First impressions after a few weeks.

[Cymru]

Done a fair few flights now testing the Mini 3.
Previous drones Mavic 1 Pro and still use Mavic 2 pro for reference.

A few comments:-

• Auto panorama modes ONLY work in landscape format not portrait. This is a shame
• 360 panos don't use anything like the full angle of gimbal so still end up with lots of missing sky
• The 3x3 pano if the gimbal isn't centred produces very slanted side images. These are near impossible to stitch in software without a very curved final image
  • Workaround:- centre gimbal before using OR use the 180 degree and crop OR just shoot manually
• Quick Transfer mode works well at about 25MB/sec although it does slow for periods of time and complain about interference even when its literally the only transmitter in several miles
• It does NOT have precision landing
• I've created a proper, accurate colour profile for the drone using a Colour checker. The 12mp and 48mp colour rendition are identical but the new profiles are roughly 2/3 of a stop brighter than the default
• Be very careful with autofocus before starting filming OR use manual and focus peaking - the f/1.7 lens leaves no real room for error in getting sharp focus
• Signal. It seems VERY susceptible to being blocked by foliage than Occusync 2. I've had a few RTHs initiate at 200m distance due to trees. The device is *very* sensitive to keeping the controller directed at it whilst in flight. Far more than my Occusync 2 drones. At 900m i had zero signal RTH vs a full signal simply twisting a few degrees on the RC.
• USB-C charging works fine. It pulls 28.7W initially reducing to about 6 before fully charged. Takes under an hour to go again on my power bank
• Gimbal cover is a pain in the neck to fit
• Severe ND filters will be needed for 180 rule video. ND64s,128 or 256 most likely due to the f/1.7 lens. You wont get away with your 8s or 16s on this drone
• Getting 20-23 minutes flight time for my normal types of shots
• The 48MP bayer filter images significantly lack sharpness compared to the 12mp and exhibit more noise. *HOWEVER* the biggest issue for me are the huge colour shifts likely as an error in the de-bayering. This causes most bright, high contrast details to colour shift towards purple or yellow. Its not chromatic aberration:
  
  

A few issues i've encountered randomly:-

• When operating with a bright, low angle sun on RTH ive had it stop due to "upward obstacle detected". Interesting given it hasnt GOT upward sensors. Maybe a Fly app issue.
• On one flight after taking a normal pano the entire screen went red with no image visible (telemetry and control was OK). Had to bring the drone home, land, power cycle and it was fine again.
  

At the moment by only real gripe is with the Fly App. It just removes all the control and fine tuning im used to. I can't see my exactly IMU and compass readouts to determine if they're acceptable, i've lost a lot of my manual control over sharpness, contrast and so on and basically everything is a frustrating dumbing down of Go4.
Still waiting for Fly More to actually exist to buy and proper filters to experiment further. But for a A1 sub250g drone it seems good so far.

 

[Jan Smith]

Thanks for the comprehensive report! I made a note to keep an eye out for good filters, and I am disappointed it does not have precision landing, but it has plenty of other worthwhile features.

 

[scro]

Nice balanced summary, without the hype

 

[patc45 France]

Good evening
The biggest problem with ND filters is that the ND 128 is not manufactured or not yet. That's going to be a huge gap, I think
A+patc45 from France

 

[Cymru]

Good evening
The biggest problem with ND filters is that the ND 128 is not manufactured or not yet. That's going to be a huge gap, I think
A+patc45 from France

I'd agree. I suspect ND64 will be the most common with 128 or 256 needed for sunny days.
Especially for people shooting in 4k25 or 4k30 as opposed to 60.

Add another thing to my list i assume is a DJI Fly issue - how do i adjust gimbal roll in flight? Was easy in Go4.

 

[astroprojector]

I also notice huge vignetting. It would be nice if DJI creates a lens profile

 

[Cymru]

The lens profile is embedded in the DNG file (as with most DJI drones).

If you're using Adobe or decent software it should automatically apply the embedded profile and no vignette appears.

 

[astroprojector]

The lens profile is embedded in the DNG file (as with most DJI drones).

If you're using Adobe or decent software it should automatically apply the embedded profile and no vignette appears.

I am using LightRoom

 

[Cymru]

The image profile is embedded as it is with almost all DJI drones.
What you're seeing is not vignette - its a dark line off the edge for the entire height of the frame and worse on the right than left.
That looks more like a fault or lens hood being off centre than anything else.

 

[shadow3467]

I'm so disappointed with how bad the signal is

If I change the angle of the controller by even 15 degrees, signal loss happens down to 2 bars. Also, I BARELY get past 1000M (with low signal basically for the last 400m) in a rural/suburban area with no tall buildings or anything

Super disappointing.

I didnt have the Mini 2, this is my first drone. Was the Mini 2 like this as well? Because if it wasn't I might return this or sell this and get the Mini 2 instead

 

[Storyline]

But for a A1 sub250g drone it seems good so far.

Thanks for the comprehensive review

Could anyone comment as to whether the M3 Pro is definitely a better option from purely an IQ pov over it's main <250g competitor, the Autel Evo Nano Plus ?

 

[richandhiscat]

Rather than use the 48mp setting, try the 12 and upscale using Topaz Gigapixel - you can have a trial before you buy.

 

[spsphotos]

Haven't had time to really put mine through the paces. Been either super windy or raining since last weekend. Did manage to throw it up for a few seconds yesterday, but was a tad windy (25mph gusts) and super bright out...700nits just does not cut it for high noon bright days.
Do love not having to hook up my phone (though do need to remember to enable tethering on my phone if I'm away from the house so it gets internet).

I do agree about the gimbal cover...very hard to get it on as the gimbal just keeps moving around. Has to be a trick to it.

 

[badshah]

Done a fair few flights now testing the Mini 3.
Previous drones Mavic 1 Pro and still use Mavic 2 pro for reference.

A few comments:-

• Auto panorama modes ONLY work in landscape format not portrait. This is a shame
• 360 panos don't use anything like the full angle of gimbal so still end up with lots of missing sky
• The 3x3 pano if the gimbal isn't centred produces very slanted side images. These are near impossible to stitch in software without a very curved final image
  • Workaround:- centre gimbal before using OR use the 180 degree and crop OR just shoot manually
• Quick Transfer mode works well at about 25MB/sec although it does slow for periods of time and complain about interference even when its literally the only transmitter in several miles
• It does NOT have precision landing
• I've created a proper, accurate colour profile for the drone using a Colour checker. The 12mp and 48mp colour rendition are identical but the new profiles are roughly 2/3 of a stop brighter than the default
• Be very careful with autofocus before starting filming OR use manual and focus peaking - the f/1.7 lens leaves no real room for error in getting sharp focus
• Signal. It seems VERY susceptible to being blocked by foliage than Occusync 2. I've had a few RTHs initiate at 200m distance due to trees. The device is *very* sensitive to keeping the controller directed at it whilst in flight. Far more than my Occusync 2 drones. At 900m i had zero signal RTH vs a full signal simply twisting a few degrees on the RC.
• USB-C charging works fine. It pulls 28.7W initially reducing to about 6 before fully charged. Takes under an hour to go again on my power bank
• Gimbal cover is a pain in the neck to fit
• Severe ND filters will be needed for 180 rule video. ND64s,128 or 256 most likely due to the f/1.7 lens. You wont get away with your 8s or 16s on this drone
• Getting 20-23 minutes flight time for my normal types of shots
• The 48MP bayer filter images significantly lack sharpness compared to the 12mp and exhibit more noise. *HOWEVER* the biggest issue for me are the huge colour shifts likely as an error in the de-bayering. This causes most bright, high contrast details to colour shift towards purple or yellow. Its not chromatic aberration:
  View attachment 149636
  View attachment 149637

A few issues i've encountered randomly:-

• When operating with a bright, low angle sun on RTH ive had it stop due to "upward obstacle detected". Interesting given it hasnt GOT upward sensors. Maybe a Fly app issue.
• On one flight after taking a normal pano the entire screen went red with no image visible (telemetry and control was OK). Had to bring the drone home, land, power cycle and it was fine again.
  View attachment 149638

At the moment by only real gripe is with the Fly App. It just removes all the control and fine tuning im used to. I can't see my exactly IMU and compass readouts to determine if they're acceptable, i've lost a lot of my manual control over sharpness, contrast and so on and basically everything is a frustrating dumbing down of Go4.
Still waiting for Fly More to actually exist to buy and proper filters to experiment further. But for a A1 sub250g drone it seems good so far.

Good summary! Thanks for sharing. I just got mine a day ago and still need to take it through the paces.
One question - I noticed that there's a 'Subject Scanning' option which cannot be turned on before flight. I could switch it on once the drone took off. But cannot figure out what is it's purpose and how to use it. Any tips?

 

[Chaosrider]

Signal. It seems VERY susceptible to being blocked by foliage than Occusync 2. I've had a few RTHs initiate at 200m distance due to trees. The device is *very* sensitive to keeping the controller directed at it whilst in flight. Far more than my Occusync 2 drones. At 900m i had zero signal RTH vs a full signal simply twisting a few degrees on the RC.

This part is a bit disturbing. What might cause this?

It's not as direct a comparison, but my DJI FPV uses Occusync 3, and it definitely has better control range than my Mini-2s with Occusync 2. I've not noticed any tendency for trees to be more of a problem with the O3/FPV, and I've got plenty of trees around.

My Mini-1 and -SE are both very sensitive to the direction that the RC is pointed. The Mini-2s, not so much. I haven't noticed this as a problem with the FPV, but I'll pay a bit more attention to that.

Thx.

 

[PepperBird]

Good evening
The biggest problem with ND filters is that the ND 128 is not manufactured or not yet. That's going to be a huge gap, I think
A+patc45 from France

I am receiving these today https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1ZJPY3K?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[scro]

I'd agree. I suspect ND64 will be the most common with 128 or 256 needed for sunny days.
Especially for people shooting in 4k25 or 4k30 as opposed to 60.

Add another thing to my list i assume is a DJI Fly issue - how do i adjust gimbal roll in flight? Was easy in Go4.

Not sure what you mean by gimbal roll. Is that where the gimbal allows the camera to roll in sync with the drone as it flies sideways/turns, or keeps the camera horizontal, aka "FPV mode" or "follow mode"? Those settings are under three dots > control menu, along with a few other gimbal related control options (speed, smoothing etc)

 

[Cymru]

Gimbal roll. Quite often if you take off on a not level surface or if its a strong wind you end up with a slightly slanted horizon.
Go4 has a simple adjust gimbal roll in the menu to adjust this in flight. Fly app seems to not have (and as a result some of my horizons are off).

Also cant see how or where you'd change the battery inactive discharge time - i assume you can't.

Most of my frustrations aren't with the hardware - its the seemingly very dumbed down Fly app.

 

[scro]

Gimbal roll. Quite often if you take off on a not level surface or if its a strong wind you end up with a slightly slanted horizon.
Go4 has a simple adjust gimbal roll in the menu to adjust this in flight. Fly app seems to not have (and as a result some of my horizons are off).

Also cant see how or where you'd change the battery inactive discharge time - i assume you can't.

Most of my frustrations aren't with the hardware - its the seemingly very dumbed down Fly app.

Ahh.. gotcha.. yes, you can fine tune gimbal roll in Fly:

3dots > control > Gimbal calibration > manual

That lets you manually adjust the roll and yaw while on the ground or in the air.

I've not had much 1st hand experience with Go4, but would agree that Fly is a bit too dumbed down at times. Seems to be the way DJI are heading - good hardware let down by restrictive firmware and software.

 

[Cymru]

Im not saying Go4 was good (in terms of software design it was awful!) but it allowed functions that no longer exist in Fly.
Im stunned the Mavic 3 uses Fly for example - high end drone with dumbed down, castrated software.

Go4 for sure has been ditched by DJI now though. Wont even be developed.