P2V vs P2 - Different Angle

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OK. I have a P2 with gimbal, etc on the way. However, I came into a small windfall a couple of days ago and I have some free cash. Was thinking about getting a P2V but wanted to do a sanity check.

Does anyone have both? Why did you do it? Are you crazy like me? ;-}

Anyway... looking for a reason to get the P2V that would give me capability. Somebody tell me how to spend my money... I'm obviously not capable of rational thought right now (I have Phantomitis).
 
Pull_Up said:
Can I spin it and ask what the P2 is missing that you feel you need extra? (Oh, and what have you got with the P2 - gimbal, GoPro - fpv?)

I have GoPro and gimbal for the P2. No FPV (which is, of course, one reason I'm drooling and eying the P2V). I'm not sure I want to load down the P2 with the equipment needed for FPV even though that would be the sane choice from a monetary point. However, I've already said I wasn't sane.

EDIT: Oh, and the after-market FPV for P2 all seem at least a little clunky compared to the P2V package. Add in snapshots and the extras with the Android/iPhone app and I feel like I'm missing something. Which has me drooling... uh... sorry, already said that...
 
Well, the Vision gives you full control over the camera - so you'll be able to frame your shots, flip into atti mode for a more level horizon, then tell it to take a shot, or a burst of 3 or whatever. You also know at all times how many satellites you have on lock, your exact battery percentage, how far and high you are - the full telemetry you get with the app... plus the possible autonomous flight offered by the promised ground station-like update "coming soon".

You'll be disappointed in the movies from the Vision though in comparison - no brushless gimbal means your videos will be wobbly no matter how careful you are (check out some of the more recent flight vids in my sig below - I'm getting better at flying smoothly for video and using atti mode for most shots, but you'll see what you'll be getting.)

Having said that, it's charge and go for photos and filming, shares props and batteries with your P2 so you can have a shared stable of parts...
 
I have both. I've let the vision go live with a nephew. In my opinion, its an aerial PHOTO machine and not an aerial VIDEO machine. I don't care about photos and can always take a still from the video if I want it. Plus, I like when the whole flight is recorded so having control of the camera is unneeded. The Vision and the P2 are almost the same. The Vision doesn't have the same range as the P2. The Vision has a camera/FPV setup out of the box (as you know). The problem is that the vision camera is just ok and the lack of a gimbal makes it unbearable to watch the footage.

The P2/zenmuse is $879
GoPro Hero 3 Black is $350
Ground Station/Mini iosd combo is $220
Immersionrc TX/antennas: $110
Black pearl monitor: $180

Grand total: $1739 plus maybe a few dollars here and there for little items

This setup will give you FPV/telemetry as well as the ground station and stable video. Essentially the same thing as the vision but you also get stable video and you can use the gopro camera in a ton of other applications.

On the flip side. The vision camera is stuck with the vision and to get the same stable footage you will need to purchase that dutch gimbal for $600 which would mean you spent $75 more for the vision than the P2 setup above. At the end of the day, you have a vision and nothing else, no gopro and no monitor (which you can use as a small tv since it has hdmi input).

So if you haven't already purchased the above, I'd spend the money buying that stuff.

If your intentions are to take panoramic shots from above, then the vision as it is will work. Personally I think if you want to go that route, I'd buy the P2 without gimbal and use a gopro mounted with a gopro double stick tape mount and FPV and just use the wide angle setting and have it take a picture every 5 seconds. Then you are looking at $1300 and you still have the gopro to use in other areas.
 
Chiming in...

If you don't care about >1920x1080 pictures, then you're not missing much.

Taking a different angle... what's your P2 equipped with right now? Does it have great FPV? Screen or goggles? iOSD mini? Flytrex for flight logging? A GPS tracker? Futaba\Taranis Tx?

Perhaps the windfall can be spent there to enhance (and protect) your current craft instead :)
 
Thanks to KSC, Pull-up and LeoS for the comments.

Pull-up, I viewed several of your videos and I can definitely see the 'shaky' part of them (not a critique - they are nice and I'm glad you have them out there). I have videos with GoPro on my Phantom 1 - most without any padding and a couple with a carbon fiber mount, that seem more stable... when I'm doing my part anyway. I'm kind of ham handed with some of them but when I stop screwing with the stick, the video is very clear.

Darnit... I had myself almost talked into pulling the trigger on a P2V but I'm thinking I'll be unhappy with the video. I want to take at least some nice footage of some events that are coming up and I have a feeling that I'll not want to use the P2V...

For KSC and LeoS, the equipment list means I would be hanging quite a bit on the P2. Is weight a problem with decking one of these out with all the gear? How hard is it to configure a P2 with the FPV system and all the trimmings? I don't work on RCs that much but electronics doesn't scare me - I make weird things all the time (such as dynamic test stands for rocket engines). However, I'm also aware of issues whenever one adds non-stock parts onto anything - fighting a puzzle just to get in the air would mean I would probably just stick the GoPro on my P1 and go get the shots.

Anyway - good discussion and please comment on my babble -
 
you dont have to put non stock parts on it, avl58 is made by dji, so is mini iosd, this will transform your p2 , in the UK you can but a decent 7 inch monitor for £70. remember there is a huge differece in range too , im flying 1.2 km with my p2 (stock), thats for both fpv and control
 
ladykate said:
Pull-up, I viewed several of your videos and I can definitely see the 'shaky' part of them (not a critique - they are nice and I'm glad you have them out there). I have videos with GoPro on my Phantom 1 - most without any padding and a couple with a carbon fiber mount, that seem more stable... when I'm doing my part anyway. I'm kind of ham handed with some of them but when I stop screwing with the stick, the video is very clear.

Don't worry about critiqueing! (Is that a word? Let's run with it, nobody noticed) I'm very much a happy snapper and I'm making videos purely for pleasure. Most of the people I've shown them to who haven't seen any AP/AV before seem to notice the content, rather than the lack of stablization, which is great. Some were shot at 720/60 some at 1080/30, and I've been messing with different render options when uploading to YouTube (which compresses them again, dammit). The GoPro has a higher bit rate so to most peoples eyes will produce better video out of the box. I didn't have a GoPro, and wouldn't have any other use for one, so that's part of the equation in my choice. Having said all that, I'm starting to get gimbal jealously and am probably going to pull the trigger on the Rotorpixel gimbal to smooth up my Vision video - the target audience might not notice, but I'm starting to spend too much time in editing looking for smoother shots! As I said at the outset, if you are wanting video results that approach anywhere near "semi-pro" standard (anywhere near!) then you need a 2 axis gimbal, and you won't get that with the Vision as is. As a plug-and-play aerial photography unit, with full remote camera control including ISO/EV/etc on the fly... that's probably a more attractive proposition for some.

TL;DR? You're after high video quality and have a GoPro already? Don't go P2V unless there's some overriding feature you can't get elsewhere that's very important to you. :)
 
ladykate said:
Thanks to KSC, Pull-up and LeoS for the comments.

Pull-up, I viewed several of your videos and I can definitely see the 'shaky' part of them (not a critique - they are nice and I'm glad you have them out there). I have videos with GoPro on my Phantom 1 - most without any padding and a couple with a carbon fiber mount, that seem more stable... when I'm doing my part anyway. I'm kind of ham handed with some of them but when I stop screwing with the stick, the video is very clear.

Darnit... I had myself almost talked into pulling the trigger on a P2V but I'm thinking I'll be unhappy with the video. I want to take at least some nice footage of some events that are coming up and I have a feeling that I'll not want to use the P2V...

For KSC and LeoS, the equipment list means I would be hanging quite a bit on the P2. Is weight a problem with decking one of these out with all the gear? How hard is it to configure a P2 with the FPV system and all the trimmings? I don't work on RCs that much but electronics doesn't scare me - I make weird things all the time (such as dynamic test stands for rocket engines). However, I'm also aware of issues whenever one adds non-stock parts onto anything - fighting a puzzle just to get in the air would mean I would probably just stick the GoPro on my P1 and go get the shots.

Anyway - good discussion and please comment on my babble -

I have the following on my P2 and I'm coming in at 1393 grams

Zenmuse from the P1 with Hero 3 Black
Immersionrc 600mw 5.8ghz tx with spironet antenna
DJI mini iosd
DJI ground station rx
Garmin GTU 10 in the garmin gtu10 bag for dog collars

I plan on swapping my cables for the FPV/iosd to the plug and play kit from firstpersonfpv and looking for a replacement for the garmin dog collar bag.

I normally get bored flying after about 15 minutes but pushed myself to 20 minutes today and still had enough battery left that it didn't hit fail safe. On the ground side I have the stock TX with a Black Pearl screen. I personally would go with the immersionrc setup over the DJI avl58 setup. That uses older technology that requires a fan and also weighs more. The immersionrc setup gives nice range and nice clear images. It took me about 15 minutes to solder the wires (it was also my first time soldering anything) and some 3M double stick tape and I was in the air. It was a clean install and I tucked the extra wire into the P2. Side by side with the vision I get much better footage and a larger screen plus a modular platform. I'm taking the P2 to costa rica with me and I have all I need in the one case, a friend has his vision case and his gopro case. A waste.
 
Ksc said:
ladykate said:
Thanks to KSC, Pull-up and LeoS for the comments.

Pull-up, I viewed several of your videos and I can definitely see the 'shaky' part of them (not a critique - they are nice and I'm glad you have them out there). I have videos with GoPro on my Phantom 1 - most without any padding and a couple with a carbon fiber mount, that seem more stable... when I'm doing my part anyway. I'm kind of ham handed with some of them but when I stop screwing with the stick, the video is very clear.

Darnit... I had myself almost talked into pulling the trigger on a P2V but I'm thinking I'll be unhappy with the video. I want to take at least some nice footage of some events that are coming up and I have a feeling that I'll not want to use the P2V...

For KSC and LeoS, the equipment list means I would be hanging quite a bit on the P2. Is weight a problem with decking one of these out with all the gear? How hard is it to configure a P2 with the FPV system and all the trimmings? I don't work on RCs that much but electronics doesn't scare me - I make weird things all the time (such as dynamic test stands for rocket engines). However, I'm also aware of issues whenever one adds non-stock parts onto anything - fighting a puzzle just to get in the air would mean I would probably just stick the GoPro on my P1 and go get the shots.

Anyway - good discussion and please comment on my babble -

I have the following on my P2 and I'm coming in at 1393 grams

Zenmuse from the P1 with Hero 3 Black
Immersionrc 600mw 5.8ghz tx with spironet antenna
DJI mini iosd
DJI ground station rx
Garmin GTU 10 in the garmin gtu10 bag for dog collars

I plan on swapping my cables for the FPV/iosd to the plug and play kit from firstpersonfpv and looking for a replacement for the garmin dog collar bag.

I normally get bored flying after about 15 minutes but pushed myself to 20 minutes today and still had enough battery left that it didn't hit fail safe. On the ground side I have the stock TX with a Black Pearl screen. I personally would go with the immersionrc setup over the DJI avl58 setup. That uses older technology that requires a fan and also weighs more. The immersionrc setup gives nice range and nice clear images. It took me about 15 minutes to solder the wires (it was also my first time soldering anything) and some 3M double stick tape and I was in the air. It was a clean install and I tucked the extra wire into the P2. Side by side with the vision I get much better footage and a larger screen plus a modular platform. I'm taking the P2 to costa rica with me and I have all I need in the one case, a friend has his vision case and his gopro case. A waste.

yes your right ksc the avl58 suffers with interference at longer ranges, ive been thinking about going down the route of 1.2 ghz, lawmate 500 or 1000, i know this sounds like overkill but im planning on building a long range fpv machine in the future, and it should mean i have a rock solid connection on my p2 at 1.2km
 

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