This month marks the 1-year anniversary of the Mini 3 Professional, launched in Might of 2022.
With its launch got here the large query: Is it definitely worth the improve from the Mini 2? As with every up to date DJI drone, many additionally questioned if the up to date Mini drone might reside as much as all of the hype that got here related to it.
One 12 months later, we will say the Mini 3 Professional was not solely definitely worth the hype however can also be a superb drone for learners, content material creators, vacationers, and anybody in between.
Would we nonetheless advocate it in 2023?
This text and the included YouTube video are a one-year evaluation of the Mini 3 Professional, geared toward these considering shopping for a Mini 3 Professional some time after its preliminary launch. Along with this high-level evaluation of the Mini 3 Professional, we’ll additionally give our ideas on why the Mini 3 Professional is a drone to buy in 2023.
Made for the Lots
One of many many causes the Mini 3 Professional is so profitable is that it doesn’t deal with simply one space of drone house owners, whereas concurrently omitting others.
We’ll briefly have a look at a number of several types of drone house owners that may get pleasure from utilizing the Mini 3 Professional.
Inexperienced persons
Due to the Mini 3 Professionals’ dimension and weight, new drone house owners are certain to seek out the Mini 3 Professional to be a wonderful drone for his or her wants. The Mini 3 Professional is gentle and fairly agile, one thing these new to the passion can and can respect.
With its small dimension and comparatively quiet propellers (because of the pitch of the props), the Mini 3 Professional just isn’t intimidating nor assuming in anyway.
Upon taking it out of the field, one can confidently really feel like “I can fly this”, versus the emotions of trepidation many people Phantom house owners may need had at unboxing the Phantom line for the primary time after which flying what appeared like an indignant hoard of bees.
Furthermore, learners don’t must take care of the added stress of registering the drone within the US, as it’s underneath 250g.
The Open air Sort
Persevering with alongside the strains of dimension and portability, those who mountain bike, hike, or do any sort of out of doors exercise and wish to movie themselves, will discover the Mini 3 Professional to be a wonderful companion of their gear bag or backpack.
Utilizing a DJI RC, the Mini 3 Professional is ready to deploy somewhat shortly and effortlessly.
That is oftentimes an enormous plus, as getting within the air within the least period of time may imply the distinction between getting an important shot or lacking it altogether.
Moreover, with there being a tri-directional impediment avoidance system, the Mini 3 Professional is safer when flying round obstructions than any of its predecessors, though an omnidirectional system can be absolutely the most secure.
Concerning the avoidance system, the Mini 3 Professional additionally advantages from topic monitoring, one thing these filming themselves outside will profit from.
Social Media & Content material Creators
While you mix the scale, weight, sensors, and vertical capturing mode of the Mini 3 Professional, we’re left with a drone that’s fairly able to tackling many filming alternatives offered by media content material creators.
Like the advantages talked about for the outside sorts, the Mini 3 Professional is well-suited for single-shooting content material creators in the very same methods:
- Light-weight and small footprint, for simple journey
- Tri-directional impediment sensing, for Focus Observe, Highlight, and Lively Observe
- Tru vertical capturing permits posting to social media websites with out having to crop movies or pictures
Professionals
Utilizing the Mini 3 Professional for skilled shopper work could closely depend upon what trade the Mini 3 Professional might be utilized in.
The Mini 3 Professional can be utilized in a number of conditions for shopper work. Nevertheless, it appears finest suited as a dependable backup to a important drone that may have a picture sensor bigger than the Mini 3 Professionals’ 1/1.3″ CMOS sensor.
As an illustration, our firm has, over the previous 12 months, used the Mini 3 Professional for exterior actual property shoots and lakefront imagery and the photographs had been fairly good.
These pictures labored nicely, as a result of, for our actual property shoppers and a few of our shoppers in different industries, the photographs are being considered on smaller screens, principally cell units.
For tasks that require us to enlarge the pictures for print, we use drones with 1″ sensors.
» MORE: Can the DJI Mini 3 Pro Be Used Professionally?
Construct High quality
In case you are anticipating a rock-solid, bullet-proof drone, the Mini 3 Professional just isn’t that class of drone.
As a substitute, the Mini 3 Professional is constructed from light-weight plastic that, at first contact, could appear to be fairly low-cost. Nevertheless, this light-weight materials aids in conserving the Mini 3 Professional underneath the 250g weight threshold.
Though the Mini 3 Professional may initially feel like a toy drone, upon shut inspection it’s put collectively actually properly, as one would count on from DJI.
Should you twist the drone in hand barely, whereas there is likely to be minimal flexing, it’s not in any respect flimsy or low-cost feeling.
As a facet observe, one of many issues I actually do like in regards to the Mini 3 Professional, which could not look like a giant deal at first, is the truth that in contrast to most of DJIs foldable drones, you’ll be able to fold/unfold the Mini 3 Professionals legs and arms in any sequence you desire to, not simply the entrance first or rears first.
This allows you to get the drone up within the air barely sooner than earlier drones, with out actually pondering an excessive amount of about it.
Measurement & Weight
When one hears DJI Mini (insert mannequin quantity right here), it’s identified instantly that the drone goes to be small and light-weight.
Even with all the developments added to this third iteration of the Mini line (bigger digicam and added sensors), the Mini 3 Professionals weight continues to be underneath the 250g threshold.
If attachments are deliberate to be added to the Mini 3 Professional, reminiscent of touchdown gear, propeller guards, and even the bigger capability Plus batteries, the Mini 3 Professional then goes over the 250g mark.
Within the US, many Mini house owners attempt to keep underneath 250g in order keep away from having to register the drone, as drones underneath 250g don’t must be registered right here within the US.
There are two distinct conditions, nonetheless, the place the Mini 3 Professional would must be registered, these being:
- (As talked about) Including peripherals and/or Plus sized batteries, pushing the burden above 250g, and/or
- Utilizing the Mini 3 Professional for Industrial work, during which case you’d additionally must be Half 107 licensed
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 / Mini 3 Pro: How to Register (Video)
WIND RESISTANCE
As a result of the Mini 3 Professional is a sub 250g drone, it does get pushed round fairly a bit in windy situations. Though the Mini 3 Professional is rated to fly safely in 24mph winds, warning is beneficial if doing so.
When it’s that windy out, the winds might drastically change in pace and course, presumably making it troublesome to fly the drone again to your place, and even worse, inflicting the drone to crash into an individual or object.
With this stated, in decently windy situations, though the Mini 3 Professional does get blown round, due to the soundness of the 3-axis gimbal, video footage appears to be like very easy and constant.
Battery Life
When the Mini 3 Professional was launched final Might, one of many enormous attracts was that it had 2 completely different capability batteries: a Commonplace 2453 mAh possibility and a Plus 3850 mAh possibility.
The Commonplace possibility battery, which additionally is available in a fly extra combo, has flight instances of as much as 34 minutes, whereas the Plus possibility, which additionally is available in a fly extra combo, boasts flight instances of as much as 47 minutes!
DJI Mini 3 Pro Fly More Kit
Fly Extra Package contains two Clever Flight Batteries, a Two-Method Charging Hub, information cable, shoulder bag, spare propellers, and screws.
We earn a fee for those who make a purchase order, at no extra price to you.
05/15/2023 01:59 am GMT
Whereas I’ve by no means been in a position to get flight instances of 34 minutes on a normal battery, or 47 minutes on the Plus battery, I can confidently say that with the Plus model of batteries, you’ll be able to certainly get fairly a little bit of flight time.
As a rule of thumb, for battery well being, I typically land between 25% and 30%. The time flying on the Plus battery possibility is so lengthy, I’m genuinely stunned it’s not time to land and alter the battery.
» MORE: Drone Battery Care (All You Need to Know)
Imaginative and prescient Sensors
New to the Mini line of DJI drones are the tri-directional imaginative and prescient sensors discovered on the Mini 3 Professional: Entrance, Rear, and Backside.
With the sensors enabled, you may have 2 choices for impediment avoidance: Bypass and Brake.
- Bypass allows the Mini 3 Professional to scan the quick space and select the easiest way across the impediment.
- Brake stops the Mini 3 Professional from shifting ahead when it senses an object.
Moreover, you’ll be able to flip all impediment avoidance off, permitting one to fly the tiny drone near and between numerous obstructions and gaps.
Now that the Mini 3 Professional now has 2 new entrance and rear sensors, it may well get pleasure from most of the clever flight modes the Air 2, Air 2S, Mavic 2, and Mavic 3 strains profit from, reminiscent of:
- Lively Observe
- Highlight
- POI (Level of Curiosity)
- Hyperlapse
- Grasp pictures
- Quickshots
» MORE: DJI Mini 3 Pro Intelligent Flight Modes (Explained for Beginners)
DJI RC Controller
When the Mini 3 Professional was launched, the DJI RC distant controller was additionally launched.
Like the unique DJI Sensible Controller and the next DJI RC Professional, the DJI RC has an built-in 5.5″ display. In contrast to the higher-end DJI good controllers, with their 1000-nit screens, the DJI RC has a display brightness rated at 700 nits.
Though not as vivid because the higher-end DJI RCs, the display on the DJI RC, for me within the vivid Central Florida solar, has been a a lot better expertise than utilizing any of the iPhones, iPads, or Samsung tablets and telephones I personal.
Additionally, the display brightness is continuous, that means it by no means ever dims, regardless of how scorching the RC will get.
Picture & Video High quality
The Mini 3 Professional sports activities a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor, which isn’t solely bigger than the sensors in any prior DJI Mini drone however can also be near double the scale of the sensor within the Mavic Air 2.
The Mini 3 Professional additionally has a large mounted aperture at f1.7, which permits it to absorb extra gentle than the f2.8 aperture many drones have, thus taking higher-quality low-light footage and movies.
With the Mini 3 Professional being out for a 12 months now, there are tons and tons of video footage and social media pictures on-line, taken with the Mini 3 Professional.
Wanting on the abundance of footage, one can moderately say with out objection that the Mini 3 Professional not solely takes wonderful movies but in addition high-quality pictures.
Pictures
The Mini 3 Professional has a 12MP digicam, just like many cell telephones in the marketplace at the moment, and takes wonderful pictures.
What hobbyists and professionals alike will respect is that the Mini 3 Professional takes each JPEG and RAW pictures concurrently.
For these new to pictures, RAW picture information are particularly helpful as they seize far more picture info than JPEGs, permitting the top consumer the flexibility to essentially edit the pictures to their liking.
» MORE: Drone Photography: Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started
There’s additionally an choice to shoot 48MP pictures. That is finished by means of some ingenious methods with the pixels within the Mini 3 Professionals digicam. There are those who adore it and those who hate it. I’ve used this selection prior to now on actual property jobs and produced nice outcomes.
The Mini 3 Professional can also be in a position to shoot in vertical mode, that means that the Mini 3 Professionals digicam rotates 90 levels to take portrait-orientated pictures and movies. That is nicely fitted to content material creators and those who put up recurrently to social media websites like Tik Tok and Instagram.
When capturing vertically, pictures now not must be cropped bodily, that means that the picture is within the body and brought with no high quality misplaced as a consequence of in-post cropping.
When capturing vertically, your complete Mini 3 Professionals sensor is used, rendering the best high quality pictures and movies.
Movies
The Mini 3 Professional can shoot video within the following resolutions and frames per second (FPS):
- 4K 24fps, 25fps, 30fps, 48fps, 50fps, and 60fps
- 2.7K 24fps, 25fps, 30fps, 48fps, 50fps, and 60fps
- 1080p 24fps, 25fps, 30fps, 48fps, 50fps, and 60fps
- Sluggish Movement – 1080p 120fps
COLOR PROFILES
The Mini 3 Professional has two coloration profiles: Regular and D-Cinelike.
D-Cinelike is a DJI-specific, pretty flat video coloration profile that, when chosen, the footage is recorded in 10-bit. 10-bit D-Cinelike is helpful for these wanting probably the most flexibility when color-grading their footage.
The Regular profile is helpful for these which can be content material with the in-camera coloration and both don’t wish to coloration grade their footage or simply wish to make minimal publicity and coloration changes.
» MORE: Best Video Settings for DJI Mini 3 Pro
Verdict
With a number of fashions of DJI drones popping out for the reason that launch of the Mini 3 Professional, specifically the Mini 3, Mavic 3 Traditional, and Mavic 3 Professional, is the Mini 3 Professional nonetheless a viable buy in 2023?
Completely.
With the Mini 3 Professional being at an honest price-point, together with having many high-tiered specs, the Mini 3 Professional is a superb drone for learners, seasoned hobbyists, and even professionals searching for an important backup drone.
Additionally, for the reason that Mini 3 Professional is a 12 months previous on the time of this text, there are lots of “near new situation” used Mini 3 Professionals for a whole lot of {dollars} lower than new pricing, making them a good higher purchase in 2023.