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DJI SMART CONTROLLER REVIEW - The ultimate media powerhouse
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TheDon
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ro_flyer Posted at 3-16 14:12
That is the best review of the SC I've seen so far! Thanks!!

Thank you very much for appreciating my review! Very glad you find it the best so far
2019-3-17
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Ian b
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Hi guys sorry if this is in the wrong section but it's my first post.
I have been looking at purchasing either the mavic pro or the zoom with the smart controller.when the smart controller came out there was a chance to buy the two as a bundle knocking around £300 of the cost of buying the smart controller separetly ,however now there is no reduction in price if you buy it as a bundle. Currently it's around £1000 to buy the zoom with normal controller and £1558 to buy with smart controller. Smart controler is £558 bought separately. I may as well buy zoom with standard controller and get smart separately for same price and have a spare. Why has the pricing gone like this.?
Ian
2019-3-17
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Ian b
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Hi guys sorry if this is in the wrong section but it's my first post.
I have been looking at purchasing either the mavic pro or the zoom with the smart controller.when the smart controller came out there was a chance to buy the two as a bundle knocking around £300 of the cost of buying the smart controller separetly ,however now there is no reduction in price if you buy it as a bundle. Currently it's around £1000 to buy the zoom with normal controller and £1558 to buy with smart controller. Smart controler is £558 bought separately. I may as well buy zoom with standard controller and get smart separately for same price and have a spare. Why has the pricing gone like this.?
Ian
2019-3-17
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ro_flyer
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Ian b Posted at 3-17 05:01
Hi guys sorry if this is in the wrong section but it's my first post.
I have been looking at purchasing either the mavic pro or the zoom with the smart controller.when the smart controller came out there was a chance to buy the two as a bundle knocking around £300 of the cost of buying the smart controller separetly ,however now there is no reduction in price if you buy it as a bundle. Currently it's around £1000 to buy the zoom with normal controller and £1558 to buy with smart controller. Smart controler is £558 bought separately. I may as well buy zoom with standard controller and get smart separately for same price and have a spare. Why has the pricing gone like this.?
Ian

If that is true, maybe because DJI wants you to spend more money?
2019-3-17
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ro_flyer
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TheDon Posted at 3-17 04:48
Thank you very much for appreciating my review! Very glad you find it the best so far

You're welcome mate!!
2019-3-17
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phillbarnes
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TheDon Posted at 3-6 08:23
I truly respect your point of view! The CS is still a great device but I prefer the compactness of the  smart controller. For unpredicted scenarios where getting airborne as fast as possible, the Smart Controller is a clear winner.

I agree with everything you said 100 %. It is a great bit of gear
2019-3-19
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paulbeumer
First Officer
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thx great review
2019-3-23
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paulbeumer
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thx great review
2019-3-23
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AntDX316
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I mean if you can afford a Mavic Pro 2, Inspire 2, and P4P it should be a no brainer to get this controller.  As a Spark owner it would be overkill and unnecessary.  I still need to take the SD card out of the drone and attach it to a USB-C adapter so I can download videos off it then edit with the DJI GO 4 software.  If you have 4k video at 30 and worse at 60, I could imagine how long it would be to edit the renderings from extracting to final production.
2019-3-26
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A J
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AntDX316 Posted at 3-26 08:39
I mean if you can afford a Mavic Pro 2, Inspire 2, and P4P it should be a no brainer to get this controller.  As a Spark owner it would be overkill and unnecessary.  I still need to take the SD card out of the drone and attach it to a USB-C adapter so I can download videos off it then edit with the DJI GO 4 software.  If you have 4k video at 30 and worse at 60, I could imagine how long it would be to edit the renderings from extracting to final production.

As a Spark owner it would be totally pointless getting the Smart Controller as it only works with OcuSync 2.0 so the Mavic 2 series only.
2019-3-26
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AntDX316
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A J Posted at 3-26 08:45
As a Spark owner it would be totally pointless getting the Smart Controller as it only works with OcuSync 2.0 so the Mavic 2 series only.

Oh yeah, you have so many flight distance.  How many minutes do you fly per day/week?
2019-3-26
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A J
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AntDX316 Posted at 3-26 08:51
Oh yeah, you have so many flight distance.  How many minutes do you fly per day/week?

Usually fly once per week - three batteries flown back-to-back at one location. With the M2P I'll get around 1 hour, 15 minutes solid flight time out of that. That said I can go weeks without flying at all and on the other hand my record is 22 flights in a week but 3 a week is typical these days.
2019-3-26
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AntDX316
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A J Posted at 3-26 08:54
Usually fly once per week - three batteries flown back-to-back at one location. With the M2P I'll get around 1 hour, 15 minutes solid flight time out of that. That said I can go weeks without flying at all and on the other hand my record is 22 flights in a week but 3 a week is typical these days.

yeah, you mainly just post pictures which is cool but I could image how bad it is (process) to try to edit and render the 4kp30 footages
2019-3-26
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A J
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AntDX316 Posted at 3-26 11:22
yeah, you mainly just post pictures which is cool but I could image how bad it is (process) to try to edit and render the 4kp30 footages

Editing is fine but rendering is very time consuming - I only use 4K for my myself - never on social media
2019-3-26
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AntDX316
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A J Posted at 3-26 23:18
Editing is fine but rendering is very time consuming - I only use 4K for my myself - never on social media

how come? Let's see the videos
2019-3-28
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A J
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AntDX316 Posted at 3-28 06:11
how come? Let's see the videos

I posted one in 1080p on here edited in my iPhone XS but 4K from the sd card takes hours to upload and can only be shown in 1080p after rendering anyway
2019-3-28
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AntDX316
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A J Posted at 3-28 07:55
I posted one in 1080p on here edited in my iPhone XS but 4K from the sd card takes hours to upload and can only be shown in 1080p after rendering anyway

Yeah but the uploaded file doesn't look 1080p off a 1080p only device.  It always looks better.

Uploading Note 9 footage, I've always wondered why it wouldn't do 4k too lol.  Maybe the 4k resolution is fake.
2019-3-28
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A J
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AntDX316 Posted at 3-28 10:46
Yeah but the uploaded file doesn't look 1080p off a 1080p only device.  It always looks better.

Uploading Note 9 footage, I've always wondered why it wouldn't do 4k too lol.  Maybe the 4k resolution is fake.

I'll look forward to seeing your 4K videos
2019-3-28
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AntDX316
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A J Posted at 3-28 22:33
I'll look forward to seeing your 4K videos

I would but I have a Spark, not Mavic 2 as I want to wait for 360 degree sensors and 4k60 but I'm scared to fly too far as a bird might hit it or something.
2019-3-29
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coloradoskier
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A big problem I had was that I was unable to transfer RAW files to my iPhone and iPad because DJI GO APP’s share function allows transferring only .jpg via WIFI. Now with the DJI smart controller I can simply take out the Micro SD card and plug it in the controller. I’m able to show my client what I have done and I can edit raw photo files with third party apps.


Why not take the card and load it into your iPad instead?  The real problem, which you don't call out, is that you still cannot share a RAW file wirelessly. I definitely am not making the SC part of my workflow, when I already have great apps on my iPad for editing.

When you call it a media powerhouse, I expect things like social streaming to work.  They don't. Another failing, especially based on how it was marketed.

I also expect things like Litchi to work, which it doesn't.

All of the above issues aside, I love my SC. I bought it with the M2P a few weeks ago, and it is a huge upgrade over the Air I had before.

I didn't need a fanboi review to sell me, but I do think it is important that you call out the shortcomings.
2019-3-29
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arthurbikemad
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Glad it works for you.

Sadly mine had video feed issues (factory reset, reloaded firmware etc etc etc), VERY poor sound (used for narration and audio notes plus some ambient sound), DJI did not even bother to reply to my emails or the threads on here with other users having same video feed issues so mine was sent back and I got a full refund, good job I did not buy it direct from DJI.

Once again for me DJI proved to be next to useless with support for the products they sell, if your a pro then I'd be nervous of DJI's ability to offer support when it's needed.

Sadly IMO the Smart Controller needs a lot of work to resolve issues listed widely online, also now looking back I don't feel the screen has a significant advantage in bright sun, its highly reflective and requires an anti glare coating or cover to get easy viewing. Its half way there.
2019-7-2
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Fran Mintildeana
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new extension deck
2020-5-7
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BigBird-2
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I've had my SC for 6 months or so and never realized there were spare controler sticks stored on the SC. Duuuhh! Very nice review, thanks.
2020-5-7
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MauroT
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this is a different smartcontroller or am I wrong? the one on the m300? the design between the knobs is different, and also the bottom rests.
2020-5-8
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