shabba007 said:
thanks for the replies. I'm interested in the mods from a research point of view. I like to know that the kit i'm buying has the potential to be modded/upgraded etc. I wouldn't do any moding until I was comfortable flying.
If I purchase the phantom 2 with 2 axis gimble for go pro, would I be disadvantaged in anyway with performance, flight time when compared with the other phantoms ?
thanks
The Phantom 2 VISION series are intended to NOT be modded/upgraded. Those cameras don't work or really do you any good off the Phantom. Vision series Phantom 2's are designed to be "unbox and fly" devices for folks that don't have the knowledge or desire to do any tinkering on their Phantoms at all.
If you want to mod / tinker whatever you want the NON-Vision series Phantom 2 with the GoPro gimbal (Zenmuse H3-3D is the current standard model that comes in a bundle). With this platform you must add your own GoPro naturally, but of course unlike the Vision camera the gopro can be used in any application off the Phantom as well... so that's the first half of why we say it's a more powerful platform.
The other half is because if you want live FPV you must now add that system separately but in terms of signal strength and distance it's much better than the Vision. Like someone else said it does wind up being slightly more expensive, but in the end it's a MUCH more powerful platform overall.
in fairness: The one thing the Vision completely has over the non-Vision is the app... the Vision app can start/stop recording in air, take stills, etc. which a non-Vision P2 simply cannot do. you have to set the gopro up before takeoff, hit record, stop it when you land and just edit the footage later.
DJI took the "can't use a Vision camera off the copter" argument into consideration when they designed the Inspire 1, which DOES have a detachable gimbal/camera assembly which you can use independently of the Inspire. Unfortunately it's still not as good as a GoPro though... it does capture 1080p and 4K but not at nearly the framerates of a GoPro.
In terms of performance, a naked Phantom with no gimbal/camera is going to move a bit faster and fly a bit longer than with the gimbal/camera installed purely from a weight perspective. If you're talking about a loaded (with gimbal+camera) Vision vs non-Vision with a H3-3D and gopro, there really isn't a significant performance difference.
If you WANT to mod, tinker, whatever with your Phantom.. go for the Phantom 2 with H3-3D bundle. Head on over to the FPV forum for help with everything you need related to adding FPV to it
