DJI keep a watch out, and take care of your customers. There is a new breed of Quad copter YUNEEC Q500 Typhoon. I still love my Phantom@ Vision Plus but!, I am looking another direction.
http://www.yuneec.com/

Interesting . . .

Yes it is interesting. It's heavy but claims 25 min flying time. It seems to be missing GPS stuff and I didn't see RTN but it has follow me. But on paper the DJI still looks better. We'll have to see how this newcomer performs and what it evolves into.

The cost is to high.

It doesn't have "Waypoints" either, as far as cost I paid that much for my Phantom2 Vision Plus. I'm just keeping and eye on it, as I still do love my phantom, just so many technical issues with my P2V+. It is pretty bad the first thing that comes to my mind when I go to fly is " am I going to crash today" as my friend did with his when he updated to 3.6  firmware 3.8.  

TomWolves Posted at 2015-2-13 09:49
It doesn't have "Waypoints" either, as far as cost I paid that much for my Phantom2 Vision Plus. I'm ...

I was thrilled to see that a company has realized that more than half the planet uses the so called PAL system of broadcasting and can offer 50 FPS. That's a vote getter  for most of Europe and all of the southern hemisphere!

Still, having been an early adopter of the Phantom, I will wait for their forum and see what it is actually like, regarding stability , consistency and all the other things that bite your tail with new gear. (anyone remember windows 95?-- every second line of code had a blue screen crash built in- but look now- win 7 and 8 are stable and very trouble free products )

Their web site doesn't contain a huge amount of info yet, so its the waiting game for me. (and still waiting for the v3.08 update as if anyone didn't know by now!!!)

Rod{:3_53:}

rod Posted at 2015-2-13 10:00
I was thrilled to see that a company has realized that more than half the planet uses the so calle ...

I even remember windows 3.2 and Tandy desktop.  That's ancient history now  {:3_57:}

TenCentsWorth Posted at 2015-2-13 10:39
Do you remember the Tandy TRS 80? (It was all in the keyboard and you plugged the monitor etc into ...

My first was the Tandy 1000 EX,  256 k ram. 5 1/4 floppy is all I could use in it.  It took almost 20 minutes to add 2 + 2.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-2-13 10:06
I even remember windows 3.2 and Tandy desktop.  That's ancient history now

i was a rep for Atari selling the first Atari 400/800 computers....4K Ram...RadioShack had the TRS-80...early 80's.....

steadystickrick Posted at 2015-2-13 10:45
i was a rep for Atari selling the first Atari 400/800 computers....4K Ram...RadioShack had the TRS ...

Before that, I was using the abacus, it was faster than the computers.

They called it the Trash-80...
I never had one - had the Commodore 64, though. That was before my IBM PC which cost 5K in 1982......that would be the equiv of about 15K today! I guess when you look at it that way, the Inspire is cheap! My PC didn't even do anything (no hard drive, only 64K of RAM), Black and green monitor, etc.

The Q500 looks like the first unit which is even in the ballpark of the P2V+. It has some good features but lacks a bunch too (not much camera setting control).

I doubt DJI is shaking in their boots....
Sure, there will be other units on the market but Yuneec is about a year behind and I doubt they have the resources or employees to keep up (they announced these quads a LONG time ago.....they have been delayed quite a bit).

Still it's always good to have choices.

I do think by the time others correctly copy DJI, DJI will already be onto something new...and since volume and mass production rule, DJI can always provide as good or better of a value. They will be tough to unseat as the top dog.

I got into PCs late with a Intel 286AT 12MHz turbo, 40 MB hard drive, no mouse, no modem and no sound card. I did write programs on an IBM 7040 main frame in college. It had 16K of magnetic core memory

Capt. Bill Posted at 2015-2-13 10:58
I got into PCs late with a Intel 286AT 12MHz turbo, 40 MB hard drive, no mouse, no modem and no soun ...

Now look what's happened. A seriously hijacked thread by us oldies!!! power to the people!

I started with a dragon 32 and a sinclair with the dead flesh keyboard.  Graduated to the mighty commodore 64  with enough power to--- well swich on a little bulb that said "on".  ho hum- and look where we are today flying computerised drones with more power than the mighty Cray ( well maybe not quite , but you get my drift------and yaw! (sorry , couldn't resist.)

Cheers! , better let the OP have his thread back  {:3_54:}

Rod

rod Posted at 2015-2-13 11:07
Now look what's happened. A seriously hijacked thread by us oldies!!! power to the people!

I star ...

The Phantom has more computing power than the Apollo moon craft had.

Related to guidance this is the Minuteman I missile guidance unit developed in the 1950. I used to have the keys to Minuteman missiles. The Minuteman-I Autonetics D-17 flight computer used a rotating air bearing magnetic disk holding 2,560 "cold-stored" words in 20 tracks (write heads disabled after program fill) of 24 bits each and one alterable track of 128 words. It was all discreet components on cards.

That is a 5K hard drive.
The Phantom most likely has more and more accurate computing power

Capt. Bill Posted at 2015-2-13 11:27
Related to guidance this is the Minuteman I missile guidance unit developed in the 1950. I used to h ...

I had the keys to a 55 Chevy once.

Capt. Bill Posted at 2015-2-13 11:27
Related to guidance this is the Minuteman I missile guidance unit developed in the 1950. I used to h ...

hey Bill, should you be showing pictures like that?  Any guys in black suits outside your window yet?{:2_25:}
Rod

rod Posted at 2015-2-13 11:47
hey Bill, should you be showing pictures like that?  Any guys in black suits outside your window y ...

They probably have a Phantom outside his window spying on him

rod Posted at 2015-2-13 11:47
hey Bill, should you be showing pictures like that?  Any guys in black suits outside your window y ...

That is off Wikipedia so I am not worried

Capt. Bill Posted at 2015-2-13 12:12
That is off Wikipedia so I am not worried

It's ok Capt.  that is ancient history now anyway.

TenCentsWorth Posted at 2015-2-13 10:39
Do you remember the Tandy TRS 80? (It was all in the keyboard and you plugged the monitor etc into ...

still own some tandy  computers circa early mid 80's. every now and then I get out and run one for sh*ts and giggles
used to manage a bunch of shack computer stores in ancient history  good times!

I never had a Tandy but I remember them. Programs like early Microsoft Flight Simulator always had different instructions for Tandy an PC computers.

Capt. Bill Posted at 2015-2-13 12:55
I never had a Tandy but I remember them. Programs like early Microsoft Flight Simulator always had d ...

Flt sim 5.0 sucked.

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-2-13 12:57
Flt sim 5.0 sucked.

I have every version of FS, from 3 to 10. When I got my first computer I thought all I would ever do is us FS and write some BASIC programs

I still have the Sinclair ZX80 I bought new when I was but a wee laddy.
And the Amstrad all in one (pre Commodore) that cost 5k new plus another grand for the software. Both still run just fine.

trailtec.dodo Posted at 2015-2-13 13:40
I still have the Sinclair ZX80 I bought new when I was but a wee laddy.
And the Amstrad all in one  ...

My first plane was paper.

Looks like a PhanSpire..
Cross between a poorly designed Phantom and an Inspire, the latter of which is still pretty much in Beta by the sounds of it. (I know a couple of folks with an Inspire that are keeping them in Bird Cages until they are sure they won't just fly off and whack someone or something unexpectedly),
I'll stick with what I have until something serious comes out that is at least as predictably unpredictable as the Phantom.

I'm not discounting Yuneec.   I'll be watching them.  Like the idea of a 4k camera quality. 6 month who know where they will be or even to that point where will my Phantom be (either w me or parts unkown I'll quess)

They build planes, ultrglides but none the less a different mentality that what we see as typical Chinesse here....  

MAD In NC Posted at 2015-2-13 18:00
I'm not discounting Yuneec.   I'll be watching them.  Like the idea of a 4k camera quality. 6 month  ...

I am looking at the Q500.  The only problem I have is that he camera hasn't got the settings adjustment we get in the DJI cameras.  It appears to be FOV 130 degrees and that's it apart from FPS choices in video mode.
Not that I can find anyway.
and for the oldies - my first contact with the computer age was punch cards.

Blade makes there quad copters  look very corny

The more competitors of a product, the lower the prices for established products. So... bring it on

I guess if it goes on customer service, it is not realistic it can be worst

Gerry1124 Posted at 2015-2-13 12:57
Flt sim 5.0 sucked.

Hold on there, gang!  The original FS was AWESOME (for its time!)!  I've owned every version from 1.0 (when it was still owned by Sublogic) through when Microsoft bought it, through to FSX!.  I even had a "flight stick" (consisted of a small joystick, 2 buttons, and 2 or 3 trim dials as I recall).

Ah, those were the days....

Friffy1 Posted at 2015-2-14 00:52
Hold on there, gang!  The original FS was AWESOME (for its time!)!  I've owned every version from  ...

It still sucks.