The bad news is there’s yet another new style of battery (so if you already have a Phantom, your collection of cells won’t work). The good news is that the can fly for up to 28 minutes on one charge. That’s more or less double what you could get out of the Phantom 1 or 2 carrying a camera, so it’s not to be sniffed at.
In the case of flights near airports, that involves contacting the control tower and making them aware of your flight plan. If you want to see if an area is open for flight before you head to a location, check Airmap.io. The drone also has a Sport mode, which increases the maximum speed to 45mph, but absolutely no obstacle detection is enabled. It can go faster with help from the wind—the app told me that my Phantom 4 Pro was flying around 50mph in Sport mode for a good stretch of distance during one of my test flights. The advertised battery life of the Phantom 4 is 28 minutes per flight. For a first time drone user, this probably sounds short, but for those upgrading from other models, it really is quite impressive.
In fact, I’m considering purchasing an cheaper model Phantom 3 quadcopterfor this reason alone. Anything higher than ISO 100 and the quality quickly degrades, and this is especially apparent when you start zooming in. The ability to take sharp photos under these conditions is certainly impressive, but despite this, I was expecting a little more of the RAW files. In this way, photographers who wish to use the Phantom 4 to take portrait photos of their subjects from interesting angles may find it difficult to bring visual attention to the subject. Personally, I’m not a fan of the GoPro’s field of view which is verging on fish-eye.
Same goes if you jump up to the Phantom 4 Pro or Advanced for the best camera in a DJI drone under $2000. When I talked about the Phantom 3, the defining characteristic in its continued value was the camera capabilities. The earlier Phantom 3 models had a 2.7K sensor, the latter two models came with 4K shooters.
Compared to DJI Phantom 4 RTK, the WingtraOne is an upgrade that can handle much larger projects and produce significantly better image and accuracy results. While it is more of an investment, it is a powerful solution that can boil a project that used to take days down to hours. Wingtra focuses a good percent of its efforts on research and development to keep its WingtraOne at the front edge of what is possible for professional survey and mapping solutions. The size and weight of the controller balances well with tablets which, of course, provide a larger view of the DJI Go 4 app that’s used to adjust settings and to control the Phantom’s camera. The controller also provides several direct access buttons and customizable buttons, so the camera and certain drone settings can be quickly adjusted without the need to use the app.
This hardware and software kit includes a GeoCue calibrated Phantom 4 RTK and True View EVO post-procressing software. It enables a full photogrammetric workflow in PPK mode using the customer’s L1/L2 base station. When bundled with True View EVO and our recommended add-ons, the P4 RTK provides the highest accuracy method of performing photogrammetric drone surveying with a DJI platform. A new RTK module is integrated directly into the Phantom 4 RTK, providing real-time, centimeter-level positioning data for improved absolute accuracy on image metadata. If you have a very limited budget and have never worked with drones before, Phantom 4 RTK is a good solution for a small-scale project that does not demand high-precision accuracy.
Whereas with my Yuneec Typhoon, I can use my balance charger to do a controlled discharge instead of plugging the battery into the quad, turning it on, and leaving it on for a few phantom 4 hours. Given GoPro disbanded the Karma development team, I think you’ll be waiting quite a long time. Be happy with what you have and get your moneys worth out of it instead.
With Tap Fly, you need only tap your device screen to change directions without fear of obstacles. The connects to GPS and GLONASS through its Intelligent Flight Positioning system for precise positioning. You can effortlessly return to wherever you had been shooting with help from Automatic Flight Logs. Beginner mode will keep you from flying beyond your rudimentary skills; adjustable maximum height and distance let you get the most of your skills as you develop.