Mini 3 smooth flying- Is it the drone, the RC controller- or both?

[Droning on and on...]

Focus and Active Track are incredible tools.

They get way too much grief because people have unreasonable expectations. The current capabilities have limitations due current technology.

That said, used with these limitations in mind, these tools can make a rank amateur look like an experienced camera operator.

 

[old man mavic]

@moldorf ,my fellow forum member ,i am not telling you anything,what you decide to do with regards to your drone hobby is your choice,this thread was about the fact that the Mini 3 drone seems to be a very smooth flyer,compared to other drones in the DJI stable
for me personally the main enjoyment i get from the hobby, is being able to fly my drones ,maintain them in an airworthy condition ,to the best of my ability, and enjoy the great outdoors while i am doing it
i have no interest in whether or not my videos ,and pictures ,are edited ,or of a standard for professional use
that side of the hobby i leave to others ,and i admire those people who use a drone ,as part of their photography,skills,and go to the trouble of editing their videos,for the enjoyment of others
there are many facets of drone flying ,and each individual decides what their priorities are
if i were asked to list what i think those priorities are,when first flying a drone then this is how i see them
(1) learn as much as you can about how your drone flies
(2) practice practice practice,basic maneuvering skills ,till it becomes second nature
(3) then begin to put those skills to good use ,and start taking videos ,and pics ,try different techniques till you find what best works for you,by that i mean adjust some of the settings to suit your flying style
(4) if you then decide to go into editing now's the time to give it a go
(5) and finally, just relax and enjoy the whole experience, where ever it takes you

 

[Droning on and on...]

The mini 3 has some trickery going on behind the scenes with regards to control. If you give it fwd stick and then a bit of yaw stick it will automatically blend in some roll for a smoother turn. In my very limited so far experience of flying the mini3 it feels a lot smoother than the mini1 and I think at least some of this is down to it automatically injecting some extra control input on top of what you're doing. This damping and smoothing could be interpreted as "mushier" by those used to the very direct, sharp and undamped response of preceding minis.

Yes, to my unending annoyance it auto-coordinates turns. I have to use a different bird to capture a sliding turn around a subject. Rare, but cool path/effect up close.

I get it. I don't object to the feature. So much is already automated for the lower-skilled masses might as well relieve them of learning about and performing coordinated turns.

Just let me turn it off!

 

[scro]

Yes, to my unending annoyance it auto-coordinates turns. I have to use a different bird to capture a sliding turn around a subject. Rare, but cool path/effect up close.

I get it. I don't object to the feature. So much is already automated for the lower-skilled masses might as well relieve them of learning about and performing coordinated turns.

Just let me turn it off!

I'm with you on this. All the automated assistance can be helpful and I do find myself using it. But there are times when it would be very nice to have the option to switch the assistance off so that you can get the drone to do what you want, rather than what it thinks you want. Akin to having a manual override mode on a car with an automatic gearbox.

 

[BroomRider]

The M3P being my 1st drone, I don't have any experience with the "sliding turns while photographing" technique, but wouldn't doing a coordinated velocity reduction with a yaw achieve the same effect? Would using the FPV mode help with that?

I agree with having (more) options to tailor to different techniques.

 

[vindibona1]

lord help me

first, I had to learn just how to fly the drone. Setting RTH protocols, speed modes, etc.

next, I had to learn how to capture media....videos and photos, and after several months of effort I haven't even graduated to remedial as a videographer. Capturing video and photos is much more complex than flying, and combining the two is even more complex. At this point, if I produce a good video, it's as much accidental as intentional

and speaking of which, I am having to learn how to edit and color-grade, I'm using DaVinci Resolve and I am about 95% buried by the learning curve there

now you're telling me I need to learn about the minutia of pitch and yaw and roll? I'm an old dog buried under a massive pile of new tricks

All of the above is best learned in BITE-SIZED PIECES. If you try to digest all of it at once, unless you have some sort of innate ability to do that you will get frustrated, as it sounds like you are a bit right now.

Creating videos while flying is definitely a challenge because you have to know what you want to film in your mind's eye and then have developed the skill to allow your drone to track where you want it to without much cerebral thinking about the controls. While the video may be the ultimate goal, it is really secondary. I just get my drone up in the air, turn the video on and cut up the large clip in post only keeping the segments that I want to use. I almost never turn the video on and off when in the air. I think the only time that I turn the video off is if the drone has to make a large transition to a different place. Keeping the video mostly on just allows me to focus on flying.

To be honest, I rarely use the automated features in any of my drones. I hate to admit it, but I have trouble finding the auto features in the menus because I use them so rarely. And so it takes practice to have what's in your mind transfer to the controls which then commandes the drone. Nothing replaces practice. While being able to film your practice sessions can be helpful, we all just need the mileage. And flying is a "perishable" skill; a skill that diminshes through lack of continuous practice.

Ahh... Davinci... It can be like drinking from a fire hose if you try to absorb too much at once. What I found helpful is, within editing videos is to decide what I wanted to do with a particular clip, a title, color correction, etc and then set out to find tutorials limited to those specific tasks. Again, learning in bite-sized pieces. But that's me. Some folks want to swallow the whole enchilada at once and then go about editing. I salute those that can do it that way.

 

[TTP]

I fly both M2P and M3P 3 to 4 times a week.

If it's just about flying, not shooting, then I can only state that, I have so much better control over the M2P than the M3P. Valid in P-Mode, and in T(C)-Mode, M2P is completely superior when it comes to control of the flight.

 

[vindibona1]

I fly both M2P and M3P 3 to 4 times a week.

If it's just about flying, not shooting, then I can only state that, I have so much better control over the M2P than the M3P. Valid in P-Mode, and in T(C)-Mode, M2P is completely superior when it comes to control of the flight.

Which controller do you have for your Mini 3?

The M2P is far superior in handling to the Mini 2 (RCN1 controller) but only somewhat better than the Mini3 with DJI RC controller. At this point I have not tried the RCN1 with the Mini3.

My biggest gripe with all of the drones that use the fly app is that the Cine mode allows the drone to go far too fast at roughly 11 mph. The tripod mode of the Mavic 2 trottled that drone at roughly 2 1/2 mph Making it far better for precise handling when it’s needed. Hi

 

[TTP]

Which controller do you have for your Mini 3?

The M2P is far superior in handling to the Mini 2 (RCN1 controller) but only somewhat better than the Mini3 with DJI RC controller. At this point I have not tried the RCN1 with the Mini3.

My biggest gripe with all of the drones that use the fly app is that the Cine mode allows the drone to go far too fast at roughly 11 mph. The tripod mode of the Mavic 2 trottled that drone at roughly 2 1/2 mph Making it far better for precise handling when it’s needed. Hi

SC for M2P and

Which controller do you have for your Mini 3?

The M2P is far superior in handling to the Mini 2 (RCN1 controller) but only somewhat better than the Mini3 with DJI RC controller. At this point I have not tried the RCN1 with the Mini3.

My biggest gripe with all of the drones that use the fly app is that the Cine mode allows the drone to go far too fast at roughly 11 mph. The tripod mode of the Mavic 2 trottled that drone at roughly 2 1/2 mph Making it far better for precise handling when it’s needed. Hi

M2P SC, M3P RC