For the past 3 years, I have put over 300hrs of flight time on my original Mavic Mini. I absolutely loved this drone! Lightweight, decent fly time and it just expands your ability to capture brilliant images from whatever location you are at.
There were some shortcomings, as to be expected for the first of any model line. The biggest issue for me was sensor size, and from this, the lack of dynamic range. If the sun was in the wrong position there was nothing you could do, the contrast between light and dark was just too much. The second main issue for me was print size. Knowing that I wanted to expand my love for photography in the future and offer prints of my work, the original simply fell short.
That brings me onto the new(ish) Mini 3 Pro. I’ve been using this for a few months now and thus far I’m extremely impressed. My very first trip was up to Broome, Western Australia. Honestly, I could not have picked a better place to test out its capabilities! The Mini 3 Pro remains under the 250g weight limit, keeping you clear of the authorities, and takes up no more space in your bag. I bought this with the RC Remote. I love it! It saves so much time not having to connect and setup your phone every time you fly, so 100% worth the extra cost.
Mangrvoes, Roebuck Bay
Day 1 of my trip, I got to my hotel mid-afternoon and walked down to Roebuck Bay. By chance a massive thunderstorm was passing by just off the coast, so I quickly grabbed the drone. I was hesitant at first to fly, as the wind buffeting on the old Mini was quite intense, but as soon as I took off my fears were alleviated. The Mini 3 Pro takes the wind in its stride, and I quickly noticed how much quieter it is too! Surrounded by bright turquoise waters, deep red sand and dark rain clouds, it became apparent just how much better the new sensor and dynamic range is. Using the Photo Pro settings gives you control over ISO and shutter speed and it’s a game changer. Also being able to leave these settings on AUTO and just use the EV compensation slider is great.
‘Afternoon Fish” - 6 tile panorama, taken manually and merged in Lightroom
Across the next few days I continued to explore, and managed to find some marine life swimming around. Stumbling across a group of turtles feeding off the mangroves, I was able to fully test out the 4k video capabilities. The step up from the original Mini in quality is immense! The contrast, the colours, the clarity… everything is just spot on, and comparable to its bigger brothers.
In a world of social media, this is also the first DJI drone to offer vertical shooting. This isn’t just a cropped sensor of the landscape view; the gimbal actually turns the lens 90 degrees for full frame shooting. Furthermore, the gimbal can now pan vertically not just 0 to -90 degrees but above horizontal to +60 degrees. Not only does this allow for better composition when shooting from low height, but it also gives greater control when flying under objects.
3 months on, and a move to Cyprus complete, I still am in love with this drone! I have now had a great chance to test a lot of the pre-set fly modes, and photo modes, and they all work extremely well except the in-built Panorama Mode. The issue is that it does not save the files individually, meaning if there is any data loss, you cannot fix it later in post processing. I found on most occasions that the horizon would not be lined up, or there would be ghosting issues. For me though, this isn’t a big problem. I much prefer manually taking multiple images and bringing them together in Adobe Lightroom. I feel you have better control and more room for error.
‘Rains’
‘Cyprus Dreams’
Finally, to address my second main issue from the original Mini. Print size. The ability to shoot in RAW and save as DNG files gives you so much more data to work with. This not only allows you to print much larger, but the extra data allows you to rescue areas of the image that are over or under exposed in post processing. So far, I have comfortably printed at A1 (24x33”) with great clarity, and I am sure you could happily move up to A0 (33x47”) with no worries.
Nissi Island, Famagusta - 8 tile panorama, taken manually and merged in Lightroom
Unless you’re willing to cart around a much larger drone, and get qualified to fly under your national regulator, this is the only drone you will need for your travels. Hiking you’ll barely notice the weight in your bag and once you’re at a location you can be up in the air within 2 minutes. Highly recommend!
