Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve upgraded my Vision 2 Plus drone to the new Vision 3 Professional. For the past couple of days I’ve been putting it through its paces, trying to figure out what is new and different about it.

So far, so good. The camera is much more sophisticated than the Vision 2 Plus. It has a narrower field of view so it’s not as dramatic, but it’s also less likely to capture the drone’s legs and props in the shot, even when making extreme maneuvers. Also, 4K video is really a treat. When targeting 1080p as a final video format, shooting in 4K allows a little bit of latitude in cropping and panning in post production. Shooting photos in DNG format is much faster too. The Vision 2 Plus took about 5 seconds to capture a DNG. The Vision 3 Professional does it in a second or so. Probably the most welcome improvement, however, is the ability to manually set exposure. This means the camera no longer ruins your best shots with wild exposure swings as the automatic exposure tries to compensate for moving light and shadows.

I also really appreciate the much-improved FPV video feed to the Android app. DJI’s Lightbridge technology really shines, providing smooth 720p live video from the drone’s camera.

Anyway, enjoy the video I shot today at Tew’s Falls in beautiful Dundas, Ontario. There will be more to come.