We would like to chime in with another perspective here for consideration. Our thoughts are that it really depends on what you are doing with the drone. We have a large pilot network that can be contracted for work around the country and for some of the work, the P4 Pro is the minimum accepted drone. Our pilots who want to do cell phone tower inspection can bring a P4 Pro to training and also use it in the field on the towers. Many of our pilots will use Inspire and Matrice series drones, but the P4 Pro is an acceptable platform for tower inspections. From that standpoint one might interpret it as a professional drone. It has also done a very good job as a mapping drone for a number of clients.
On the other hand, if you were only doing cinematic work it probably would not be the right choice. Just ask a professional photographer how they would feel about having to take every single photo of every subject matter they ever shoot with a single wide angle lens. No zoom and no other lens choices - ever. From that regard you would probably have to step up to a different platform to get your work done properly or professionally. The same thing is true about the video format. Is a compressed h.264 file the right output for everything? No, but it will work for many of your clients - just not all of them.
So we feel it is the right drone for some professionals (or specific professions inside the industry) and for others it would not be the right tool.
We did however appreciate the comment related to the perception of being professional by putting it in a good case with a lot of batteries...
I've been a professional (as in paid, as @Wilson Lake Drone succinctly defined it) for over 35 years. So my clients must be happy enough with my work. Certainly, with medium and larger format cameras I used before digital (including a Linhof 5x4 cut film camera) I could guarantee quality, assuming I focused correctly, and the same is true of my high-end Canon digital bodies.
Although I've flown model aircraft (and real aircraft) and model helicopters in the past, I'm relatively new to drones. I bought the P4 Advanced, when I was informed it had the same camera as the P4 Pro, and that the camera I would have preferred, on the Inspire, was way out of my budget.
My first mistake was not getting the Pro, with rear sensors, and I reversed the Advanced into a cliff and lost it in the Atlantic Ocean, off the west of Ireland. I got a deal on my 2nd model, and stuck with the Advanced, but wish I'd got the Pro, to be honest.
In terms of image quality, I'm finding it a bit hit-and-miss. I shoot RAW and tend to set the aperture quite small (usually f10 or f11) and the ISO very low (100 if I can get it) for stills. In the days of film and less well made lenses, it was a no-no to set the aperture at the maximum widest and maximum smallest, as a fall off in quality could occur. I'd be interested to know what others think of this as it applies to the P4 Advanced / Pro lens?
Sometimes I can get very sharp images and other days they are softer at the same setting. I also get "ghosting"on the highlights, and have to reduce the highlights in Lightroom. Here's one of my sharper images with good contrast. The light may have helped.
Yes, free time to test it out....never enough. Just thought of another reason for softer images. If there is any atmospheric haze that would do it. You wouldn't see it at ground level, but it could be there at higher elevations.
Same image processed differently or two separate images with different settings? I like the sharper one better. The sun could be hitting the lens of the camera. Another cause of ghosting is slow shutter speed and camera movement during the shot. May want to consider if you need to stop down past f5.6 as a wide angle lens has a lot of depth of field. I don't think you are going to get any better quality with these types of drones. I also think these a really good quality photos.The light's good now, so I'm off to do some testing! Here is the same property shot, twice. The first without sharpening, and normal highlights - I think it shows the "ghosting" I mentioned. The second with 65% sharpening and reduced highlights. I welcome thoughts from you and other experienced P4A or P4P users as to whether I should expect higher image quality from that camera (putting the light aside). The light was quite diffused and from the RH side.
