Home Drone Parts And Accessories Fatshark Dominator V3 FPV Goggles Review

Fatshark Dominator V3 FPV Goggles Review

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Fatshark-Dominator-V3-FPV-Goggles

Fatshark Dominator V3 FPV Goggles Review

Introduction

“I SAW FPV GOGGLES, AND KNEW I COULD MAKE THEM WAY BETTER.”

GREG FRENCH, FOUNDER OF FAT SHARK 

Are they better, or are they worse than other FPV Goggles?

You don’t know what to believe, dive into this Fatshark Dominator V3 FPV Goggles review and draw your own conclusions.

Box Content

When you first open the box you notice  a nicely made semi-hard shell case, you can carry the goggles and its gear in that case. When you open the case you see 2 sets of foam eye socket pads, lens cleaner, AV cable, 7.4V 1800 mAh Li-Po battery pack with LED indicator, battery discharge adaptor,  Mini to Mini HDMI cable with adapters and of course the Fatshark Dominator goggles.

Fatshark-Dominator-V3-FPV-Goggles-box

FatShark Dominator V3 – Specifications

FOV (Diagonal) : 30 degrees

Adjustable IPD : 59-69mm

Display Resolution : WVGA 800×480

Video-out Resolution : 720p

Power Consumption : 3.6W

Fatshark Dominator V3 – Features and Design

Fatshark V3 were released in 2015 and since then are viewed as some of the best FPV goggles, but still they disappoint in some areas. Build quality is decent enough and they are packed in a nice and sturdy zip case, but the white and blue color scheme seems outdated and they are quite heavy. You also don’t get everything you need in the case, for more seasoned FPV racers this is no issue but for a novice can be surprising when they won’t find the analogue video card receiver or the necessary battery charger.

If you take a close look at the top goggles you will notice it has head tracking controls, DVR, volume level controls, mini fan which keeps the lenses from fogging up, channel selection buttons, brightness, contrast and 2D/3D mode selector button. 

Underneath it has a port for the head tracker, IPD adjusters , power switch, earphone jack, mini HDMI port. It’s all placed nice and conveniently which is a plus. 

The analogue video card receiver can be installed behind one of the removable covers on the side of the goggles, this being one of the V3’s highlights. It is important to buy a transmitter that matches the one on your drone. 

The battery should charge using the connector you have for the drone, as it uses the same standard balance charger. When charging the battery you can observe it has 4 LEDs which indicate the charge of the batter. So you can approximate how much time you got left. It should last for at least a couple of hours and it usually lasts more than the drone’s battery.

Fatshark Dominator V3 – Screen

Fatshark-Dominator-V3-FPV-Goggles

The image in the google comes at a low resolution of 800×480 and 16:9 aspect ratio – not HD. But that matters little when it comes to FPV goggles because you only need to see where you’re flying, and that resolution is enough. Latency is minimal and the field of view is 30.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to buy a receiver if your drone has HDMI output. You can use the HDMI cable that comes with the goggles to pipe the image from the drone controller directly to your Dominator V3. The quality of image will be better than with a receiver but still not HD , which is a bummer. 

The image you see in the goggles seems a bit far from your face compared to , let’s say, a smartphone in a VR viewer, it’s like sitting at the back of a cinema. Even so you can adjust the lenses to match the distance between your eyes or pupils.

More about it

If you are a person who wears glasses, you might find the goggles a bit uncomfortable. You can buy -2, -4, -6, dioptre correction adaptor but if you are short or long sighted that will do no good. In that case you will have to wear contact lenses. 

But there is also good news. The mini fan that is installed at the top half of the goggles, keeps the lenses from fogging up. That way you will be more comfortable and you won’t have to bother landing your drone just to take off the goggles to clean the lenses every now and then.

The on screen telemetry has all the necessary information in order to make your experience enjoyable. Horizon level, air speed, height, distance out, home point indicator and battery level, these are all the information you can see on the screen. You got everything you need to know right there. All this on screen information will help to keep you immersed in the FPV experience.

 

Fatshark Dominator V3 – DVR

  The DVR is a slot placed between the lenses. You can insert a microSD memory card up to 32GB. It’s a bit complicated to enable this feature and start recording. But the manual is comprehensive and well written so anyone can manage. 

The video footage you get is a bit disappointing, as you get  30fps low quality video with a 4:3 aspect. Also the telemetry information will not show on recordings. That’s also a bummer, but maybe Fatshark will change that up in the future due to high demand. At the end of the day, the recording works and it does what it is expected to do. So we don’t need to be too harsh about the low resolution.

In conclusion 

Even though they might be a bit pricey , there is not much of a competition yet. That aside, Fatshark Dominator V3 are a great addition to any FPV toolbox. They are greatly built, easy to set up and they are great starting ground for any FPV “career”. 

If you want to grab a pair, or just find out more about the product, you can buy the Fatshark Dominator V3 here. You can also check out some of the buyers reviews here.

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