B and H photo now has the P3P for $920. Ordered one yesterday to replace my crashed bird. Can't beat B & H for customer service and quick no hassle return or refund.
DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter with 4K Camera and 3-Axis
I bought my first aircraft in September after a friend said that while I was a good photographer, I didn't know anything about flying. It was not just a flying camera, that there was an accumulating skill involved with flying. Wow, I hadn't thought of it like that so I went ahead and bought the P3A. I flew it a lot since September but not so much in the winter. I started a church project about 6 weeks ago, helping to raise money for a new roof by displaying aerial shots of our church campus. Previously, I had only flown high out open spaces but after the winter, and being a bit rusty, I was now shooting (or trying to) close-ups of things on the roof that needed specific shots when mentioned in the narration of the video. I used to be a TV news photographer and in those days, you simply walking around getting different shots, wide, tight, etc. With a Phantom, it's more like the passenger mirror in your car that says "Warning, objects are closer than appear!" That caused two crashes.... I was trying to get a "close up of a loose shingle, 90 degrees down, when I got too close to the wall in front of it. Crash, next shot was upside down view from roof seeing snow just beginning until I held a long ladder for my wife to go up on second story roof. Last night I went down after work to shoot a progress report shot of what the roofers had done so far for this Sunday's video. Someone came over to talk and look and I ended up flying into a tree limb, then after chopping a lot of pine straw, it tumbled 30 feet to asphalt. Yep, that left a mark and the bird is DOA now. I too bought from B&H and paid for a Square Trade warranty. Today I'm shipping it back to ST to see if they want to fix it or what. As a wanna be (when legal) pro aerial videographer, I have realized that you have to have a backup aircraft so I looked back on B&H and found a DJI P3 for $679 (grade 9 used) so I ordered one and it comes in 1 day.
Some of the lessons I've learned?
Unless you are really skilled and practiced? Stay high and away. I had stopped right before the branch, then instead of backing up, I flew forward instead of backward thus hitting the branch.
On skills? You need to fly enough so that you are instinctive on which way to move the controller.
Why does one need 4K when there are practically no 4K TV programs out there? Because if you are editing for a 1080 TV screen, you can zoom in/ crop your video, that effectively "zooms" in to your subject.
It's all exciting and heart wrenching. People love to see the new aerials on Sundays and it's helped to raise awareness as well as near $55K of $60K needed for the roof.
This week at the display I intend to go in with the new P3 as well so people can see the device that shot the video.
Ironically, it being Easter this Sunday, at least 10 people who saw it crash and smashed last night will wonder how it "rose from the dead" and look good. (it will be the second P3P) I will just smile and say "Hey, we still need to get up to $60k."
I bet we make it. Once the first one is repaired (or replaced) I'll have two P3s to work with when the FAA finally works out that classification for ranch photographers and I can charge for work.
Want a good deal on P3P? Check out the used section at B&H. They have treated me good.
But Square Trade does not deal with drones anymore.
