P2 with GoPro Black or P2V+? PLEASE HELP!!!

[MattyMatt1]

Hi all, i can't decide. The only reason I'm leaning towards the P2V+ is because it takes RAW images. Any other reasons i should consider the P2V+? Those that use the GoPro..........whats your success like with editing jpg's?
Please help! need to order soon.
Thanks

 

[ProfessorStein]

We talking a GoPro 3 Black? I had thought those could shoot RAW as well, no?

If you're looking for professional results, RAW is pretty essential. Of course, if you're looking for professional results, you're probably looking to sell your photos... which is a whole 'nother discussion.

 

[kjopc]

Any other reasons i should consider the P2V+?

If you go for the Vision+ there's a good chance you'll join the club of broken gimbal owners. They're more fragile than eggshells and a helluva lot more expensive to replace. Sadly, it doesn't take much of a bump to find you're in for a $700 replacement.

 

[HarryT]

The P2 with GoPro is essentially a video platform. There's no (easy) way to use it for still photography other than setting the GoPro in "time lapse" mode and automatically taking a picture every "x" seconds. It's a great video platform; it's not a great (or even good) stills platform.

 

[MattyMatt1]

Thanks Harry. i agree with you totally. Most of my use will be for stills.

ProfStein.......no RAW with GoPro.

 

[QYV]

ProfStein.......no RAW with GoPro.

this may be the confusion: there is a setting called "RAW" on a GoPro Black which means "raw input from the lens" without color correction or ISO or whatever (I use this setting for night filming) but it doesn't mean that it shoots in .RAW image format like a DSLR does.

getting back to the original post the question was Vision+ or non-Vision P2 with GoPro? I can tell you the GoPro Black is a much better camera than the one on the Vision.

but whoever said that the Phantom2 is a video platform was right, and I would add "amateur" to that. Phantom 2 is for amateurs to stick a little gopro or whatever and go buzzing around making videos... neat.

If you're looking for a professional drone platform to attach a DSLR to and shoot professional quality pics and video I gotta be honest it's not the Phantom 2. you should look into the more complicated hex- or octo-copters that can carry a DSLR. they're also plenty more expensive

 

[ProfessorStein]

this may be the confusion: there is a setting called "RAW" on a GoPro Black which means "raw input from the lens" without color correction or ISO or whatever (I use this setting for night filming) but it doesn't mean that it shoots in .RAW image format like a DSLR does.

Wonderful. Nice that GoPro threw confusion into the mix. Particularly since "raw input from the lens" could still be construed as what RAW really means, which is "the raw data from the CCD sensor". Oh well.

I can tell you the GoPro Black is a much better camera than the one on the Vision.

Not wholeheartedly convinced of that, but okay... we'll just say that's your preference/opinion.

If you're looking for a professional drone platform to attach a DSLR to and shoot professional quality pics and video I gotta be honest it's not the Phantom 2. you should look into the more complicated hex- or octo-copters that can carry a DSLR. they're also plenty more expensive

I would absolutely agree with that. I wouldn't even say "more complicated"... a DJI Spreading Wings isn't really any more complicated or difficult to fly than a Phantom, it's just more optimized for payload, performance and features and is built more sturdily... and, of course, costs several times as much

 

[ProfessorStein]

QYV is correct in that the GoPro is a much better video camera when compared the the Vision camera.

Let's not discuss preferences/opinions, let's discuss facts only. Let's start here:

How compressed is the video captured with the Vision camera vs. the compression from a Gorpro?

I think we're getting off track. The OP seemed to me to be more interested in stills, not video. And I'm not convinced that the GoPro is better at stills than the Vision camera. While image size is certainly not the determining factor of quality, the GP is 12MP for stills and the FC200 is 14MP. I've always found the Vision's stills to be sharper, clearer, and have better contrast and color saturation than the GP stills. But I think that is to be expected. The GP is optimized to be a video platform. The Vision is built, really, solely for photography (as demonstrated by it's lack of stabilizing gimbal and high-quality FPV).

I'm very curious about the compression of video for each camera (because I don't know myself), but that's not really what this thread is about (I think... could be wrong... maybe I misread the OP and he's actually interested in video).

 

[ProfessorStein]

It's refreshing to see that the "more megapixels = better" myth is still alive and well.

Now wait a minute... I even said "while image size is certainly not the determining factor of quality...". No, more MP does not necessarily mean that the image is better. But then I went on to say that "I've always found the Vision's stills to be sharper, clearer, and have better contrast and color saturation than the GP stills".

 

[MattyMatt1]

ProfStein is right. Looking for more of a still cam than a vid cam.

The ribbon cable worries me a little as well on the plus. Everyone seems to say "don't buy a plus because you'll break the ribbon".

Also, i could be dealing with hundreds of pics I'll need to sort through post flight if I used the GoPro with a 2-5sec pic rate. Where with the plus I could choose my pics from the FPV.

Still undecided.

 

[lutece7]

I am a professional architectural photographer, 30 years in the business. My clients love the results from my Vision Plus camera. You have to run it through RAW converter of course, use the camera profile, tweak the contrast and clarity, get rid of the distortion, then sometime, you might need to reduce the noise in LightRoom, but the end result is great, I think. If the GoPro doesn't shoot in RAW format, then in no way should you consider it.

 

[Meta4]

The noise about the ribbon cable is considerable but you don't hear from the happy users that have no problem at all - and there are lots of them. If you pay too much attention to forum chatter you'd never buy anything.
Yes some people have had a problem - mostly people that have crashed heavily.
Take it easy and don't do anything stupid for your first dozen flights (the major danger period) and you'll probably be OK.

 

[QYV]

I can tell you the GoPro Black is a much better camera than the one on the Vision.

Not wholeheartedly convinced of that, but okay... we'll just say that's your preference/opinion.

you're cool... we're cool, but I humbly suggest that my statement was fact, not opinion. Look at the specs.. according toDJI's own website the Vision+ camera only does 720p, 1080i @ 60fps, and 1080p @ 30fps.
The GoPro Hero3+ Black does 1080p@ 60fps so right there it wins, and not even looking at fps anymore the gopro goes on to do 1440, 2.7k, 4k video. It's just plain a better camera my friend

 

[QYV]

QYV is confused. GoPro makes no such claim. "CAMRAW" is a Protune setting that doesn't apply any color correction. Nor are there RAW settings for "ISO or whatever. Furthermore, shooting at night in Protune mode, as he claims, is not recommended (by GoPro...)because of the additional noise that is difficult to remove from dark scenes,

I Don't think I'm "confused" per se, but I make mistakes like everyone else and us both here. The CAM-RAW setting in GoPro's Protune section is regarding White Balance, not color correction. From GoPro's own website "Protools controls explained"
"White Balance
White Balance adjusts the overall color tone of videos. You can make adjustments to White Balance when shooting in Protune mode.
Auto*
3000K (for use in warm light, eg. incandescent, sunrise/sunset)
5500K (for use in slightly cool light, eg. cool fluorescent, average daylight)
6500K (for use in cool light, eg. overcast conditions)
CAM RAW (no compensation)"

so that's what I meant by "raw input from the lens" I just meant it wasn't doing any white balance. I'm by no means an expert at all this protune, ISO, white balance, color correction stuff although I'm trying to learn.

I was merely trying to help with the confusion around the fact that there is a setting involving the word "raw" on a gopro, which is completely unrelated to taking .RAW pictures from a DSLR

I've subsequently read the rest of this thread and you've all gotten back on the topic of still pics and truth be told I don't really concern myself with the still pic specs of the cameras, I'm one of the beginner types that just screen caps the video when I want a still so.. sorry I if caused more confusion then I tried to help alleviate.

cheers guys

 

[ProfessorStein]

Look at the specs.. according toDJI's own website the Vision+ camera only does 720p, 1080i @ 60fps, and 1080p @ 30fps.
The GoPro Hero3+ Black does 1080p@ 60fps so right there it wins, and not even looking at fps anymore the gopro goes on to do 1440, 2.7k, 4k video. It's just plain a better camera my friend

But, again, the OP seems to be more interested in stills than video.
And that's where opinion comes in... since the quality of still camera equipment is pretty subjective (just get a Nikon guy and a Canon guy in the same room and you'll see what I mean). And I still have the opinion that the Vision camera is a better still camera than the GoPro. Which is okay... doesn't take anything away from the GoPro... I think it's a brilliant video platform. But stills? No.

On top of which, while I do agree that the GoPro is a great video camera, FPS is not necessarily the best feature to prove that. You can have a camera that does 60fps, and still has a crap sensor that produces a terrible video image, or a lens that has too much distortion. AGAIN, GoPro doesn't suffer from these attributes... but it's FPS is not the driving factor for it's quality.

 

[CarlJ]

The GoPro Hero 4 is better, and I believe that is set, game and match.