by John Salt
My review of the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus (known as the Vision+) is somewhat different from every other RC helicopter review I have ever done for the simple reason it's not a quad rotor I would purchase myself. That of course doesn't mean it's not a fantastic product, but it's not really meant for more serious RC hobbyists.
The typical person who will be purchasing and using the DJI Vision+ is someone who knows practically nothing about RC nor has the desire or time to learn about it. All they want is a full proof and easy way to take breathtaking HD/pro quality aerial video and still shots while having some basic FPV capability as well. That is what the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus is all about.
I was just introduced to the DJI Vision+ this past weekend while visiting some family.
My one cousin-in-law had purchased a Phantom 2 Vision Plus a couple weeks prior, and when she told me about it, I at first had no idea what she was even talking about.
She kept calling it her "flying camera" and only after asking a few probing questions did I realize she had a quad-rotor RC aircraft. I of course wanted to see it after I realized what it was.
She let me fly it (after a little reassurance that I did know something about these things), and I even record some video while watching it in real time on her Galaxy S4 phone that she attached to the radio control unit. I was quite impressed but it was just another RC quad rotor (a drone as the media loves to so incorrectly call them) and really did nothing I was not already used to, not to mention I thought the radio (controller) felt & looked cheap.
The little plastic clamp on it that was holding her phone wasn't something I would put much trust in; but she has had no issues with it and certainly didn't feel my criticism was at all justified.
After she started telling me all her "flying camera" could do and
how she was flying it around like a pro only after a couple weeks, did
its true potential start sinking in and I soon realized she was right.
Then she pulled out her tablet and showed me some of the video projects
she had taken with it... I was blown away! Only then did I really
understand how amazing the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus is and the mass
market appeal it will no doubt captivate.
The
video and stills she took were spectacular! Better than what I could
pull off and I've been flying RC helicopters for over 25 years. This was
her first ever RC anything, and she knows practically nothing about it!
She is a real estate agent & photographer however and that is where
her skills along with all the technology on-board the Phantom 2 Vision
Plus combined to make all the difference between her outstanding footage
compared to my mediocre at best attempts.
For people who don't know much about our hobby and quad/multi rotor RC helicopters in general; DJI Innovations is perhaps the most recognized name when it comes to this new technology. There are countless multi-rotor brands out there right now, but DJI is easily the most recognized and most popular in the main stream.
I personally feel they offer the best overall combination of value and quality in the many products they produce from the less expensive consumer & hobby grade products, right up to pro level equipment. I actually fly one of their Frame Wheel F550 Hex multi-rotors and have nothing but great things to say about it.
DJI Innovations started out a
number of years ago making electronic stabilization and autopilot
systems for regular RC helicopters. As the technology advanced and as
the interest in RC quad & multi rotors started to soar about 4 years
ago, DJI switched its focus & efforts toward this new form of RC
flight.
In the industry,
DJI is known to have some the best GPS enabled stabilization/autopilot
systems for both conventional RC helicopters and RC multi rotors, with
professional flight control systems such as the A2 & WooKong to
more affordable hobby/consumer grade systems such as the Naza. DJI
Innovations also excels at building some of best "performance for the
price" motorized camera stabilization systems (called gimbals), for
various types of cameras from the smaller GoPro's right up to larger pro
quality HD and 4K Ultra HD image recording equipment.
DJI
Innovations has four (4) primary lines of quad/multi rotor aircraft also
called "platforms" to cover all ranges of experience & performance levels.
The main "consumer" platform is the DJI Phantom 2 - out of the box ready to fly.
Their Frame Wheel Kits that have to be built, configured, and programmed, are geared toward the more experienced RC hobbyist/enthusiast.
The Inspire 1 is DJI's ready to fly professional multi rotor. It has several advanced features such as pivoting arms to allow a 360 degree unimpaired camera view. This truly is the "flying camera" that bridges the gap between hobby grade and professional grade AP quad copters. It provided the same easy out of the box operation as the Phantom 2 Vision Plus but on a professional level.
Their Mavic Pro is perhaps the most popular flying camera on the planet right now. The Mavic Pro has essentially taken over the Phantom line as the true consumer grade aerial imaging platform.
Unless you are looking specifically at an older Phantom, and that is what brought you to my page, the newer Mavic Pro is leaps and bound ahead technology wise.
The Phantom 2 Vision Plus as the name suggests is a normal Phantom 2 quad rotor RC helicopter. Is uses DJI's proven & robust Naza flight control/stabilization system with GPS and compass sensors (Naza P2V is the model designation). It's similar to the Naza M V2 but uses different firmware specifically catered to the Phantom 2 Vision Plus. Just think of the Naza as the "brains" inside your quad copter. It is 100% responsible for all flight control. Even when you are controlling your Phantom, it is actually the Naza that is doing all the flying.
The
Phantom 2 would be classified as a "medium" sized 350 multi-rotor with a
diagonal arm to arm measurement of 350mm. The Phantom 2 sits up high on
two sets of tall landing struts to allow the room required underneath
its belly for the camera and 3 axis gimbal system.
Aircraft
power is provided by a proprietary "smart" 5200mAh 3S LiPo battery
(more about this later in the review). Four 920Kv brushless motors spin
9" propellers controlling both lift and directional movement. The
electronics are all housed within the white frame/fuselage including an
array of LED lighting in the four arms for orientation help or a little
night flying fun (my personal favorite thing to do quad/multi rotors).
The LED's are also used as visual "systems status" indicators, relaying
information back to the pilot such as low battery alert and GPS
satellite acquisition by color and flash sequences.
GPS
is of course the reason why this quad as well as others that have GPS
positioning are so easy to fly for the uninitiated. GPS combined with
the 3 axis gyro and accelerometer technology in the Naza, magnetic
compass, and barometric pressure sensor give impressive position hold
both horizontally and vertically. All that means is you get a true
"hands off - zero skill required" flight experience, even in moderate
winds. GPS positioning/return to home worked flawlessly just as it does
on my Blade 350QX & DJI F550 hex rotor. Flight times were about 20
minutes which was indeed impressive!
Toasty Phantom 2
Paired with the Phantom 2 is the Vision + side of the equation.
This a combination HD video/still camera, video/telemetry transmitter, and a 3 axis brushless motorized stabilization gimbal.
The motorized gimbal is what gives your video that professional fluid like image quality.
They work by using 3 gyros that detect the 3 axises of possible aircraft movement (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) and as movement is detected by the gyros, the gimbal's motors move the camera in the opposite direction to keep it perfectly still and level no matter what the aircraft is doing.
Below
is a neat video showing just how much better the image quality is
between having no gimbal, a 2 axis gimbal, and a 3 axis gimbal.
Gimbals
have to be perfectly configured and balanced to the camera that they
are being used with for them to work correctly. Because the Vision+ has
both the camera and gimbal already matched together, it's one less
fairly complicated process you won't have to deal with.
Because
this is a DJI gimbal - it's a good one. Image stabilization is indeed
super impressive! The 3 axis of camera stabilization really does give a
level of pro quality stabilization I never thought would be possible at
this price point. You also have the option to tilt the one axis of the
gimbal (pitch) so the camera can look in a 90 degree range from straight
ahead to straight down below the aircraft.
Two
gimbal modes are available:
In FPV
mode, the gimbal locks so as you roll and pitch the aircraft, you'll see
the image tilting to give you that true FPV flight experience asa if
you were onboard the Phantom. Non FPV mode uses full camera
stabilization for a fully stabilized pro quality image.
The gimbal is mounted to the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus with 4 nice soft vibration dampeners/isolators that work very well to absorb vibration and eliminate "Jello-effect". The other neat thing I noticed is there are a couple safety pins that prevents the dampeners from separating (DJI calls it an "anti-drop-kit"). In other words, if the soft dampeners did separate due to high G-force or maybe even hitting something, the gimbal and camera assembly won't fall off the aircraft. Seems like a no brainer - right? However, it's a safety tethering method you actually don't see on most anti-vibration mounting plates and is something we as hobbyists generally have to build ourselves. Again, DJI has all the bases covered for the non-hobbyists already.
All
gimbal and camera functions are controlled by way of your smart phone using DJI's Vision App. The number of camera
settings/options available using the Vision App is impressive.
The
other really neat feature the Vision App supports is their ground
station setting. This enables you to set a way point flight path or
"flight mission". This is about as fully autonomous as recreational
model flight can get and really does transform the DJI Phantom 2 Vision
Plus into a hands off flying drone. For obvious safety reasons, way
point mission flight is restricted to a maximum range of 500 meters from
the home position (where the Phantom took off).
There
is a version of the Vision App for both iOS & Android which are
downloaded for free from the App Store, or Google Play. Support is iOS
6.1 or newer, and Android 4.0 or newer.
The camera is actually very decent with a 1/2.3" CMOS sensor boasting 14 megapixels and has a still resolution of 4384×3288. Stills are shot both in JPEG and RAW file formats.
The camera can record HD video and/or
stream up to 480p video back to a smart phone or tablet. HD recording is
full 1080P at 30 frames per second, or can be changed to 1080i at 60
frames per second, or 720p at 60 frames per second.
Recording field of view is selectable between 110 degrees & 85
degrees. Because the camera uses a CMOS imaging chip instead of CCD, the
low light performance does suffer and gets grainy in low lighting
levels that most CMOS cameras (such as the GoPro) suffer from.
WiFi video
streaming as I just mentioned is not HD (best possible is 480p); but is
adjustable between 320x240 15 frames per second up to 640x640 30 frames
per second. The higher the video streaming image quality you select,
generally the slower the refresh rate became I found and the little quad
can get ahead of the video feed that is being streamed back. In short,
this is not a performance minded FPV flight experience; but again, for the average
person who is using it primarily for aerial photography & video
recording, it works perfectly fine allowing you to see on your smart phone
exactly what the camera is seeing so you can move the aircraft or tilt
the camera to give you that perfectly composed aerial image you are
after.
As I mentioned,
video, stills, and telemetry are streamed on the 2.4GHz WiFi band and
has a claimed range up to 700 meters in optimal/ideal conditions using
the included WiFi booster that is mounted atop the radio controller. My
cousin has never tested the range as she is generally staying well
within visual range all the time for the type of work she does and I was
not about to test the range limits seeing this was her cool toy - not
mine. I would think in real world applications where RF conditions are
rarely ideal, getting in the 400 to 500 meter range is likely a little
more realistic.
The
telemetry data transmitted back to the smart phone display gave a decent
OSD (on screen display) experience. OSD information includes aircraft
battery level, GPS signal/number of satellites (needs to see a minimum
of 6 for GPS enabled flight), WiFi signal strength, remaining shots on
camera, SD card status, and radar/home direction status which gives info
such as distance & direction from home, aircraft altitude and
speed.
Radio control on
the Phantom 2 Vision Plus is transmitted on the 5.8 GHz band to lower
the RF (radio frequency) noise floor between the video & telemetry
transmit signals and the control side of operation. I have a full
article on video and control RF separation on my FPV Video Transmitter
Page if you want to know more about the meat & potatoes. That said,
all you really need to know is the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz RF bands work
very well together for interference free, low noise floor operation. The
DJI Phantom 2 Vision + in other words follows the golden rule of "Thou
shalt not transmit video on the same, close to, or multiple harmonic of
the frequency the radio control system uses".
Video
is recorded on a micro-SD card that is located in the top plate of the
camera gimbal allowing easy access. The DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus comes
with a SanDisk 4GB micro-SD card which is nice as many manufacturers
don't include SD cards. My cousin said that the 4GB card is plenty for a
single flight offering over 20 minutes of 1080p HD record time. The Phantom 2
Vision Plus will however support up to 32GB micro-SD cards if you want
to record several flights. What is nice however, is you don't have to
remove the SD card to download the video or stills.
The gimbal plate
also has a micro USB port so you can easily download your video/stills
between flights to your laptop or smart device through the
included USB cable or wirelessly using the Vision App. This cable is also used for charging the WiFi range
extender and to perform firmware updates on the Phantom 2 Vision +.
The proprietary battery pack easily slides and clips into the back end of the Phantom 2. It has a LED light bar to indicate the battery level both during charging and while on-board the aircraft during discharging.
There is a pushbutton on/off switch as well on the battery pack to turn
it (the Phantom) on & off. The battery takes a little over an hour
to recharge using the included universal voltage charger. There is an
optional 12VDC charge cable available for charging using your vehicle or
other 12VDC portable source.
The
term "smart" battery is used because all the charge, balance, and
protection circuitry is built right into the battery pack's logic board.
It also monitors battery temperature and won't allow you to charge it
if it's too hot or too cold. It even turns itself off if you forget it's
turned on after about 10 minutes. The battery also sends out
authenticity codes to the Naza P2V. The Naza will not allow the motors
to arm if it doesn't receive the proper "handshake" from the battery in
other words. The battery is actually a 3S2P pack meaning it uses six
2600 mAh LiPo cells. There are 3 pairs of two hooked in parallel to give
the 5200 mAh capacity, and those three parallel pairs are then hooked
in series to give the 3S 11.1 volts.
Now onto my smart battery rant (but I totally get it)...
Whenever
I hear the term "proprietary", red flags go off. To me this is the only
real problem the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus has. It's absolutely absurd
in my opinion that the main consumable item (the LiPo pack), is
restricted to what DJI offers and gives us no other battery options. It
might be one thing if they were reasonably priced, but at $130 bucks for
a 3S 5200 mAh pack, they are easily double if not triple the cost of a
standard RC LiPo pack of the same voltage & capacity.
I
do see the logic however for the market the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus
is intended. Like my cousin who has no idea about proper LiPo battery
care or how to charge one up if she had to use a computerized battery
charger to do so. She doesn't want to know either! For this market,
these proprietary smart batteries do make so much sense from an ease of
use and safety standpoint. She also didn't understand why I thought it
was outrageous to spend that much on a LiPo battery pack; so again for
the intended market, they'll buy em up without question. For the RC
hobbyist/enthusiast however, they are crippling, annoying, and way
overpriced!
Of course, the
first thing we as hobbyists do is try to "hack" this technology so we
can use $40 batteries along with our superior computerized battery
chargers also allowing us to parallel charge multiple packs quickly.
There are a few forum posts out there that I have quickly glassed over
as I was researching "DJI Smart Battery Hack", and there are two primary
ways around the DJI smart battery trap by all accounts:
This of course
will void any warranty (as any hack would), but for the pure RC
hobbyist, these were the only two workable solutions I could find unless
DJI shares the encryption handshake key; allowing other aftermarket
LiPo manufacturers to produce their own DJI Phantom 2 compatible smart
battery packs (not holding my breath on that one). Let's not forget
about the legal issues here as well. If DJI did allow that, they
essentially lose control over their power systems and Phantom 2 Vision
Plus's could be falling out of the sky when paired with cheap
substandard smart battery packs. The LiPo cells are not what I would be
worried about, it's the robustness of the logic circuit that would have
me second guessing a "cloned pack".
For
the typical DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus customer, this so called "smart
battery" problem is not a problem at all. I actually debated whether I
should even mention it in this review; but it's something I personally
don't like, and I know if I didn't mention it, I would be getting emails
by other hobbyists asking why I didn't.
To
put the smart battery issue to bed, here is my personal 3rd option
around it. As a hobbyist/enthusiast, I wouldn't get the Phantom 2
Vistion Plus as I stated at the beginning of this article. I would get
the DJI Frame Wheel F450 combo kit, pair it to the Zenmuze H3-3D gimbal
and a GoPro Hero3... Proprietary smart battery issue solved! That is
after all why DJI has the more advanced Frame Wheel kits, for us
hobbyists to configure and modify to our heart's content.
To sum this entire review up... I think the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus is quite possibly the best out of the box, ready to fly AP imaging device on the market right now. It transcends the "RC Hobby" crowd and enters into a completely new market place that is much broader in scope. The first really easy to use, understand, and live with "flying camera" for the masses in other words.
Everything You Need In One Box
In
my opinion it's not a good match, nor is it intended for the RC
hobbyist or multi rotor enthusiast, but for 99% of regular folks out
there - I can't think of a better product for HD AP. DJI is very smart
by piggybacking known RC based stabilization and control technologies
with WiFi / Smart phone technology for the FPV, imaging, and waypoint
selection side of it. Combining the two worlds makes so much sense from a
value and even "familiar comfort" perspective. Hook any technology up
to a person's smart phone or tablet and they just seem to "get it".
If
you are the type of person who has been wanting a good quality "flying
camera" capable of decent aerial HD imaging and video recording; but are
pressed for time and really don't care or want to learn about what
makes them tick - I can't think of a better quad-rotor for your first
initiation into the fun and fascinating world of RC flight - welcome! :-)
Lastly, I do strongly recommend reading the safety section on my FPV RC Page (about 1/3rd down that page). It has been brought to my attention that for me to give a proper review of this Phantom 2, I must also talk a bit about safety since you may be completely new to RC flight. There are dangers involved and very likely safety regulations governing this type of RC aircraft in your part of the world.
You should be aware of these regulations before ever taking one of these things up in the air. Flying any RC aircraft is a privilege - not a right.
And please remember, these are 100% RC aircraft controlled by a monkey on the ground - they are NOT AUTONOMOUS DRONES! Do yourself a big educated favor by not dumbing yourself down to the media's level by calling them that ;-)
Type: RC Quad Rotor with GPS electronic stabilization/autopilot
Battery: DJI Smart 5200mAh LiPo Battery
Weight (Battery & Propellers included): 1284g
Hover Accuracy (Ready to Fly): Vertical: 0.8m; Horizontal: 2.5m
Max Yaw Angular Velocity: 200°/s
Max Tiltable Angle: 35°
Max Ascent / Descent Speed: Ascent: 6m/s; Descent: 2m/s
Max Flight Speed: 15m/s (Not Recommended)
Diagonal motor-motor distance: 350mm
Gimbal
Working Current: Static : 750mA; Dynamic : 900mA
Control Accuracy: ±0.03°
Controllable Range: Pitch -90°-0°
Maximum Angular Speed: Pitch : 90°/s
Camera
Operating Environment Temperature: 0℃-40℃
Sensor size: 1/2.3"
Effective Pixels: 14 Megapixels
Resolution: 4384×3288
HD Recording: 1080p30 & 720p
Recording FOV: 110° / 85°
Radio Control
Operating Frequency: 5.728 GHz-5.85 GHz
Communication Distance (open area): CE Compliance 400m; FCC Compliance 800m
Receiver Sensitivity (1%PER): -93dBm
Transmitter Power: CE Compliance: 25mW; FCC Compliance: 100mW
Working Voltage: 80 mA@6V
Battery: 4 AA Batteries
WiFi Range Extender
Operating Frequency: 2412-2462MHz
Communication Distance (open area): 500-700m
Transmitter Power: 20dBm
Power Consumption: 2W
DJI VISION App
System Requirement Of Mobile Device
iOS version 6.1 or above/ Android system version 4.0 or above
Mobile Device Support:
iOS recommended: iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5 (available but not recommended: iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad mini)
Android recommended: Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2, Note 3 or phones of similar configuration