I have been looking into owning the DJI Inspire 1, the first drone from DJI that comes with 4K Recording. But with a US$3,000 price tag, it's hard for me to justify owning one since it's not an investment for me, but more of the joy of taking aerial video footages of airsoft games with its 4K video camera, 3-Axis Gimbal and GPS stabilization system. Apart from those, the Inspire 1 is a magnificent to look at, as it looks more like high-tech wraith rather than a quadcopter.

DJI took a good number of features of the Inspire 1 and put them into their more popular and affordable drones, the Phantom Series, releasing the DJI Phantom 3 which will come in two different flavors: the Professional and Advanced.

Drone enthusiasts have been used to owning a DJI Phantom in its basic form, as it comes without a camera and giving you the option to put your own video camera and stabilizer which usually means getting a GoPro Action Camera or pay more to get the "Vision" version that comes with the video camera made specifically to work with the Phantom. The Phantom 3 is totally "Vision" but with the "Vision" branding removed and comes in the 1080p HD "Advanced" and the 4K "Professional". The frame rate for the Advanced is at 60fps with 12 megapixel stills while the Professional is 30fps and also 12 megapixel stills.

Previously, you can do an FPV (First Person View) when flying the previous Phantom 2 Vision with a low resolution feed to your mobile device with a Wifi booster that is attached to the controller. The Wifi is now integrated into the controller and the Phantom 3 with the DJI "Lightbridge" technology and a livefeed in 720p HD can be achieved at a range of over a mile. The video camera is even better now with f2.8 lens with a narrow 94 degree view which avoid the fisheye effect of the previous 140-degree wide angle view.

Just like the Inspire 1, the Phantom 3 has the IMU which has a 6-axis gyroscope and accelerometer which allows for indoor flight together with the Electronic Speed Controllers which relay motor speed to the main controller to help the Phantom 3 maintain stable flight. For wedding or events videographers, this can be  a god send for indoor footages, provided that the motors and rotors are not noisy enough to disrupt the solemn ceremony happening below.

Apart from the Phantom 3 Drone Unit and Main Controller is the DJI Pilot App that gives you easier control of the Phantom 3. It also has a quick video editor in case you need to upload the a video footage quickly on YouTube and even Livestream on YouTube giving realtime video to your channel subscribers. This is actually a nice feature to use for airsoft events, having the ability to give a livestream of an ongoing Milsim mission. Now it's just a matter of having reliable Wifi or mobile data connection to make this happen.  But even if you haven't flown a Phantom 3 before, the Pilot App has a flight simulator to help you familiarize with the flying the drone even if you're not going anywhere.

Now, DJI has added GLONASS which together with GPS makes the Phantom 3 more aware of its position relative to the user. With the Pilot App, the location can be tracked on a live map with the takeoff point recorded so you can make it go home to you at a tap of a finger.

Pricing, you ask? The DJI Phantom 3 Advance Version actually costs US$1,000 and at US$1,100 with an extra battery which can give a 23-minute flight time after each charge. The DJI Phantom 3 Professional Version is US$1,250 and US$1,350 with a spare battery. This are manageable prices when compared to the DJI Inspire 1.

It may not be as beautiful as the DJI Inspire 1, but with most of its features now in an affordable package in the DJI Phantom 3, taking 4K video footages of airsoft events just made it more fun than before. Now, we just need to have better and faster upload speeds with bigger video files and 4K TV and computer screens to appreciate what 4K can do.