In this version of our monthly review we are going to give you an insight into one of the most popular drones ever: the DJI PHANTOM 4 Professional. This partially autonomous drone is definitely one you need to get your hands on.
- Color, White
- Aircraft Weight (including battery and propellers), 1380 g
- Created for, High-level Aerial Photography And Cinematography
- Flight Time, About 28 minutes
- Max. Flight Speed, 20m/s (sport mode)
- Max. Ascent Speed, 6 m/s (sport mode)
- Max. Descent Speed, 4 m/s (sport mode)
- Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level, 19685 feet (6km)
- Max Transmission Distance, CE: 3500 m FCC: 5000 m (unobstructed and no interference)
- Operating Temperature, 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C)
- Charger Voltage, 17.4 V
- Charger Rated Power, 100W
- Gimbal Controllable Range, Pitch: -90° to +30°
- Gimbal Stabilization, 3-axis (pitch – roll – yaw)
DJI Phantom 4 Review
- Flight Time: 28 min
- Range: 5000 meters
- Size: 9.9 x 15.7 x 6.75 in
In 2015 quadcopters advanced exponentially. That being said, the DJI Phantom 3 professional was the most favored drone that year, this was for a number of reasons. The Phantom 3 was able to capture 4k videos, it was stronger and it was more responsive than the Phantom 2 model.
Not to mention it had incredible features, such as solar sensors and obstacle sensors for stabilization when landing the drone. This has the public wondering, what could DJI possibly introduce to their consumers next?
This year DJI is presenting the public with a new and improved drone, the Phantom 4.
The Phantom 4 is DJI’s most recent and intelligent flying camera drone. It takes high quality photos, and videos through all Android or iOS devices and is one of the best drones for real estate. What is it that makes this drone more intelligent than the others?
The Phantom 4 is able to perform much more on its own. It is capable of avoiding obstacles along its path, and has almost no transitioning time while it automatically captures moving subjects with its touch screen.
Phantom 4 Improvements
The Phantom 4 has several upgrades in comparison to the Phantom 3 drone. Firstly the battery life improvement; DJI has proclaimed that the battery life of the Phantom 4 is 28 minutes longer in flight time than that of the Phantom 3. Which is quite substantial.
Secondly, there is a new ‘sport mode’ option, this allows the drone to fly up to 45mph. Another significant improvement incorporated on the Phantom 4 is its front and bottom cameras, this will give a larger range of footage for the operator.
Lastly the Phantom 4 has new obstacle sensors and computer vision for automatic guidance and tracking.
Processor and Sensors
DJI’s Phantom 4 is the most simple, safe, and enjoyable drone on the market as of date, with numerous of interesting features. With its five cameras, the Phantom 4 has an immense amount of imagery input, therefore requiring a processor.
The processor isn’t only going to handle the imagery inputs, but also allow the drone to be more independent. This means that the drone is basically “thinking” for itself.
The Phantom 4 has two forward-facing and two downward-facing obstacle sensors, enabling the drone to build and process an image.
Obstacle avoidance is also important to mention when discussing the processor of the drone. Obstacle avoidance is a craft in which even with full speed forward, if faced with an obstacle, the Phantom 4 can and will stop.
If the dual obstacle sensors on the front of the Phantom 4 detect any kind of barrier, it will make the drone either break or fly around the object that has come in its way. This will allow the operator to fly his or her drone with maximum speed, but still smooth and safely!
The processor is very interesting. The first thing that you need to know is obstacle avoidance. This is a craft that even with full stick forward, if it is facing an obstacle in front of it, it can stop.
Really, stop.
The dual optical sensors on the front detects obstacles and get Phantom drone to either stop or fly around the things that come in its way – so you will have a much easier time to fly completely safely and smoothly.
Maximum speed forward, the Phantom 4 will not fly into an obstacle!
- Obstacle Sensory Range: 2-49 feet (0.7-15m)
- Operating Enviroment: Surface with clear pattern and adequate lighting (lux > 15)
Cameras
You can record 4K video at 30fps. second, 1080p video in full HD quality for sharp slow motion movies with up to 120 frames per second and take 12 MP images in DNG RAW format with lots of possibilities for creative editing. If you pair it with DJI googles, you get a powerful VR drone with a crystal clear live feed.
- Camera Sensor, 1/2.3″ – Effective pixels 12.4M (Total pixels 12.76M)
- Iso Range, 100-3200 (video) & 100-1600 (photo)
- Image Max Size, 4000×3000
- Photography Modes, Single Shot – Burst shooting: 3 / 5 / 7 frames – Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB): 3 / 5 bracketed frames at 0.7 EV Bias – Time-lapse – HDR
- Video Recording Modes, UHD: 4096×2160 (4K) 24 / 25p – 3840×2160 (4K) 24 / 25 / 30p – 2704×1520 (2.7K) 24 / 25 / 30p – FHD: 1920×1080 24 / 25 / 30 / 48 / 50 / 60 / 120p – HD: 1280×720 24 / 25 / 30 / 48 / 50 / 60p
- Max Video Bitrate, 60 Mbps
- Photo, JPEG – DNG (RAW)
- Video, MP4 / MOV (MPEG – 4 AVC / H.264)
- Supported SD Card Types, Micro SD – Max capacity: 64 GB. Class 10 or UHS-1 rating required
- Operating Temperature, 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C)
Sport mode
The Phantom 4 posses two modes, normal and sport mode.
The sports mode is for the more enthusiastic, advanced pilots. This gives them a little taste of what drone racing is like. As the speed increases on the Phantom 4, it will bring an instant smile upon your face.
At the Phantom 4’s full power of 45mph, you will get a taste of how much the drone has to offer. While stopping the Phantom 4, you will come to realize that it will take a couple of meters in order to come to a full stop, but the Phantom 4 corners very well even with maximum speed, and the operator will always have a steady control over the drone, due to its simplicity.
Tracking
One of the Phantom 4’s most impressive features is its tracking feature. For instance in a situation where a living subject is in the way of the Phantom 4‘s path and for unknown reasons unable to move or is slow moving.
The Phantom 4 will recognize this subject and once the drone has set a tracker on the subject, it will build a 3D image. Algorithmically the drone will automatically recognize that the living subject is different in its mobility, and this will cause the Phantom 4’s tracker to stay focused on the subject.
Therefore enabling the drone to move around them. This also applies if the subject is on a bicycle or any other moving object.
The Phantom 4 will detect the person and the object and avoid any contact. Up to 24 satellites and vision positioning systems make it possible for the Phantom 4 to build an image of you and detect exactly where you are.
- Mobile App, DJI GO
- EIRP, 100mW
- Power Spectral Density, 6.9mW/MHz
- Live View Working Frequency, 2.4GHz ISM
- Live View Quality, 720P @ 30fps (depending on conditions and mobile device)
- Latency, 220ms (depending on conditions and mobile device)
- Required Operating Systems, iOS 8.0 or later – Android 4.1.2 or later
- Recommended devices
- iOS = iPhone 5s – iPhone 6 – iPhone 6 Plus – iPhone 6s – iPhone 6s Plus – iPod touch 6 – iPad Pro – iPad Air – iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular – iPad mini 2 – iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular – iPad Air 2 -iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular – iPad mini 3 and iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular. This app is optimized for iPhone 5s / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
- Android = Samsung tabs 705c – Samsung S6 – Samsung S5 – Samsung NOTE4 – Samsung NOTE3 – Google Nexus 9 – Google Nexus 7 II – Ascend Mate7 – Huawei Mate 8 – Nubia Z7 mini – SONY Z3 EXPE – MI 3 – MI PAD
For more devices, check out the DJI Go 4 compatible devices post.
Range
High efficiency motors and a custom designed large capacity battery offers 535omaha of power, giving the Phantom 4 a 28 minute flight time.
The integrated power management, balanced charging capabilities, plus smart charge and discharge of protection, keep the battery simple to charge and ready to fly at maximum capacity.
The maximum range tested by DJI is 3.1 miles (5km) which is a fair amount of distance considering that it isn’t a fixed wing drone.
The Integrated Lightbridge technology allows the operator to view what the Phantom 4 views in approximately 720p HD.
This low latency video transmission technology is extremely resistant to interference, giving the operator more control over the flight of the drone. Although in this case the maximum range was tested in unobstructed areas, free of any interference.
Depending on local regulations, it is safe to say that that connection will withhold quite far before any signs of signal disconnection.
- Intelligent Flight Battery, DJI Phantom 4 Professional
- Capacity, 5350 mAh
- Voltage, 15.2 V
- Battery type, LiPo 4S
- Energy, 81.3 Wh
- Net Weight, 462 g
- Operating temperature, 14° to 104° F (-10° to 40° C)
- Max Charging Power, 100 W
Controller
There has been some new changes considering the Phantom 4’s remote controller.
The Phantom 4 introduces a Sport mode, accessible through a new trio of modes, P, S and A.
P (Position) mode is the standard mode, giving access to normal flight as well as Intelligent Flight Modes, ActiveTrack and TapFly.
S (Sport) Mode unlocks maximum flight speeds of up to 44mph (72kmh).
A (Attitude) Mode remains the same and removes satellite stabilization in flight. It allows the Phantom to move more smoothly and naturally.
The ‘Playback’ button on the top right of the remote controller has been changed into a
‘Pause’ button that lets you put the Phantom into hover during any Intelligent Flight Mode, ActiveTrack or TapFly with just a tap.
- REMOTE CONTROLLER, DJI Phantom 4 Professional
- Operating Frequency, 2.400 GHz to 2.483 GHz
- Max Transmission Distance, FCC Compliant: 3.1 mi (5 km); CE Compliant: 2.2 mi (3.5 km)
- Operating Temperature, 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C)
- Battery, 6000 mAh LiPo 2S
- Transmitter Power (EIRP), FCC: 23 dBm – CE: 17 dBm
- Operating Voltage, 7.4V @ 1.2A
Let us know what you think about the Phantom 4 Professional on the comment section below. For more information about this product Incl. prices check out the Phantom 4 on Amazon.
For similar drones, read the best drone for photography and best drone with camera posts.
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