No more DJI Phantom 3 Advanced

My Failed Drone Experience

My DJI Phantom 3 Advanced

After a little over a year my drone experience has come to an end. I got the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced in January, 2016. Yesterday, March 17, 2017, after about a year of not using it, I sold it. It just wasn't for me.

I will say up front that I lost about $800 on the experiment but at the same time I'm glad I got something out of it when I sold it. I bought it shortly after DJI lowered their prices, which, as it turned out, was due to the imminent release of the DJI Phantom 4. The value of used Phantom 3's dropped considerably.

I really wanted to like it but I just didn't.

I didn't enjoy the flying aspect much at all. I didn't fly it much so I never got comfortable with it. I had a hard time seeing it very far away and during one flight I lost sight of it completely. I worried about crashing it and immediately being out the cost of the unit. I didn't get any kind of kick out of just flying it even when it wasn't very far away.

Gillespie Dam and Bridge, Arizona

I had bought it to use it for still photography and to try to take pictures that I couldn't get from standing on the ground. I really wanted to use it on some of the cliffs in Arizona to try to get unique perspectives. I was able to get some shots such as the one at right but I didn't like the image quality (IQ) at all.

Every shot I took had so much noise that I didn't even want to look at them. The camera uses a 12.4MP 1/2.3" sensor which is close to a 6x crop compared to a full frame sensor. I don't know if the photosite size was the issue or if it was software that was the problem but the IQ was just not acceptable to me for anything other than small sized images suitable for Facebook or the like. And that's not what floats my boat (or drone).

I shot it RAW (DNG) and tried processing with different software (Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and NIK noise reduction). I shot in bright light conditions (I live in Arizona where we rarely get overcast days). I tried blending multiple exposures to average out the noise. Even if that had worked it was so much effort that I really wasn't interested in doing it. The still just weren't of any use to me and that's the only thing I wanted the drone for.

I thought the video looked okay, within my videographer limits. But I wasn't interested in shooting video. I did that years ago for a company and I don't want to do it again. I really like still photography because I can make prints that hang on a wall and which don't require a machine to be viewed. I got into photography for stills, not to make movies. I don't think I have even used the video on my Nikon D610 (I shot a short video with the D3200).

I watch Tony Northrup quite a bit on YouTube and saw a video of his comparing some DJI drones and the images. All of the images he showed had more noise in them than I would want and I was somewhat surprised that he didn't complain about the noise level since he does remark on it in some of his DSLR reviews or comparisons. The video just re-affirmed that I don't think that drones, of this level anyway, are useful for still photography.

I guess I don't have to worry about it now. I am conflicted about getting rid of things I purchase but this was a no brainer for me. I just wasn't going to use it for still photography. I didn't want to do video and I don't enjoy it from the pure flying aspect. It really just wasn't going to be used. After the initial month or so of practicing with it I flew it 2 times in a year and one of those was basically to demo it to the person I sold it to. That person is a video person - an independent movie producer - and he has an immediate use for it. Have fun!