The Phantom 4 Pro image quality is certainly impressive. The latest drone in DJI’s Phantom series sports a brand new 1-inch sensor capable of shooting 20MP stills and 4K videos at 60 frames per second with a maximum bit rate of 100Mbps, an improved lens, and 11.6 stops of dynamic range, among other impressive features.
Image Quality Test
Our initial plan was to go out, fly the drone, and check out the Phantom 4 Pro’s aerial image quality, but unfortunately it was raining for the whole day and we weren’t able to fly. So instead, we took some photos indoors for you to check out. To give you a frame of reference, we’ve also included photos taken with an iPhone 6s and a Cannon 60D. Unfortunately, we don’t have an iPhone 7 (not looking for any more dongles right now) or a Cannon 80D on hand.
Now let’s check out some images straight from the camera and see how good or bad the Phantom 4 Pro image quality is compared with the 2 other cameras. Note that all these photos were taken in auto mode and haven’t been processed in any way.
iPhone 6s
Canon 60D
Phantom 4 Pro
Obviously, the iPhone 6s’s image quality is the worst out of the 3 cameras, but the Phantom 4 Pro and Canon 60D photos are pretty similar. As you can see on the right of the images below, the window was overexposed in the 6s photos, but the 60D and Phantom handled it pretty well, thanks to their superior dynamic range.
There are also visible chromatic aberrations with Canon’s kit lens, as you can see around the chair’s edges. This is not the case with the Phantom and iPhone photos. 
You can also see a lot of software noise reduction artifacts on with the 6s. The Canon 60D image is noisy too, but there are no artifacts present in the picture above. The Phantom 4 Pro has the sharpest and least noisy image out of 3 cameras here.
Let’s take a look at another set of photos:
iPhone 6S
Canon 60D
Phantom 4 Pro
I was very happy with the Phantom 4 Pro image quality and overall camera performance until I opened this picture in Photoshop. Yes, the whole image is out of focus. I was so distracted by the awesomeness of the drone that I to forget to tap to focus.
So now I would like to give 2 suggestions: one to the users and one to DJI.
- Always remember to tap to focus! Write “tap to focus” on a sticker and put it on your RC.
- DJI, if you are reading this, please consider adding a “lock infinity focus” feature to the camera settings, so users can choose between tap to focus and infinity focus.
Now let’s take a look at some flowers:
iPhone 6s
Canon 60D
Phantom 4 Pro
This time, the Phantom 4 Pro image quality outperformed the smartphone and DSLR in terms of image quality. Everything appears to be better, including white balance, color contrast, and sharpness. Just take a closer look at the plants:
The leaves and flowers look sharper and more detailed with the Phantom 4 Pro’s camera. You can download the original images here. The 60D’s colors turned out warm for seemingly no reason, while iPhone’s white balance stayed just right.
iPhone 6s
Canon 60D
Phantom 4 Pro
Who would have thought that the Phantom 4 Pro’s image quality in low light will be absolutely killer? Just look at the amount of artifacts on the iPhone and noise on the 60D. Yes, the DSLR has such a noisy image because the kit lens has a small maximum aperture. So ISO had to be boosted all the way up to 6400. The only problem is that a raindrop fell on the lens, so there’s white spot in the corner of the Phantom 4 Pro’s image. 
Final Opinion on Phantom 4 Pro Image Quality
In one word: Great! In two words: Very Great!
It’s not a surprise that the image quality is much better than one of last year’s top-of-the-line smartphones, but the fact that that it beats the Canon 60D makes this drone’s camera remarkable. A more in-depth review that covers the Phantom 4 Pro’s video quality is coming soon, so stay tuned! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube!
For all the original images from this review, click here.
