Gadgetory

DJI has quickly become the go-to name in video recording drones and is new model the phantom 3 makes it easier than ever to get gorgeous stabilized 4k footage right from the air physically it's much the same as before with its chunky white plastic design it's very well built and I can say from personal experience that it can survive a crash into the side of your house and a three-story drop on to grass of course it is still very wise to fly it carefully it's incredibly easy to set up and to fly you can learn to fly by a digital drone in the DJI pilot app before you decide to take the risk in taking the real one outside the camera has been given a bunch of upgrades it's still slung on a stabilizing gimbal which smoothes out weird jerks and bumps in flight but the sensor has been greatly improved to achieve a much more attractive image with better dynamic range bright skies aren't washed out as I've seen on earlier models and colors looked both accurate and rich there are two models available the Phantom 3 professional which shoots in 4k and the phantom 3 advanced which is functionally the same but only shoots in 1080 having 4k probably isn't a necessity for most of you so you can save yourself a couple of hundred quid and go for the advanced model having 4k does allow you to crop into the image in post-production though while still maintaining full HD quality so for the professionals among you it might be the better choice although you've always technically been able to fly the drones indoors there are now two sensors beneath the Phantom 3 which track the ground helping it keep it much more stable inside where it doesn't have GPS even so I do recommend only using it inside a big space a little living room probably isn't going to cut it the controller is roughly the same as on previous versions it's easy to hold it only give a basic amount of functions making it very easy to use and you'll find dedicated camera control buttons on the top which let you start with stop recording change the exposure till the angle of the camera all while the drone is still in the air the main downside of the phantom 3 is still its battery life DJI reckons you can get around 20 to 23 minutes of flight time although I found in my own experience that to be nearer the 20-minute mark I might be fine if you're flying in your garden but if you're taking away any distance that short flight time will be limiting you can buy spares but they cost over a hundred pounds each so are probably only worth considering if you're using it for professional purposes the DJI phantom 3 doesn't come particularly cheap but it has a hell of a lot to offer it's stabilized 4k footage looks absolutely fantastic and the drone itself is so easy to fly but a child can do it if you're an enthusiastic amateur filmmaker who's looking for a new angle for a video it's well worth considering although you should spring for a couple of extra batteries I'm Andrew Hoyle fussy net and this is the DJI phantom 3