They may have been the initial aerial data gatekeepers, but now, Propeller’s primary users are tethering all their moving parts together using 3D drone models. The real-time geotagging, plus corrections from a base station on the ground, means unprecedented reliable accuracy for your drone surveys. In 2013, DJI introduced the world to the Phantom, a durable quadcopter that brought an air of professionalism to a largely recreational market. Around this time, individuals outside of the aerial photography community began exploring use cases for the objectivity and visibility a bird’s-eye view presents. Simply put, the Phantom 4 Pro will always take clearer photos under the same lighting conditions than even the newest high-tech drones.
More than anything, the fact that this is a full 1-inch sensor sets the Phantom 4 Pro in a league of its own for drones under $2000. Back to basics, the Phantom 4 Pro is equipped with obstacle avoidance sensors on four sides and on the bottom. Thanks to this, it is not as pleasant to fly the machine close to the ground, or close to yourself, the remote beeps at you, a lot. One of the best and most underrated features of the Phantom 4 Pro is the capabilities of the camera.
A “W” indicates that the camera was tested under various weather conditions. I know of no other drone on the market even close to this price range that offers a mechanical shutter. On a shadowless day, you avoid noise in your final Pix4Dmapper model and will produce a clearer, often more accurate surface model and orthomosaic for your client. Pilots with experience using 3rd party apps on DJI drones can access the world’s leading drone app ecosystem for their phantom 4 RTK with the SDK Remote Controller. Users can plug in a compatible Android or iOS device and install any compatible DJI Mobile SDK-enabled app to harness the full power of their Phantom 4 RTK.
Still, for however polished the experience is, it might be too much of a good thing for absolute beginners. I must repeat myself, the Phantom 4 is a fantastic drone, you will not be disappointed or ripped off for purchasing it. You can, however, get a better bang for the buck by considering the Phantom 3 for less camera intensive needs or the Mavic Pro for more portable needs.
WingtraOne features a PPK option and is compatible with third-party base stations. PPK has been proven as the most consistent way to get high absolute location accuracy with as few as three ground control points to verify it. WingtraOne takes off and lands vertically like the Phantom 4 RTK, but transitions into fixed-wing flight for the mission. An orange drone icon moves on the WingtraPilot as it flies according to plan. If the altitude or transition angles need to be adjusted, you simply change to manual mode and easily control its flight with the remote control.
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 Phantom 4 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 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.
We may receive affiliate compensation in connection with your purchase of products via links on this page. Even though we may receive compensation, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on each product. Let’s see, we’ve seen the Phantom 3 for as little as $399, but the 4K models have been $750 or more. The phantom 4 Advanced starts at $1350 and the Phantom 4 Pro at $1450.