Hi,

Thinking of buying a Phantom 2 with H3-3D for use with my GoPro Hero 3. The P2 bundle with an additional battery is about my budget currently, I just wondered if a FPV Solution with the monitor, iOSD etc. is a necessity? Have people flown without it and got on okay?

What I like is that I can upgrade this and buy the accessories along the line or should I just wait until I can afford the whole package?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

Many thanks

Dave

Necessary ? No.
Nice to have ? Yes.
I actually feel that you will become a better pilot faster without FPV as you will need to keep the Phantom in sight and pay attention to it rather than looking down at your phone or monitor.

True, I think I will investigate price differences to buy now and down the line...

johnwarr@live.c Posted at 2015-4-28 21:16
Necessary ? No.
Nice to have ? Yes.
I actually feel that you will become a better pilot faster witho ...

thank you for your help

if you're shooting pictures or video you will want fpv.

Dave

There are two important factors I feel that require you to have FPV with a Phantom 2 with GoPro.

The first is when shooting video or taking pics it is virtually impossible to frame the shot without FPV. I did many disappointing flights without FPV.

The second point is the most important I think and that is the telemetry data you get with iosd. Battery level being very important but also the number of satellites.

Having said all that I think you would be best to get a lot of flights under your belt before switching to FPV. I have just done so and I find the added distraction of a monitor has increased the difficulty to actually fly the Phantom and I feel if I had flown with FPV from the outset I possibly would have got myself into trouble?

Yug

FPV flying is hard. You can see what the camera see's but you mis those little things to your sided like tree limbs, light poles and the such. However FPV is great for the stills or video as what you see is what you get. FPV is the best of both worlds. I fly with filed of view and looking at the FPV back and forth. My only crashes have been when trying to fly completely FPV. Guess I need wrap around vision so I can see to my sides and up and down. I see some videos on YouTube that are people flying completely FPV.. Impressive. Might be this ole mans age too, brain not as sharp as a 20 year old. Just my two cents.

Thanks guy really appreciate the feedback

davestartin Posted at 2015-4-29 18:11
Thanks guy really appreciate the feedback

Hi Dave, I did the same thing. I bought my Phantom 2, gimbal, and GoPro. Flew it around a couple of weeks and got used to it. I also bought the Groundstation with it which allows you to fly beyond visual range. So then I went for the FPV setup with mini IOSD because I needed to know what the Phantom was doing and where it was. It was a little on the scary side before without it. Depending on what you get, the setup has a pretty good range. I flew a Groundstation mission the other day which was about a mile and a quarter away, I had the video on my monitor and was still able to tilt my gimbal.

Raybro Posted at 2015-4-29 18:40
Hi Dave, I did the same thing. I bought my Phantom 2, gimbal, and GoPro. Flew it around a couple of ...

Thanks Raybro - I have purchased the P2 with H3-3D then will get the FPV in a short while! Plenty of videos on connecting the system down the line...