Hello, anyone know of a good 3rd-Party/Aftermarket zoom lens for P4P (Other than "move closer")

I don't think it exists, it would be too heavy for the gimbal, and how would you control it?

I saw this video on YT where someone managed a zoom solution for his drone.
It seemed he had some Peeping Tom tendency.

Not that I assume you are one, phinchman, but I think:
If I am not allowed to fly close to something I'm not supposed to look at it close.

Eric13 Posted at 2017-6-6 13:59
I saw this video on YT where someone managed a zoom solution for his drone.
It seemed he had some Peeping Tom tendency.

I am not sure a zoom lens will ever be made for the Phantom 4, but there could be many reasons you would want to zoom in on areas you could not fly near, reasons that have nothing to do with invading privacy. Think of getting footage of an accident without interfering with emergency response personnel, getting a shot of wildlife on the ground without scaring off your subjects, taking shots of a volcano or its overflow from a safe distance, etc. Like Antonio76said though, how heavy would it be and how would you control it?

theGrindLab.com Posted at 2017-6-6 15:11
I am not sure a zoom lens will ever be made for the Phantom 4, but there could be many reasons you would want to zoom in on areas you could not fly near, reasons that have nothing to do with invading privacy. Think of getting footage of an accident without interfering with emergency response personnel, getting a shot of wildlife on the ground without scaring off your subjects, taking shots of a volcano or its overflow from a safe distance, etc. Like Antonio76said though, how heavy would it be and how would you control it?

The problem with all that is that as soon as you zoom in to any significant degree, the image will shake about because the gimbal is not capable of stabilising the image on a telephoto shot. The tiniest movement is magnified by the zoom ratio.

Antonio76 Posted at 2017-6-6 10:49
I don't think it exists, it would be too heavy for the gimbal, and how would you control it?

I agrree  

Geebax Posted at 2017-6-6 16:04
The problem with all that is that as soon as you zoom in to any significant degree, the image will shake about because the gimbal is not capable of stabilising the image on a telephoto shot. The tiniest movement is magnified by the zoom ratio.

I agree but it works with handheld (gimbal-free and tripod-free) cameras (and the Inspire) with zoom lenses so I am sure someone can figure it out if weight limits permit and if it hasn't been done already. Like you said though, the results would depend on the level of magnification (and possibly the quality of any digital stabilization).

You can get zooms for the Inspires but their gimbals are made for the heavier lenses. The best we could probably hope for on the P4s would be a digital zoom like on the cell phones.

The zooms for the Inspire, as with almost all camera zooms, have inferior optical quality to primes.

dancopter Posted at 2017-6-7 05:08
The zooms for the Inspire, as with almost all camera zooms, have inferior optical quality to primes.

Agreed, and I would not be willing to trade any quality loss for a zoom feature.