Upgrade to Mavic 3 Pro or wait for Mavic 4?

[landscapetog]

I've gotten very serious about my drone photography in the last few months and I know I would use the heck out of the 3x lens on the Mavic 3 Pro that my Mavic 3 doesn't have. I'm always wishing for something zoomed out from the 7x and zoomed in from the 1x.

However, spending $2000+ for the pro (my daughter would end up with my Mavic 3) when the Mavic 4 will be released in a few months would frustrate me.

Any ideas how long until the 4 gets released? I'm expecting a much better 7x camera with the 4, perhaps 48MP, as recent top phones have, and perhaps a slightly improved 3x and 1x camera. And maybe DJI will even surprise us with an APS-C sensor in it?

 

[msinger]

Any ideas how long until the 4 gets released?

Haven't seen any chatter about that. If you need a drone now, the Mavic Pro 3 is it.

 

[mavic3usa]

No idea when the M4P is coming but I would say it is soon enough since we are almost a year out with the M3P to give you my opinion: Unless you get a super great deal on an M3P, I would wait. The best reason I can relate to from a personal preference is O4. I would imagine a broad range of controllers including a new smart controller and new goggles may come with the next flagship drone and this would put it over the top for me. If there was no O4 and the M4P was just another ordinary upgrade, I would be less likely to wait. Also hearing about new features such as 5G and AI, etc means even though I already have the M3P, I will buy the M4P regardless; however, I am on the 1-year wait schedule which means all new DJI launches going forward are on hold for up to 1 year pending updates, changes, features delivery, etc....i.e. I wait for my fellow drone flyers to work out the bugs.

 

[DARKSeifer]

At least for photography I don't think it's worth it, the main camera is all you want, but video is less demanding on the quality side, so the 3x can be a viable option.

The M3 enterprise, the one with the same camera as the M3, has a mechanical shutter, so pics should be less noisy than the electronic shutter we get on the standard version, but don't think it's worth it either, Lightroom IA denoising gets rid of any noise anyway.

I don't think the M4 gets any better in terms of imaging, we already reached the point of diminishing returns in <900g drones. APS-C with good optical quality/heat dissipation in that small compact format and <900g... hard to believe. On <2Kg yes. but on <900g not unless they cut the battery weight in half. M3 has already the problem of the circle of image not covering the entire sensor.

I'd stick to the M3 as long as I can, now that it's easy hackable to be immune to Aeroscope/RID, has permanent FCC and no babysitting is the perfect drone for any situation. If the M4 is any good, I'll switch to it whenever it gets hacked. DJI also have the tendency to release drones half cooked, so there's no point in picking them on release anyway.

On the meantime, I'll probably pick the M3T, I think there's no hack available yet, 1001 is compatible with the M3T, but haven't found how to install it outside D-H which states it only works for the M3 standard version. I have a handheld thermal camera and is quite fun, and a flying one with that much resolution has to be super fun.

 

[Cafguy]

I would imagine a broad range of controllers including a new smart controller and new goggles may come with the next flagship drone and this would put it over the top for me

Yep Waiting for the Mavic 4 Would be the best option. If you spend the Money now you Most likely be shelling out more money later to resupply yourself with the "newer" O4 Drone along with controllers, googles and such. If you can Afford to purchase a newer model soon after you buy your Mavic 3 then why not
BUT
Has anyone else heard the "O4 in 24" Rumor, I have- and while we have all heard this before I am pretty Confident that at least an O4 air unit is in the cards for this year.

 

[mavic3usa]

Yep Waiting for the Mavic 4 Would be the best option. If you spend the Money now you Most likely be shelling out more money later to resupply yourself with the "newer" O4 Drone along with controllers, googles and such. If you can Afford to purchase a newer model soon after you buy your Mavic 3 then why not
BUT
Has anyone else heard the "O4 in 24" Rumor, I have- and while we have all heard this before I am pretty Confident that at least an O4 air unit is in the cards for this year.

DJI Air 3

So if rumors are true and they usually are this close to release..The new Air 3 will have a battery charger that charges all 3 batteries at once and Ocusync 4. How is it that this wasn't introduced in the Mavic 3 Pro released just 2 months ago?

mavicpilots.com

 

[Cafguy]

I think DJI has NO choice OR lose more of the Air unit market to Walksnail.

 

[gogorokokoko]

dji new releases context these days:
dji sold a lot of mavics 3 in the ukr war zone on both sides
in the us there is a very fluid situation about banning dji drones
so dji may want to slow down the pace of new releases
on the image quality side its hard to think that they will put a bigger/really better main camera sensor if they will keep the triple camera setup
anyway, i dont see the mavic 4 coming in the next months cause there are no leaks

 

[rgarjr]

Who knows when that new bird comes out, could be November, could not. The Mav 3 you currently have is very similar to the Mav 3 Pro, except for that medium lense.

 

[StevenBrodsky]

I've gotten very serious about my drone photography in the last few months and I know I would use the heck out of the 3x lens on the Mavic 3 Pro that my Mavic 3 doesn't have. I'm always wishing for something zoomed out from the 7x and zoomed in from the 1x.

However, spending $2000+ for the pro (my daughter would end up with my Mavic 3) when the Mavic 4 will be released in a few months would frustrate me.

Any ideas how long until the 4 gets released? I'm expecting a much better 7x camera with the 4, perhaps 48MP, as recent top phones have, and perhaps a slightly improved 3x and 1x camera. And maybe DJI will even surprise us with an APS-C sensor in it?

If you wait for a Mav4 you are going to be waiting a long time. I haven't even heard of any rumors or specs on a Mav4. This usually means we won't see it for at least a year. Might even be a 2 year wait.

 

[frandenr]

I've gotten very serious about my drone photography in the last few months and I know I would use the heck out of the 3x lens on the Mavic 3 Pro that my Mavic 3 doesn't have. I'm always wishing for something zoomed out from the 7x and zoomed in from the 1x.

However, spending $2000+ for the pro (my daughter would end up with my Mavic 3) when the Mavic 4 will be released in a few months would frustrate me.

Any ideas how long until the 4 gets released? I'm expecting a much better 7x camera with the 4, perhaps 48MP, as recent top phones have, and perhaps a slightly improved 3x and 1x camera. And maybe DJI will even surprise us with an APS-C sensor in it?

Before you buy the Mavic 3 Pro, take into consideration that DJI has refused to release a Software Development Kit for the Mavic 3 pro. That means that no 3 party software, like Litchi or Dronelink or any other vendor will be available for the Mavic 3 pro. I would wait to see what new releases DJI will release a SDK.