Thinking of selling Inspire 1 and buying a P4

[Ibmftw]

Get rid of that inspire whilst its still worth something, they simply are too much of a pita once you get used to the speed and portability of phantoms, unless you have a specific need for an inspire id get it out the door before the inspire 2 comes along and decreses its value in half. The evening photo above this post taken on the X5 is beautiful but thats not because the X5 its because the photographer knows what hes doing.

As an example here is what a P3A is capable of at night with a pro photographer on the sticks.

Week One With My P3A (Night Shots & Pano)

 

[Anthony Cirullo]

THis is a terrible time to sell since they just dropped the price to 1550$ unless you got yours recently.

 

[sandman259]

Keep the P3P! The P4 features don't justify the upgrade IMHO. Frankly I fly my P3P more than my P4 because it has more range and has proven itself stable and reliable, not so much with P4. My P4 still yoyos 6-8ft when I stop forward motion, my P3P has NEVER done that. As for the weak P4 range, you can get respectable range (2+ miles) by using an Inspire controller linked to the P4, that's what I've done and it works fantastic, 2+ miles no problem (stock antenna, custom channel, 4mbps). The P4 RC is the weakest Lightbridge transmitter DJI has ever sold. I've measured the RF output of these RCs with an RF meter to prove it.

If you don't do commercial work, the P3P is a great craft for family videos, hobby videos, doing YouTube videos, etc. If you do commercial work, you need an Inspire to "look like you're serious" in the customer's eyes. And in that case, before you make any decision, wait for the Inspire 2 to see if that is a better way to spend your money.

You won't be able to see any difference on YouTube between P3 to P4 video quality. Yes, P4 has some fancy features like Active track, Obstacle avoidance, and Tap fly, but for me that's all fluff that I never use. The best features of the P4 over the P3 are:
1. 3min longer flight
2. Twist lock props
3 Speed of over 40mph (you can rarely video anything at that speed due to angle of attack. It puts the props in the view)
4. The craft looks really slick compared to P3, much more refined mechanical design. A very elegant design...... if it would only work.

BTW, you'll never enable obstacle avoidance after you learn it's a slug, rarely exceeding 20mph. Once you experience that you'll say..... forget that feature. It's really only useful when you fly beyond VLOS via FPV, and you want to get up close to something. That's how I use it, but rarely.

If the P4 RC wasn't a POS and they could fix the yoyo problem, I would have a different story.

I agree, my neighbor has a p4, and I have a p3a, and we both flew out the same direction and height and I almost went twice as far. He has some cool features like sport mode, but the range issue isn't worth the extra features...


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[msinger]

THis is a terrible time to sell since they just dropped the price to 1550$ unless you got yours recently.

I'm sure they will continue to drop -- even more so when the Inspire 2 is announced/released. The market will most likely become flooded with used Inspire 1s. So, it could also be a great time to sell.

 

[ringolong]

I agree, my neighbor has a p4, and I have a p3a, and we both flew out the same direction and height and I almost went twice as far. He has some cool features like sport mode, but the range issue isn't worth the extra features...
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Range is not an issue for me. The battery limits my range

 

[sandman259]

Range is not an issue for me. The battery limits my range

View attachment 58198

And your arms get a workout too[emoji33]


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[msinger]

Those antennas are actually super lightweight.

 

[KevMo Photog]

Get rid of that inspire whilst its still worth something, they simply are too much of a pita once you get used to the speed and portability of phantoms, unless you have a specific need for an inspire id get it out the door before the inspire 2 comes along and decreses its value in half. The evening photo above this post taken on the X5 is beautiful but thats not because the X5 its because the photographer knows what hes doing.

As an example here is what a P3A is capable of at night with a pro photographer on the sticks.

Week One With My P3A (Night Shots & Pano)

Totally disagree with you that the night shot is not greater because of the X5! No way in hell you can shoot that shot and keep the noise level down compared to a P4 Camera or an X3! But I do agree that you would have to know how to set settings on any camera for diff lighting conditons!

 

[KevMo Photog]

You will be happy with the x5 once you learn how the settings work. Here is a picture downsized to upload that I took with mine this weekend. It does really good in low light.

View attachment 57727

This is a killer shot man! God I want to get into the X5 so bad. Low light level quality is off the charts man!

 

[lutece7]

Doesn't the X3 camera have one advantage over the X5 camera, in that, if you want to shoot a large building, you don't have to go up as high? I shot a building with my P2 and it was so big, I couldn't get it all in at 400 feet. Of course I could have backed up, but I didn't want to back up for two reasons... I would have had to back up over a highway, and I the roof size of the building and the view of the landscaping with have been much more oblique than I wanted. And the P2 Vision+ lens is even wider than the x3 lens. If you want to shoot action sports or weddings, I think the x5 lens would be preferred, but not for my purposes: large objects.

 

[ringolong]

Doesn't the X3 camera have one advantage over the X5 camera.

You can always get a 12mm lens for the x5. It is much easier to change lenses than it is to change gimbals, and you will get better quality images.

This is why I had the x3 and the x5 until the P4 arrived. Then I did not have a need for the x3 anymore

 

[lutece7]

This is why I had the x3 and the x5 until the P4 arrived. Then I did not have a need for the x3 anymore

Please expound on this point, because I am not following the above statement. Why would the P4 cause you to not need the Inspire 1 with an X3 camera any more?

 

[ringolong]

The camera on the p4 produces just as good if not better images than my x3 did, and it is lower risk to fly price wise when compared to an inspire(or used to be until the price was dropped), handles better than my inspire, and the flights are longer on the p4.

I carry my inspire, and p4 for every project, unless it is going to be a low light situation, then the inspire is the only choice.

 

[lalvar40]

I have a P3P and a P4. I have made extensive comparison of pictures. My assessment is: I don't need to make any sharpness adjustment for my P4 pictures, they are natively crisp and clear. The color of jpg is just perfect, as good as a iPhone 6. I really see an improvement in the camera of the P4. The only way I can get a good picture of P3P is by extensive photoshop of a raw. The P4 ones practically don't need adjustment. I am impressed.

 

[lutece7]

thanks. So field of view is also important to me. the X5 is 30mm (equivalent on a 35mm camera), but you can remove the lens and replace it with a 12mm. The X3 has a 20mm lens. Can it also be replaced? The P4 is also 20mm. So is the P3 (94 degree diagonal field of view). I have been flying a P2+ for 2.5 years, and I think that it has a 110 degree FOV (85 is also listed, but I think that is only available in video mode). I am an architectural photographer. I shoot stills of big buildings. I don't think I am going to like 94mm. Too tight. I would have to fly too high to get big buildings. I can see how a longer lens would be advantageous to people wanting to shoot action videos of cars and people, though.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I have a P4 I'm willing to trade.