Which new drone should I get

One thing to be aware of with the alpine model is recently they seem to be a lot of people complaining of DOA batteries on the clearance deals.

Retailer of DJI should replace but just so you are aware.

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Sat on the shelf too long? :thinking:

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I had/have a problem with the two tiny screws on the gimbal having very small cracks around them, was common on the first Pro’s out of the Factory.
A lot of people sent them back for repair, I never bothered, and they are just the same today after many, many hours of flying.
Has not ever affected the gimbal in anyway.

Probably. They have been out of production for nearly a year so any batteries in the kit have been on the shelf at least that time.

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Well I’m leaning now towards the zoom

Not sure if it’s still available, but there’s a very impressive, and comprehensive, Zoom kit that’s still listed for sale by one of our members.

Edit: Has been sold, apparently.

You originally said your budget was “£900 tops”.

You’re not going to get the Zoom for that, and even second-hand you’ll have just the basic kit with one battery. You’ll need several spares if you’re serious about PfCO. They are £129 each

DJI Care Refresh, probably, is another £109.

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I know I said £900 but the zoom is only £199 more and my PFCO school have said they would knock £33 off so £166 more

I know the platinum gives better battery and is slightly quieter but for terms of doing weddings is the standard one sufficient?

plus another 2 batteries (minimum), and DJI Refresh = £533 more.

You cannot really contemplate PfCO work for a client with less than 3 batteries (those that do this would probably say several more?).

… depending on what type of PfCO work you have in mind, I guess, something you’ve not alluded to.

For the Mavic s I have 4 batteries, the typhoon h I’ve 3, my tarot 680 heavy lift 7 .
So between them I get about a total of 4 hours flight time. Which is usually plenty for a days work.

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My eyes would be like dinner plates maintaining VLOS eyeballing for that long! :wink:

(Or - my spotter’s would be. Delegation is king! :wink: )

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If you can find a way to afford it, stretch to the Mavic Pro 2 or zoom. They’ll last you longer and quite adequate for pfco work if it’s just aerial shots or especially mapping work.

You only need an inspire 2 etc for proper ciné work or a matrice for thermal and multispectural stuff. For everything else the Mavic Pro 1 or 2 will be fine in my humble opinion.

If you want to impress the client buy an old inspire 1 in a huge box! Still a cracking drone now!

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Another thing to remember when it comes to batteries, is on a mutli-take shoot you won’t use a full battery’s capacity as you may land between takes or shots and if there is only 3-4 minutes left (more in reality) in a battery you will swap out and use a fresh one. Hence for commercial work lot’s of batteries are a must.

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Not sure I’d trust drones direct for a refurb.

£50 more for a new one with full warranty at Scan.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/dji-mavic-pro-platinum-fly-more-combo-4k-stabilized-camera-flight-autonomy-30-min-flight-time?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7Zm7xKDv4wIV1vhRCh1k2wvPEAkYASABEgLMFfD_BwE

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Thanks guys for your input. Buying a new drone is on the back burner for now. I am gonna wait till I pass my theory in October maybe even Black Friday

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Care to justify ?

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Hi there, i have both mavic 2 pro and zoom which are both top notch drones, out of the two i defently think the zoom is the better deal, as the pro,s picture quality is not a lot better than the zoom, plus the zoom as its zoom feature which is brilliant. More offten than not i use the zoom. If you got the zoom you wouldnt be disipointed i am shore.

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I’ve had 2 refurbs from them with no issues, including my current M2P

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Looking at all the test the platinum is a very long way from 60% quieter than the pro . It’s around 2 to 3 dB. Tested mine out alongside a platinum. You reall can’t tell any difference .
If it was 60% it would be nearly soundless.

It’s about 5-6db quieter. A YouTube video proves this the pro was 95db the platinum was 89/90db they also said the leap from 90db to 95db is significant then from 5db to 10db so it may not seem a lot but it is. It is however no where near 60% quieter

Also using the platinum props on the pro dropped the pro about 2-3db

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