In case you thought DJI was done for the year, you thought wrong. Yesterday, the company unveiled not 1 but 2 new drones. Well not exactly new but updated versions of existing drones w/ the Phantom 4 Pro & the Inspire 2.
Starting w/ the Phantom 4 Pro, DJI added a new FlightAutonomy system that will make this model hard to crash. It creates 3D maps thanks to infrared & other sensors to make this happen. The original Phantom 4 only had the avoidance system on the front + sides while this will offer it there along w/ the back and bottom. It will be able to detect objects about 100ft away from the front + 23ft away from the rear.
Along w/ that, the Phantom 4 Pro gets a new 1inch 20MP camera, aperture control, 30 minute battery life, improved controller w/ its own display + GPS + microSD card slot. The new 4 Pro will start at $1,499 and go up to $1,700 w/ the newer controller. I could've used this while we were testing the original Phantom 4. FYI, I crashed it and messed up the camera so that's why you never got a review from us about it.
DJI also made sure to beef up their high-end Inspire line w/ the sequel to the drone. The Inspire 2 is more so geared towards videographers + cinematographers rather than your average consumer. It has a new magnesium-aluminum body to make it tougher yet lighter to be more agile.
BTW, this thing can reach speeds up to 67 MPH w/ a battery life of up to 25 minutes and go as high as up to 16,400 ft above sea level. The latter can happen thanks to a self-heating dual-battery system that can keep the drone flying in super-cold conditions.
On the camera side of things, the Inspire has not 1 but 2 cameras. The main one is based underneath on a 3-axis gimbal that captures 5.2K video @4.2Gbps bitrate. The Inspire 2 has an on-board SSD to handle all of that data BTW. The 2nd micro 4/3s camera is a 2-axis one in the front that allows whoever's flying to see where it's going. It will support 10 different lenses (zoom lenses included as well). You can shoot 30MP photos RAW & record video in CinemaDNG or Apple ProRes as well as broadcast-quality livestream for local news reporters.
The Inspire 2 will start at $3,000 and can go up to $6,000 when you add the 2nd camera that can be used w/ different lenses. Now the question for you is: to go w/ the Mavic or the new Phantom 4 Pro? Decisions, decisions.
