I am surprised no-one else has beat me to this,but the DJI phantom 3 has been released and is not as expensive as you might think when considering that is packs the same tech as the DJI inspire 1 (such as lightbridge and the indoor vision sensors)
Today DJI has announced the new Phantom 3 quadcopter which is released in two flavors, the Phantom 3 Advanced, and the Phantom 3 Professional
With the previous DJI Phantom releases, DJI have usualy have one version in each phantom series as the budget option with no integrated camera, but today there was no mention of this as the naming of the phantom 3 Pro and Advanced leaves some scope for a camera-less version so you can use other third party gimbals or cameras such as a gopro.
Apart from the new fancy 4K camera the other neat features (inherited from the DJI Inspire) include a indoor optic flow sensor for indoor flight, and a ne GPS receiver that supports GLONASS like the new walkera drones. But my favourite feature is the integrated of the DJI lightbridge system built into the DJI phantom 3 allowing you to stream 720p video back home to your android or IOS device.
In terms of the 4K camera, some thought has gone into this, with a f/2.8 shooter now has a 94-degree fixed field of view which is narrower than the DJI Phantom 2 Vision + which means your videos and pictures will not be distorted with the fish eye effect. Furthermore the narrow field of view means that you are less likely to get any props or legs in the video when banking at extreme angles. Also you have more control over the camera allowing you to adjust things like ISO, Exposure, shutter speed and color filters etc..
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The Wh/gm are achievable. The turnigy multistar batteries among others have highest capacities.
With apologies for my man-on-the-mountain comment...
Today's world is all about "scale backed by innovation". If that requires too many resources not available to you, the standard fallback is "specialization". Find a niche and service it extremely well. Unfortunately there is no other way when facing behemoths.
Having had 24hrs to sleep on the Phantom3 release I think the price is the big affector which might put a great deal of pressure on us small independent companies and builders. Right now it feels like it might be a 'race to the bottom' - on pricing, either reduce prices or go broke, perhaps? Good for the consumer though.
But I think any dreams you or I of being a profitably successful small independent drone manufacturer have just received a punch in the gut.
While RC has been a hobby of mine since childhood (planes mostly, helicopters recently, also have a private pilot license), I recently started looking into drones and found my way to this site. I ordered an IRIS+ (luckily was able to cancel because of the SOLO announcement) and began preparing for aerial mapping applications. Spent lot of time learning about CHDK, camera mounts, 3D printing, Turnigy on/switches, UBECs, and how to make the USB cable to trigger a Cannon camera. Lots of heroic posts on this site, Youtube and other places.
Loved learning all this but it's not for the larger market DJI is winning. Eventually 3DR needs to go public so that investors can get their money out. 3DR needs to step up their game beyond DIY. I seriously doubt they will exceed P3 just because of the pedigree of the company. Let's hope $10M investment in SOLO gets them close.
yeah that battery makes no sense. i've never seen a 4500mah 4s battery that light?
Has anyone noticed that the battery is a 4480 mAh 4s, that weighs only 368 grams is perhaps the most interesting news, if the given specification is not 'wrong.
It has a weight / power ratio almost unique .. Thunder Power only, with the ProLite MS series, is better, but they are expensive and older
From http://www.suasnews.com/2015/04/35136/a-consumer-drone-pioneer-were...
"To compete [with DJI], 3D Robotics is set to release its own new drone next week, dubbed the Solo and priced around $1,000. The company spent $10 million over 18 months on the black four-rotor helicopter."
dankeschoen! Implementing this will be my next project!
@ Tobias Witting
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/705844:BlogPost:1792400
http://www.swat-drones.de/index.php/hd-fpv
;)
Agree. DJI just made the inspire 1 even more pointless as it already was... a 3kg copter to lift a 50g camera with 18 minutes of flight time. Now the phantom 3 offers the same camera, same HD video link in a smaller (more portable) package with 23 minns flight time.
I don't want a closed source system and a company telling me when I need to upgrade and I despise DJI with their attitude towards customers when problems occur, but the HD video link is a really great feature (albeit the >300ms latency of lightbridge sucks). When are we having a DIY HD video link?
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