DJI Inspire Review

[Tim Paynter]

This guy might be getting paid to say of these great things, but then, he makes some good points, too.

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[Greg Boston]

A nice machine, no doubt. And I'm seriously contemplating the purchase of one. I love the spring loaded landing gear. My ONLY hesitation at this point is from the comments and reviews on various sites regarding DJI itself. There are many horror stories about their woefully inadequate and/or non-existent customer service after the fact. They have just recently issued a firmware update for the Inspire after finally acknowledging customer concerns.

Just do your due diligence is all I can say. I asked about this UAV in an earlier thread here and learned about the props coming off in flight and that they now include prop locks. It's great we have forums to exchange knowledge and first hand experience to help make educated purchase decisions.

-gb-

[Robert Turchick]

It's a serious machine. The "ready to fly" aspect and camera are the biggest reasons I love it. There are complexities to deal with but the app is spectacular. There is an official forum on DJI's site and company reps have been very responsive to questions and concerns. I would caution that this is a huge step up flying-wise from the Phantoms. Capable of much faster speeds and carries more momentum in ATTI mode meaning you need to really fly it. GPS mode it's a teddy bear but can make video jerky as it wants to stabilize itself and it's really good at stabilizing itself! I thought the video feed had frozen at one point til I saw a person walk through my shot!
My biggegst nag right now is the ND filter. It isnt dark enough and DJI have made it a female thread meaning a standard 37mm filter wont work!! And while they are working on darker NDs they want $40 for a replacement of the current one (resin not glass) which is crazy! I have a set of four glass 37mm including a graduated that cost $16!
I have done a few cosmetic mods to make orientation easier and added some velcro to the iPad holders to keep them from falling off the remotes.
The Inspire is worth every penny but make sure you have plenty of time to practice before your first gig!

[Chuck Spaulding]

Despite all you read about the problems with DJI I can give one very good reason for not purchasing an Inspire 1. Its a quad!

No matter what kind of payload, if a motor or prop fails on a quad it crashes 100% 9f the time. If you fly with a Hex or a Y6 there's redundancy so that the likelihood for a safe landing is increased significantly.

If you want to fly a GoPro quality camera around for a hobby, have fun. If you want to shoot anything commercially your, at the least going to require insurance, if its on a bigger production you might even require a bond. You probably wont be able to get either on a quad.