Christmas was good to me this year and I wanted to get a Phantom 4 Pro. have been reading some great things about them and YouTube is awash in people talking at length about all the new and great features. So what has been keeping me from hitting that "add to cart" button? well... in a nut shell I keep reading things that paint DJI in a bad light. I'm not new to drones (I've owned several) I've never owned a DJI product before and they seem to polarize people very quickly into two camps, Love and Hate.
First, I want to say that I am genuinely looking for this community's opinion. and second, I'm truly attempting to keep an open mind. That said.
First question) How are DJI customers addressing DJI's awful customer support? (Their words, not mine) While their drones may be awesome, I've read nothing but bad things about DJI dealing with legitimate customer problems. When you drop $1.5k on a flying camera system from the self-proclaimed front runner in the drone market, what should my expectations be?
Second question) DJI's no fly zones and online permissions based Geo fence. This by far has me the most concerned, I've read several stories about people's drones being forced down by the Geo boundary of things that some times don't even exist. One story I read, the Geo fence forced an Phantom into a river because it suddenly thought it was a near by stadium(there wasn't according to the owner), while the owner stood-by utterly helpless to do anything as it crashed into the water. Other stories about shooting at a remote location only to be told they need to authorize the "Enhanced Warning Zone" area online and being miles from internet unable to do so.
At first I thought this is just a fluk, rarely would happen until I went to DJI's No Fly Zone website, where they show you a map of the geo fences and my house which is 5 miles from a wind turban farm seems to be a "Enhanced Warning Zone" which requires online authorizing it would seem. This is absurd as there is no laws or legal reason for it. Also, they are showing an airport several miles away that hasn't existing for years as a "Enhanced Warning Zone" also (its a drag racing strip now). Is there a way around DJI telling me where I can and can't fly? Perhaps through a different app other then DJI GO or deleting the data base from the app and android device altogether?
Third question) In the fine print the EULA for the Mavic and the Phantom there seems to be alot of language about DJI harvesting data from their customer's use of the drone, everything from where you fly, to the pictures you take. Add to that DJI will "report suspicious activity" to local authorities and it would appear DJI stores much data about you and activatly is sifting through it indefinitely. all this made more complicated by the fact DJI is a Chinese based company not subject to American privacy laws. Is this a concern in the community at large or over active imagination?
The more I read about DJI the more questions marks seem to come up. Again, I'm keeping an open mind and I would like to get the opinion of people already using DJI products and see what you think.
Thanks,
First, I want to say that I am genuinely looking for this community's opinion. and second, I'm truly attempting to keep an open mind. That said.
First question) How are DJI customers addressing DJI's awful customer support? (Their words, not mine) While their drones may be awesome, I've read nothing but bad things about DJI dealing with legitimate customer problems. When you drop $1.5k on a flying camera system from the self-proclaimed front runner in the drone market, what should my expectations be?
Second question) DJI's no fly zones and online permissions based Geo fence. This by far has me the most concerned, I've read several stories about people's drones being forced down by the Geo boundary of things that some times don't even exist. One story I read, the Geo fence forced an Phantom into a river because it suddenly thought it was a near by stadium(there wasn't according to the owner), while the owner stood-by utterly helpless to do anything as it crashed into the water. Other stories about shooting at a remote location only to be told they need to authorize the "Enhanced Warning Zone" area online and being miles from internet unable to do so.
At first I thought this is just a fluk, rarely would happen until I went to DJI's No Fly Zone website, where they show you a map of the geo fences and my house which is 5 miles from a wind turban farm seems to be a "Enhanced Warning Zone" which requires online authorizing it would seem. This is absurd as there is no laws or legal reason for it. Also, they are showing an airport several miles away that hasn't existing for years as a "Enhanced Warning Zone" also (its a drag racing strip now). Is there a way around DJI telling me where I can and can't fly? Perhaps through a different app other then DJI GO or deleting the data base from the app and android device altogether?
Third question) In the fine print the EULA for the Mavic and the Phantom there seems to be alot of language about DJI harvesting data from their customer's use of the drone, everything from where you fly, to the pictures you take. Add to that DJI will "report suspicious activity" to local authorities and it would appear DJI stores much data about you and activatly is sifting through it indefinitely. all this made more complicated by the fact DJI is a Chinese based company not subject to American privacy laws. Is this a concern in the community at large or over active imagination?
The more I read about DJI the more questions marks seem to come up. Again, I'm keeping an open mind and I would like to get the opinion of people already using DJI products and see what you think.
Thanks,
