The DJI Phantom Vision: Worth It?

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DJI is one of the foremost developers of unmanned aerial vehicles, specifically multirotor craft. Multirotor refers to the look feature that it has multiple motors and rotors. One of the most used multirotor vehicles could be the quadcopter. Unlike traditional helicopters, multirotor vehicles have fixed pitch rotors and maneuver by changing the RPM of individually controlled motors with a complex flight control board.

DJI is rolling out very sophisticated flight control software providing an extremely stable platform for aerial photography and other applications. The newest entry in to the flight line of DJI products may be the DJI Phantom Vision. Here is the successor to the popular rivenditore dji Phantom. The Phantom was very popular and allowed anyone to fly right from the box. The Phantom Vision takes it a step further providing a first person vision (FPV) experience by streaming live video from the attached HD 1080p camera via WiFi to your tablet or smart phone. The transmitter has a stand for attaching your device so you can watch what your location is flying.

The camera is pretty good. Not as effective as a GoPro, but it will record in 1080p and features a 14MP camera. It's field of view can be changed between 140/120/90 degrees. It can also take photos in RAW format that is one improvement on the GoPro. The unit app lets you change settings while the DJI Phantom Vision continues to be in the air. You can change the ISO, white balance, set a period interval for photos. The app also display altitude, speed, and distance from home. A compass is also used to assist you know which way is back and should you choose get in trouble and crash, the Phantom will send its last known GPS coordinates so you can recover it.

The transmitter has changed to focus on 5.8GHz and the WiFi works on 2.4GHz. The length is advertised to be around 300m. The battery integration is greatly improved and the Vision looks a whole lot more streamlined. The 5200 mAh LiPo batteries provide as much as 25 minutes of flight time. Just think of all the awesome footage you have access to with 25 minutes of flying!

Now the Vision isn't super cheap. It will come in about $1,200. But whenever you stop and think of everything you're getting, in one single integrated package, it's not this type of bad deal. For example if you bought the predecessor DJI Phantom, you would spend $450. Then if you wanted to place the latest GoPro onto it you would spend another $400 putting you at $850 already. But that doesn't provide you with the FPV capabilities that the DJI Phantom Vision does.

So could it be worth every penny? It depends on that which you are looking for. If you are buying fully integrated, prepared to fly, FPV quadcopter, I would recommend the Phantom Vision. If you should be not looking for all of that, then maybe try the DJI Phantom, as well as the Blade mQX.