The big question that has always been on everyone’s lips since DJI started shipping the Phantom 4: “Is the camera any better?” To find out, I took to the skies with a Phantom 3 Pro, a Phantom 4 AND an Inspire 1 X3 (X5 wouldn’t be a fair comparison as this camera alone costs more than any of the Phantoms). To make it fun, I decided to fly all of the drones at once at the same time. This way I was capturing the same scene at the same time, under the same lighting conditions.
Check it the video here and watch behind the scenes as I fly these 3 drones at the same time, it’s a lot of fun!
Rather than get into a big discussion about what I think is better and why, I have provided the images for you to examine yourself. I came back the next day and shot the images with exactly the same camera settings on each.
These are unprocessed images, directly out of the drone cameras.
Phantom 3 Pro
Phantom 4
Inspire 1
As you can see, the images look a little different even though they all had the same settings. The zoom is different too because they have a different field of view with the Inspire 1 zooming in more than the others.
Lets have a closer look. Here I have cropped in to an area at 100% view
Phantom 3 pro
Phantom 4
Inspire 1
So there you go. I think the images from the Phantom 4 are notably sharper than that of the Phantom 3 pro. The other thing to note is that the processing speed of the Phantom 4 is much faster too, so if you are shooting bursts or bracketed shots, you’ll find you can shoot more rapidly. But, make up your own mind, download the RAW files from all 3 cameras and examine them for yourself.
Thanks for checking this out
Colin
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I have been making best of class drone training videos since the very beginning and have amassed over 24 hours of training on Flying different drones, understanding the flight apps, strategies for getting great video and photos. These videos have all been shot on location in Southern California and the Hawaii Islands. I also have indepth tutorials on how to get the most form your images in Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere Pro. Enjoy!
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Because this is something I do every day and Im passionate about it, I have written the book “The Photographer’s Guide to Drones” available in bookstores or Amazon. I am currently #1 on DJI’s SkyPixel community, an Adobe ACP and I preset this at the largest conferences and conventions around the USA. I have a lot of good stuff I want to share with you!
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Check out my series of videos that cover everything DJI and drones! The best way to learn to fly safely and shoot amazing photos and video. I also show my entire workflow for processing aware-winning photos and videos!
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