DJI Phantom P3 Pro On sale Again

garyhgaryh shared a link said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 3:23am ET

Hey guys, the DJI Phantom P3 Pro is on sale again. As you know, I got mine for $799. It's even cheaper now at $779.

Sometimes ebay will send you 8% or 10% ebay bucks. My 10% ended today but if I had went in on the deal before midnight it would have only cost me $702, but it's a moot point since I bought it for $799 with 8% off.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111681202221

4 comments, 18 replies
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sportykev said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 9:14am ET:

why.... are you doing this....?

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- @sportykev lol. Helping spot deals like you guys to do me and make me spend mula!
  
  garyhgaryh said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 8:25pm ET
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ruouttaurmind said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 12:19pm ET:

@garyhgaryh keeps bragging about his bonus eBay bucks... Dang it Gary, I still don't get any such offers! I'd be all over that P3P for $700 if I had bonus bucks offers.

Maybe I need to check my eBay notification preferences. Maybe I turned off the "receive eBay junk mail" option or something, and that's why I don't get these offers.

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- @ruouttaurmind Sorry just trying to help save every bit of money with the ebay bucks.
  
  garyhgaryh said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 8:26pm ET
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- @garyhgaryh I think my Bonus eBay Bucks mystery is solved.
  
  In Account Settings (top-left of any eBay window when you're logged into your account) I chose "Communication Preferences". At the bottom of that window is an option to set Promotions and Surveys preferences, including
  "General email promotions
  Send me emails about what's new and hot on eBay, great deals, special events, discount coupons and other special offers."
  
  It was turned off, meaning I opted out of any discount promotions. Now that it's enabled, I think I'll start receiving Bonus eBay Bucks offers.
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 5:09pm ET
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- @ruouttaurmind Ah! That makes sense because most of my notifications have been emails. If you happen to log in during a promotion you will see it on the main screen but you'll have wait for the promotion to scroll by, then you have to activate it. I usually get promotions every other week (sometimes more, sometimes less). Good luck and I hope you get the next one.
  
  garyhgaryh said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 6:51pm ET
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- @garyhgaryh Thanks. I have a bookmark that takes me right to the My eBay page, so I don't even see the banners. If I get a decent promotion, I may have to reconsider the P3...
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 8:05pm ET
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- @garyhgaryh It's not exactly 10% eBay Bucks bonus, but it's better than a stick in the eye. Thanks for sort of prompting me to pursue these eBay special offers Gary!
  
  ruouttaurmind said Wed, Apr 6th 2016 at 10:29pm ET
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- @ruouttaurmind That made me laugh! I haven't gotten an eBay bucks deal since I got my last 10% about a week ago.
  
  garyhgaryh said Thu, Apr 7th 2016 at 1:23am ET
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garyhgaryh said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 9:15pm ET:
@ruouttaurmind I finally took the P3 in the air and I just say, I'm impressed. The entire package is fully integrated. The end result of my p1.1 with all the money I put into it is inferior to the P3 out of the box.

Here are my impressions:
1. Video shot at 1080p is incredibly sharp. It looks like the sharpness was turned all the way up that you could see slight noise, but the details was obvious and the footage was sharper than my Gopro Hero HD. When I post process my images in lightroom with my Nikon d800e, I turn up the sharpness at the expense of slight noise so the setting is just the way I like it.
2. P3 hoovering was incredibly steady. There was no toliet bowel effect, except when my friend flew his P2v+ right at 45% angle above my P3 (basically 3-4 ft away from the P3). This, i think, caused a bit of prop wash and P3 did a 3ft TBE. He almost crashed into my P3 which I was not happy about.
3. Back to video, the footage was stable. I could never get the type of steady video with my P1.1. It seemed as if the camera was on top of a light pole. Then I rotated around a vertical axis, it was smooth. If I ascended/descended, it looked like the P3 was on a rod going up/down. I'm curious if my Walkera 3D gimbal will have the same effect on the P1.1 stability (def. not with the china lightweight gimbal I've had issues with). It was slightly breezy at the park, but that didn't seem to affect stability.
4. The last few times I flew my p1.1 it would drop out of the sky when the camera reached the limit and dropped due to balance issues. That caused my P1.1 to drop out of the sky. I had no such issue with the p3 dropping out of the sky (I did not think this would be an issue with the P3, just contrasting my p1 with the P3).
5. The mini sdxc card limit is 64G. I only had 128G sdxc card. The night before I googled the sdxc limit and got a handful of responses that the limit is 64G (end of story). I opened up my sandisk 128G mini SDXC card and was surprised to find a 16G mini SD or SDXC card in there (brand panasonic). I used it for a flight then my friend asked to use it since my 128G won't work on his P2V+. I asked, what about me? I won't have anything to record on since 128G isn't supported by the P3. In anycase, being a good friend that I am, I let him use my 16G card. I popped in my 128G card and the DJI Go app did not complain. I took serveral footage and had no issues yet (who knows what will happen if I go over 64G, but it should work since it's sdxc - at least I'm hoping that is the case).
6. (CON) I cannot calibrate the compass. It would fail every time, but I decided to fly it anyways. No problems flying, but it does concern me as the unit was thrown around during shipment (box is crumped up). The error I get is that there is too much electromagnetic interference. Indeed there was powerlines all around. I'll try calibrating at home to see if it might be issues with powerlines.
7. (CON) The P3 ascends slowly compared to the P2V+. I'm not surprised because I read that the slowed down the P3 ascent speed and I was also in beginner mode.
8. The P3, just sitting on the picnic table is noisy. I think the noise seems to be coming from the gimbal and is dynamically adjusting things (that's what I think). I asked my bud with the P2V+ if this is normal and he says yes.
9. The DJI Go app is pretty cool. You can register the drone via the app and it takes you through setting up the P3.
10. You can start stop camera from the remote (no big deal I guess, but with my P1 I have to physically turn on/off my go pro at the unit.
11. With the integrated camera you don't worry about the camera battery running out. I would go through batteries with the P1.1 and gopro batteries so having only 1 battery to worry about (monitor) is nice.
12. OSD is nice. On screen I Have the battery status (%), status of the P3 (eg. compass not calibrated), ability to record and take pics onto your iphone, height during flight, etc.
13. P1 feels like a toy - light and somewhat flimsy. The P3 feels solid.
14. The P3 ribbon cable looks to be easily damaged.
I'll post a video tonight, but of course the quality will be downgrades so you probably won't see what I'm talking about when I say the video is sharp, but you can get an idea of the stability.

Sorry I haven't proof'ed this. Wife is home so I'm going to send this off.

I'll add more to this tonight if I can think of anything else to add. I did mention things that are obvious so just ignore those points instead of throwing it back to me with sarcasm :).
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- 15. Video has no sound. Is there a setting I can set? True, all you'll get is the noise of the props, but can I turn on audio?
  
  garyhgaryh said Thu, Mar 31st 2016 at 9:51pm ET
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- garyhgaryh said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 1:17am ET
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- @garyhgaryh Not getting full-screen video. Was this the native P3 video file, or did this happen in post?
  
  But... wow. Want. It really is stable, and I see what you mean RE: the sharpness of the video. What video mode were you in? Obvs I can only playback from YT @ 1080p, but what was the native record mode?
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 1:15pm ET
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- @ruouttaurmind This happened in post. The native file edited with movie maker, then uploaded to you tube. Then I ran it through the youtube creative editor which reprocessed the video again.
  
  Here's a link to a short clip of video directly from movie maker. Its short to keep download times reasonable:
  
  http://ppl.ug/orv8S4aLTYg/
  
  Let me know what you think of the clip.
  
  The default video mode (P3) was set to 4k, but I set it to 1080p @30fps.
  
  garyhgaryh said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 2:06pm ET
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- @garyhgaryh I think you 4got to set Movie Maker to 16:9. The output vid is thin raster (1440x1080; 4:3).
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 2:55pm ET
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- @garyhgaryh great feedback. I'm jealous.
  
  sportykev said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 4:39pm ET
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- @sportykev It's pretty sweet, innit.
  
  (internal dialogue: "No, you don't need another freakin' drone. Really. No. You don't.")
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 4:55pm ET
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- @ruouttaurmind It feels like I'm flying a 1990 Honda Civic, when all these new kids driving around in the new Tesla Model 3. Tinted windows are great so nobody sees my face.
  
  sportykev said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 4:57pm ET
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- @ruouttaurmind re: thin raster. You're absolutely right! Thanks for pointing this out. I just used the hi-res profile, but I just checked and it's indeed 1440x1080p.
  
  garyhgaryh said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 6:54pm ET
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- @sportykev I was jealous when my friend was flying his p2v+ and I had my p1.1. He saw the progress and work I put into the P1.1 and thought it was amazing what I was doing, but I knew that his shots were always better than mine (they always look cinematic). Now I feel I've upgraded from that '90's honda civic you're talking about to that brand spanking new Tesla. My buddy also has the P3 but he doesn't use it much because it's not compatible with his Epson BT FPV goggles and he has two dozen P2 batteries (I kid not) and only 1 P3 battery.
  
  @ruouttaurmind I think you have the most drones here. Actually I don't know anyone personally that has as many as your. So what's one more? jk. If I had ordered a solo, I probably would hesitate ordering a P3. I backed out of that Walkera Runner 250 only because I bought the P3. If I bought the Runner first, I most likely would have the P3.
  
  garyhgaryh said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 7:02pm ET
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- @garyhgaryh I don't know, I think maybe @fultonmartin may have more. And @DJMajickMan has a growing fleet as well.
  
  ruouttaurmind said Fri, Apr 1st 2016 at 8:03pm ET
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fultonmartin said Sat, Apr 2nd 2016 at 9:12am ET:

I keep meaning to lay all mine out and take a picture--maybe like the warehouse at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I'm outta town right now, but my mental count is 9 registerable (over 250g), plus the components to build 3 more, one (altitude hold fpv) on the way, and a bunch of 'toys.' I confess, I like building them at least as much as flying them.

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DJI Phantom P3 Pro On sale Again

15. Video has no sound. Is there a setting I can set? True, all you'll get is the noise of the props, but can I turn on audio?