dlew21
lvl.4
Flight distance : 3963865 ft
United States
Offline
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I will be the first to admit I am a DJI fanboy. I have everything they have ever sold. Ok not everything but here goes - Phantom 2/ Phantom 3 Pro, 2 Inspire 1's fitted for I1Pro's hence 2 X5's and a Ronin.. Oh yah thumb controllers and the DJI focus and a few other things I've left out. How did I get here?
Concept vs. Reality: An Opinion Piece
There once was a dream of the perfect, no frills, smooth shooting drone. As a veteran of the actual film industry this was a dream scenario.
I ran out and got the phantom 2 thinking if I set everything up the right way I would easily be able to use this footage in my everyday work.
For awhile I could, but I had a dirty little secret, and so did/does DJI. We both are hoping nobody notices that the cameras are off the mark. We have both
been editing what we put out in to the world so it doesn't show the broken images/telemetry/horizons. In one of the boldest moves I've seen from a company, DJI came out
with the Phantom 3 (Pro) AND the Inspire 1, only months apart. The bold.....Both cameras were exactly the same. Even bolder yet, both cameras were released with major issues in the lenses. At the time of the releases (of both) the word from DJI (talking to reps on the phone and on forums) was that nothing was wrong with these cameras at all.
I wanted to believe this as well. After endless alterations to my drones, it was clear to me. I wasn't going to fix every horizon or distortion, after-all this wasn't a DSLR....
Like most, I edited out problems. I used software to correct the inability of the Inspire 1 and the P3pro.. I actually don't know what DJI's official stance from the very top brass would be on the lack of camera "as advertised", however what really got me rattled was when I saw todays post. In the post, it claimed the new generation X3 cameras will be updated and fixed for any issues..... WAIT.....what? So, I returned my X3's twice because of issues you already new about DJI?
Like a drug I bought, nay, I had to buy the Inspire 1 Pro (or 2) because I wanted to cut down post production by getting that perfect image. I was sick of fixing distortion and shooting at 90 degrees in order to kill the dreaded fisheye. So I took the bait. I upgraded. And upgraded, because you know what... The P3pro and the Inspire1 is no more professional then your iPhone, but they sure are fun to fly.
Here is the truth. These drones are great. I don't regret many of the purchases and the only thing I am truly mad about is the first gen issues with the Inspire camera. This was junk served on a hot plate. I personally feel DJI should offer it's money back on these, or at least exchange them if what I hear is in fact true about them acknowledging that they were in fact issues with these cameras, (and there were issues) and DJI let people return these cameras to get "repaired" (for up to 3 months). I digress. DJI offers up great concepts and imaginative products. However the rush to market has both helped and hurt them. The reality is that DJI has still not put together a drone outside of their S-series that can hold up to an actual DSLR. The new X5 (but still not what it was cooked up to be) is close and I'm sure hoping the X5R will do the trick. However, the joke is on me. I made all of these choices to buy these drones. I could have taken them back. Just like DJI wanted (us) to believe they had a great camera, so did I. For what it is worth, most people are just excited to see the different perspective a drone camera offers, and for that, mission accomplished. I have no ill will toward DJI, but concept verse reality. Concept wins.
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