DJI 's "Mini" series of aerial photography drones are specially designed for users who want to get the best aerial photography with the least money, so this series of products can be seen in earlier generations of products. Compared with professional-grade products in terms of performance and functions, there are many "simplifications", but the newly launched DJI Mini 3 Pro has brought me a completely different real-life shooting experience, a consumer-grade aerial drone. This product combines portability and ease of use with the high performance and image quality of a professional drone. (Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi)
The fuselage design is ingenious and the workmanship is exquisite
Compared with previous generations of models, DJI Mini 3 Pro uses a new fuselage structure design, and has improved the rotor arms, propellers, and camera gimbal. Many details such as the sensor and obstacle sensor have been adjusted. At the same time, with a standard battery installed, the weight of the DJI Mini 3 Pro is well controlled. Even in working condition, it can still reduce the working weight. Keep it under 249 grams. (Today’s headlines: Many Shadows All the Way) Of course, this is inseparable from the many lightweight and compact designs of DJI Mini 3 Pro.
DJI Mini 3 Pro is mainly made of gray plastic casing. This material is very strong and very lightweight. Therefore, it is also used by other brands of aerial drones and even cameras.
The machine's gimbal camera can shoot upwards, and can even rotate vertically to take portrait photos and videos (vertical shooting mode). In DJI's dedicated DJI Fly app, it's as easy as tapping a button to switch between directions, and it's incredibly fast. The plastic cover that comes with the DJI Mini 3 Pro protects the camera and prevents the gimbal from moving around when not in use, but the unit is less sensitive than any other DJI aerial drone I've used before first use. There are many settings and they have a great impact on the actual shooting operation. This is very noteworthy. (Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi)
In addition to the downward sensor, DJI Mini 3 Pro has added forward and backward obstacle sensors. These are used in conjunction with APAS 4.0 to not only hover on standby before a failure occurs, but also automatically find a path around obstacles and return to the take-off point. The only pity is that APAS 4.0 is not suitable for high frame rate shooting above 30fps.
DJI Mini 3 Pro has two standards for battery life. The aircraft’s standard intelligent flight battery (2453mAh) can last for about 30 minutes of shooting. If you are very familiar with the operation of aerial drones and have rich shooting experience, when using the "long-life intelligent flight battery" (3850mAh) that must be purchased separately, its single shooting time can even reach about 45 minutes (nominal 47 minute). (Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi)
The DJI Long Life Smart Flight Battery is roughly the same size as the standard smart flight battery, but adds about 15 minutes of flight time. It should be noted that this battery is heavy, and the take-off weight of the DJI Mini 3 Pro drone after installation will exceed 250 grams. This means that the DJI Mini 3 Pro drone equipped with this battery will no longer be classified as a "micro-aircraft" in many countries and regions around the world, whether it is carried or photographed (not in a no-fly zone marked by geofences) , all need to register or obtain approval from relevant departments.
Newly designed remote control
DJI Mini 3 Pro not only uses a new structural design, but also uses a dedicated new optional controller - DJI RC. This remote control has a built-in 5.5-inch touch screen and no longer needs to be paired with a smartphone to use it. (Today’s Headlines: Manying Yiyi) The peak brightness of the screen is 700 nits, which is lower than the 1,000 nits of the DJI RC Pro, but it can more accurately display the brightness of the DJI Mini 3 Pro when used in most environments. Picture transmission screen. But when using it to complete aerial photography, if you want to accurately understand the exposure and color information of the picture, you still need to turn on the highlight warning and histogram.
It should be noted that the image transmission system used by DJI Mini 3 Pro supports up to 1080p 30fps image quality (recording video up to 4K 60fps). The image clarity and response speed are very good, within the effective image transmission distance (no Interference in open areas (the maximum distance is 12 kilometers) rarely causes interference and screen disconnection problems. Additionally, the DJI RC has a ton of controls built into it, including photo and video buttons for quick switching, as well as two programmable buttons on the back. (Today's headlines: Manying Yiyi) The photo button is a two-stage travel button. When used, it is like the shutter button of a camera. It can be pressed halfway to start autofocus and exposure lock , and fully pressed to release the shutter to take photos.
Photo picture quality
DJI Mini 3 Pro is equipped with a 1/1.3-inch 48-megapixel CMOS image sensor, and an F1.7 aperture fixed-focus lens with a 24mm focal length and viewing angle equivalent to a full-frame camera. The performance of its imaging quality in real shooting is very surprising. It not only has good dynamic range and noise reduction processing effect, but also its color performance can be accurate and natural whether using JPEG format or RAW format .
DJI claims that the gimbal camera uses dual native ISO technology, which can greatly improve its tolerance performance and improve the shooting quality in low-light environments. Unfortunately, since I can't find a reference model for comparison, I can't say very accurately whether this technology has a positive effect on its image quality. (Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi) Judging from the actual sample photos, under most lighting conditions, from ISO 100 to the highest ISO 6400, the noise level of photos taken in the same scene looks roughly the same. In urban night scene scenes, the noise at ISO 6400 will be more obvious, but the difference is not very obvious.
In terms of dynamic range, increasing the sensitivity will make a big difference, but the details of the picture are more natural and clear, and there will be no problems such as smearing. However, DJI Mini 3 Pro’s gimbal camera performs very well in handling HDR picture effects in backlit scenes. At sensitivity settings from ISO 400 to ISO 800, the imaging of the highlight and dark areas is very clear, and the detail retention in RAW format is also very rich. (Today’s headlines: Manying Road)
It is particularly worth mentioning that this gimbal camera is very effective in suppressing and correcting glare and ghosting. Although obvious "halos" can still be seen under backlight, its impact The range is very small, basically only appearing in a small area at the edge of the screen, and it is easy to quickly correct it through post-processing software.
Video quality
When I first got the DJI Mini 3 Pro, looking at the "such a small size" gimbal camera it used, I had no confidence in the quality of the 4K videos it shot. (Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi) However, after many real-life shootings, even in strong winds, the performance of DJI Mini 3 Pro exceeded my expectations. The 4K 30fps HDR video and 4K 60fps video it outputs are not only smooth but also smooth. , clear, and the picture quality is very good, with rich details and accurate color reproduction.
More importantly, DJI Mini 3 Pro is also equipped with 1080p high-speed video at 120fps, vertical shooting mode and other functions, which can give me more picture effect choices to adapt to editing and post-production needs of various short video platforms.
It should be noted that in vertical shooting mode, DJI Mini 3 Pro can still use full resolution images of 4K, 2.7K and 1080p. Compared with the usual horizontal shooting mode, there is almost no difference in details. .
DJI Mini 3 Pro also has a strong digital zoom function, but its practicality is not high. For example, 2x zoom can be performed under 4K, 3x zoom can be performed under 2.4K, and 4x zoom can be performed under 1080p. Judging from the actual shooting effect, the larger the zoom factor, the greater the degradation in imaging quality, and the imaging quality performance after each zoom operation is not very stable. Even if the same scene is shot, different images may appear. quality.(Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi)
A huge update for micro aerial photography drones
A few years ago, DJI said it would not focus on micro aerial photography drones weighing less than 250 grams, but it is becoming more and more strict. The regulatory and legal requirements have created greater market demand for this type of consumer-grade aerial photography drones. Perhaps in terms of performance and functions, there is still a big gap between the DJI Mini 3 Pro and the Mavic series, but in the "250g range", it is almost the only model that can meet the needs of professional users. Aerial photography drone. This can easily be seen by comparing other products with the same specifications on the market. (Today’s headlines: Manying Yiyi)
In fact, it is very difficult to achieve this, especially with the gimbal camera, stabilization system, image transmission system, obstacle avoidance system, ActiveTrack, D -Log color profile and 4K HDR video are all transplanted from professional models by DJI. Just comparing its predecessor models Mavic Mini, Mini 2 and Mini SE, it is not difficult to find that DJI Mini 3 The Pro is also the first model to have front and rear obstacle avoidance sensors, making it a better choice in every aspect. (Today’s headline number: Manying Road)
