Drone

[Edvinas]

Hi folks,

Anyone here using phantom dji4? Planning to buy one, but I am not sure if it's good enough. Video and filming looks ok for my needs, but for photography it might be too weak. Optics doesn't look so bad, but resolution is a thing which bothers me mostly. If anyone has any experience, would appreciate all the knowledge.

BTW, I couldn't find any raw photos taken with DJI4. That would be big helper.

Thanks a alot.

[sebastian___]

I was also thinking of buying one, even more so seeing it has those obstacle avoidance sensors.
Planing to attach a camera on it.

But after some research I found out that the phantom dji3 can carry more weight. And it's cheaper.

I'm more interested in filming with a more telephoto lens, not so much in resolution.

The camera would be this one Samsung NX500, it can film in 4k, and with this lens it has stabilization and motorized zoom, and can be controlled with an iphone or ipad. With the lens I think it has 500g weight.
 But unfortunately not all the details are clear yet.
http://www.juzaphoto.com/shared_files/recensioni/samsung_nx500.jpg

[Edvinas]

Hi, Sebastian.

Thanks for relply. Do you have any examples of attaching camera to DJI? It would be really nice if it is possible. I mean, does it still have stability without vibrations? And how would camera rotation and etc. works?

BTW. One guy in my city has self-made drone which cares 1.2kg panasonic camera up to 25mins. Yup, its huge, but does the job. And still.. the photos aren't thaat good, so dji will probably be ever worse.

[sebastian___]

I don't think I was notified by your reply. Maybe some wrong setting here on forum.

I kept doing research the last days. I found out that DJI phantom 3 can carry and lift pretty smooth 500g, but you can't mount the camera on the special gimbal where the drone camera is mounted.
A way would be to buy the Phantom 3 without a camera and gimbal, find another gimbal (still low weight) rated for about 500 grams. Mount the camera on that gimbal. Buy a low weight video transmission module to send the video down.
  For less vibrations use sorbothane pad under the camera and equalize the propeller blades with sandpaper. Search youtube tutorials for that.
  But anyway, it's not very straightforward and easy to mount a camera on a Phantom.

[maru]

I don't know anything about drones, or their prices, but I just completely randomly found thins on the internet with comments that it's a good deal. Not taking any responsibility for this though. :D
http://www.tomtop.com/dji-phantom-4-professional-fpv-rc-quadcopter-with-4k-hd-camera-tapfly-sense-and-avoid-visual-tracking-function-rm5063us.html?aid=wxy3&utm_source=tradetracker
Also using a code DJI90 gives some discount.

[Edvinas]

Sebastian, actually after your post I changed my mind about drones. It's not that hard to combine some different parts and customize them. And it's fun. 
After few days of research and forums reading, I ended with that the best solution for me could be DJI S1000 drone with custom gymbal. Yep, its another price category, but possibilities also. It can lift up 5-8kg for 13-18 mins. Would be a perfect solution for my Nikon D800.
I don't know why, but all those DJI phantoms and inspires are oriented only on movies. They can produce pretty decent videos, but when it comes to stills – zero benefits. Spending 1.5-4.5k euros will only give you 12-16MP photos with crapy colors and quality. Especially when I have D800, I don't want to spend money on another one mounted on drone. So S1000 could be a nice choise. It has official canon gymbals, but no for nikon. Anyway, as you mentioned, it  can be customized pretty easily.

Maru, yep, thats a good deal if you use that for filming amateur videos. I just found out that a good part of DJI forum auditory are real esatate brokers.. and they have different needs compared to my :)

Will have summer holidays, so probably will give a try on setup I mentioned above. 

[sebastian___]

Interesting. 5-8 kg ? That's a lot, and maybe not needed in my case. I'm invested in the samsung nx camera and lenses, I have 6 lenses already, so I'm kinda stuck with the system, I didn't bought the nx300 and nx500 for drone use, but now that I did, I think the nx500 could be good for that.

28 MP,  9 fps continuous shooting with stabilization, high res touch screen, 4k movie, possibility to take photos and movies with a "flatter" settings which maybe mimics a little a Red Camera flat mode.

 Including a motorized zoom lens so I can change the zoom while the camera is up in the air.
 As I said earlier, with the motorized lens the camera is only 500 gr, but other lenses are quite heavy, much more than the camera, so maybe with a setup like yours I can even use the heavy ones.

Too bad the "professional" drones sometimes don't have all the bells and whistles of the consumer ones like the superior modes of navigating (working well even when the gps is not visible) and obstacle avoiding of the Phantom 4.

What's the total price for your solution ? Drone, gimbal, video transmission (can you use a tablet or phone as a screen ? )

[Edvinas]

Sorry for late reply. Holiday.. :)

Your specs looks pretty nice. But few years ago I had D7100 nikon which isn't FF camera. It just does not give me desired result, so for now only FF cameras. And it means I need powerful drone to lift them. 

All those raisins in DJI phantom 4 are nice and cool. Home function or obstacle avoidance is superb helper when you are new to this. Too bad they don't work 100% precisly and you can easily crash your money. It gives you some mental comfort, which may lead to crash when system fails.

My setup is about 5k euro. Drone, Canon gimbal (needs some 3D printing parts for NIKON suport), DJI lightbridge 2. And yes, of course you can use your tablet or phone as a screen :)

[sebastian___]

Hmm 5k would be kinda expensive for me for (yet) non professional work. My budget would be about 1500 euro, or maybe slightly more. Capable of lifting maybe 1-2 kg.

As I see it, the Lightbridge 2 alone is $1400. It has some nice specs though.
I'm not sure if I can use my Nyrius ARIES Pro, which has a range of only 48 meters, but maybe it is good enough. The transmitter has 38 grams and a total of 200 grams with cables and battery. And it has zero latency and full hd signal.

[cebli]

Hi,

I got this image with DJI phantom 4 last week, on a windy day. Jpg and raw dng file atached. I Also try panorama.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV0PklgmLuqNmxFYlJyTDNHVTA/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwV0PklgmLuqWUszV19vczkwTlk/view?usp=sharing
http://cebli360.com/gtw/