Drones are pretty awesome things. Some gather beautiful imagery, some are ambulance drones, others deliver life’s necessities. But just when you think your drone is the best one out there, DJI, the Hong Kong-based drone king, go and release the Phantom 3.

The Phantom 3 is low-cost and high-performance and is sure to increase the already huge sales of the company. GDJ currently sells about 30 000 drones a month, so it’s safe to say they own the drone market.

Outwardly, the new Phantom 3 comes off as an incremental improvement on its predecessors, sporting the same signature white plastic body, a camera fitted to its underbelly.

But there are some changes!

“This camera system is the most technologically advanced you will find on any consumer quadcopter,” DJI Director of Aerial Imaging Eric Cheng said at the NYC unveiling.

What’s the big deal about that?, I hear you asking:

The higher-end version of the Phantom 3 comes with a camera capable of shooting video in 4K at 30 frames per second, while the lower end still shoots in very respectable 1080p HD. Still images on both versions come as large as 12 megapixels. The camera also incorporates a rectilineal lens, eliminating the wide-angle, fish-eye effect produced by many integrated drone cameras, including those built into DJI’s previous models.

Because of the hi-res camera, the drone can now be used for “aerial mapping or other applications like agricultural monitoring or construction site inspection”, and not just recreational selfies.

The biggest asset of the Phantom 3 is its software overhaul which now “allows imagery and video to stream directly from the drone to the Web so data processing can take place in real time”. That’s brilliant.

Lucky for you they are taking pre-orders for South Africans over at DronePhoto.

You can read more about the new Phantom 3 HERE.

[Source: Fortune]