EDIT: I have one now and its wonderful. The image is terrific. I will be doing a vlog on it soon! Here is the first thing I have shot on it:
The Frost In The Woods: DJI Phantom 4 Pro from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
Whilst countless people are frustratingly waiting for their Mavic Pro which is heavily backordered, DJI aren’t resting with their full-on blitz of the drone market. This morning in LA they announced two more drones. The Phantom 4 Pro and Inspire 2. Both look superb. I haven’t tried either of these yet, but here are the headline features:
Phantom 4 Pro
- New 20mp 1″ senspr
- 4K 60P recording
- New bitrate of 100mbps in H264 and H265
- 5 direction obstacle sensors
- Same batteries as P4 (thankfully!)
- Mechanical shutter
- 4.3 mile transmission range
- New controller option with built-in high quality screen
Inspire 2
- Huge improvements include two new cameras
- X4s new 1″ sensor 20mp camera (not raw or prores)
- X5S micro four thirds new sensor
- 5.2K 30fps
- 4K 60fps
- Cinema DNG raw (license key needed)
- Apple Prores (license key needed)
- H265/ H264 Mbps 100mbps
- Forward/ Downward vision sensors
- Upward IR sensors
- New intelligent flight modes
- Smart return to home that uses avoidance sensor
- Dual redundancy IM, Compass and Barometer
- Dual batteries for redundancy
- Dedicated FPV camera for pilot
- New Osmo style device to come for handheld operation of the cameras
DJI dominate the drone market completely, and it is hard to see how any other manufacturer can compete. The Mavic is a runaway (bad word to use in association with drones) success with massive backorders (it seems they were surprised by the sheer volume of orders and are desperately trying to meet the demand currently there is a 7-8 week wait!), the P4 and even the P3 are still available, the P4 Pro brings features that I have been desperate to see, mainly a better camera on the small drone and a much better codec. Topping it off with 4K 60p is a big deal for me. The Inspire 2, though, is jaw-dropping. This is going to be THE filmmaking drone to own. The new features are huge, and for safety the redundancies are essential for use in many commercial situations. You can’t fly an Inspire 1 or Phantom in central London, even with a license, as there are no redundancies. Now there are, although if a motor goes on a prop there is still an issue there.
I own the Inspire 1 Pro Raw and 2 Phantom 4s. Will I replace them with these? Probably, as the improvements are huge…at least the P4 does not need new batteries. The Inspire 2 though will need new batteries, new SSDs…ouch!
