Tech review: DJI Mini 3 Pro drone offers advanced photography in a tiny form factor
An upgraded sensor, 4K HDR video and RAW photography help make the DJI Mini 3 Pro a worthy drone for recording holiday adventures.
An upgraded sensor, 4K HDR video and RAW photography help make the DJI Mini 3 Pro a worthy drone for recording your holiday adventures.
It arrives at a time consumer drones are going through a dark age. The public is fed up with the intrusiveness and danger they present. No-fly areas, flying rules, and coming drone registration mean consumers can’t just buy and fly.
To be safe, I have an aviation reference number (ARN), three-year RPA Operator accreditation, and I registered my Mini 3 Pro review drone to tick the regulatory boxes.
Currently you don’t need to register drones this size for recreational and sporting use, but you will need to register recreational drones weighing 250g from July next year. At about 249g, the Mini 3 Pro escapes this by a whisker if you use DJI’s standard battery. Its Intelligent Battery Plus tips you into registration land.
Before flying you must charge the batteries, and install the latest DJI Fly app. I use the OpenSky app and the Airpass website to pick a safe flying location. CASA lists other location apps.
You also must perform any needed firmware upgrade before heading out as downloading the firmware on location can be slow and the drone simply won’t fly without the latest firmware.
The Mini 3 Pro is foldable, small and portable, and being lightweight it easily can be packed in airline luggage or a backpack.
But it costs significantly more than the previous Mini 2, which was $699 for the drone only.
The Mini 3 Pro comes in at $1199 for a drone and a controller you link to your phone, or $1299 with DJI’s new controller with its own 5.5-inch, 700 nit screen. It makes flying a breeze with big buttons for shooting photos and video, adjusting the tilt and zooming and rotating the camera.
You can pay extra to get the drone and controller in a case along with extra propellers and a three-port charger with two extra batteries.
The camera is better than with the Mini 2.
You can shoot 4K HDR at 60 fps and 48MP RAW stills, which should suit more serious photographers. Larger 2.4um pixels and an aperture ratio of f/1.7 means better lower-light photos. Then there’s the new “true vertical shooting” mode. You press a button on the controller to rotate the gimbal 90 degrees.
I flew the Mini 3 Pro on an overcast morning at a big deserted oval at Oonoonba, southeast of Townsville City.
It was responsive to controls, quickly changing direction when prompted, and moving like greased lightning across the sky. DJI quotes its maximum speed as 36km/h in normal flying mode.
DJI says the drone can deliver a 1080p/30fps live feed to the DJI RC controller from up to 12km away; that’s a theoretical aspiration given you must fly line-of-sight.
The drone has obstacle detection (APAS 4.0) that stops it crashing into trees but, it seems, not into thin branches. There are no side sensors, so you should avoid flying sideways where obstacles are an issue.
Satellite connectivity proved hit and miss. My drone had issues connecting to GPS at Townsville, but back at Sydney it did recognise my proximity to authorised airspace.
Other features include active tracking, and DJI’s fleet of intelligent features such as Dronie, Helix, Rocket and Asteroid mode.
Battery life of up to 47 minutes flying with the “Plus” batteries means you will probably be sick of controlling your drone before the charge runs out, especially if you use all three batteries.
The DJI Mini 3 Pro looks toy-like and fragile, but looks belie its ability to take professional quality photos and videos and the features packed within it.
