12.12.2016

When I was a wee lad messing about with RC cars, I used to look wistfully at the fat bearded men with their petrol powered 8 channel RC aircraft and drool. Their hobby must have cost them thousands of pounds. Only a few years ago, the tech inside the Phantom 3 would have been science fiction.I've wanted a quadcopter for some time but waited until now as I saw that the technology was improving rapidly and that prices were falling. The new DJI Mavic Pro is tantalising but at around £1k is not exactly cheap for something that could be instantly demolished in the slip of joystick."Standard" sounds dull and unexciting, it is anything but. The main difference with the more expensive models is the video resolution (2.7k vs 4k)and the control range. For me the 2.7k video quality is excellent and the result depends more on your skill in manipulating the drone and settings while filming. The photo quality will also shame anything out of an iPhone. I've flown my P3 standard at up to 120m altitude and 250m out and the control signal has been solid. To fly significantly further out than this would be reckless as it is barely a speck in the sky and would also be illegal in the UK. Therefore the extra range you get with the Pro and Advanced is redundant in the UK unless you are a licensed UAV operator and have special dispensation from the CAA (which is unlikely to be granted). The standard does get an extra minute or two of flying time due to reduced weight and power consumption vs the other P3 models.My tips and suggestions:1. Get the genuine DJI propeller guards, they cost £15 but will more than pay for themselves. I snapped a propeller on second day of flying and your drone has a far better chance of surviving collisions. With them on the drone will happily bump off walls and furniture and stay in the air. Without them, even the lightest touch with a hedge will send it plummeting to the ground to land upside down in a sickening fury of whining and grinding - as I quickly discovered. I would avoid the third party or detachable ones as they are likely to be heavier and weaker. Weight = less flight time.2. Avoid the temptation to fly indoors but if you must: Fit the prop guards, Ensure the drone is in ATTI mode, TURN OFF the Return to Home, otherwise the drone will accelerate into the ceiling if the remote signal is lost even for a moment.3. Calibrate the IMU, especially if the drone doesn't maintain a static hover in GPS mode or drifts a lot in ATTI mode.4. Don't buy an expensive battery immediately, you get decent amount of flight time from one and it charges pretty quickly.5. Don't store the battery fully charged for longer than a few days - it will degrade and permanently lose capacity. Store it half charged in a cool place.6. Don't be tempted to buy a third party battery, they may be poor quality and may pose fire risk, give shorter flight time, have reduced lifespan and may fail suddenly mid flight leading to a crash. Also beware of counterfeits.7. I would be wary of buying a second hand drone, although I've found the P3 to be pretty tough there must be a limit to the punishment it can take and most are likely to have crashed at some point.8. Keep the long axis of the antenna facing the drone for best signal, easy to forget this if flying straight up. Also the signal will struggle to pass through your body if the drone is behind you.9. Turning on the camera grid lines are v helpful in orientating the drone relative to the ground when hovering into a desired position.10. Don't bother with naff extra carbon fibre stickers etc, added weight = less flight time and slower.11. Stick to the original DJI propellers, aftermarket (inc carbon fibre) ones are less efficient (slower and less flight time)12. Bear in mind that the real time video link uses 2.4GHz wifi. Around other wifi sources (i.e. anywhere with buildings) there will be a degree of interference and reduced range. The controller link (5.8GHz) will usually stay intact when the wifi signal drops._______________March 2018 UpdateStill very satisfied with my P3S. Regularly getting fab video footage that gives the wow factor to holiday and family vids. Has even survived a direct snowball hit from daughter and stayed airbourne!Further recommendations:Get a third party phone/tablet holder cos the clip style one included is naff and wobblyGet an old Android (v5 or later) phone/tablet with min brightness of 500 nits for visibility in sunlightGo for detachable rotor guards - fixed ones take too long to remove and make the drone bulky to transportTry beginner mode for moving video shots - slower movements and lower altitude generally look betterLots of crashed and used ones about now to raid for spare partsStore batteries at 50-60% charge to prevent damage and premature degradationND filter will slow down shutter speed in bright light for smoother footage (focus and aperture are fixed)

17.6.2016

After owning this product for a few weeks, I was so impressed that I felt the need to share my experiences. I have uploaded a short montage of my first and second flights, so you can get an idea of how a complete novice can really start flying competently and have fun at the same time. I must add that before I went out to fly, I watched all the official “DJI” tutorials, “Toms Tech time” tutorials and “Shaun Matthews” tutorials on YouTube. The literature included in the box is not the best, so I would advise you to do the same.For value for money, this particular phantom model is excellent. I paid £398 from Clarks Store, they are based in China so it took about a month to arrive,which was very frustrating but cost effective in the end. When it finally arrived, It was well packaged, sealed, with a UK plug on the charger, so I was happy man. The Phantom 3 Standard has a basic remote compared to the Advanced and Pro versions, and the gimbal movement is somewhat limited to just moving up and down. Also the Advanced and Pro versions connect to the craft via Lightbridge technology, but the Standard uses WIFI. They have a much bigger range and the Pro has a better resolution cam (4k). But for the price I paid for the Standard, and as a novice, I can live with these caveats. I have already purchased a range extender (by ARGtek), which is supposed to give me 4X the standard range, so I’m looking forward to testing ARGteks high gain antenna.Preparation:I took all the parts out of the box and familiarised myself with the drone and the remote. I charged up the remote and the battery to 100%. I then connected the drone to my Note 4 (no props attached at this point) and did all the updates when prompted. I practised starting and stopping the motors, and I flew the DJI simulator, which is a nice feature of the app. The other things I did in the app were; calibrate the IMU, calibrate the gimbal and adjust the camera settings to NTSC 2.7K (30 fps). Then I plucked up the courage to go out for my first flight!First flight:I found a massive field near where I live, so there were no tall buildings or people for me to bump into. I set everything up; attached the propellers, connected the remote to the craft via WIFI and calibrated the compass. I then launched the Phantom in the air using auto take off. As it hovered, I worked out the controls pretty quickly. The aircraft's orientation can throw you off at first, but I found that, the flashing red lights did help me determine what way the aircraft was facing. After some low level whizzing about in novice mode (which is range and altitude restricted), I decided to go for broke. I switched into advanced mode on the app, the home point was set automatically in GPS mode, I set my return to home altitude to the highest, and took the aircraft up to the maximum altitude (roughly 500ft). When the Phantom totally lost signal (after loads of warnings on my phone) it returned to the home point. Don’t get me wrong, my heart was beating, but I’m one of those “all or nothing” guys.In total, flight time was around 25 mins, I had a lot of fun, trying to master the beast, and capture some good footage at the same time!Conclusion:First of all, this aircraft is definitely not a toy, or for the faint of heart. You should watch all the tutorials mentioned above and respect your environment and people (find a wide open space to fly with little or no people). That’s the best way to protect your investment. Master your craft, you will absolutely love it! Then go home and watch the rewarding 2.7k footage!

20.2.2017

After one years worth of use I can honestly say this is the best beginners drone on the market. It's easy to use & fast to setup. The camera quality is very good during daytime use (which is its intended purpose), the 2.7K Camera creates stunning aerial videography.The camera is secured using the stabilizer and gimble and is simply to use using the remote controller dial which adjusts the camera up or down.The range of 400m is more than enough, I managed to reach approximately 120m height and distance and I could barely see the drone - so is more than enough for any novice. I would advise that in sight and in eye-line is the safe recommended rule and as the WiFi signal can be interrupted be interfering WiFi signals the screen can and will loose its video transmission signal,

2.12.2015

Before i start this drone is not for beginners and is definitely not a toy. I would like to say i started with the nano quads to get the basics of flying first then move up to the syma x5c which i practiced outside with as if you crash this it's cheap to repair .I have now move up to the dji phantom 3 standard which is a amazingly stable camera platform and for a quite heavy drone it's very maneuverable .When i flew this the other day it was quite windy but this drone handled it very well but in position hold mode there was a little drifting but like i said it was windy .The video footage from it's on board camera is excellent and the gimbal gives it a very smooth and professional look without

24.11.2017

Absolutely love this thing. Easy to learn to fly (though I broke two props foolishly trying to fly it around my living room!). I bought the prop guards, but really think they are a waste of time as they don't completely protect the props. Initially flew it in beginner mode, but soon felt confident enough to increase the range - now at 400ft height and 600 ft range, and planning to extend the range in stages. Links well to my ipad mini 1 via the DJI Go app (didn't realise that videos are also recorded on the ipad as well as the camera sd card, so ipad eventually ran out of storage space....... First flight outdoors I thought I had lost it, so turned the transmitter off and started to look for it.

6.11.2015

After over a year of debating, reading reviews, and watching YouTube video's I came across the Phantom 3 Standard for just over £50 more than the old Phantom 2 (which didn't come with a camera). It was enough to push me over the edge and so a couple of days ago it arrived. Quick unboxing vid here: https://youtu.be/PY7uiV5wwu4Surprise surprise since it came the UK weather has been dark, cloudy, and raining so absolutely no chance of trying it out yet. Thats a good thing in a way as it has given me time to learn the controls and all of the settings in the DJI Go app. Ive watched videos on taking your first flight etc, upgraded its firmware, and used the flight simulator with the actual controller and the DJI Go app.

5.7.2017

This is my first drone so not much expertise to draw on for this review. I bought it to learn on before spending big money on something that will do 4K later. That said I do like it. It works as advertised and I've only crashed it twice so far. Both times into a hedge and it has survived to fly again both times. So, quite robust then.Other good things. The recorded video is good quality and the picture on your iPhone you get while flying is good too. I've used the simulator mode it comes with and it was after that session that I crashed the real thing. Make of that what you will. The GPS mode means its vey stable in the air and if you lose it in the sky it comes back to where it started out.

1.1.2017

I bought this for my oh for Christmas. I did a lot of research before choosing this and it was the right choice. Knowing my oh likes flying helicopters, but that hobby was too expensive and too unpredictablehe gave it up. His other passion is cameras, so this gift was perfect for him.As has been said before, this was easy to set up but by the afternoon, he had assembled it, read instructions, watched some youtube videos and he was good to go. This has been the best present he has ever received and now wants to take it to the next level, but still wants to keep this one as back up. The only downside to this is the accessories need to be genuine due to a smart chip on board,

22.1.2017

Fabulous drone. Definitely not a toy but makes flying so easy especially using the dji go app.First thing first I updated the drone software, this took a bit of mastering if I'm honest as I had to keep changing from connection to the drone to my router (it uses wifi). This took around 15 minutes to do. Once all this was done it asked me if I wanted to start in beginners mode which I thought was a good option. I'm now a week into flying it and it's great, plenty of range for what I want and is a breeze to fly using the app. I've just started to take it a bit higher and the pictures and videos it records are simply breathtaking.Couple of things to consider if your buying one is the accessories.

3.1.2017

Want to annoy your neighbours with a noise like a bunch of angry wasps? want to chase cyclists at anything up to 44*mph? want to take a picture of your house from 1650ft up? then this is the toy for you.It's very easy to fly, maintains it's position if you let go of the controls and is massive fun especially if your neighbour moans at the noise so just to annoy him you land it on his roof and rev it up to the point of take off and then slow it down again - 25 or 30 times.*UPDATE, 44mph not enough for you? use ATTI mode (no gps hold so take more care) and get a decent wind directly behind your drone and higher speeds are possible, my best to date according to the DJI go app? 62mph, fnar fnar fnar,

12.3.2016

After alot of researching and a little wishing I took the plunge, one of the best decisions I think I've made.Fantastic product, because of the research I knew what to expect and it definitely followed suite, after 30mins of updating, calibration and massaging my cheeks due to the aching of a massive smile I was ready but it was dark so a night of sleepless excitement and a breakfast later. I ventured out to test my new toy.24 mins of amazing, handles great, feels solid everything you read about it is true even the camera and gimbal.After flight I headed home to then check out the flight log and video footage, now I don't have a 4k TV yet but 47" lcd is enough to see the quality of the camera with 1080p recording (2.7k top quality),

9.2.2016

I was really looking forward to receiving the Phantom. It arrived very quickly and opening the package was a magnificent experience, really looked forward to giving her a flight - but unfortunately having only an iPhone 4S and an original iPad 2 I found that both of these devices are incompatible with the drone, it's not that the software won't work - it is that neither the phone or the ipad could process the data quick enough to be able to properly gain control.I was very sad indeed (I really was) to have to return the Phantom back to Amazon for a refund. (of which Amazon were brilliant as usual)Please be sure to check your phone/tablet compatibility before purchasing.

15.11.2016

An incredible machine. Very powerful motors and a long-lasting battery. It's easy to get started and high up in the air, with excellent resolution camera shots.As a first drone, flight controls seem intuitive, but it takes time to get used to the fact that turning needs opposite lock when it's coming towards you compared with going away. I'm certain this will become easy with practice. It's simple to take off and to land and in "Beginner Mode" controlling it is easy, and it won't go off further than the distance and height you have set in advance. It seems that the manufacturers have thought of everything to make owning one of these machines and its software an enjoyable experience.

7.9.2016

Great starter drone, however after using it for a wee while I'd suggest you pay the extra money and get the advanced or the professional model, purely for the upgraded remote control. The remote that comes with this is, well, standard!Also, be very careful with updating your firmware, I first bought a phantom 3 standard and made sure to update it and then I came across a very common issue: updating would really mess up the range of the drone. I was getting maximum 150m away before getting signal errors and having to return the drone. I asked amazon for a replacement and they kindly obliged, and I haven't updated my drone since. The range I can get is now well over 600m which is perfect.If you'd like to see any footage from my P3S,

4.10.2016

I only owned the 3 Standard for a few days due to an issue with the camera, which couldn't be fixed, so had to return for a refund. Great fun, fantastic to fly, with everything being pretty easy.Ideally you'd want to buy a second battery once you're okay with the device as it is a lot of fun. A carry case would also be a good choice as it's not the smallest item in the world.Tips: Read everything. Watch a few starter videos on youtube. Figure out what the two switches do either side of the remote and have fun. On your first flight face the camera away from you so you know which way it'll move until you get used to the controls. Use the auto-land feature for the first few landings!!!

DJI Phantom 3 Standard - Reviews

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