I’ve done a lot of research. I understand the term and what’s important to look for in a drone. Range, fly time, quality camera, brushed motors, stabilisation etc but there’s one question I can’t find the answer to anywhere…
Do all drones record photos and video to an SD Card within drone? It seems that way. Isn’t that archaic? Aren’t there drones out there that will record video and take pics and save straight to your phone?
Please let me know your thoughts/answers?
Yes - the DJI drones record to your phone … but not in full 4k resolution at max bit rate … for three reasons.
1 - Interference. The higher the resolution and bit rate … the more chance there is of interference making the result unacceptable. The greater the distance between drone and user increases the chance of interference, as does the emissions of thousands of WiFi routers in more built-up areas (that use the same frequencies).
2 - And then there’s flight time. The power needed to transmit, omnidirectionally, high quality video with the lack of interference that would match what can be recorded to memory on the drone would need more power than would justify it - and compromise the already limited flight time.
3 - And, the power needed for (2) would exceed that permitted by legislation in most countries of the world that limit the power of such transmitters.
And - by total coincidence - I’ve just read this of the new DJI Mini 2 …
“Compared with Mavic 2 and Mavic Air 2, Ocusync 2.0 on Mini 2 reduced resolution from 1080p to 720p, bit rate reduced to 8Mbps instead of 40.”
So - even between DJI models, the newest/smallest DJI drone saves power by transmitting the video signal at a lower resolution and far lower bit-rate.
Can I add a fourth?
Storage space on your device…
Even if the drone could handle the transmission of that quantity of data, filming at 4K or 6K will eat through your phones storage in a scary short amount of time 
It uses external drives up on my laptop fast enough, too!
Did you ever get one of those huge/fast drives for the Inspire?
Not yet, but I’m still checking eBay from time to time looking for a bargain 
