Just bought Mavic 3, telephoto lens doesn't work, zoom doesn't work

[Hermey]

I just bought a Mavic 3 yesterday. I'm having 2 problems with it. One is that I can't get the telephoto lens to work. On one of the smartphones I use, the DJI Fly App display has the 7 and 1 buttons, but when I touch them, the drone doesn't switch to the telephoto lens. I also tried programming one of the function buttons to switch to telephoto lens, and that doesn't work. Second problem is that even with the standard lens, I can't get the zoom to work. I put 2 fingers on the screen and move them to zoom in, as I have done with my other DJI drones using the DJI fly app, and the zoom doesn't work.
And the other problem -- is that the Smart Controller I got with my DJI Mini 3, which is supposed to also work with the Mavic 3, doesn't connect to the Mavic 3. I updated the Mavic 3 firmware, but get a message saying the controller is not compatible to the aircraft firmware.
Did I get a lemon? Should I exchange the drone for another at the store? Or is there something I am not aware of that I need to do, to get the telephoto and zoom to work?

 

[saltire]

When you tap on the 7x it should hange to the other camera looks as if you indeed get a lemon exhage for a new one .AS for your other issue have you updated the firmware on the rc controller because it should work .

 

[Hermey]

When I tap the 7, nothing happens. I am not able to switch cameras.
I did call DJI and they told me that I can only do the zoom when in "Explore" mode, so I tried that and am now able to zoom, and the zoom automatically goes into telephoto lens zoom when I keep zooming in. But the 7 and 1 buttons don't respond at all to my touching them.

 

[MavicMover]

Have you tried putting the drone in "Explore" mode? That lets you "zoom" so far with the regular lens and then automatically switches to the telephoto lens for the rest of the "zoom".

Edit: as mentioned below, not optical zoom lens, it's digital zoom.

As for your "smart controller", which version is it? There are at least two controllers that are referred to as "smart"; the RM500 (only compatible with Mini 2, Mavic Air 2，Mavic 2 and Mavic 2 Enterprise Series, Phantm 4 Pro V2.0) and the RM510 (RC Pro) which is

 

[JeffreyS]

There is no zoom lens on that drone. Just two different focal lengths.

 

[MavicMover]

There is no zoom lens on that drone. Just two different focal lengths.

Correct, digital zoom.

 

[saltire]

I have my drone in front of me now and i can switch to 7x and i am not in explore mode and i can also rotate the scroll wheel and it will zoom up to 28x .I am inside and the drone is on but no motors running .Loads of video's online show a set of binoculars which mine does not you just tap on the film icon above the start video button then i can go into explore mode ect .I am running the latest firware and my rc pro is only a few weeks old .Just to add im sure that when i was out the other day flying then yes im sure that explore was needed to get into the zoom function and to allow the scroll wheel to work but i could tap on the 7x and it worked without being in explore mode .

 

[mobilehomer]

Open a case with DJI and send it back!

 

[Bob in Savannah]

You definitely have an issue. I agree with contacting DJI.

It might seem stupid but you DID remove the packing from around the camera before you used it, right? Im sure you did.. Definitely start a case with DJI. AND if you purchased somewhere respectable like BestBuy you can just go swap it out there without involving DJI.

 

[Hermey]

You definitely have an issue. I agree with contacting DJI.

It might seem stupid but you DID remove the packing from around the camera before you used it, right? Im sure you did.. Definitely start a case with DJI. AND if you purchased somewhere respectable like BestBuy you can just go swap it out there without involving DJI.

Yes I did remove the foam piece from around the camera before I turned on the drone. I also did a test flight of the drone where I moved the gimbal around. Gimbal moved fine.
DJI tech support was little help. I got the sense the people that work in that dept are not very intelligent. I had to repeat my issue and question several times before the woman could even barely understand what I was saying! Geez! And one part of my question she never did comprehend!
Fortunately, I did buy this Mavic 3 (in a fly more kit) at a local Best Buy in my area. This is exactly an example of why I prefer to buy expensive electronic things at sticks and bricks stores in my area.
And I just went back to the store this afternoon and exchanged it for another identical Mavic 3 fly more kit.
So, I hope that the 2nd Mavic 3 doesn't have this same issue.

Now, I have to charge up the 2nd Mavic 3 batteries and will test it later....

 

[Hermey]

Have you tried putting the drone in "Explore" mode? That lets you "zoom" so far with the regular lens and then automatically switches to the telephoto lens for the rest of the "zoom".

Edit: as mentioned below, not optical zoom lens, it's digital zoom.

As for your "smart controller", which version is it? There are at least two controllers that are referred to as "smart"; the RM500 (only compatible with Mini 2, Mavic Air 2，Mavic 2 and Mavic 2 Enterprise Series, Phantm 4 Pro V2.0) and the RM510 (RC Pro) which is

The smart controller I was referring to is the one that comes with the Mini 3. I think it's called the DJI RC. I've used it for my Mini 3 flying. It's supposed to be compatible with the Mavic 3, (I have heard that on some YouTube videos I watched about this topic) but as I mentioned, when I tried to use it with the Mavic 3 today, after updating firmware on the Mavic 3, AND pairing the aircraft to the RC, I got a message saying "Aircraft Firmware not compatible". See the enclosed photo...

 

[Bob in Savannah]

Yes I did remove the foam piece from around the camera before I turned on the drone. I also did a test flight of the drone where I moved the gimbal around. Gimbal moved fine.
DJI tech support was little help. I got the sense the people that work in that dept are not very intelligent. I had to repeat my issue and question several times before the woman could even barely understand what I was saying! Geez! And one part of my question she never did comprehend!
Fortunately, I did buy this Mavic 3 (in a fly more kit) at a local Best Buy in my area. This is exactly an example of why I prefer to buy expensive electronic things at sticks and bricks stores in my area.
And I just went back to the store this afternoon and exchanged it for another identical Mavic 3 fly more kit.
So, I hope that the 2nd Mavic 3 doesn't have this same issue.

Now, I have to charge up the 2nd Mavic 3 batteries and will test it later....

Youre GOLDEN now!! Good for you. Your new M3 will operate PERFECTLY! +1 on BestBuy and the ease they offer in correcting this.

 

[JeffreyS]

Correct, digital zoom.No, it NOT a zoom lens at all. It is a fixed focal length,

 

[Hermey]

Okay I solved the problem and it turned out the problem wasn't the drone (or the controller) but the DJI Fly App!! Which apparently hadn't been updated sufficiently...

After getting the replacement drone, I charged my batteries and tested the 2nd Mavic 3. Oh no! It had the same problem as the first one. Touching the 7 or 1 on the right side center, didn't switch to the 2nd camera. And again, doing a button customization, didn't allow switching to the 2nd camera.

So, realizing it was extremely unlikely I would get 2 lemon drones in a row with the exact same issue, I realized the problem was not with the drone or the controller, but rather, something to do with the DJI Fly App. I got a clue about this because when touching the 7 or 1 on the screen, a little box would pop up at times, with Chinese language in it. I touched on this at one point and it changed to English and said "feature coming soon." This made me think the problem must be the app, that earlier versions of the App did not support this feature.

I thought that the DJI Fly App had been updated when I did the updates I got a prompt for. But apparently this wasn't the case.
I went in to the app store on my iphone and saw that I do not have updates done automatically. I have to select apps to update. So I then updated DJI Fly App, and then reconnected, and wa-la, now the 7 and 1 buttons work and I can switch cameras with them! All now works as it should! Also, I noticed that when I zoom in or out, the number on the side changes, to show how much zoom I have, from 1x to 28x. Very helpful!

I feel silly that I returned the first drone when now I realize there was nothing wrong with it. But I had both called DJI and spoke to the tech support (twice) and posted here, and I didn't get any advice from either of these places, that I may need to update the DJI Fly App. Given what I found, this should have been one of the first suggestions the tech support person made! Instead, she was actually suggesting I needed a NEW PHONE! Really bad help obtained there.

So now the only remaining issue is that I wasn't able to connect the Mavic 3 to the DJI RC.

 

[Hermey]

Okay, I solved the last problem too.
I figured out how to connect the Mavic 3 to the DJI RC.
Again it was a matter of updating the DJI Fly App...in this case, the app on the DJI RC. I don't think I'd ever done that before. I had to look on YouTube to find instructions on how to connect the controller to my house wifi. Then, I went to profile>>settings>>Check for firmware updates>>install update. I installed the update, and after doing that, wa-la, the Mavic 3 connected to the controller!

I did notice that the controller doesn't like to have 2 different aircraft allowed to connect to it in an ongoing way, eg both bound to it. It basically told me that I could only have one bound device, and unless I made the Mavic 3 the bound device, I could only do 5 flights with it. I did have the option to change the bound device to the Mavic 3. And then I suppose I'd be able to change the bound device to the Mini 3 when I wanted to fly that one.

So it's a bit inconvenient that the DJI RC is unlike the other controllers in that it seems it can't support multiple aircraft connecting to it whenever. It does require an additional step, though not a big deal really.

 

[GadgetGuy]

99% of the time it isn't a defective drone, but a mismatch between FW and software. Your initial description of the issue demonstrated that the hardware was working correctly because Explore Mode from 1x-4x and 7x-28x was fully functional, which is how the Mavic 3 originally shipped. What you didn't know was that the selection of 1x and 7x in Normal Mode was added later on, in a combination FW and app update. If they weren't both updated, the new capability wouldn’t work.

Since you had already exchanged the drone at the time I read your post, no point in telling you it was likely unnecessary. Same with the DJI RC functionality. The DJI RC did not exist until the Mavic 3 Classic came out, so both the Mavic 3 drone FW and the Fly app on the DJI RC need to be updated to be able to bind the DJI RC to the Mavic 3.

Glad you got it sorted.

In the future, don't rely upon anything DJI support tells you! They know nothing except how to tell you to send it in for an evaluation! 90% of what they say is either made up or completely wrong.

 

[Hermey]

99% of the time it isn't a defective drone, but a mismatch between FW and software. Your initial description of the issue demonstrated that the hardware was working correctly because Explore Mode from 1x-4x and 7x-28x was fully functional, which is how the Mavic 3 originally shipped. What you didn't know was that the selection of 1x and 7x in Normal Mode was added later on, in a combination FW and app update. If they weren't both updated, the new capability wouldn’t work.

Since you had already exchanged the drone at the time I read your post, no point in telling you it was likely unnecessary. Same with the DJI RC functionality. The DJI RC did not exist until the Mavic 3 Classic came out, so both the Mavic 3 drone FW and the Fly app on the DJI RC need to be updated to be able to bind the DJI RC to the Mavic 3.

Glad you got it sorted.

In the future, don't rely upon anything DJI support tells you! They know nothing except how to tell you to send it in for an evaluation! 90% of what they say is either made up or completely wrong.

Yes, knowing what you stated here would've helped me figure out the issue. I also felt dubious it was a defective drone, since I imagine that is quite rare. When I went to exchange the drone, my plan actually was to try to find someone at Best Buy who I could consult and see if there was something I didn't know about the drone operation, which was leading me to experience this problem, thus obviating the need to exchange the drone. However, the "drone guy" in the store, the one who was apparently the most knowledgeable about drones, was immersed in helping a customer with a new smartphone purchase. I waited about 10 or 15 minutes for him and finally decided I didn't want to wait longer and would just exchange the drone.

Good to know about not relying on DJI support. OMG what a sad state of affairs that they are so useless! Shame on you DJI!
I guess I've been quite fortunate, I have not previously had to contact DJI for tech support help. So I didn't have the opportunity to discover their completely useless staff in that department. Now I've experienced it first hand!!

 

[GadgetGuy]

Yes, knowing what you stated here would've helped me figure out the issue. I also felt dubious it was a defective drone, since I imagine that is quite rare. When I went to exchange the drone, my plan actually was to try to find someone at Best Buy who I could consult and see if there was something I didn't know about the drone operation, which was leading me to experience this problem, thus obviating the need to exchange the drone. However, the "drone guy" in the store, the one who was apparently the most knowledgeable about drones, was immersed in helping a customer with a new smartphone purchase. I waited about 10 or 15 minutes for him and finally decided I didn't want to wait longer and would just exchange the drone.

Good to know about not relying on DJI support. OMG what a sad state of affairs that they are so useless! Shame on you DJI!
I guess I've been quite fortunate, I have not previously had to contact DJI for tech support help. So I didn't have the opportunity to discover their completely useless staff in that department. Now I've experienced it first hand!!

Trust me. I've been there, too! When the Mavic 3 first came out, the functionality of the Aux LED lights was changed, but not documented anywhere. You couldn’t activate them on the bench without first activating the motors, but on the Mavic 2, they could be turned on without activating the motors. I foolishly expected them to function the same way as on the Mavic 2. I didn't think to try and arm the motors in the house to test their functionality. I called the DJI dealer. I called DJI. Neither had a solution and both said to return it under warranty. It was the ONLY thing not working on the drone, but a very important feature that I depend upon, when landing after dark, to find the drone in the sky to fly it back manually. DJI set up an RMA. That same day, somebody else in a related post stated the drone had to be in the air for the Aux LED's to be turned on. I armed the motors on the bench and tried again. Voila! They were working as designed. Subsequently, DJI updated the Fly app to state on the screen during toggling of the LED lights, that they would only light up after arming the motors! I could have done a dozen Mavic 3 exchanges and it still wouldn’t have solved my problem! Just needed to know about the change in functionality! No one else knew about it until months later!

Your thought process and problem solving methodology saved the day. Good on you, and happy Mavic 3 flying! Knowing DJI support usually knows less than you do is helpful, as they are likely to mislead you and convince you that user error (mismatched FW and app) is instead a defective drone, or defective tablet, causing you to waste time sending it in, to only have the same problem with the replacement!

 

[Dale D]

I just bought a Mavic 3 yesterday. I'm having 2 problems with it. One is that I can't get the telephoto lens to work. On one of the smartphones I use, the DJI Fly App display has the 7 and 1 buttons, but when I touch them, the drone doesn't switch to the telephoto lens. I also tried programming one of the function buttons to switch to telephoto lens, and that doesn't work. Second problem is that even with the standard lens, I can't get the zoom to work. I put 2 fingers on the screen and move them to zoom in, as I have done with my other DJI drones using the DJI fly app, and the zoom doesn't work.
And the other problem -- is that the Smart Controller I got with my DJI Mini 3, which is supposed to also work with the Mavic 3, doesn't connect to the Mavic 3. I updated the Mavic 3 firmware, but get a message saying the controller is not compatible to the aircraft firmware.
Did I get a lemon? Should I exchange the drone for another at the store? Or is there something I am not aware of that I need to do, to get the telephoto and zoom to work?

Sent it back ASAP

 

[Hermey]

Trust me. I've been there, too! When the Mavic 3 first came out, the functionality of the Aux LED lights was changed, but not documented anywhere. You couldn’t activate them on the bench without first activating the motors, but on the Mavic 2, they could be turned on without activating the motors. I foolishly expected them to function the same way as on the Mavic 2. I didn't think to try and arm the motors in the house to test their functionality. I called the DJI dealer. I called DJI. Neither had a solution and both said to return it under warranty. It was the ONLY thing not working on the drone, but a very important feature that I depend upon, when landing after dark, to find the drone in the sky to fly it back manually. DJI set up an RMA. That same day, somebody else in a related post stated the drone had to be in the air for the Aux LED's to be turned on. I armed the motors on the bench and tried again. Voila! They were working as designed. Subsequently, DJI updated the Fly app to state on the screen during toggling of the LED lights, that they would only light up after arming the motors! I could have done a dozen Mavic 3 exchanges and it still wouldn’t have solved my problem! Just needed to know about the change in functionality! No one else knew about it until months later!

Your thought process and problem solving methodology saved the day. Good on you, and happy Mavic 3 flying! Knowing DJI support usually knows less than you do is helpful, as they are likely to mislead you and convince you that user error (mismatched FW and app) is instead a defective drone, or defective tablet, causing you to waste time sending it in, to only have the same problem with the replacement!

Thanks for your kind words!
Now it seems to me, that if a bright person were in charge of writing the Mavic 3 User Manual, all of these kinds of things could be mentioned in a truly useful manual, as TIPS or answers to FAQs...eg...make sure you're using the most updated DJI Fly App, because if you're not, some of the functions on the drone/app will not work. Or in reference to your situation, the tip or FAQ answer, that LED lights will only light up after arming of motors. Eg, they could anticipate a lot of the kinds of questions or concerns that users would have, and answer them in advance in a guide, which could then reduce the number of calls in to tech support. But perhaps I'm foolishly retro and a luddite to believe in truly comprehensive and useful user manuals/guides....