Mini 5 Pro--getting tired of waiting

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<250g DJI drones tend to be released yearly, but they reached the point of diminishing returns with the Mini 3 Pro.

Whenever the Mini 5 comes out it won't do anything that the 3 or the 4 can't.

How untrue.

I can think of half a dozen things easily that would trigger me to upgrade the 4pro.

The easiest is dual camera. That would be a no-brainer for me.

Don't bother with arguing whether it's possible or not. It is. It's simply a matter of engineering.

 

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They are already within grams of the target 250g, so they can't make it heavier (meaning they probably can't add another lens / sensor) 8K is going to cause overheating problems (we're already dicing with danger at 4K60 on hot days on the M4P) and they can't add any more sensors than it already has ! Occusync 4 is already amazing, and way in excess of VLOS, so no point in adding anything there. It's already got RID for when that becomes necessary. What else could we want a drone that size to reasonably do ?! Perhaps they will find a way to boost its wind resistance somehow, but again, I suspect they already did what they could.

You might not be an engineer...

Everything above is possible, if at least one of the three legs of the engineering stool is unrestrained.

Some of the above is impractical, chiefly because the cost leg of the stool isn't unconstrained enough.

To give one example, the Mini could be made considerably lighter and stronger if certain materials could be used, but then few would be sold, at $2,500 drone-only

 

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I wouldn't even get the Mini4 right now I'd get the Mini3 without hestitation. I suspect that the Mini5 will have "upgrades" like better obstacle avoidance and maybe "smarter" object tracking and things like that...maybe some new variation of the existing sensor. But as others have said the return on investment over something cheaper like the Mini3 is minimal.

Knowing nothing at all about what and if mini5, I can say with confidence if one does get released, it will have significant feature differences compelling enough to get people to buy it over the 4.

 

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So the mini 4 is a great drone in itself. Why is it so much better than the Mini 3?

Full, spherical OA.

I have been unwilling to use the various tracking modes on DJI drones that did not have full OA. I do now with the mini 4P and Air 3, and have been happy (and impressed) with the OA performance, although it has it's limits and as the A3S shows, it can be improved a lot.

For the first time with both those drones I've been able to focus on the cinematography on a few occasions and get some nice footage, better than I could get worrying too much about flying.

 

[ryguy80]

How untrue.

I can think of half a dozen things easily that would trigger me to upgrade the 4pro.

The easiest is dual camera. That would be a no-brainer for me.

Don't bother with arguing whether it's possible or not. It is. It's simply a matter of engineering.

I don’t think the Mini series will get dual cameras because you’re cannibalizing sales on the Air series then.

With dual cameras also comes the challenge of keeping the drone under 250g.

 

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The other controller modes create a dissonance as quads in GPS mode don't need to roll like a plane to maneuver, but it may come in handy for people that have a RC plane/copter background or in FPV manual mode.

Well, they don't need to, but they benefit just the same way as fixed-wing aircraft by coordinating turns. Without the proper amount of roll, the quad will "slide" around a turn rather than make as tight and controlled turn as is possible.

DJI started auto-coordinating turns some time ago, on the Air 2 IIRC, and it really messed up (and pissed off) many of us that were coordinating already.

 

[Droning on and on...]

I don’t think the Mini series will get dual cameras because you’re cannibalizing sales on the Air series then.

I agree with you.

But that wasn't the question