Drones with good zoom?

[alexjo55]

I have the mini 3 and with 2x zoom, i think its not enough.
But also the quality of the image/zoom is not great.
For good qulity, the max zoom is like 1.5x.


Been looking at the mavic 3 and that zoom looks very good, but the drone is a bit bigger and heavier than the mini 3, and also a bit pricey.

What im looking for:
- Relatively small drone. Should be easy to fit in the backpack.
- Good battery life of at least 30min
- Minimum 5x zoom in high quality.
- My budget is around 1200 usd and the drone could be brand new or second hand.

Any sugestion?

 

[Cafguy]

the air 2s has 4x zoom in 4k I know you said 5x but it will also do 6x in 1080p and its is right in your price range. The extra bonus: the Batteries are the cheapest DJI batterys they sell so you can get plenty extras for cheap. You won't get 30 min but I get around 25 average on my Air 2s

 

[fd123_2000]

AIR 2 S

 

[Starz]

Hold out for the M3. Battery life is better than the Air2s.

 

[RockyMtns]

Are the drones with zoom capability digital or optical? If digital, you don't gain anything at all by zooming while flying. You'll lose resolution. You can achieve the same effect in post-processing.

 

[Dbez1]

Are the drones with zoom capability digital or optical? If digital, you don't gain anything at all by zooming while flying. You'll lose resolution. You can achieve the same effect in post-processing.

Absolutely correct Rocky. Sometimes however, a pilot just needs to zoom in without taking a photo, to see if something is worth a closer look. A deer maybe or just a dog? For quality work, as Rocky said, optical zoom is the best way to go but my Air2S is only digital zoom.

 

[waynorth]

Are the drones with zoom capability digital or optical?

Unfortunately people misuse the word zoom more and more. As you correctly say "digital zoom" is best done in post processing. A better word for it is cropping.
The confusion caused by the word "zoom" is caused by the marketing department of camera manufacturers. Sadly, DJI is in the front line among them.
The fact is DJI has made only 1 - one - consumer drone with zoom lens during their whole history, that is the Mavic 2 Zoom which had a zoom range from 24-48mm (equivalent), also called a 2x zoom.

 

[alexjo55]

Im going for the mavic 3 pro.
Price is about 2k usd on second hand market.

The optimal wouldd be if the mini 3 had like 2-3 x zoom.
It changes the prespective a lot with just a small zoom.

 

[DARKSeifer]

The Mavic 3, the Mavic 3 pro, the Mavic 3T or the M30.

The M3 is C1 in Europe, so that's the good one, the Pro is over 900g so it's C2, the M3 Thermal must be a ton of fun (telephoto, thermal camera and mechanichal shutter on the main camera), but it's expensive and the M30 is super bulky, super expensive and weights around 3Kg, but it's like the M3T on roids.

I'd go with a second hand Mavic 3, the telephoto never gets old for exploring and peeping around, it's just super fun and the main 24mm equivalent camera is basically the best you can get right now.

The Air 3 has a 70mm or so, but that's not much.