First M3 Flight, coming from M2P

[Crashdummytest]

It does appear to be a well thought out bag with good construction. Glad you're happy with it

Coming from M2P this is quite a step up in terms of portability and flight-time, compared to my other dronebag(s).. Easily converts to backpack. Worth the money if you have a M3 or similar formfactor drone, no doubt about.

 

[bheiser1]

Thanks, this was a helpful review. IMO those JPEGs (from the tele) look ok in small size like for Twitter, but quickly look bad when zoomed in. I hope the shots from the Hasselblad camera are much better.

 

[Coskier]

I did a backpack review today - Mavic 3 Fly More Combo Bag/ Backpack Review - Video and pics

 

[Coskier]

Burned through 4 batteries over 5 locations today, shooting pics and video. Started at sunrise, ended just before sunset. So thankful I had the batteries and a 110 outlet in my Jeep 4XE to charge them with. I'll post some of the pics and video over the next few days, as well as thoughts from what amounted to a full day of flying. Short version: it was awesome, I don't get days like this very awesome. And I got to end it with a quick, and cold, swim in the ocean.

 

[ddublu]

Can you take some photos of the bag opened up, showing the compartments and how things are accessed? I agree $300 is high, but I don't mind paying more if it's a good bag. I'm pretty particular on backpacks. Zippers must work smooth as glass. Compartments must be configurable to hold more than just my drone stuff. Everything must be accessible quickly. It can't be too big or heavy either. After buying backpacks over the last 6 years for 6 different drones, I've become pretty particular.

I am selling my bag from the FMC combo if you have any interest.

 

[Alex Baxter]

I'll try to do a video or something to show how it works. Still not $300 in my mind, but not junk either. The M2P bag was pretty useless in my mind.

I've got MP, MM and Air 2 combos, and a M3 on order. Until I got the Air 2, I always considered the MP bag too constricted, then I got the Air 2, stuff flops about in the bag, and it's physically larger than the MP bag, so now I look on the MP bag as a genius design. I don't know what to think of the rucksack for the M3, I've got a feeling it'll be good, as the other bags are put into my rucksack for any travelling anyway. As long as there is room for my 'sarnies' and a flask of coffee I'll probably be happy..

 

[Coskier]

I was moving video footage from the micro SD card to my Passport HD, and renaming in the process. So I had to look at the footage so I could name properly. I'm not a video guy, so this is not a technical thought, but I was impressed. Especially with the Cine 2K 120fps "slo mo" mode. I'll be editing and posting to Youtube over the next week or two, but I am a happy M3 owner so far.

 

[Coskier]

I haven't edited the video footage yet, but here some shots I took.


(AEB HDR, compiled in Photomatix)




(also an HDR)


(an HDR I am not totally happy with)

 

[Coskier]

@JoelP - examples of stacked AEB images above

 

[Coskier]

First video edited

 

[EasyV]

Agree with everything - though not a fan of the FMC bag - its actually a backpack that really should be a messenger bag

 

[TRogan42]

I love the bag, just great. 100% cotton and quite subdued design. In contrast to the hi-tech aircraft inside. My only complaint about the bag: not perfect fit for the SC Pro, as you have in some other brand bags.

By Janurary we will have knockoffs of this bag for 50$
good drone backpacks are 100-200$ this bag better have 3 hour battery capacity, max speed of 100km/h and disabled NFZ and some lasers on top...

 

[Crashdummytest]

By Janurary we will have knockoffs of this bag for 50$
good drone backpacks are 100-200$ this bag better have 3 hour battery capacity, max speed of 100km/h and disabled NFZ and some lasers on top...

Ha ha . There is room for 6 batteries in total, giving at least 4 hours of flight.. which means I can do with only that bag for many of my expeditions. My M2P needed one rucksack and a bag of same size as the M3 bag to provide the same flight time as the M3 convertible bag. But its not perfect. For instance the controller has to be digged out from it, it's not readily available (the drone is). It's easier to get to the batteries in fact, especially if you use the SC (which it was seemingly not designed for).

 

[Coskier]

I love the bag, just great. 100% cotton and quite subdued design. In contrast to the hi-tech aircraft inside. My only complaint about the bag: not perfect fit for the SC Pro, as you have in some other brand bags.

I have to believe that having such a nondescript bag on my shoulder makes it less inviting to be stolen too. I have now traveled with it, and it fits perfectly in my rolling carry-on, which is even better. The hard cases for the FPV or the M2P also fit, but they were too tall and extended into the other half. I also saw a cost breakdown of the FMC recently that showed the bag price does not actually come out to $300, so there is that as well. Regardless, I still love it, and I plan to keep using it.

 

[TigersFan]

For my antique Mavic Air 1 there was a setting in Go4 for Exp to reduce the sensitivity of the controls. I took this to the lowest settings for the smoothest control.

For the Mavic 3 I have read the user manual and see no mention of the Exp settings. Hopefully this is still there and I have missed it. Or, they just replaced this with Cine mode.

The RC Pro controller, that comes with the Cine model, does have the Exp settings for each mode (Cine, Normal, Sport). BTW, I love the M3; I'm getting clearer pictures than with the M2P with half the noise reduction. Don't get me wrong; both drone cameras are fantastic. Happy flying!

 

[jnnyr]

Well, just did my first flight with the M3. I am coming from an M2P that I only flew with the SC, and a Mavic Air before that. These are initial thoughts, and I haven't taken a moment to retouch the raw pics that came out of it. I did load some of the JPGs from the telephoto lens though, and they are below. I only did stills, no video yet. So here are my initial, gut reactions (this was an unscripted test, especially around the photos, so keep that in mind):

Pre Startup

• Feels slightly lighter than the M2P, though the metrics show they are pretty close.
• LOVE the "bra" for the gimbal and blades. So much easier than mucking around with the gimbal protector on the M2P. Coupled with the overpriced FMC bag, I may not need a different case, for my uses (YMMV).
• Overpriced FMC bag is actually pretty nice and a definite step up from FMC bags of the past. Not sure it is worth $300, but I did buy the combo, so there it is. I think it will fit nicely on one side of my roller carry-on, which suits my needs perfectly.
• The controller with my phone attached is crazy light, feels like a toy. Curious to see what it will feel like with the Tripltek on it. Pretty sure I will forgo the RC Pro, given the way they handled things on the SC.
• The SD card access kinda sucks. Like all the way back to the Mavic Air sucks. Need to do the tape trick again - it worked great on the MA, didn't need it on the M2P.

Post Startup

• On the ground it is definitely more quiet. In the air, I feel like I could hear it for a good long ways, so that's probably a draw vs M2P.
• Range is crazy impressive. Against both the M2P and my DJI FPV, I kept a solid signal well past the point the others would have had interference. I am not going to go into range's, I'm not a distance hound, I just wanted to go see some things.
• The telephoto worked for what I inferred was the intended purpose (based on the binocs for an icon) - I saw a plume of smoke in the distance, and with the tele, I was able to see if it was interesting enough to fly over there. So yeah, it's good for scouting. And maybe that's all the intended it for. The JPG's below were actually shot with the tele, and are straight out of camera, so you can make your own decisions about that. But I do see a use as opposed to all the "this camera is worthless" statements being made. Of course, being on the M2P, I didn't have zoom anyway, so it's not hurting me to not have it here anyhow.
• The battery run time - OMG, yes. When I am just out playing, I can totally see myself using all 3 batteries. It was AWESOME to do everything I did today in about 30 mins on one battery, without having to come back and change out. Totally worth it for me. Having that kind of time in the air, I can spend more time working on composition to get the right shot. Or I can shoot a bunch from a bunch of different angles. Could I be more efficient? Probably. Do I care? No, this is fun.
• Using the phone was OK (took me back to the Mavic Air days), but I miss the heft of the SC, and everything being under my thumbs. Will I adapt - of course. And the heft of the Tripltek should help.
• Flew like a dream. Only did Sport and Normal modes, didn't try Cine yet (the new name for Tripod or whatever).
• I'll post edited RAW's when I get some time to play with them in Lightroom.

Conclusion - I like it, and I don't have buyers remorse. Hoping for some killer beach sunrise shots on Saturday.

Here are the JPGs. It's a new restaurant being built on the river by my house. Click on the pic to go to the Flickr page for the photo if you want to see bigger versions or the EXIF info.

Great post. Like you I am coming from the M2Pro. Range is great although, like you, I won't push it so hard to tell how it fares head to head. The battery flight time alone was almost worth the price of admission. Any real photographer will tell you best shooting times are first light and dusk/last light. This is when you want to maximize your flight time so as not to miss that everchanging sunset/rise. I can now stay up throughout an entire sunset sequence w/o swapping batteries.

Some minor drawback would be the improved sensors. I land in a confined area on a porch near a roofline and the new obstacle avoidance makes it near impossible to bring it down. I have to go into normal more to defeat the downward sensors just to land. Minor issue but worth mentioning. As a photographer who shoots in fading light the lincreased dynamic range is very noticeable when I am working on the raws in LR. Cannot say enough for the quality of the shots. The zoom functionality is 100% useless for stills. Absolutely unusable for anyone who is using files for enlargements. the jpeg only functionality is a joke. Videos have been very impressive as well although not as important for me. Just received the new update so I'll have to test out the new features.

The first shot into a sunrise shows just how impressive the dynamic range is in what should be a blowout in the sky yet it still retains both high exposure and low light information. The second is a low light shot as well.

 

[Coskier]

I am a few weeks into this now, and loving this drone. Here's a 5 exposure AEB stack I put together in Photomatix last night. Not sure what the deal with the moon is, probably the composite. But I am really pleased with this.

 

[BaldyBoyBilly]

RE: The bag cost. I too think the DJI bag is overpriced at $319 USD or whatever retail is, but the 'bag' market in general these days is insane. I don't have a great sense for what they cost to produce or develop, but you can very easily find camera/drone bags that cost $600-1000 USD.

The FMC bag likely is made for sub $25 in China. I returned my M3 and watching how dji addresses the issues identified by many. Hopefully, at some point, will again by the standard M3, extra batteries, charger/hub, set of props and filters…along with a nicer after-market carry bag. And keep a Benjamin in my pocket
It’s shameful and insulting dji attributes so much value to their bag.

 

[CanadaDrone]

The FMC bag likely is made for sub $25 in China. I returned my M3 and watching how dji addresses the issues identified by many. Hopefully, at some point, will again by the standard M3, extra batteries, charger/hub, set of props and filters…along with a nicer after-market carry bag. And keep a Benjamin in my pocket
It’s shameful and insulting dji attributes so much value to their bag.

No doubt the bag is produced for a tiny fraction of what DJI charges, but given that there is no scenario where you are forced to buy it, I don't really see it as shameful or insulting. Anyone who buys it had the option to either not buy it, or buy a cheaper bag.

The Fly More Combo is a good deal relative to the MSRP of each individual item, but if you don't need everything it includes, which I assume most people do not, there is a decent amount of money to be saved by just buying what you need and making your own combo as everything is also sold individually. The charger in particular lacks important features like a storage charge function and a discharge function, so that is another hard pass from me personally.

Camera/drone bags in general are pretty expensive, at least from the major brands such as Lowepro, etc. I don't think the M3 bag is worth $319 USD though.

 

[Wreckhunter]

Great post. Like you I am coming from the M2Pro. Range is great although, like you, I won't push it so hard to tell how it fares head to head. The battery flight time alone was almost worth the price of admission. Any real photographer will tell you best shooting times are first light and dusk/last light. This is when you want to maximize your flight time so as not to miss that everchanging sunset/rise. I can now stay up throughout an entire sunset sequence w/o swapping batteries.

Some minor drawback would be the improved sensors. I land in a confined area on a porch near a roofline and the new obstacle avoidance makes it near impossible to bring it down. I have to go into normal more to defeat the downward sensors just to land. Minor issue but worth mentioning. As a photographer who shoots in fading light the lincreased dynamic range is very noticeable when I am working on the raws in LR. Cannot say enough for the quality of the shots. The zoom functionality is 100% useless for stills. Absolutely unusable for anyone who is using files for enlargements. the jpeg only functionality is a joke. Videos have been very impressive as well although not as important for me. Just received the new update so I'll have to test out the new features.

The first shot into a sunrise shows just how impressive the dynamic range is in what should be a blowout in the sky yet it still retains both high exposure and low light information. The second is a low light shot as well.

Looks like the M3 would be worthy upgrade from my air 2.