Full specs, RC compatibility, and more (48MP RAW, optional 47min battery) released via an early store listing

[Chaosrider]

Well heck, weren't you wading through piles or NC1's there on the rear flight deck? Thought I saw that in one of your pictures

Only one at a time...my old cat Hobbes is a remarkably indifferent student pilot...

He does watch me fly a lot, though. Perhaps, when I do get my FPV, he can be my visual observer! Do the regs explicitly require that a visual observer be human? His vision is probably better than mine anyhow...



TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

NO!!! YOU ARE WRONG​

What are drone wind resistance levels?​

Drone wind resistance levels describe the ability of any drone to maintain its position against blowing wind. Drone wind resistance level is a number between 0 and 12 that describes the highest wind speed the drone can resist. The higher the number, the better stability a drone has in high wind conditions. For example, a drone with level 5 wind resistance is better than a level 4 drone in terms of handling itself in the windy air.

The wind resistance level of drones corresponds to theBeaufort scale that categorizes the wind speed into 12 categories.

I remember reading this now, when I first started droning. It seemed reasonale then, and still does.

My testing continues, but the Mini-SE does seem to have better wind resistance than the Mini-1.

And the Mini-2...ahem!...blows them both away in that regard!



MM...F...

 

[Chaosrider]

I see no reason to buy a mini 2 nor air 2S when I can get a mini 3 pro, which is cheaper and also able to have longer flight time than both of them, not to mention much better wind resistance then either of them combined

If money doesn't matter to you at this level, I'd agree with you on the Mini-2 vs Mini-3 comparison.

I have no direct knowledge of the Air 2S.

TCS

 

[Chaosrider]

You are saying the pentium 2 is much better than the pentium 1, which is true. What I am saying though is that once you see the pentium 4, the 1 and 2 are basically the same thing.

I fully understand the point you're making; it's just wrong in this case.

But to clarify, my priorities are:

1) Flight characteristics
2) (Something else)
Distant 3) Fine photography details

In terms of flight characteristics, I see three things where the Mini-3 is better:

1) Battery endurance
2) Occusync 3.0
3) Obstacle avoidance

These will definitely make the Mini-3 better than the Mini-2, but not cosmically better.

I'm not qualified to comment on the photographic issues, but I am a good visual observer...and my observation is that you're an Army of One on this issue, among people who are qualified to comment on the photographic issues.

Why might that be?

MM...F...

 

[Chaosrider]

That's the rigorous definition, but in practice specs for drones assume enough forward movement to be able to return, slowly, to the Home Point.

And, of course, this is vitally important to the pilot. Critical.

Wind messing up a shot is far far less important. Shooting awesome cinematic video while rivulets of sweat stream onto your smartphone screen, desperately hoping you have enough battery left to eek it back, going 3 mph groundspeed... That's what's on a pilot's mind when they are in a "maximum wind speed specification" situation.

Yeah, I had a bit of pucker factor when I discovered that the calculation of "enough battery life to RTH" doesn't always work well in a canyon, with sometimes high but enormously variable wind speeds, both by location, and elevation.

Ms Fly tells me to come home with about 4:20 battery life yet, and that's fine for when I'm flying close in. If I go any significant distance...either far or up...I start to come back with about 6:00 remaining.

I still haven't fully integrated how slow all the Minis descend, which matters a lot when you're trying to maintain no more than 400 Ft AGL, while descending from 1000 ft ATL.

When I'm going up the canyon wall, it's natural. The creek at the bottom of the canyon is at about -150 ft ATL. So when I take off, I stay below 250 ATL until I cross the creek then I go max forward and up until the trees start to look a wee bit too close, at which point I move forward only slowly and mostly climb.

But coming down...it's just counter-intuitive how much I have to limit my forward (back home) motion to stay under 400 ft AGL, while doing a max-rate descent. Intellectually it makes perfect sense, but it still seems a bit odd when I'm up there.

MM...F...

 

[JimSteadman]

Love the specs. It would be great if it had a flashing night-light visible at 3 miles, instead of having to strap one on and increase the weight.

 

[EpicFlight]

I do, and I'm slowly but steadily oozing toward the obvious conclusion...

View attachment 147073

MM...F...

All by himself, with no help from me

 

[Coskier]

Following DJI's habit of adding support for their smart controllers well after something goes on sale, I'll probably just get the basic version with the toy RC and wait/ hope they add RC Pro support in the future.

 

[Chaosrider]

Love the specs. It would be great if it had a flashing night-light visible at 3 miles, instead of having to strap one on and increase the weight.

All my Minis have at least one Arc strobe on them, some the Arc V.

When I got my Mini-1 and Mini-SE recently, I was so anxious to fly them that I launched before getting strobes for them. What a difference!

Strobes, particularly the Arc V, are awesome for extending VLOS generally, but they are particularly important for being able to reacquire a drone when you do sometimes lose VLOS. Which you will, unless you fly it with a string attached...

There may be a slight performance hit from the weight of the strobe, but if there is it's barely noticeable.

Strobes...don't leave home without 'em!



MM...F...

 

[SimonP]

In a way, the did come out with 2 versions, one of which weighs over 250 g, just as I had predicted:

"This offers a flight time of up to 47 minutes. The drone which means that you are no longer allowed to fly above non-involved persons in the EU."



Speaking out of ignorance, do I read this correctly that if you could only get one, you'd rather get the RC Pro?

I've never quite understood what the RC Pro does for you...

Occusync 3 is a very good thing for my interests. On Easter Sunday, I did a marathon flight that included my Mini-1, Mini-SE, and all three of my Mini-2s. Having Occusync 2 makes a huge difference in control signal quality and effective range. I have to assume that Occusync 3 is even better.

Thx,

MM

Dead right about O 3. I live in mountainous heavily forested country. I love the Mini 2 but I lose signal regularly…..dip below a hill, get behind some trees….no contact. I have bought an Air 2 S which blew me away for performance in every way, particularly Occusync 3. I can now go to places that I would never dare to go to with the Mini and O2. The connection is fantastic.

 

[test2000Anafi]

I fully understand the point you're making; it's just wrong in this case.

But to clarify, my priorities are:

1) Flight characteristics
2) (Something else)
Distant 3) Fine photography details

In terms of flight characteristics, I see three things where the Mini-3 is better:

1) Battery endurance
2) Occusync 3.0
3) Obstacle avoidance

These will definitely make the Mini-3 better than the Mini-2, but not cosmically better.

I'm not qualified to comment on the photographic issues, but I am a good visual observer...and my observation is that you're an Army of One on this issue, among people who are qualified to comment on the photographic issues.

Why might that be?

MM...F...

you are not qualified on flight characteristics, as you don’t even know about the “mavic design” in general limiting forward motion due to the fact the airframe cannot tilt beyond a certain angle as that would obstruct the gimbal completely from looking forward.

The 3 pro is set to correct that design error and it will open up a lot of capabilities.

Somebody said wind resistance is the ability to fly against the wind? Sure, then look at the 320 gram Anafi which can fly better against the wind than even DJI drones several times heavier. Weight has nothing to do with ability to fly against the wind, you are wrong on that as well.
Important is the design of the airframe and the 3 pro finally let’s go of the mavic design as it adopts the anafi design.

You will later claim that i knew all of this because I already had the 3 pro and compared it to other Dji products, but I don’t care about that. Just posting this for future reference

 

[Chaosrider]

Dead right about O 3. I live in mountainous heavily forested country. I love the Mini 2 but I lose signal regularly…..dip below a hill, get behind some trees….no contact. I have bought an Air 2 S which blew me away for performance in every way, particularly Occusync 3. I can now go to places that I would never dare to go to with the Mini and O2. The connection is fantastic.

Yup, mountainous and heavily forested, that's where I am too!

The Occusync 2 in the Mini-2 just blows the doors off the more conventional WiFi in the Mini-1 and Mini-2. Because I'm launching from one wall of a canyon, I get hard core, unobstructed LOS to a great many interesting places, and the Occusync 2 has been fully sufficient. But better will be better!

\Thx,

MM...FP..?

 

[Chaosrider]

you are not qualified on flight characteristics, as you don’t even know about the “mavic design” in general limiting forward motion due to the fact the airframe cannot tilt beyond a certain angle as that would obstruct the gimbal completely from looking forward.

The 3 pro is set to correct that design error and it will open up a lot of capabilities.

Somebody said wind resistance is the ability to fly against the wind? Sure, then look at the 320 gram Anafi which can fly better against the wind than even DJI drones several times heavier. Weight has nothing to do with ability to fly against the wind, you are wrong on that as well.
Important is the design of the airframe and the 3 pro finally let’s go of the mavic design as it adopts the anafi design.

You will later claim that i knew all of this because I already had the 3 pro and compared it to other Dji products, but I don’t care about that. Just posting this for future reference

I think I'm going to be done with you for a bit.

Have a nice day.

TCS

 

[rebel_dji]

Are they actually enabling hyperlapse on the Mini 3 Pro?

 

[Chaosrider]

Are they actually enabling hyperlapse on the Mini 3 Pro?

What is hyperlapse?

I've heard the term, but that's all.

Thx,

MM...FP..?

 

[Coskier]

What is hyperlapse?

I've heard the term, but that's all.

Thx,

MM...FP..?

Drone technique: How to shoot 4K hyperlapse video on the DJI Air 2S

It's easy to capture hyperlapse videos with the DJI Air 2S, but there's still a bit of planning involved. In this article, we explain the four hyperlapse modes available on the Air 2S and walk you through everything you need to know to shoot your first hyperlapse sequence.

www.dpreview.com

 

[rebel_dji]

It was a critical feature that set apart the Mini and Air lines.

So, I'm really curious if they are enabling it now on the Mini 3 Pro.

 

[Coskier]

It was a critical feature that set apart the Mini and Air lines.

So, I'm really curious if they are enabling it now on the Mini 3 Pro.

Define critical. I only used it once, to see what it did.

 

[Chaosrider]

Drone technique: How to shoot 4K hyperlapse video on the DJI Air 2S

It's easy to capture hyperlapse videos with the DJI Air 2S, but there's still a bit of planning involved. In this article, we explain the four hyperlapse modes available on the Air 2S and walk you through everything you need to know to shoot your first hyperlapse sequence.

www.dpreview.com

Very informative!

Asking out of ignorance, how is this distinct from a video that you just run at high speed? More specifically, what about it is better (for some purpose) than just running a video at high speed?

Thx!

MM...FP..?

 

[Chaosrider]

It was a critical feature that set apart the Mini and Air lines.

So, I'm really curious if they are enabling it now on the Mini 3 Pro.

That's the critical distinction??

If that's true, there's clearly some benefit to hyperlapse that I'm just not seeing. What are some of the use cases for it?

Thanks for indulging the photo-ignorant!



MM...FP..?