I just wanted to give my feedback with my new Phantom 2. These forums are a great resource, and I want to contribute my experiences so far so others can learn from what I have done and maybe what could work for them, and maybe I can learn from you all.
I purchased the Phantom 2 for a father son bonding activity with my dad. I decided to go with the non vision, but the version that ships with the Zenmuse gimbal for the GoPro 3. I added a GoPro 3+ black edition to it day one.
First experiences in flying the Phantom was a lot of "wow" and "this is amazing". I upgraded the firmware to version 2 on day one, and I have yet to have (knock on wood) any issues with it so far. No fly aways, no battery turning off and it dropping from the sky.
It wasn't long before I wanted to add FPV to the phantom, as I think flying out of visual range is a huge benifit to a platform like this.
After reading everything I could and watching probably every youtube review on FPV I could find, I ended up going with the ImmersionRC 600mW transmitter, the black pearl 7ch monitor and receiver and the DJI iOSD Mini. I have to say that adding FPV changed everything again. There were more "wows" and "amazing" type monments with the phantom.
Installation of the gear was really simple thanks to this video on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL8pqtEDuos
I followed that video with my install and it worked amazingly well. Very easy and fun to install. Performance wise, I can say with the Fatshark Spironet antennas I can get ~700m-800m away before I really start to lose video. I ordered the Fatshark Patch Antenna and look forward to playing with that.
Lessons Learned so far:
- GoPro footage is amazing, the higher fps and resolutions are really nice to have
- 1440 resolution is perfect for recording with gopro if you want to crop the video to 1080p and remove the props.
- playing with editing videos in software after the fact can be a full time job. (A lot of fun)
- FPV is a must have for me now. It changes everything.
- I couldn't live without the DJI iOSD Mini (or anything that overlays telemetry on the video). The information such as height, distance and BATTERY % is so nice to have in real time.
- Don't get caught 700m away with 17% battery left. My first 'heart in my throat' moment was when I wasn't sure I could get home before it forced a landing (I was overtop of not too friendly lands).
- for me, having at least 2 batteries is a must. Maybe three.
- always try to be respectful of where you fly. There aren't hard laws where I live, and I don't want add to the list of reasons why that would change and have this fun hobby restricted
I purchased the Phantom 2 for a father son bonding activity with my dad. I decided to go with the non vision, but the version that ships with the Zenmuse gimbal for the GoPro 3. I added a GoPro 3+ black edition to it day one.
First experiences in flying the Phantom was a lot of "wow" and "this is amazing". I upgraded the firmware to version 2 on day one, and I have yet to have (knock on wood) any issues with it so far. No fly aways, no battery turning off and it dropping from the sky.
It wasn't long before I wanted to add FPV to the phantom, as I think flying out of visual range is a huge benifit to a platform like this.
After reading everything I could and watching probably every youtube review on FPV I could find, I ended up going with the ImmersionRC 600mW transmitter, the black pearl 7ch monitor and receiver and the DJI iOSD Mini. I have to say that adding FPV changed everything again. There were more "wows" and "amazing" type monments with the phantom.
Installation of the gear was really simple thanks to this video on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL8pqtEDuos
I followed that video with my install and it worked amazingly well. Very easy and fun to install. Performance wise, I can say with the Fatshark Spironet antennas I can get ~700m-800m away before I really start to lose video. I ordered the Fatshark Patch Antenna and look forward to playing with that.
Lessons Learned so far:
- GoPro footage is amazing, the higher fps and resolutions are really nice to have
- 1440 resolution is perfect for recording with gopro if you want to crop the video to 1080p and remove the props.
- playing with editing videos in software after the fact can be a full time job. (A lot of fun)
- FPV is a must have for me now. It changes everything.
- I couldn't live without the DJI iOSD Mini (or anything that overlays telemetry on the video). The information such as height, distance and BATTERY % is so nice to have in real time.
- Don't get caught 700m away with 17% battery left. My first 'heart in my throat' moment was when I wasn't sure I could get home before it forced a landing (I was overtop of not too friendly lands).
- for me, having at least 2 batteries is a must. Maybe three.
- always try to be respectful of where you fly. There aren't hard laws where I live, and I don't want add to the list of reasons why that would change and have this fun hobby restricted