Best DJI Phantom 4 Series Travel Accessories For 2018
The Phantom 4 Series of drones has evolved quite a bit since the first Phantom 4 was released in July 2017.
Originally a fixed wing quadcopter modeled after the Phantom 3 series, the drone has undergone a couple of updates to open up the Phantom 4 to a range of drone enthusiasts.
Today we’re left with 2 versions of the Phantom 4: the Phantom 4 Advanced and the more powerful Phantom 4 Pro.
We won’t go deep into the differences between these two version, DJI already has a great article at dji.com on the subtle differences between the two versions:
Phantom 4 Advanced vs Phantom 4 Pro: 4 Differences You Need to Know
But if you’re heading off on an adventure of a lifetime, or maybe just a short sneak-away to the sunny south, our list of the best DJI Phantom travel accessories will have you very well equipped for filming on the go.
Extra Phantom 4 Intelligent Flight Battery
Best Portable Hard Drive For Drone Travel
DJI Phantom Series Hardshell Backpack
Sandisk Extreme microSD Card 64GB
DJI Recommends the SanDisk Extreme 64GB microSD card in the specs for the Phantom 4 Series. We’ve seen enough chatter in the forums to know that some pilots are using 128GB and 256GB as well. But considering that a 256GB microSD card holds almost 10 hours of 4K footage we think sticking with a medium sized storage card (and swapping them out) is best for a couple of reasons: First if the card is damaged or corrupted the lost images and video is limited to about 2.4 hours of video. Second, for almost the same reason, we think you’ll be overwhelmed dealing with almost 10 hours of footage in post-processing, and third if a card becomes corrupted you’re losing And this card is a steal, less than $35 with PRIME free shipping.
DJI Phantom 4 Series Neutral Density Filters
One of the main reasons people pick the Phantom 4 Series of drones is for the stellar 4K video. And there’s no point in filming in 4K if you’re not going to get the framerate and the exposure perfect. We won’t go into what ND filters do (you can read about that here and here) but if you’re serious about video quality then ND filters are a must. And considering that this is an article for travel, there’s a high probability you’re heading somewhere bright and sunny.
The filters above are made by PolarPro, one of our favorite DJI accessory companies. DJI also has it’s own offering of 4/8/16 ND filters designed specifically for the Phantom 4 that can be purchased individually. At $29 each they’re fairly priced and do exactly what they’re designed to do: slow your framerate to capture buttery smooth cinematic video.
Okay, so the Osmo Mobile isn’t really a Mavic Pro accessory. But it’s so inexpensive, and so practical for travel and capturing all of your ground based photos and videos that we had to include it.
The Osmo Mobile is an intelligent 3-axis smartphone gimbal designed (along with the DJI GO app) to help you
take your smartphone cinematography to the next level. And as an added bonus, you don’t even have to use your smartphone (see below!).
With battery life up to 4 hours on a single charge, and built-in image modes like motion time lapse and slow motion video, you’ll be blown away at what you can capture with the Osmo Mobile. And it let’s you capture video at 1080p at 60 frames per second…great for slow motion cinematic effects!
Inexpensive adapters (right) are also available on Amazon that let you use your GoPro HERO camera (because we all have a couple of those lying around) for capturing video that may be better than your smartphone. Note: there is no app for capturing the GoPro video via the Osmo Mobile so you’re just using it as a gimbal.
This is by no means a complete list of all the travel accessories you buy that would streamline or enhance your travel experience. New products seem to come out every day.
If you have a Phantom 4 Series accessory that’s ideal for travel, let us know in the comments below.
