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Mavic 3 vs Classic- Other considerations

I have 3 batteries for my M3, but rarely fly more than 2, since the flight time on each battery is so long. I try to pay attention to which one I flew last to try to keep the usage equal. With 4 it would be worse. Of course, there are those who fly in cold weather and over greater distances where extra batteries make more sense.
I'm down to two with the M3 from four with the MP2. As I get more fluid with my flying I'm having to do less takes to get good footage. Also getting more savvy with exposure settings is helping.
 
I have 3 batteries for my M3, but rarely fly more than 2, since the flight time on each battery is so long. I try to pay attention to which one I flew last to try to keep the usage equal. With 4 it would be worse. Of course, there are those who fly in cold weather and over greater distances where extra batteries make more sense.
We tend to know what our flying habits are. More batteries are available to buy separately, usually delivered within 2 days of ordering, depending on your location and vendor.
 
as I said when I made my post, you need to do what's best for you

I will say that a significant factor for you, sales tax, is not a relevant factor for a lot of people. I don't pay any tax on any purchase I make. I'm really not sure what percentage of drone buyers on this forum pay tax, or how difficult it is to dodge it if they do
Yeah... You're lucky to live in a low tax state. Here the sales tax is 10.0-10.25% and locally 12% for food! Internet sales used to be non-taxable. They made it so that all internet retailers must charge Illinois sales tax. Where the money goes? Who knows? How do businesses handle sending tax revenue to more than a few states??? It didn't save the local retailers, but lined a few more pockets, especially in our state.

Property tax here is based on rough 2% of assessed value. The super low interest rates of the last few years and the rush on the housing market made the assessments jump big... My place just had a 25% increase in assesse value this year. I can't imagine how much more my property tax bill will be? And the cap on Federal deductions is $10k for individuals and the same, $10k for couples (marriage penalty). I know a lot of folks whose property tax alone is $15k-$20k year AFTER Federal, State and FICA taxes (and some even much more than that!). My daughter's inlaws, retired, just moved from a beautiful home they lived in for 30 years because the property tax was $26k! They have been living on retirement income and until they sold their home had to curtail their lifestyle until they did. I downsiized from my home some years ago and would have been in financial trouble had I stayed there. In addition to the aforementioned taxes we also have the honor of donating 5% of our income to state income tax.
My point: The rate of so much of the tax that we end up paying has no relation to income and the state rate is bogus because we end up paying much of those taxes in after tax dollars. It becomes substantial.... and resentful, especially when there is so much wasteful spending, often due to corruption. So yeah... It is a big deal to me, even if only in principle.

Sorry for the rant.
 
Yeah... You're lucky to live in a low tax state. Here the sales tax is 10.0-10.25% and locally 12% for food! Internet sales used to be non-taxable. They made it so that all internet retailers must charge Illinois sales tax. Where the money goes? Who knows? How do businesses handle sending tax revenue to more than a few states??? It didn't save the local retailers, but lined a few more pockets, especially in our state.

Property tax here is based on rough 2% of assessed value. The super low interest rates of the last few years and the rush on the housing market made the assessments jump big... My place just had a 25% increase in assesse value this year. I can't imagine how much more my property tax bill will be? And the cap on Federal deductions is $10k for individuals and the same, $10k for couples (marriage penalty). I know a lot of folks whose property tax alone is $15k-$20k year AFTER Federal, State and FICA taxes (and some even much more than that!). My daughter's inlaws, retired, just moved from a beautiful home they lived in for 30 years because the property tax was $26k! They have been living on retirement income and until they sold their home had to curtail their lifestyle until they did. I downsiized from my home some years ago and would have been in financial trouble had I stayed there. In addition to the aforementioned taxes we also have the honor of donating 5% of our income to state income tax.
My point: The rate of so much of the tax that we end up paying has no relation to income and the state rate is bogus because we end up paying much of those taxes in after tax dollars. It becomes substantial.... and resentful, especially when there is so much wasteful spending, often due to corruption. So yeah... It is a big deal to me, even if only in principle.

Sorry for the rant.
I lived in Ill annoyed ia for a few years. Insane. Everybody had their hand out and in my pocket. Now we did have wonderful services (cynicism) like grass popo, park on lawn popo, snow popo, noise popo, village sticker popo........ I was happy to leave.
 
Yeah... You're lucky to live in a low tax state. Here the sales tax is 10.0-10.25% and locally 12% for food! Internet sales used to be non-taxable. They made it so that all internet retailers must charge Illinois sales tax. Where the money goes? Who knows? How do businesses handle sending tax revenue to more than a few states??? It didn't save the local retailers, but lined a few more pockets, especially in our state.

Property tax here is based on rough 2% of assessed value. The super low interest rates of the last few years and the rush on the housing market made the assessments jump big... My place just had a 25% increase in assesse value this year. I can't imagine how much more my property tax bill will be? And the cap on Federal deductions is $10k for individuals and the same, $10k for couples (marriage penalty). I know a lot of folks whose property tax alone is $15k-$20k year AFTER Federal, State and FICA taxes (and some even much more than that!). My daughter's inlaws, retired, just moved from a beautiful home they lived in for 30 years because the property tax was $26k! They have been living on retirement income and until they sold their home had to curtail their lifestyle until they did. I downsiized from my home some years ago and would have been in financial trouble had I stayed there. In addition to the aforementioned taxes we also have the honor of donating 5% of our income to state income tax.
My point: The rate of so much of the tax that we end up paying has no relation to income and the state rate is bogus because we end up paying much of those taxes in after tax dollars. It becomes substantial.... and resentful, especially when there is so much wasteful spending, often due to corruption. So yeah... It is a big deal to me, even if only in principle.

Sorry for the rant.
yikes!

I live in Oregon and we have no sales tax. Car registration is really cheap too...I think it's up to $30 a year

on the other hand, state income tax is high....in the 4-10% range depending on income level. property taxes are pretty high too.

there's a giant bonus living in Oregon though. West-->East there are 360 miles of beautiful coastline; the coastal mountain range; the Willamette Valley; the Cascade Mountains and Central Oregon; and the Great Basin Desert containing several smaller mountain ranges. Great for hiking, photography, camping, fishing....and droning.
 
I use the 7x a LOT. So many of my videos and at times get flack for getting so close for folks only to later realize I wasn't, it was just the zoom. Yes, it can be that good but of course depends on how and what its used for.
To be clear, it is a 7x telephoto lens, not a 7x zoom lens. The additional magnification beyond 7x is a digital zoom. The 7x telephoto itself is optical, so no loss of resolution, unless you use the up to 4x digital zoom on top of it, to reach 28x.
 
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To be clear, it is a 7x telephoto lens, not a 7x zoom lens. The additional magnification beyond 7x is a digital zoom. The 7x telephoto itself is optical, so no loss of resolution, unless you use the up to 4x digital zoom on top of it, to reach 28x.
Yes, agree. Does not change the fact I use it frequently, was one of the major reasons I purchased the 3, find it invaluable and would be at a major loss without it. Thanks
 
Like all of the features DJI offers, the importance can very depending on the pilot.


I'm not sure it's necessary for any drone since the gimbal can also be locked by attaching some kind of gimbal lock accessory to the drone. It's a nice to have feature I think.


I don't think it was meant to withstand things bumping into it as it will unlock if you apply a bit of force to it.


It probably comes down to customer demand and what customers are willing to pay. And I'm not sure offering a Mavic 3 with two swappable cameras would be cheaper than buying the existing Mavic 3 with the dual camera. If that's the case, it seems offering such a setup would not be beneficial as those customers who need the zoom capability would only buy the dual camera.
It's noteworthy to also consider that IF such swappability were to be implemented, buyers would want to know that the cameras would be usable going forward AFTER the quad had reached it useful life or it was lost. The remaining camera would be a dust collector if not compatible with a future release.
 
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I am pretty much committed to buying one of the Mavic 3 variants this spring, maybe sooner (?). When I breached the question in another thread some folks said that I should be buying a refurb Mavic 3 vs the Classic. That sounded reasonable, but then I came across some information that pushed me to the Classic: The Care/Refresh costs.

If the difference between the Mavic 3 and Classic is only the 7x lens then it might need to be assessed how important that 7x lens is, because there is additional up-front cos for simply having that extra 7x lens. But additionally we end up paying an extra $140 premium for the care refresh premium, and more for standard repair deductibles, but over $200 more for fly-away deductible. All these "stacked" extra charges just for the privilege of having the 7x lens????

I've cut and pasted the care refresh costs and deductibles below for your convenience. To me they are eye opening. The one other thing I just learned is that you pay the premium which can take you out to 2 years, but you cannot renew it beyond 2 years. So if you're careful and don't have any crashes leading to a repair, we've paid all this money which DJI just puts in their pocket and your out on your own after 2 years with no ability to renew beyond the 2 years. What a racket. It's got to be a huge margin builder. Those Chinese bean counters have it all figured out.

At least for me the 7x lens isn't that important.
For those of you who have a Mavic 3, how often do you actually use the 7x lens????


DJI Care Refresh 2-Year Plan (DJI Mavic 3 Classic)
USD $259

View attachment 157867


DJI Care Refresh 2-Year Plan (DJI Mavic 3)
USD $399
View attachment 157868
 
First of all, I have the M3 with the 7x lens and I will admit, I am not using the 7x lens as much as I would like to but I have hopes to use it more and even for DJI to somehow improve it with updates. When I bought the M3 the Classic was not even a known product.

I enjoy using the M3 and still loved my old M2P but I can only have the time to fly one at a time. As far as Care Refresh goes, ZeussFla. a friend of mine, recently (last week) lost his M3 in the swamps of Northern Florida filming a huge alligator. I believe he recovered it at great risk, but I spoke to him before the recovery and he told me that DJI would have replaced the >$3000 M3 with a new one on his fly away plan. I think this is a fair deal. Rather than spending another $3000 for sure it only would have cost him $700 instead of over $3000.

That is always the dilemma with insurance. Recently my long term health care insurance premium increased a huge amount, just at the age I would really need to have it, so I have to bite the bullet, since I have paid premiums into it for many years already.

Of course, this is exactly why insurance companies make their money. The odds are with them, but I am not going to cut off my nose to spite my face (or whatever the saying is). I will continue to buy whatever drone insurance is available.

Dale
Miami
 
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I am pretty much committed to buying one of the Mavic 3 variants this spring, maybe sooner (?). When I breached the question in another thread some folks said that I should be buying a refurb Mavic 3 vs the Classic. That sounded reasonable, but then I came across some information that pushed me to the Classic: The Care/Refresh costs.

If the difference between the Mavic 3 and Classic is only the 7x lens then it might need to be assessed how important that 7x lens is, because there is additional up-front cos for simply having that extra 7x lens. But additionally we end up paying an extra $140 premium for the care refresh premium, and more for standard repair deductibles, but over $200 more for fly-away deductible. All these "stacked" extra charges just for the privilege of having the 7x lens????

I've cut and pasted the care refresh costs and deductibles below for your convenience. To me they are eye opening. The one other thing I just learned is that you pay the premium which can take you out to 2 years, but you cannot renew it beyond 2 years. So if you're careful and don't have any crashes leading to a repair, we've paid all this money which DJI just puts in their pocket and your out on your own after 2 years with no ability to renew beyond the 2 years. What a racket. It's got to be a huge margin builder. Those Chinese bean counters have it all figured out.

At least for me the 7x lens isn't that important.
For those of you who have a Mavic 3, how often do you actually use the 7x lens????


DJI Care Refresh 2-Year Plan (DJI Mavic 3 Classic)
USD $259

View attachment 157867


DJI Care Refresh 2-Year Plan (DJI Mavic 3)
USD $399
View attachment 157868
You can get the renewed M3 for $1699 or a new 3 Classic for $1599 🤔
 
I have the Refresh insurance on my Mavic 3 and will likely renew it when it comes due in March for a second year. Whether I use it or not really doesn’t matter as it’s there if I need it. Refresh is similar to AppleCare, it’s there if you need to use it. In both cases you can choose whether the cost is worth it to you or not.

Thankfully here in Canada health care is free regardless of age so there is no need to worry about purchasing insurance.

Chris
 
I'm trying to decide between the Mavic 3 and the M3 Classic. The Tele lens is probably something I'd use. But I really like the Night Flight and Cruise Control on the Classic.
This is where I need some clarification: I believe firmware updates have made the Mavic 3 Classic and Mavic 3 equal when it comes to Night Flight (if that is what the camera mode is called) and Cruise control? Is that correct that they are equal, or does the Classic have the better Night recording and Cruise Control feutures?
 
So the Night filming feature and cruise control are the same on both drones? (the link doesn't compare those two).
Well DJI says that firmware updates have made them equal in those two aspects. The more I think about it the more I think the telephoto lens is something I will use living in Washington State. Water and Mountains surround me, and to zoom in from afar, even if not filming, will be satisfying. So I just cancelled the purchase of my new M3 Classic from DJI and opted for a refurbished Mavic 3 from Drone Nerds instead.
 
So the Night filming feature and cruise control are the same on both drones? (the link doesn't compare those two).
You need to select the M3 from the drop-down

Screenshot 2023-02-25 081640.jpg on the top right
 
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