DJI Phantom 5 – The Rumours and What’s Confirmed

As we hurtle through the second quarter of 2020 we have already seen the drone industry provide us with some pretty nifty new drones. DJI are no strangers to leading the field in this respect and they have so far duly obliged with the Mavic Air and their partnership with Ryze for the Tello. All that is missing from the flagship drone manufacturer is a new top end drone and with rumours of the Phantom 5 popping up all over the internet it looks like we could be getting an official announcement any day.

We take a look at what we know about the DJI Phantom 5, what is rumoured, what (if anything) has actually been leaked and what is likely from the next instalment of the Phantom series.

DJI Phantom Legacy

The Phantom series has long been the pinnacle of DJI’s offering of drones for non-commercial use. Back since the Phantom was able to harness GoPro cameras to the Phantom 4 Pro, the advances in flight stability and safety coupled with the ever improving camera quality and ability to capture high end video have seen the Phantom take leaps and bounds in an fast paced industry.

Whether the next instalment in the series will indeed be a Phantom 5 or a Phantom 4 V2.0 or something similarly named remains to be seen and depending on what you read you might be told that the Phantom 5 release date is imminent or never going to happen. We prefer to live on the side of optimism and it is rare to get smoke without fire and there have been plenty of smoke signals billowing out across the rumour pages for a few months now.

The Tech Specs

There are no official lines of what the technical specifications of the Phantom 5 will be as yet. However, it never hurt anyone to speculate and it is likely that the biggest developments will lie in the battery life of the drone as well as the camera. It is hard to think quite how DJI might improve upon the flight stability and gimbal of the Phantom 4 but these may well be other areas for some improvement.

The other area that has been touted is that the Phantom 5 could be fully waterproof – this would be a huge step forwards if it were the case and could open up a lot more opportunities for amatuer videographers and photographers.

The images that have been leaked so far look very similar in design and style to the P4 and although you would like to think that DJI would go for a design overhaul their history (and especially recent history) indicates that the design of the drone in terms of how it looks aesthetically will probably not be too different to its predecessors.

The Camera

It is clear that the camera upgrade on the DJI P5 will be a crucial element when it comes to marketing and fulfilling the needs and wants of a hungry drone community. There is no doubt it will offer 4K at least up to 30FPS but there has been talk of it surpassing that with the ability of creating slow motion 1080p footage at up to 240FPS.

A 360 degree gimbal has been touted that would allow high speed photography that would be a first and welcomed by live action photographers.

The other rumours that have leaked from so-called images of the Phantom 5 show a camera that has changeable lenses. Of course, we have seen this in other DJI drones with changeable cameras such as the Inspire series but the difference here is that the P5 should be available at a price point that is affordable for everyday consumers and if the rumours of changeable 50mm lenses are true it will open up brand new photography opportunities at a more accessible pricing point.

Expected Battery Life

The Phantom 4 is capable of an already impressive 30 minutes but if DJI are to announce this new drone as the Phantom 5 you can bet they will be looking top that figure. There is talk (but it is unsubstantiated at this point) that their could be a brand new LiPo battery of the like we have never seen before and that DJI are looking to smash the 30 minute mark for record breaking flight times.

There will be no backwards steps here and it will be interesting to see whether the Chinese company decide to look for advances in battery technology or to operate some sort of dual battery usage.

Key Features

It is too early to say what the key features will be but the interchangeable lens or camera looks like a highly likely probability. We will bring you more on the key features of the Phantom 5 as we get them.

The Verdict

As always, we are super excited about the launch of the P5 or P4 Pro V2.0 if it branded as such. Whether it will indeed happen or not remains to be seen but you can be sure of one thing, DJI will not be resting on their laurels and will have something in development.