I've been on a spending spree lately and considered upgrading from the vision to vision +, I've also been on the fence about the inspire. So far I've been able to fight the feeling to upgrade not because I don't love the tech but I just can't justify the cost to the incremental benefit I would get with either new machine.
The vision + has a slightly better camera and a third servo controlling the yaw of the camera. It currently sells for $1,200 + tax. I record in high res but almost always down convert the footage to post it on you tube. The yaw stabilization of the vision + gimbal has a very limited range of motion, if it didn't the legs of the helicopter would show up in a lot of the recorded footage. So $1,200 for a better camera that I won't take full advantage of and a third axis stabilizer just doesn't make sense.
The inspire is an awesome machine but I think dji is targeting the mid level Arial videographer/photographer hobbiest with a cost of $2,900 for the single controller and $3,200 with two controllers. For a little perspective a fully loaded ready to fly dji s900 or s1000 costs around $10k (before the camera, Sony or cannon but not Nikon) the gimbal alone is $2,500. Since the inspires landing gear retracts getting the landing gear in the the footage is never a concern such that the camera has the ability to rotate 360 degrees. It also has additional sensors on the bottom so flying indoors (out of GPS line of sight is easier) because the additional sensors help the operator keep the heli from colliding with the ground or other obstacles on the ground (this is actually old tech emulated from the much cheaper ar drone by parrot in my opinion). Having two operator control is nice but this can be accomplished on the vision and vision + by buying another new controller (two if the current controller is older and doesn't already have a patch cable port on the back of it). At $100 per controller it's a lot cheaper way to get what amounts to training box functionality that has been available by default in the rc industry for decades. Plus everything is jut more expensive on the inspire, the batteries are $200+ each and the controllers are at least double the cost of the phantoms.
Between the phantom 2 without a camera and the phantom 2 vision + the vision + is a much better value unless you just have to have a gopro camera instead which I think Is completely unnecessary if you down convert the resolution for posting purposes. The audio of the gopros doesn't even come into play as all you'd hear is the sound of rotating blades anyway. Cost wise the p2 without camera and gimbal is $800. Add in a gopro black or new silver for $400 and a quality 3 axis gimbal for another $400 plus another $40o in electronics to get the same fpv functions as the vision + and the costs approaches $2k (only $900 shy of the inspire cost).
Going the extra mile and getting fpv goggles for any of the above runs another $500.
After a year with my p2 vision, now upgraded with a new controller and 2 axis gimbal as well as fpv goggles and two new batteries ($130 each, my first two died at 9 months and 11 months old) I have had a lot of fun and been able to capture some really good footage but aside from the monetary cost there is the editing time to consider and more importantly By default Of being the camera/copter operator i ended up capturing the moments but not participating In them. Going forward I will probably limit my quadcopter use to water sports and other family gatherings. I have a friend in real estate that I will probably take footage for free for just to keep my flying skills up. On that note, I think many people new to quad copters (they are not really drones unless they are programmed to take off, fly and land themselves which the phantom 2 and vision are capable of) rely to heavily on the inherent stability of having multiple rotors and often GPS assistance that they don't actually take the time to learn to fly or to learn basic helicopter theory much less rc helicopter safety. These are the people (guys mostly that "don't need no stinking directions or instructions") that end up crashing and damaging other's property or injuring people that makes the responsible quadcopter owners and operators, the whole industry, look bad. All of this could be avoided or greatly minimized with just a few hours of training.
Back on topic and sorry for the rant the 3 axis hand held gimbal is nice and a much cheaper alternative to the ronin which carries a dslr at $3k. But I'd like the new hand held better if it could take a go pro in a protective case so that the camera would be somewhat protected even if the electronics of the hand held gimbal would not be. If it could easily be mounted to go pros head strap or chest strap I'd probably already have one on order since in addition to capturing the moments I would also be participating in / making them unlike the case of a flying camera platform owner/operator.
