I’m looking at images and video from a phantom 3 4K. I picked it up used and probably can sell it for what I have in it.

Here are some of my observations. You don’t have to simplify your answers I’ve been a professional photographer for years, but if it's drone-related please do.  I just had my first 2-minute flight

1. The files are pretty noisy even at 400 ISO. Would this improve if I moved up to the professional? I’m assuming it’s the same camera since the one I have is a 4K camera

2. Hovering?
I was shooting some test video. I was off the ground maybe 10 feet with no wind whatsoever. The craft drifted around a bit and didn’t have that rock-solid shooting platform that I’ve seen from some videos.  YouTube people have claimed they have shot night photos at 2 seconds and had sharp images. I find that hard to believe.  it certainly wouldn’t happen the  way this thing was drifting around

Does the Professional hover better with the added sensors?

3. Should I just bail on this and get a better drone?  I am also worried about the limited range compared to the Professional

Thanks for your help

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but this,like photography is one of those things where you get what you pay for.

The phantom 4 and 4pro do have much better cameras than the P3. It sounds like the quality you are looking for will be in the 4pro.

In regards to your ISO question, from what I have read most people will not shoot anything over 200 iSO. And even more than like like to stay around 100. Again please correct me if I am wrong.

In regards to your hovering issue, are you sure you are in GPS mode? If not the craft will float with the wind. GPS mode is what stabilizes the craft and "reduces" the float radius.

the phantom 4 pro is substantially better than the regular p4 and all previous phantoms. the sensor is 1" which is much bigger and better at low noise day or night and much more sharp and clean edge to edge. the phantom 4 pro has the best range I've ever seen of any of the drones only beat by the mavic. lately hovering has been kind of sucky on all of them but hopefully they will fix in firmware soon.

1 - Stay at 100 iso where possible, its basically the identical camera as the P3Pro so the images will be great - remember is not a high quality DSLR, but its pretty dam good.
2 - Yest it will be amazing in the dark - heres a 3 sec exposure I did. - LINK
3 - No as your camera is the same as the P3PRO

Aerial-Image Posted at 2017-10-10 08:33
1 - Stay at 100 iso where possible, its basically the identical camera as the P3Pro so the images will be great - remember is not a high quality DSLR, but its pretty dam good.
2 - Yest it will be amazing in the dark - heres a 3 sec exposure I did. - LINK
3 - No as your camera is the same as the P3PRO

That image was shot at 3  seconds?  Nice

It's sharp when looking at it ar 100%

Cheers - yeah 3sec and 200 ISO hence the noise in the dark areas - a 300ft tripod eh! - PIC - on a flat calm night as well helped

Aerial-Image Posted at 2017-10-10 08:33
1 - Stay at 100 iso where possible, its basically the identical camera as the P3Pro so the images will be great - remember is not a high quality DSLR, but its pretty dam good.
2 - Yest it will be amazing in the dark - heres a 3 sec exposure I did. - LINK
3 - No as your camera is the same as the P3PRO

That is a nice capture!

Sir, please check the whether the GPS signal is good enough. Make sure there are more than 10 satellites and the signal bar is full. Then check whether the drone hover stable or not.

DJI Susan Posted at 2017-10-10 20:12
Sir, please check the whether the GPS signal is good enough. Make sure there are more than 10 satellites and the signal bar is full. Then check whether the drone hover stable or not.

I will .....thanks

quadpilot Posted at 2017-10-10 08:51
hi
if you were in gps mode and it was drifting around
then read the manual about the imu calibration

Sorry it has taken me this long to answer your questions

I don’t know what you know so I hope I don’t oversimplify this.
Neutral density filters are used when there’s too much light. The good ones won’t change the color of the photograph. The 4K camera has a nice big aperture that opens up to 2.8 which is great in low light conditions but may not be so great on a  bright sunny day. If needed, you can use the neutral density filters to block out some of the light and consequently use a slower shutter, if that works for the image.

When shooting video, to get that nice smooth cinematic look, you’d like to have your cameras shutter speed set to around twice as fast is your video fps is set to. I hope that makes sense.  So if your video is set at 60 fps you’d like to have your exposure shutter at 1/125. On a bright sunny day, with your aperture set at f2.8, it would be difficult to make that exposure. For example using the sunny 16 rule @ 100 iso, your exposure would be 1/125 at F16. Five stops over exposed. Using the neutral density filter‘s you could knock that exposure back down so you can use the proper shutter speed. Basically, the eclipse glasses were a very very dense neutral density filter. Instead of blacking out 4 stops they blocked out 16 1/2 stops. I hope this explains it. If you have any other questions please ask. Everyone has been very helpful answering all my stupid questions

'1. The files are pretty noisy even at 400 ISO. Would this improve if I moved up to the professional? I’m assuming it’s the same camera since the one I have is a 4K camera '

No, the P3P camera is the same. Moving up to the P4P would improve things though. I try not to shoot at high ISOs on this camera, if you are getting noise, then you need more light. These cameras love lots of light. Being as the aperture is fixed, slow down the shutter speed to allow more light, upping the ISO is pointless as it is simply video amplification which amplifies the noise at the same time.