I recently treated myself to a shiny new DJI Phantom 3 Pro quadcopter/drone. It's a very neat piece of technology. I'll post my photos here as I get them. To start with I am just flying it over my house and yard, but as soon as I get a decent travel case I plan to take it with me on the road.

Here are a few of my photos so far..
Sunset this evening from 400ft



Last week I did some test shots to see how it would cope with nighttime 8 second exposures.



Daytime shot taken on the first day I was able to fly it.. from 400ft looking straight down.


Looking North from my house there is a Cell tower. Again, taken from 400 ft.


Here it is hovering above the driveway.



I am still learning the finer points of operating it, but so far I am thoroughly impressed. Hopefully I can keep it in one piece!!

I bet that is fun. I'm still land locked.

It is fun, although I always worry about mechanical/electronic failure when I fly it. If one ESC or motor fails then it will drop like an out of control rock. A $1200 rock. LOL.

I'm lucky in that I have a fairly large yard to practice in. I am going to have to start looking for more interesting places to fly though.

thats amazing.... 8 second exposure from something hovering!

saving up now......

I have payed around a bit with the images I took of the sunset. I think this one came out quite well. It is a composite of three images stacked on top of each other. The P3 can take a series of photos in rapid succession at different exposure settings. You can then process these images and combine them to bring out the best details in all areas of the image..

And another...

That does look like a very cool set up Paul.

How is the flight time, and what controller do you use to operate it?

So far my longest flight was 18 mins 50 seconds. According to the DJI Pilot App (which you use to display video feed and flight telemetry, there was 4 minutes and 23 seconds of battery power left when I landed that flight.

The controller comes with the Phantom. Here is a photo of it after I first unboxed it.

that is so cool Paul!

Paul, survived my first flight! Upgrading from a Husban, this thing is 100X more stable. I was showing GPS connection up to 16 satellites at one point. Not the best conditions for a first flight- sunset with a steady breeze. Just happy to get it flying. Will work on camera settings next flight.

A hummingbird checking it out.


29 ft / 8.9 meter selfie

That's awesome Chaz! I think you will have a blast with it. Post your photos when you get them!

those look like so much fun!

This is REALLY impressive, both the pictures and the Drone.
Appreciation!

What a noob I am. When I started packing up the P3 for the night, I just realized that I removed all plastic film covers except the one on the camera lens. Was wondering earlier why some of my pics and video had so much glare and distortion.

If that's the only noob mistake you have made then you are going to be just fine.

It's amazing how much the app has to offer in terms of customization of the camera. I'm still far from mastering it, but it's nice that at any given moment, 18 satellites can hold a near perfect (lat/long and altitude) hover while I fiddle with the camera.

Being in suburbia California, my flying options are limited. I need to drive south about 20 minutes to find more open areas.




"Sunny California" during the summer doesn't offer much in the the sky/cloud department. The early mornings with fog are my better options until Oct/Nov.

the pics are so clear!

Sunrise. 6am

Damn, gave me the bug again. Have DJI phantom 1 under the bed that has never flown. After
hearing the horror stories of it going missing on the first flight was not going to chance it.
Been looking at the Inspire, but price point really puts it outta my league. And then having
the ability to use 2 controllers. One for flight and a camera operator. WOW. I am dreaming
This looks like it my be my step up. Need unload a mountain of electronics I never use
anymore to.

Jim, the Phantom 3 is pretty amazing. It can do most of the things the Inspire 1 can do, but at less than half the price.