DJI Mini 3 Pro Review // Best Starter "PRO" Drone?

here we have the latest drone from dji the brand new mini 3 pro and they sent me this unit to test out and review but no this is not sponsored videos like this are however supported by those of you who join our online program full-time filmmaker and we actually just launched a brand new starter course for those not able to afford our 600 plus video course we now have an entry level option to help you get started with the basics and immediately see improvements with your videos so make sure to check that out in the description below but speaking of entry level this drone aims to be the perfect blend between small and affordable with also being high quality professional images so let's dive right into my thoughts on the drone who it's for and some pros and cons to be aware of first off the pros this drone is mini meaning it's small lightweight and portable weighing in at less than 249 grams making it regulatory friendly but the pro in the name suggests that despite its size it will deliver a high quality image worthy of professionals and what makes this mini more pro than previous minis is the bigger sensor size the new gimbal design provides a one over 1.3 inch sensor a 48 megapixel camera and 4k at 60 frames per second and 1080p at 120 frames per second now comparing that to the previous model the mini 2 it has a one over two thirds inch sensor and a 12 megapixel camera and maxes out at 4k at 30 frames per second so the sensor has almost doubled in size and frame rate capacity is doubled as well now on the topic of image quality this sensor also sports a dual iso which allows direct output of hdr footage basically meaning you have less blown out highlights and less crushed shadows which again aids to the overall quality of the footage so sensor size increased frame rates and image quality for me are the top features but another feature that i love is the option to buy this built-in screen for the remote control they do have less expensive options to buy the remote that hooks up to your phone but there's something about having to whip out my phone and drain my battery and not having access to use my phone while i'm operating a drone that deters me from pulling out my drone more often so i personally think the extra money is worth having the built-in screen now along with this new remote is the new os image transmission system this upgrade includes the move from dual antennas to four antennas bringing you a full hd live feed from up to 12 kilometers if there's no interference or obstructions so this should reduce the frequency that your feed cuts out which can make or break a shot overall in my experience the feed has been solid i experienced a cut out a little bit when going behind big buildings or when getting about a mile away or about two kilometers so the 12 kilometer metric really means no obstructions which most flying situations you'll have some obstructions so just be aware that 12 kilometers means you have perfect line of sight with completely no obstructions some other new features include the true vertical shooting mode which allows you to shoot in portrait mode if you create a lot of vertical videos and along with that is a feature called quick transfer that allows you to connect the drone to your phone quickly to transfer files and upload directly to social media on the spot now i personally wouldn't use either of these features very often but for those big social media users this might excite you i have noticed an increase of video clients asking for portrait orientation content for tick tock and instagram so i do think this is a great new feature to include to future proof these new drones it also has improved battery life giving you 34 minutes of flight time which matches the mavic air 2 but with the mini 3 you now have the option to buy an extra large battery which will give you 47 minutes of flight time and allow you to fly farther and longer for scenarios like hyperlapses for example now i haven't got my hands on one of these extra large batteries so i have no opinion on them but i've personally never been able to get a battery to last as long as advertised and just doing some normal flying i clocked the mini 3 pro regular battery at around 25 minutes so definitely not anywhere near 34 minutes but it's still plenty of time to get a couple hyper lapses or plenty of shots now this drone also apparently has increased wind resistance with how small these drones are wind can pick up and affect the smoothness of your shot so it is a concern with the size of the minis hyperlapse situations are probably the most noticeable times you'll see a drone shifting around and here's a look at a hyperlapse that i took in heavy wind you can see it does still move around a lot so the key for hyperlapses in windy conditions i've found is to not be too close to any object so that you can't see that shift in your framing as easily this drone also sports tri-directional obstacle sensing and the obstacle sensing works great in all the scenarios that i used it keeping me safe from hitting anything [Applause] must have been jake flying that because i've never i've never crashed a drone hopefully i don't crash into any trees over here on the bright side we picked this thing up turned it back on and it worked perfectly so pretty durable as well and this drone also includes intelligent features like hyperlapses as i already mentioned and master shots which is another one of those features to me that is a little bit too beginnerish i prefer to do all my moves manually and edit all that footage in premiere but again for those who want that feature and don't feel confident getting your own smooth shots it may be a nice feature for you to have as for the photo side of things yes it can take 48 megapixel stills however megapixels don't mean much to me personally unless they are in a larger sensor size so it's not going to take photos like my canon r5 for example but it will in my opinion take better photos than my iphone 13 pro so those are some of the new features and specifically the ones that i was most excited about now let's take a minute to talk about some of the drawbacks to be aware of biggest one this drone does not have 10-bit color depth it is 8-bit only it does give you the option to shoot in a platter profile called d-cinelike but i'm not a big fan of shooting in flat profiles without at least 10-bit color depth as it will give you banding and artifacting as you try and push the colors back up to a normal level so i personally recommend just shooting in the normal standard profile on this specific drone also as i already mentioned the sensor is still on the smaller side compared to some of dji's more professional models so image will be more compressed but like i mentioned it is almost double the size of the mini 2 sensor and i really could tell a difference in compression and overall quality improvement between the two so if you're not quite ready to invest in something like the mavic 3 pro but you want a starter drone that's going to give you an image that can be passable in professional situations then the mini 3 is going to be a great place to start and this brings me to the question can you depend on this drone professionally i'd say it depends on the level of the project for your local real estate videos for a couple establishing shots in a wedding video for a local commercial needing one shot of their building or for a travel video showing off landscapes i'd say yes this is going to be passable and with the convenience of how small this is i could see myself bringing this one on a lot more shoots because it feels and looks like a toy so you're not going to be running into as many issues with authorities but it will still deliver what looks like a very high quality image i can literally fit this drone in my pocket so being able to stay that low profile will make this usable in more scenarios however if we're talking about big budget productions big budget commercials netflix documentaries feature films etc you're definitely gonna want a drone with a larger sensor and with 10-bit color depth or raw capabilities for that increased image quality and color flexibility in post but dji knows that and they didn't make this for big productions their goal was to create the ideal first drone for emerging professionals and i think that this product successfully accomplishes that goal and so this is now going to be my recommendation for videographers or filmmakers looking to buy their first drone on a budget that is still going to deliver an image that is passable for entry-level professional client work and at this point many of you are probably saying well okay this looks great but it looks awfully close in features to the mavic air 2s so which is better between those two now this just depends on which features you get more excited about perks of the air 2s it has a slightly bigger sensor size at one inch slightly more resolution at 5.4k video instead of 4k though at 60 frames per second they are both 4k it also has four direction obstacle sensing instead of three direction and the biggest difference in my opinion is that 10 bit d log for more color flexibility in post now perks of the mini 3 pro it has that extended battery option it has a higher megapixel photo and the biggest one for me is that it's smaller and lighter being below that 250 gram limit letting you squeeze by regulations and is more practical to bring along and use in more scenarios so there's just different reasons to go with either one for most debating between these it will most likely come down to price the air 2s starts at a thousand dollars usd but if you want the built-in screen and other needful accessories like batteries and nd filters you'll need the fly more combo which is what i would suggest you get and that one comes in at almost eighteen hundred dollars whereas the mini three pro starts at seven hundred dollars usd and an equivalent fly more combo is gonna come in at about six hundred dollars less than your air 2s combo which is quite the price difference for very similar features so for the money for those looking to get a small starter drone that can still deliver quality images the mini 3 pro is going to be a great new option on the market it definitely has my stamp of approval as an amazing entry-level drone for videographers and link is in the description if you want to pick one of those up also link in the description for that new starter course that i mentioned for full-time filmmaker aimed towards emerging video pros to help you learn the basics and instantly improve your videos and start making money with video to help you offset some of the cost of buying all these amazing new cameras but that's it for my review and thoughts let me know what you guys think and what products you'd like to see me review next in the comments below and also don't forget to subscribe for more content just like this and if you have any further questions please let me know

Channel: Parker Walbeck

Views: 602,237

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Id: 4QdX45uEONY

Length: 10min 40sec (640 seconds)

Published: Tue May 10 2022