Hi Guys!

I've been one of the few guys with no major issues with the 1.2.8 FW in my P3A, so I've been mostly flying, and I've done very little writing ;)

But now, I'm back with an important question. September 26th is my father's 60th birthday, and, considering how much fun I've been having with my P3A, I've been toying with the idea of giving him one as a present.
I've been trying to decide between a P3S, and a P3A, and I can't decide! See, the main difference between him and me is that I'm kind of a gadget fanatic, first getting the cool thing, then finding a cool usage for it (and believe me, I have!). He, on the other hand, has an actual use case! In the last couple of years, he's been expanding the families wine estate (I'm afraid of getting the whole "One day, son, all this..." speech soon ). He also spends huge amounts of time on map sites, pooring over his domain, but at the same time, complains about how outdated all of those satelite photos are. I've been reading that it's possible to use the P3 pictures for stitching together maps, and also, with the new record and re-fly route feature, he'd be able to take the same pictures at the different times.
Thus, I've got a pretty precise user case, and would like to ask a couple of questions to help me decide between the two.
1. Will there be a huge difference between GPS+Glonass (P3A) and only GPS (P3S), regarding the precission in planing routes and so on. This is really important to me, and definitely worth 200$, if he's going to notice a difference.
2. My father has never flown anything before, and my P3A has been my first "big" quadcopter. Do you think he'll notice a big difference in a VPS-free world? Do you think the asistance for landing and taking off is important? (he's not going to use it indoors, so I'm not to worried about that VPS function).
3. What about the Tx? I love the P3A remote, but have never used the P2 one, which looks pretty similar to the P3S's. It sounds like the P3S remote might be pretty fidly, with all the "flick the switch 5 time for bla", or turn it off for RTH. Also, how about not having dedicated photo and video capture buttons?
4. I know my father, and if he could connect the remote to an imax cinema, he would. Being slightly less over the top, I'm pretty sure he's going to want to attach a tablet to it. Is this possible with the P3S remote?

I really hope you can give me some help/advise/comments on all those questions, or any other that cross you mind and that I didn't think about! I really do appreciate all comments, and thank you in advance!

I would recommend P3A all day long. Whether you think he would utilize 4k is all you. Glonass is much better than the old P2V+. I can't speak for the P3S but I am assuming it is similar. Probably have a little less video lag with the "A".  Sounds like he would make very good use of the higher ens aspect of the P3A or P3P. My 2 cents.

After recently upgrading from a P2 Vision to a P3A, I highly recommend the P3A.  The HD video feed up to 1.2 miles with Lightbridge is leaps and bounds over the Wifi .5 miles (not HD feed) with what your going to find with the P3S. It took the fun out of the P2V when I would lose video feed to my device (and that was with the Wifi extender).  The controller is such  an upgrade too--while the P3S controller isn't difficult to use; it's nice to keep you hands on the controller instead of controlling the gimbal and shutter on your device constantly, it made me as a beginner feel a little out of control.

While I loved my P2V, after owning the P3A there is no comparison.

P3S is a P2 streamlined to be universal with P3 line as they use the same shell and some internals, but P3A is your best bet of getting all the goodies without getting the feeling you got short handed.

Sorry to hijack the thread but there is a way to record and re-fly the same route??

bill@northwoods Posted at 2015-8-9 07:19
Sorry to hijack the thread but there is a way to record and re-fly the same route??

Thank you guys! Hearing from the more experienced guys, who've used both a P2 and a P3 was exactly whqt i was hoping. It has been extremely helpful, and now I'm almost positive I will get him a P3A.

Also, another detail i'd like to point out, which made it much easier for me to decide. I looked yesterday into the dji european store (my dad lives there), and the P3A was 1099 € (1200 $), while the P3S was 919 € (1050 $). The much smaller price difference in Europe really makes the P3A much more attractive.

And, Bill, right now, there is no way to record and refly, but the waypoint feature should allow you to record the route while youre flying it and then let the machine repeat it by itself. Although its not in the P3S site, i read about it in the engadget post on it: http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/05/dji-phantom-3-standard-drone/

Thanks Rincewind.

I am sure your father will Love the P3A,  what an awesome gift idea.

Willie Wonka Posted at 2015-8-9 02:22
P3S is a P2 streamlined to be universal with P3 line as they use the same shell and some internals,  ...

In looking at the promo for the P3S, I really don't see much that tells me very much!
Is there a site that makes comparisons between the P3S, P3A and P3P?

For example, can you use the same battery on all three of the P3s?

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-8-10 06:02
In looking at the promo for the P3S, I really don't see much that tells me very much!
Is there a s ...

Hi aburkefl,

Do take a look at this video, the guys at drone camps rc are normally pretty accurate, and I did find it very useful when deciding.


It looks like it uses the same 4 cell P3 battery, but that there is no VPS, only GPS, and that it uses the P2 Tx.

Rincewind Posted at 2015-8-12 08:13
Hi aburkefl,

Do take a look at this video, the guys at drone camps rc are normally pretty accurate ...

My wife and I are primary care-givers for my father and her mother. One of my nieces moved in with my father, so that problem has been significantly lessened. However, we spend a lot of time looking after my mother-in-law and that involves an un-godly number of trips to a specialty hospital at the University of Florida - 75 miles to get there. Once we're at the hospital, my wife stays busy with her mother and I spend a huge chunk of the day on the web - this forum and gobs of YouTube stuff!

The other day I saw this video from Drone Camps. They really didn't say all that much about the new offering from DJI, but it looks like the Phantom 3 Standard is right up my proverbial alley.

I have a friend who's probably far more knowledgeable about quads than I. He is of the opinion - and I'm now in that same boat - that these things are, for the most part, disposable. If you use them quite a bit, something will eventually fail. If you were dealing with a bona-fide aircraft, you'd be dealing with things like MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) and every so many hours you'd either be changing the bearings on the motor shaft or changing the motor (or the ESC or the .....) altogether. It just seems that not very many of these things die of old age on the shelf!

Consequently, not being a professional photographer, I could probably get pretty much everything I want from the P3S, camera on full-auto and a price that won't break the bank if I break the bird.

I'm a little disappointed that the controller is essentially a P2 variety - I was hoping you could ultimately get something like a bind-and-fly with one of the newer controllers. But, overall, a $799 price tag looks like a minor coup on the part of DJI.

aburkefl@gmail. Posted at 2015-8-13 05:06
My wife and I are primary care-givers for my father and her mother. One of my nieces moved in with ...

I know what you mean about disposability. That's why I was hesitant to go for the professional. I'm still bumed by the P2 Tx, and as I said, I'm not sure what the hell DJI is think about in Europe. 800$ to 1000$ is a pretty decent chunk, but 920E to 1050E not so much... that's why I've decided to go for the P3A.

Either way, thanks very much for the advise.