P4 vs. P3 Comparison Thread (Title Changed)

[trevsdad]

oooooh rough crowd! However I have to agree with most. I like some of the features and the new 'fatty' design is interesting but 'first adopters' always run into bugs (...and possibly in this case, a building or two if collision avoidance glitches for some reason.) I'm still jazzed with the P3P I picked up a few months ago so, spend 'dat money sports fans and get back to me on how the P4 works out.

 

[Indy_Mike]

After just getting a P3P in December I can wait. I will wait till they have collision avoidance 360 degrees.

 

[Joe Gray]

I think for me the logical upgrade is the DJI Inspire 1 Pro. I'm a photographer and the m4/3 sensor and ability to mount some lovely Oly glass is a real draw. The P3A > P4... not so much. So long as your RTH height is set sensibly every flight then obstacle avoidance is a moot feature. I paid £699 for the P3A and think I got a reasonable deal, the P4 is double that for very similar performance! I'd rather invest in 6 extra batteries.

 

[DirectorDrew]

I purchased the P3P for aerial photography, specifically still images. As a photographer, there isn't a strong compelling reason to upgrade to the P4, it's still 12 MP. DJI mentions a "sharper" lens, I would like to see what that is in real practice once the P4 is released.

"Sharper" isn't exactly better. There is a such thing as cameras being too sharp and looking like perfect home videos rather than amazing photos and cinematic videos. I actually turn down the saturation, sharpness and contrast on my P3. It shoots a little too sharp for me.

 

[DirectorDrew]

I think for me the logical upgrade is the DJI Inspire 1 Pro. I'm a photographer and the m4/3 sensor and ability to mount some lovely Oly glass is a real draw. The P3A > P4... not so much. So long as your RTH height is set sensibly every flight then obstacle avoidance is a moot feature. I paid £699 for the P3A and think I got a reasonable deal, the P4 is double that for very similar performance! I'd rather invest in 6 extra batteries.

I'm with you on the Inspire 1 Pro choice. This thing blow the Phantom out the water. The price is a little ridiculous. I told myself that I would never spend over $2,000 on a quad just for the fact of a high risk of it crashing. I have $10,000+ of video equipment. That I feel safe with in my own hands. But, the inspire 1 pro able to shoot in RAW and the Zenmuse x5 lens is just forcing me to make the investment.. I seen the difference in video quality and it makes the Phantom seem like a toy whereas the Inspire is being used in movie productions.

 

[Alex Hill]

I got a my P3Pro in December, and now I am happy too see new advancements, but also annoyed because everybody else is going to have the latest and greatest. ..

Not sure if I should sell the P3Pro and see if I can save up a couple months and then get the P4? Man, that increased light ridge range is realay nice, but hey I have no need to go three miles

 

[Joe Gray]

I'm with you on the Inspire 1 Pro choice. This thing blow the Phantom out the water. The price is a little ridiculous. I told myself that I would never spend over $2,000 on a quad just for the fact of a high risk of it crashing. I have $10,000+ of video equipment. That I feel safe with in my own hands. But, the inspire 1 pro able to shoot in RAW and the Zenmuse x5 lens is just forcing me to make the investment.. I seen the difference in video quality and it makes the Phantom seem like a toy whereas the Inspire is being used in movie productions.

I'm currently trying to figure out if it's possible to mount my medium format film cameras on the P3A . The Rolleiflex TLR doesn't weigh that much....

 

[Joe Gray]

"Sharper" isn't exactly better. There is a such thing as cameras being too sharp and looking like perfect home videos rather than amazing photos and cinematic videos. I actually turn down the saturation, sharpness and contrast on my P3. It shoots a little too sharp for me.

The format has the biggest effect on the look and feel.

 

[Jussaguy]

- 28 min of flight
- faster then p3p
- little bit better camera
- obstacle avoidance
- autonomus fliying
I've expected little more. There's no big difference between P3P/A and P4.

I definitely see some "i don't want to go through the trouble" or "I just bought mine" rationalizations. Conversly, it's not a software thing that makes it be able to do the color in tracking (that's because of the new sensors). For me, that ALONE is good enough and everything else is just gravy. Yummy gravy too.

 

[Jussaguy]

I'll pass! Wait til the prices drop and they will... This bird has bugs written all over it. SDk will take forever

Like I said before I'm happy with my p3 and inspire 1...DJI should fix current model issues instead of coming up with something new and not addressing the issues the old ones..jmo

Inspire 1 (and I own one), I agree with but what's wrong with the P3P, or P3A. I own both and have never had a problem with either that wasn't my fault. They work surprisingly good for me. A couple bugs, but none to speak of that I can think of.

 

[X5GEE]

Would Love to find a not so costly rig to fly my 5D Mark 2. S1000 just seems too complicated.

 

[evman]

So they forgot something. This is a camera, and it's still the same camera! Still horrible noise at even moderate iso's, shocking vignetting and only 12mp and same (let's be honest) flying time despite bigger batteries.

No point upgrading for me as it doesn't really address my needs as a photographer. The new lens is potentially better, but wasn't really a limiting factor on the P3P and increased fps is really just a firmware upgrade. I was really hoping for a better CCD.

But I guess for DJI the toy factor is a bigger selling point the the camera.

 

[Jussaguy]

have the cash but going to wait buy a poweregg first then maybe the 4

I will say the PowerEgg looks cool as **** but if you give me anything I could make it look good against black with a piano playing.


I don't know anything about this company to make a UAS from what I do know, this is their first shot at their first UAS. Buggy? Probably.

 

[KAOS Imagery]

"Sharper" isn't exactly better. There is a such thing as cameras being too sharp and looking like perfect home videos rather than amazing photos and cinematic videos. I actually turn down the saturation, sharpness and contrast on my P3. It shoots a little too sharp for me.

Agreed, I turn it down for video, but I wish my P3P's raw files were a little crisper. From what I read there is quite a variation among copies. I think mine is middle of the road.

 

[Jussaguy]

I have been waiting to buy my first satellite quad. I don't think this offers enough over the P3P to justify the extra price at this point. Still considering P3P, Q5004k, or wait even longer to see how people like the H once it is released.

The H = The 4. I will have both so I will let you know but I can almost be assured that 4 will have a better avoidance system. Look how much they show it during their ads compared to the H. Also, I haven't seen a "X Tracking" device on the H like they show on the 4. I dunno. What do you guys think?

 

[Grae]

For me, there is absolutely no point changing from a P3P at all. That's because I use the P3P for aerial videography. The P4 hasn't had a camera upgrade. Okay, the gimbal may be a bit better but how much better can it be? It doesn't make any difference in real terms. If you're good at flying, don't bother upgrading.


UK

 

[DirectorDrew]

So they forgot something. This is a camera, and it's still the same camera! Still horrible noise at even moderate iso's, shocking vignetting and only 12mp and same (let's be honest) flying time despite bigger batteries.

No point upgrading for me as it doesn't really address my needs as a photographer. The new lens is potentially better, but wasn't really a limiting factor on the P3P and increased fps is really just a firmware upgrade. I was really hoping for a better CCD.

But I guess for DJI the toy factor is a bigger selling point the the camera.

It is a camera. But, that is not why they made quads to begin with. Think of the Phantom 1 and Phantom 2. They both didn't have cameras and were never made for cameras. It wasn't until 3rd party companies started hacking and sawing the original Phantoms. Thats when the light bulb and all the whistles started ringing over at DJI. People were once using brackets and mounts to attach GoPros. Then someone came up with the idea of attaching a gimbal. Same thing when the P3 came out. There were people modding the RCs and antennas to reach farther distances. DJI has just been stealing and copying peoples ideas for their products. They won't upgrade a camera so small and simplistic until a company like GoPro figures out how to upgrade their camera. The latest GoPro Hero 4 (black) has been out since October 2014 now. Thats almost 2 years without an update. DJI will of course copy GoPro once they figure out an upgrade.

 

[Jussaguy]

"Sharper" isn't exactly better. There is a such thing as cameras being too sharp and looking like perfect home videos rather than amazing photos and cinematic videos. I actually turn down the saturation, sharpness and contrast on my P3. It shoots a little too sharp for me.

If video is how you are doing this, you just want to turn up your motion blur. You can change the motion blur in after effects by hitting the "motion blur" button and then changing the shutter angle of the virtual camera (same thing you would do if you were using a real camera, I mean a real film or video camera). The method you are using would work but only because you are adding so many effects to the image that it will naturally blur but if you want it to look cinematic without just changing a bunch of things, motion blur, and yes contrast.

 

[TheloniousMac]

I'll be getting the Phantom 4 for sure and selling my Inspire and Phantom 3 after running some comparisons. I'm sick of dragging 2 drones around (one for pro but big/heavy, one for fun/light).
Funny seeing people saying it's not an improvement on the camera before they see the comparison.
Remember that the Pro/Adv and X3 use the same sensor as the GoPro 4 and they easily best it in quality (hell even the lowly Standard has a better camera than any GoPro), and even the X5 is limited to 60Mbps.
A better lens means a hell of a difference, just ask anyone who goes beyond kit lenses for DSLR's.

 

[stulpin300m]

Read a few articles, watched a couple of videos and not yet convinced it's worth spending $1400 +++ after owning my P3P for several months. I usually jump when upgrades surface however, autonomous flying to me just takes away much of the enjoyment of owning a P3. As most already know, $1400 will quickly become well over $2000 after batteries, case etc. I like the design, new gimbal set up along with many of the new features. Perhaps it's time to sit back, read all the future threads from new owners and then making an educated decision before selling my P3P and investing in DJIs newest Phantom.

I agree there's nothing that is WOW ABOUT IT. it follows u if u are walking and won't crash if your going head on but can still crash going backwards, up and even down on a angle. The extra few minutes of flying time definitely isn't worth it either. If I didn't have a phantom I would buy it but not great in my eyes to upgrade. The go pro will be the best drone out this year I know there laughing at dji release today.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app