Another weekend, another reason to fall in love with my Inspire 1. It's such a tenuous thing for me. I've now had weeks of great enjoyment. The new firmware (at least for me) has it flying perfectly.  Personally, I've gone from this place where I absolutely regretted my purchase to a new spot where my mentality is "This bird is so perfect, that I'll just repair it again at home if it has an issue. If I can't get parts  then I'll just stalk e-bay."  I can't think of any other device I've ever owned where I was willing to make such a stark compromise.Anyways.. I took all these photos from my backyard.  For anyone who isn't familiar, The Hamptons in New York is the summer beach destination for the Wall Street elite, celebrities, and othe affluent New Yorkers.  For me,  I live here year round.  Anyways. Here are some photos I took after taking off from my backyard.

Feel free to critique. I'd love feedback of how I can improve.  It's nothing great compared to many of the epic shots and locations that I've seen many of you taking.

Beautiful pictures!!   However, can you elaborate on your statement "This bird is so perfect, that I'll just repair it again at home if it has an issue. If I can't get parts  then I'll just stalk e-bay."? I'm considering purchasing an Inspire 1 so I have been reviewing the forums to see pros and cons from other owners like yourself.  Your statement sounds like a con.

Nice location and life is good. Lets hope IF you have a problem, its a simple as grabbing parts off fleabay and you don't end up getting sued by one of your wealthy neighbours.

Cziakas
The Inspire is a superb tool. Its stable, easy to fly and very capable. Being advanced it can lead some into a false sense of security and that's when mistakes happen and when they do they are currently expensive in time and money to rectify. A lot of issues currently require shipping back the unit to DJI for repair. Turn around 6 to 8 weeks reported. Pop over, start a topic and ask away.

Stunning shot Chris, have you been using the HDR function? I have been playing around with it and it can help improve some pics a lot. Were these as shot or did you post ed, if so, what programs do you use?

cziakas@gmail.c Posted at 2015-5-4 15:14
Beautiful pictures!!   However, can you elaborate on your statement "This bird is so perfect, that I ...

Cziakas-  My inspire 1  has had two issues.

Situation 1- During a hard landing a piece of plastic called the gimbal plate broke. It's just a large rectangular piece of plastic. Everything else was fine.

My options were 1. Send my inspire 1 in for repair and pay 65 dollars to ship something  that large.  Then find ind a box and wait 6-8 weeks for repair of a piece of plastic. or  2. Fix it myself. DJI historically has a spare parts shortage during initial product launches. (planned obsolescence?) Our mods here even made us aware of that before launch.  This coupled with the fact that only DJI Corporate is allowed to service Inspire 1s (and not the dealer network) meant I couldn't fix my Inspire....   Actual experience - gorilla glue kept me flying for two weeks.  I posted all of this publicly on this forum. I was then contact by Tahoe Ed (good man!) saying someone would reach out to me and sell me the part. That never happened . So I waited another couple weeks and finally found one on e-bay.. It's a super easy fix. 8 minutes to fix and replace.

Situation 2- My Inspire 1 had a harmonic vibration issue where it was literally shaking itself to death.  After posting photos here, another member walked me through the 2 minute process of adjusting prop angle to solve my problem.   In this situation my options were to pay 65 to ship and wait 6-8 weeks or spend 2 minutes and use a torx screwdriver to solve my problem.   I'm fairly certain a few turns of a screw driver and a dab of lock-tite has voided my warranty.. Again, I voided my warranty because fixing an inspire 1 sucks. a lot.  

After this I participated in the beta test program.  While some members here will disagree, once the new firmware dropped my Inspire was finally the machine I wanted it to be when I opened the box.  I fly four batteries for fun everyday before or after work on the beach.  My Inspire 1 rides shotgun in my truck in flight mode throughout the entire day. The things she is capable of are astounding once you have confidence in the product.  It's now an absolute joy to fly. The best ready to fly drone  by a mile .   By this I mean flight characteristics, faith in product , speed, handeling and ease of use.   The optics could be improved. but once you develop a workflow you can "work" around that.  

But,  there will come a day, I'm sure, where something bad will happen again.  I've now come to peace with the fact that I'll have to fix it myself.   

Too Long. Didn't read?  The Inspire 1 is an amazing peace of tech that I'm so happy I purchased. Just don't ever break it . ever.  Asking DJi to help fix your  broken Inspire 1 is  just a world of hurt. It's literally the worst customer service experience you could possible imagine...

But , again, when it works there is nothing better.

-Chris "can't wait to fly in 50 minutes" Con

Rockeyes Posted at 2015-5-4 16:08
Nice location and life is good. Lets hope IF you have a problem, its a simple as grabbing parts off  ...

Rockeyes. Absolutely- Here are my experiences so far with America's elite and UAVs.  I make an effort to either take off from my house or launch from a deserted area.  I really hate having to answer the ten questions everyone asks when you fly it.  (you know- height?. distance.? flight time? speed?.cost? can I try? did you build it yourself? where did you buy it? something about spying.. aren't those illegal? etc.)  I was  asked 2 years ago  to be mentioned  in a press release  by one of our congressmen about my experiences with horticulture and design planning using UAVs as a tool because I showed Martha Stewart her first drone and she wrote an article in Time Magazine about it. But living in such a conservative area, I have no desire to alienate potential customers.  

That being said, there is a small cache of customers that love stopping by to show me their new LE Ferrari or Coachworks converted Phantom convertible. They love it when I show them an Apple watch a month before it's released (they have no idea that Apple gave me one for free because Apple feels that  I'm a "taste maker"  - their words, not mine. I'm a regular guy) or a quad copter that looks like something out of "portal" (paid for it. of course). Or even a Peony hybrid that you can only purchase through me in the United States (ITOH ICE DANCE). Limited edition flowers.  My actual life..

It's crazy, Once you get past the socioeconomic differences . .. It's literally just  a bunch of nerds talking. ..  And I  have fun with it.  I feel lucky to be able to drive cars for a mile that  that cost multiple times more than I make in a year. The owners of those cars enjoy the geeky conversation. As well as silly things like  how they can pay with apple pay at an independent, family owned garden center(surprisingly, this still blows Amex Centurion holders minds). To put it all in perspective though- I'm just a regular guy who lives in a regular house with a regular family who interfaces with some of the most irregular people in the world.

-Chris "Plus I'm broke  in January" Con

markaguille Posted at 2015-5-4 18:04
Stunning shot Chris, have you been using the HDR function? I have been playing around with it and it ...

Mark-- I fly with an ND-8 filter and everything is done in post on (GASP!) Paint Shop Pro X7.. This was once the competitor to Photoshop.  I learned to love this program 20 years ago and old habits die hard.  I have the full Adobe Creative Cloud and still dive back to my antiquated program.  Nothing is "real" HDR..  I shoot in jpg +raw , but typically end up editing off the jpegs as the "true" sharpness in image quality seems so much better to me even after fixing the raws.  Two images here were post processed with Topaz plug ins. The others are just corrected images.

Chris Con Posted at 2015-5-5 04:15
Cziakas-  My inspire 1  has had two issues.

Situation 1- During a hard landing a piece of plasti ...

Not too long and yes, read the entire post. Your comments about fixing the quad yourself is why I am going to buy the Inspire 1. Having read though hundreds of posts, watched numerous videos, your comments are inline with many others.

The Inspire 1 can be repaired by the end user. Many parts can be found on line.  While no quad is fool proof and will break when crashed, serviceability is key. Finding a Dealer that stands behind the products they sell is equally important.  That's why buying directly from DJI is not an option. I can't understand how the vendor takes 3-5 weeks to ship a battery or repair their products.  

If it wasn't for the user reviews that love their Inspire 1, I would not purchase a DJI product.  

Thank you for the response!

Chris,

Good to read your enjoying the Inspire, very positive post.  

Love that house with the curved facade and roof, nice place to live.

No filter. No edit. Straight off the memory card.




Also.. can anyone see this? Have they not fixed the uploading photos issue yet to the forum?  DJI- The Future of Possible Forums. Maybe.


Would love to upload some stuff. but The Future Isn't Possible Right now?