When to reinvest in equipment?

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Hey everybody, I'd like to quickly share a dilemma I'm having. I am a part-time commercial operator, currently using a P3 Pro. I've done enough jobs where I am solidly in the black: P3P, accessories, editing software, and Part 107 costs have all been covered. My regular customers, a real estate team, are very happy with my work thus far.

I just landed a larger job (for me) that should gross around $3,000 in 3 shoots. I'm pretty excited about it, but I'm kind of left with a good "problem." Do I take the profits (less taxes and expenses) and enjoy myself, or should I consider reinvesting into higher quality equipment?

The P3P is great, but I do feel it is lacking in still photo quality for professional use. I'm eyeballing the P4P, but I'm uncertain the return on investment is going to be that great. I'm drooling over the Inspire 2, but I would have to finance that for sure, and my revenue from photography is nowhere near enough to cover it in a reasonable amount of time. I'm wondering if I should enjoy some more profits a little longer and hold off for the next generation.

TL;DR

-Currently have P3P
-Making decent money
-Buy a P4P?
-Wait for the next generation (Phantom 5)?
 
I actually had to upgrade to the P4P (P4 series) due to the fact a customer requested it (12 month contract) so I retired my P3Ps (Currently on eBay) and currently now use the P4P ...I have also been in the black for a while now enough to get 11 batteries and 1 backup P3..I would say if business is booming use what you have unless you see a major reason to refresh. I know I wasn't going to ..till the P5 since the P3P is a SOLID all around drone ..I've traveled Internationally and sold vacation footage to Tv networks (Travel / Bravo) they still are my goto I almost packed it instead of my Mavic Pro for vacation.
 
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The first year of my commercial operations I put about 90% of my profit back into equipment and other expenses, it was just part time for me too. The equipment was a good tax write-off too. The camera quality on the P4P is amazing. You can't go wrong there. I fly the Inspire 1 Pro for my serious stuff but for a lot of my shots I just bring my Mavic, I was spending way too much time setting up and tearing down the Inspire, the Mavic made perfect sense for my little jobs and I always have it with me.
 
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Seems like having a backup quad would be a good idea. You can just about pick up an Inspire 1 used for the price of a new p4p. The cameras are very similar, well the p4 and the inspire 1 cameras are similar. Just something to think about.
 
Seems like having a backup quad would be a good idea. You can just about pick up an Inspire 1 used for the price of a new p4p. The cameras are very similar, well the p4 and the inspire 1 cameras are similar. Just something to think about.
Unless you are talking about an Inspire with an X5 the P4P will pull the pants down on it. Portability, flight time, video bitrate and outright image quality and the benefit of warranty and the pleasure of owning a new AC all favour the P4P as a preferred choice.
 
Great ideas to think about! I think a P4P may be the near future, but it's difficult to determine where the level of diminishing returns is.
 
Unless you are talking about an Inspire with an X5 the P4P will pull the pants down on it. Portability, flight time, video bitrate and outright image quality and the benefit of warranty and the pleasure of owning a new AC all favour the P4P as a preferred choice.
I corrected myself and said the p4 and the inspire 1 cameras are similar.
 
If your customers are very happy with your work, why would you make capital expenditures unless you increase productivity, i.e. Computer, software or to have a backup?
 
What part of Alabama are you in?
Huntsville!

If your customers are very happy with your work, why would you make capital expenditures unless you increase productivity, i.e. Computer, software or to have a backup?

You bring up a great point! I do need more backup hardware, but the rest of my system hardware anf software is good to last a while. I was thinking of potential future business, perhaps that I might lose, if photo and video quality aren't keeping up with the current state of the industry. No complaints yet, but I wonder how long until I may have some or how many potential customers have passed me up.
 
Its hard to find hardware that will support 4k playback. there are not many people that have 4k equipment, care about 4k, or could even see the difference. Most people dont even have 1080p equipment. I think it will be years before 4k is the standard. Its just to dang big. Cloud storage and 4k downloads just take to long to accomplish. Until bandwidth gets cheaper and faster the general population wont accept 2.7k or larger. If you can provide a quality 1080p product then thats all you need to satisfy most people.
 
Its hard to find hardware that will support 4k playback. there are not many people that have 4k equipment, care about 4k, or could even see the difference. Most people dont even have 1080p equipment. I think it will be years before 4k is the standard. Its just to dang big. Cloud storage and 4k downloads just take to long to accomplish. Until bandwidth gets cheaper and faster the general population wont accept 2.7k or larger. If you can provide a quality 1080p product then thats all you need to satisfy most people.
While it is true 1080 is likely sufficient for most present client needs I suspect most to benefit from shooting in 4k for two principal reason. The first and likley most obvious to most is the benefit of having your original footage available for use when 4k becomes mainstream. Also, even where the intense is to refer a project in 1080 working with 4k provides the benefit of being able to straighten and crop in post, effective 4 times zoom with no quality loss if you need it.
 
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