot error or failure of the phantom.
You get a biased statistics by reading this forum I guess since most people post here when they have a problem

/hakan

 

[rbhamilton]

When my Phantom took it's first nose dive, I gathered up the camera parts. There were no spare ribbons back then so I just tucked the parts away and bought another camera. When ribbons came out I got the camera fixed and kept it as a spare. By now I've got a spare parts box I could almost make a 2nd drone out of. I've got a mountain of screws, cables, a spare camera, a spare body and both an old and new remote. Probably would have saved money just buying a whole new spare drone. So good idea! Either that or we are both crazy.

 

[dptcalvin]

I wish I had the kind of coin to even consider a spare Phantom. I need a career change.

 

[kirk2579]

after 1 to many crashes early on with my plus (and $45 in blades).

I figured a phantom without camera would be good idea since so far no damage to the plus .

picked up a used P2 v1 for 350 from B&H and have a ball with it and have learned to fly without fear damaging camera or anything.

I get the plus out on the really nice days,

All 3 of them this year!