Saving for Phantom 4 Phantom 4 Pro

After watching every available youtube video review and some of the early video shots that were taken with Phantom 4, I have decided that it is time to ditch the ideas of DIY multicopter that could carry Sony Nex sized camera and start spending some money to buy myself a P4.

I own a 650 sized quadcopter that could carry a mirrorless camera, but so far I have been using it with GoPro and Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal. Although I get near 30 minutes of flight with it, I have found that it is too bulky to carry it on shoots and almost impossible to take it with me on a hike because of the weight and bulkiness. I could have made it more portable if I have used folding arms, but nothing justifies the weight of the LiPos (1350 grams per battery), so I was stuck somewhere in the middle of decision whether to invest and buy gimbal and mirrorless camera like Sony A6000 or A6300 or go with the Phantom 3 Advanced (P4 was not out yet), since the camera + gimbal equals or it will be higher for A6300 than the price of P3A.

Tarot 650 Sport could not even compare it to Phantom 4 internals

It was a hard decision because I really like the way this quadcopter flies, but in the end, I have concluded that the features, portability, and the camera photo and video quality outweigh the quality  of the pictures that I will get by using A6000 or A6300.
That’s why I have decided to sell this rig and some of the equipment that I wasn’t using so I can have enough hobby funds to buy Phantom 4 which at this moment isn’t available here in Macedonia, but it will be, by the time I collect enough money 🙂

Phantom4 internals

Image from http://drone.farm/consumer-drones-its-all-about-integration/

One thing that makes me a bit uncomfortable after 4 years of making DIY multicopters is the way DJI had integrated everything on one central board. If something fails, there are no spare electronic parts but the whole board must be replaced and that is not cheap. Also, the markings on most of the electronic parts are stripped so you have no clue about the part that needs to be replaced.

Saving for P4

1/4 of the funds collected so far. Sold my old GoPro Hero 3 black and already had some funds from an aerial job that I have done two weeks ago, so far so good 🙂