Inspire 1 v2.0 in 2020

scottalmas · Jan 23, 2020

I've got a fleet of DJI portable drones (Tello, Spark, Mini and Air) and a Parrot Anafi. I've been considering dipping my toe into a more professional drone (taking my 107 test on 1/25/20). Budget is a major consideration at this point. Can I get some opinions from this group on whether it's worthwhile to even look at an Inspire 1 v2.0 at this point? (as there are some decent options on eBay). I could probably get to $1500 for the AC and an extra battery. An Inspire 2 is definitely out of my price range.

If not the Inspire 1 v2.0, what else might you recommend? There's a fellow in my local craigslist with a Yuneec Q500 for $400. I'd much prefer the Inspire but if I'm buying something no longer supported, $400 may be easier to swallow. Might a Phantom 3 do the job or is that not much better than what I have?

G Saunders · Jan 24, 2020

The store at DJI.com has Inspire 1 V2 on the Discounts -> Refurbished products page for $1300 and it qualifies for CareRefresh. If you don't need better than a Zenmuse X5, I believe an Inspire 1 V2 is still a fine drone, they're still supported, and the Inspire series is the most badass looking and sounding drone. It ships with an X3, but it has the larger anti-vibe board that will take an X5.

Stay away from Yuneec. There are no apps like Litchi or DroneDeploy for them, there's no swapping of cameras, and I've never seen a good story about Yuneec support. I've got a pair of Typhoon Hs for their cheap CGO-ET thermal/low-light cameras but I don't recommend them. The Hs are going for cheap, though, and Vertigo does as good a job of support as they can given Yuneec is flaky...

Starz · Jan 24, 2020

Mavic2pro may be worth a look. Great pics and a bit better on fly time than the I1.

G Saunders · Jan 24, 2020

Absolutely, a Mavic 2 Zoom or Pro can do it, too, and they're on sale for a while. And, a M2 Pro wouldn't leave him looking for an X5 at about a thousand bucks to get better than the X3.

And the Mavic 2 is quiet and unobtrusive, where the badass Inspire can make all the dogs in the neighborhood howl...

phaser21999 · Jan 24, 2020

G Saunders said:
The store at DJI.com has Inspire 1 V2 on the Discounts -> Refurbished products page for $1300 and it qualifies for CareRefresh. If you don't need better than a Zenmuse X5, I believe an Inspire 1 V2 is still a fine drone, they're still supported, and the Inspire series is the most badass looking and sounding drone. It ships with an X3, but it has the larger anti-vibe board that will take an X5.

Stay away from Yuneec. There are no apps like Litchi or DroneDeploy for them, there's no swapping of cameras, and I've never seen a good story about Yuneec support. I've got a pair of Typhoon Hs for their cheap CGO-ET thermal/low-light cameras but I don't recommend them. The Hs are going for cheap, though, and Vertigo does as good a job of support as they can given Yuneec is flaky...

Are you wanting to sell your CGOETs?

benlockett · Jan 24, 2020

I bought a used inspre 1 V1.0 just after the release of the Mavic 2 and I think for me personally it was the better choice out of the two. For me personally, I use it mostly for filmmaking, but for the odd stills as well. I've never personally used a mavic 2, but I've owned the X3/X5 and X5R.

If you're planning on using the X3 camera, its basically the same as the P3Pro and not far off your mavic air, so the extra weight/price of the inspire isnt justified.

The X5 camera I would treat really as a stills only camera. The stills out of it are excellent (comparable to a P4Pro/Mavic Pro from what ive seen online), and the ability to change lenses is very useful and I feel has the ability to set your work apart from others with cheaper/smaller drones (but then most of the lenses are about £200 each extra), and depending on how much you care about outright quality a M2 Zoom might be enough for you. I paid £670 in the UK for a used X5 with the 15mm lens. The h264 compression on the video is quite agressive nd no only do you get blocks appearing under even quite light grades, it also has a pulsing effect when there is a lot of motion in the frame - which there usuallty is!

The X5R (i paid £950 for mine) in my opinion the only Inspire 1 camera that still justifies the size/weight and short flight times (below 10 mintues with this camera) of the inspire 1 now. The nice stills from the X5 are carried over, but you get awesome video as well if youre willing to work around all of the workflow inefficiencies of offloading the SSDs etc, your end footage won't be far off the quality you'd get from an inspire 2 and X5S camera.

In short, if youre buying into the platform for the upgrade path towards the X5 for stills or X5R for video and stills, then it's well worth it, if not I'd stay well clear of the inspire 1. 10-15 minute flight times at best, expensive and only used batteries, big, heavy and loud, but the interchangable lens cameras and raw video are worth it to me anwyay.