the DJI Mini 3. let’s see if this little drone is actually any good it’s cold today might need my gloves [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] so earlier this year DJI released the much anticipated Mini 3 Pro to very good reviews and while the old mavic Mini series had always been considered budget entry-level drones for people just starting their piloting Journeys the Mini 3 Pro was aimed at the more experienced flyers and content creators hoping to duck those strict Aviation Lords with the 249 grams and still Produce High Level quality footage the Mini 3 Pro came with some impressive Tech too 4K 60 frames per second HDR video true vertical shooting mode and focus track obstacle sensing but coming in at a pretty hefty 709 pounds for the basic kit and that’s with the old remote control or wait for it 859 pounds with the new screen controller it was hardly a budget or entry-level drone step in the new DJI mini 3.
I mean look at this thing has the same characteristics as the pro so that Bulldog profile heavy at the front low at the back in fact it inherits much of the features of the pro version true vertical shooting which is a very welcome addition to both of these drones sharing content on social media in the native aspect ratio without having to crop out two-thirds of the screen the pro version and the Mini 3 can now also shoot upwards past level Horizon which neither of the original mavic Mini or mini 2 could do this is great for capturing climbing shots and low angles so what else do they have in common well they both fly at the same speed at 16 meters per second in sport mode that’s 24 miles per hour let’s see what 24 miles per hour looks like [Music] foreign [Music] is three meters per second quicker than the original mavic Mini and only three seconds slower than the air 2s but here is where the new DJI Mini 3 beats all of the previous models including the pro flight time 38 minutes with intelligent batteries that’s four minutes more than the pro version I mean how is that possible the pro version costs 200 pounds more than the Mini 3 but can’t Outlast its cheaper sibling go figure in reality though those times would probably be around three or four minutes less than advertised but still it’s all relative they both had the same wind resistance at around 10.7 meters per second which when you consider them much bigger more expensive air 2s has the same wind resistance this is pretty phenomenal performance from a tiny body like this and hovering accuracy virtually identical to the pro and the air 2s as well I’m genuinely quite shocked by those specs and having shot plenty of Drone footage in the highlands where wind can really pick up the original mavic Mini could only manage 8 meters per second wind resistance and the alarm would go off constantly the pro and the Mini 3 drones both connect to the new DJI RC controllers which I love and can transmit across a distance of 10 kilometers unobstructed for instance if you’re flying across a body of water but in a built up area it’s probably going to be two or three kilometers which is plenty I gotta tell you these RC controllers are just brilliant no need to mess around with attaching your phone messing around with cables just switch the thing on and go I’ve missed so many opportunities in the past capturing video because I was busy setting up the flipping controller but just to note the basic price of 519 pounds does not include the new screen controller it only comes with the old RC N1 Okay so just looking at the new DJI RC controller here we have our shooting modes and we can either choose photo single shot mode will give us our lovely HDR image or if we want to shoot in vertical mode up on the top here we have the tilting action on the left and on the right we have Zoom all the way into 2X so what can’t the Mini 3 do that the pro version can well it has that stunning 4K HDR 30 frames per second as opposed to the 60 frames per second that you get on the pro that’s a bit of a shame but it can manage 60 frames per second at 2.7 K which is still very respectable for such a small drone unfortunately it doesn’t have active track which is the ability to follow a subject I particularly like this feature on the air 2s so that is a bit disappointing another feature that the Mini 3 doesn’t have is hyperlapse but I can’t say I’ve ever used that on a drone before so it doesn’t bother me too much another thing that doesn’t bother me with the new Mini 3 is the lack of obstacle avoidance sensors the pro version has front and rear sensors the Mini 3 has only downward sensors for landing maybe something that newcomers to flying drones would want when buying a drone but here’s my thinking on the matter get to know your draw own enjoy knowing how to operate it properly flying a drone is fun it’s like learning how to ride a bike once those stabilizers come off the fear goes away and you’ll be whizzing about oblivious to the lack of sensors on this drone but if sensors are important to you and you don’t feel that confident flying without them then go with the Mini 3 Pro anyone thinking of upgrading from the original mavic Mini or the mini 2 you will see a significant Improvement in flight time wind resistance which is a big one for me but I think why people really buy drones isn’t for the flying part it’s for capturing video and photo and the video quality just keeps getting better 4K 30 frames per second with a bit rate of 150 megabits per second producing stunning quality footage even in low light thanks to the Dual native ISO range on this camera where the base ISO is ISO 100 and the high base is ISO 500 evening and night shooting should be a Doddle especially coupled with the F 1.
7 aperture lens which brings in a stop more light than the previous model we still have all of the fun quick shots that we’ve come to know and love droney Helix rocket Circle and Boomerang so let’s talk about the Stills camera for a second it shoots in JPEG and RAW which is brilliant but only at 12 megapixels which is a bit of a shame considering that the Mini 3 pro has a 48 megapixel sensor and there’s no real improvement over the mini 2 either as that had a 12 megapixel camera I would have liked to have seen maybe 20 to match the air 2s but we do now have HDR image capture when shooting in single shot mode and of course we now have that vertical mode for your social media the images do come out pretty nice and clean but the 12 megapixels just doesn’t leave any room for cropping nanotechnology is pretty scary when you consider just 15 years ago you you needed to hire a helicopter and a camera crew just to capture aerial footage of the same quality you get from a 519 pounds Mini 3 weighing just less than 249 grams mind-blowing so would I buy one of these drones absolutely no question in fact I’d probably use it more than my air 2s especially on backpacking photo trips just to keep the weight down in my camera bag I’d absolutely sacrifice a few less features and of course the 249 grams opens up a huge variety of shooting locations where heavier drones just can’t fly one thing I really did notice about the Mini 3 was just how quiet this thing is you can be 15 20 feet away and you don’t even know it’s there my air 2s sounds like a swarm of bees coming overhead when you’re trying to be discreet and trying not to disturb people close by the Mini 3 is coming out of my bag every time so is this the best budget drone on the market ever I mean probably I mean I think it has to be with the specifications of more high-end drones this is certainly not a toy this is a serious flying camera and it produces professional quality content I’m genuinely and continuously Blown Away by what DJI brings at each time the mini series is not to be dismissed they can be the building blocks for beginner Pilots or incredible creative tools for established filmmakers or YouTubers like myself so hopefully that’s given you a little insight into the new DJI mini 3.
I’m a big fan as you can probably tell I’m going to be using that a lot in the future I’ve got a new Lightroom preset pack which is available on my website I’ll pop links in the description below and I’ve also got desktop wallpapers that you can download on there as well so give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video if it was helpful and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel for more photography content and I’ll catch you next time foreign [Music] [Music]
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