Best Camera Drone
DJI Phantom 4
While the flying smarts of the DJI Phantom 4 haven't reached Terminator
levels yet, DJI's drone seems to be on the verge of gaining sentience.
The $1,399 drone's new features will help novice fliers get off the
ground, with the help of its object-avoidance system and smart camera
that can track and follow subjects. Experienced fliers will appreciate
that the new model is significantly faster and lasts longer on a charge
than the Phantom 3. However, the technology isn't foolproof nor
completely intuitive to use.
Design
The Phantom 4 keeps the sleek, white design of previous models, but
it has put on a little weight. With a takeoff weight of 3.06 pounds and
measuring 19.25 inches from rotor tip to tip, it is about the same size
as the Phantom 3
(2.69 pounds), though it's slightly heavier. Overall, it's
aerodynamically designed, and the glossy finish screams luxury. This
weight also means that you will need to register it with the FAA before you fly it outside.
The majority of this weight comes from the battery. A hefty chunk of
lithium-ion-polymer chemistry slides into the body of the drone and
locks into place with two catches. This battery holds a sizable 5,350
mAh of charge — an increase from the 4,800 mAh for the Phantom 3
battery. DJI has changed the design of the battery here as well; you
can't use Phantom 3 batteries with the Phantom 4.
There are a number of new sensors around the quadcopter body, with
two small cameras on the front near the legs, and two more cameras and
two ultrasonic sensors on the base. The small cameras and ultrasonic
sensor form what DJI calls the object and vision positioning system:
They see objects in front of and below the drone, which takes that data,
interprets it and tries to avoid collisions.
On one side of the quadcopter's body are the microSD card slot and a
micro-USB port, used for updating the firmware. Neither of these is
covered, which means they are exposed to dirt or water in a hard
landing.
The gimbal that holds the camera and keeps it level as the quadcopter
pans and tilts has also changed, with a much cleaner design than the
Phantom 3 and few exposed parts. All of the cabling and gears of the
gimbal mechanism are hidden away behind an aluminum case. The rubber
cushions that protect the camera from the vibrations of the body are now
hidden inside the quadcopter's body. As for the camera, it's smaller
than a GoPro — about the size of a cellphone battery, with a large lens
protruding from the front.
Specs:
Rotors: 4 (2 blades per rotor), 5-inch diameter
Battery Size: 5,350-mAh Lithium Polymer
Battery Life: 28/24 min (claimed/tested)
Camera: 4k/60p, 1080p/120 fps
Smartphone Controlled: Yes
FAA Registration: Yes
Size: 19.25 x 19.25 x 8 inches (Rotor tip to top)
Weight: 3.06 pounds
Battery Size: 5,350-mAh Lithium Polymer
Battery Life: 28/24 min (claimed/tested)
Camera: 4k/60p, 1080p/120 fps
Smartphone Controlled: Yes
FAA Registration: Yes
Size: 19.25 x 19.25 x 8 inches (Rotor tip to top)
Weight: 3.06 pounds
Controller
DJI redesigned the controller to be smaller and more compact than the
ones on previous Phantoms. It has the same clean, white aesthetic as
the quadcopter, with two large Wi-Fi antennas and a holder for a
cellphone or tablet on the top. The sides and back are covered with
soft-grip plastic, which makes it comfortable and easy to hold, even
when you have to take one hand off the controller to touch the screen of
the cellphone or tablet.
Flying Phantoms has always been a simple process, and the Phantom 4 continues this hassle-free flight experience.
There is no screen on the controller; video previews and other information are shown on the DJI Go app (Android and iOS)
that accompanies the drone. Instead, the controller is bristling with
buttons, knobs and dials for controlling the quadcopter. This makes it
feel rather like a game-console controller, and as with those, you need
to spend some time figuring out what does what. A video gamer's quick
reactions are also useful here, as the Phantom 4 is nearly as fast as
its virtual gaming cousins.
On the front are the two control sticks, plus a power button and a
return-to-home button. On the right shoulder are buttons to stop/start
video and change the flight mode, as well as a dial to control the
gimbal angle. On the left shoulder are buttons for taking still photos
and accessing camera settings, and a flight pause button that halts the
quadcopter when in the intelligent flight modes. Two programmable
buttons on the bottom of the controller round out the selection; you can
assign multiple functions to these buttons in the DJI Go app, such as
tilting the camera straight down or forward. That's a lot of buttons,
but they are all within easy reach and don't require you to take your
thumb off the control stick
.
The controller connects to a phone or tablet through a USB cable. No
cable is included, but no special cable is required. The same USB cable
used to charge your Android phone or iOS device can be plugged straight
into the USB host port on the back of the controller.
The DJI Go app shows the video preview from the quadcopter, as well
as information about the drone's current status, including altitude,
speed and battery level. The camera controls are on the right of this
screen, including a big red button that starts and stops video
recording, duplicating the recording button on the controller. This
screen feels rather cluttered and confusing, but these controls and
information can be dismissed with an upward swipe if you want to focus
on the video preview. At the bottom right is a GPS map, which you can
enlarge with a tap to fill the screen.
Flying
Flying Phantoms has always been a simple process, and the Phantom 4 continues this hassle-free flight experience. Once the Phantom 4
is ready to fly, you just press the takeoff button in the app and slide
an on-screen switch to confirm. The quadcopter starts the motors, takes
off and hovers about 3 feet off the ground. When you use the control
sticks, the quadcopter responds quickly and smoothly, shifting as
requested but without sudden jerks or starts. When you want to land the
drone, hit the return-home button; the Phantom 4 will fly back to the
location where it took off and will land gently.
Once you've got the hang of basic flight, you can start using the
flight modes, which can be accessed through a switch on the controller
or in the app. There are three oddly named manual flight modes available
from a switch on the controller: Positioning, Sport and Attitude. Each
mode sets which features and limits are enabled on the quadcopter.
Positioning (or P) mode enables everything, with the quadcopter using
GPS and all of the various object sensors, while restricting the speed
of climbs and turns for slower, safer flight. As the name suggests, this
mode focuses on putting the quadcopter into a specific position for
taking a video or photo
Sport (or S) mode enables the GPS and vision positioning but turns
off the front obstacle-sensing system. The emphasis here is on fast
maneuvering, allowing the quadcopter to reach its full speed of up to 45
mph. Attitude (or A) mode turns off most of the sensors, except for the
barometer, which the quadcopter uses to measure altitude. This would be
used in situations such as flying indoors, where GPS isn't available
and you want to fly close to objects under manual control.
MORE: Best Drones of 2016
The Sport mode is impressively fast and responsive, allowing the
Phantom 4 to fly at very high speed and turn and maneuver very
aggressively. It's not a racing drone, but it is fast. Push the left
stick forward, and the quadcopter will fly away like a rabbit from a
fox. I clocked it at about 33 mph, and I wouldn't dispute DJI's claim of
a maximum speed of 45 mph. This thing is very, very fast when it gets
going.
With great speed comes great responsibility, though. With the
object-avoidance system disabled in Sport mode, it is very easy to
underestimate the speed of the thing and not stop it in time, whacking
it into a tree, the ground or anything else unlucky enough to be in the
way. I did crash the Phantom 4 a couple of times when flying in this
mode, but it stood up to these crashes well; the worst that happened was
that a rotor blade broke when the drone hit a thick branch.
When you are in the Position mode, the object-avoidance system is
enabled, and it works very well. It consistently detected objects —
including people, trees and sticks — and stopped the quadcopter before
it crashed into them. You get a visual indication on the top of the live
view of the app: A green bar indicates the path is clear, yellow means
there's a warning and red with an audible tone means an object is
getting very close, at which point the quadcopter takes over to prevent
it from crashing.
The object-avoidance feature isn't perfect, though. It can't detect
very small objects, such as hanging wires that could get caught in the
rotors, and it only works with objects right in front of the quadcopter.
If the quadcopter is sliding left or right, moving backward or moving
up, it can't detect anything, and will happily crash into them.
Autonomous Flying
The Phantom 4 offers several intelligent flight modes in the app that
make it more autonomous — in other words, flying without the direct
control of the pilot. These compare favorably with the similar modes of
the 3DR Solo,
but the Solo's smart modes are more polished and easier to use, and
more focused on getting good shots, rather than showing off the fancy
features of the drone. The Phantom 4's intelligent flight modes include
TapFly, Active Track and Intelligent mode.
In TapFly mode, the idea is that you tap on a destination in the live
camera view in the app, and the quadcopter flies toward it, using the
object-avoidance system to watch out for birds, trees or people in the
way. If your target is below the horizon, the quadcopter slowly descends
toward it, rather like it was flying on a cable. This mode is similar
to the cable-cam mode of the 3DR Solo, and is good for filmmakers
looking for a classic zoom-in shot.
Active Track mode is interesting. Here, you tap an object on the
screen, and the quadcopter uses its built-in computer vision to try to
follow the target as it moves. It does so using a combination of tilting
the gimbal and moving the quadcopter itself. If the target moves, the
quadcopter moves to keep the target centered in the frame.
This mode has a distinctly Terminator feel to it, but frustratingly,
it sometimes loses track of the target. Things like shadows and changing
light confused the tracking system during our testing. If the drone
loses track, it hovers in place until the target moves back into the
tracking area, which isn't much use if you are trying to track something
uncooperative. We also found that differently colored clothing confused
the tracking system as well; if you tracked someone from behind,
wearing a dark jacket, and the other person turned around to reveal a
lighter shirt, the system would often lose its track. So much for the TV
cliché of the remorseless tracking drone hunter-killer approach; it is
more of a hopefully-follow-and-often-lose-track approach.
The pilot still has some control when using Active Track. If you move
the quadcopter left or right while tracking an object, the quadcopter
will orbit around it, still tracking and moving the quadcopter to
respond. You can also change the altitude, lifting or lowering the
quadcopter while the tracking is still engaged. This definitely makes
for some interesting shots; for instance, you could shoot an orbit shot
around a motorbike heading down the road.
The object-avoidance feature isn't perfect; it can't detect very small objects such as hanging wires.
The Intelligent mode includes a number of more conventional submodes,
such as the Follow Me mode, which follows the controller using GPS.
There is also a Home Lock mode, which sets the quadcopter to orbit
around the home point set in the app; and a Course Lock mode, which
locks the quadcopter into a designated heading. Also included is a
powerful Waypoint mode, which allows you to set multiple waypoints on a
GPS map and navigate automatically between them. This mode was easy to
use and worked well; it was easy to create the waypoints in the app and
send the drone speeding between them.
Photos & Video
There is just a single model of the Phantom 4, which comes with a
dedicated 4K camera. It captures excellent-quality photos and video;
both were impressively sharp and clean, with plenty of detail.
The gimbal also did an excellent job of cushioning the camera from
the shaking and twisting of the quadcopter body. The video remained
sharp and clean, even when the quadcopter maneuvered at high speeds. We
did notice that the camera occasionally caught sight of the rotor
blades, though, even in the P flight mode, which is supposed to avoid
this. Using the left control dial on the shoulder of the controller, you
can tilt the camera up by 20 degrees or down by 90 degrees to point
directly below. When we tried this, the camera responded quickly and
smoothly.
This impressively small camera can capture 4K video at a resolution
of 4096 x 2170 pixels at 24 frames per second, or a slightly lower 4K
resolution (3840 x 2160) at 30 fps. You can also capture HD video at up
to 120 fps and still images at 12-megapixels. The camera settings are
controlled from the app, and both stills and video are stored on a
microSD card that fits into the camera body. You can transfer media by
either removing this card and using a card reader, or plugging a
micro-USB cable into the socket. In the latter case, the quadcopter
appears as a USB storage drive, and you can drag and drop images off it.
It is tempting to shoot everything at 4K and shrink it down later,
but these files get very large. Every minute of video at the highest 4K
resolution takes about half a gigabyte of space. To record during an
entire charge, you would fill a 16GB card to capacity. No card is
included with the Phantom 4, but you can pick up a 32GB card for around
$10 or $15.
Battery Life
The Phantom 4 has a slightly larger battery than its predecessor,
holding 5,350 mAh of juice. That's a 10 percent increase over the
battery in the Phantom 3, which translates into a slightly longer
battery life. DJI claims a battery life of about 28 minutes, but we
found that about 25 minutes was a more consistent average.
That's about 4 minutes more than the Phantom 3, and a little bit
longer than the 22 minutes we got from the 3D Robotics Solo. However, it
is worth remembering that the battery life of a drone depends on how
you use it; fast maneuvering and climbing will mean a shorter battery
life than simple hovering.
The large battery of the Phantom 4 holds a lot of charge, but it also
takes a long time to refill. Using the charger included with the drone,
the battery took a lengthy 1 hour and 15 minutes to recharge — about 20
minutes longer than the Phantom 3.
Repairability and Parts
Sadly, those who have invested in batteries and other accessories for
older Phantom 3 models are out in the cold, as the newer model is not
compatible. At this time, there are no third-party batteries available
for the Phantom 4, but they will no doubt be available in time, as they
were for the Phantom 3.
The Phantom 4's rotor blades are very easy to remove and replace:
Just push down on the central hub of the blades and twist to make them
pop straight off. That makes it very quick to replace a rotor, which is
important if you are using this drone for commercial purposes. Two full
sets of rotors are included with the Phantom 4, with additional sets of
rotors costing about $18.
The large batteries are also easy to remove and replace; they snap
tightly into place but are easy to take out by holding down the clips
and pulling. The price is a little harder to cope with, though: A spare battery costs a steep $169.
Bottom Line
There's a lot to like in the Phantom 4. It shoots very-high-quality
video that looks significantly sharper than what you get from the Phantom 3 and as good as the video from a 3DR Solo
using a GoPro 4. The Phantom 4 is very easy to fly, even for novice
users. Once you get familiar with flying the Phantom 4, you can switch
to Sport mode and fly at impressive (and rather scary) speeds. The
obstacle-avoidance system also works pretty much as advertised, spotting
and avoiding obstacles in front of the quadcopter. And the active
tracking system, while not perfect, also works well enough, generally
succeeding at tracking people and other objects from the camera.
The Phantom 4's modes enable and disable features such as the
obstacle avoidance in a seemingly arbitrary way, and flying in each mode
is quite a different experience. Switching from Position mode to Sport
mode feels rather like going straight from riding a moped in a driveway
to riding a Harley on the highway, without anything in between: The
controls are more sensitive, and the quadcopter flies much more
aggressively. But overall, the Phantom 4 is an excellent package for
both casual fliers and would-be airborne video shooters: It is simple to
fly, takes great video and is hard to crash
enjoy
.
.
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