DJI Mavic 3 Fly More Combo, Drone with 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad Camera, 5.1K Video, Omnidirectional Obstacle Sensing, 46 Mins Flight, Advanced Auto Return, Drone with DJI RC-N1, Two Extra Batteries, Gray

Product Information

The success of the Mavic line led to other machines; a bunch of other machines; split semi-roughly along consumer and more prosumer lines. On the consumer front, we saw the Mavic AIR, the Mavic Mini, the Mavic AIR 2, the Mini 2, and the AIR 2S. (Those last two seem to mark a departure for DJI in the naming department. Despite the clear form factor heritage, the company has dropped the “Mavic” name.)

DJI worked with Swedish camera maker Hasselblad to create a custom L2D-20c camera for the Mavic 3 series. Placed on the bottom, the main camera features a 20MP, Four Thirds CMOS sensor that has a 24mm (equiv.) lens with 84º FOV and variable F2.8-11 aperture. It can shoot still images in 12-bit Raw format. The entire dual-camera system is placed on a 3-axis mechanical gimbal. I'm also having a difficult time processing (no pun intended) the fact that DJI is offering up a digital zoom, versus an optical one, on such a pricey drone. What's even more perplexing is that the files can only be saved as JPEGs. Some professional photographers and videographers tend to delve into inspections and other industrial use cases. Why did the Mavic 2 Zoom offer up some optical capabilities while the Mavic 3 does not? Then there's a pertinent issue with the unique shape of the lens, though DJI may already have a solution for what's pointed out below. This makes the airframe marginally larger than other Mavic 3 models but the weight of the drone is the most significant difference, despite it being less than 2.4 oz / 70 g heavier than previous models at 33.79oz / 958g for the 3 Pro and 33.96oz / 963g for the 3 Pro Cine. This isn’t a huge leap, by any stretch, but it’s enough to place the Pro models into the European C2 classification. This means that pilots will have to use the drone 50m or more away from uninvolved people and at least 150m away from built-up areas in Europe. Outside the cover, the drone looks much more like the Air 2S; the legs are thinner and the vision sensors placed diagonally on the corners rather than glaring forward like those on the Mavic 2. The top and rear side vents offer a slightly aggressive posture though the spindly legs offset that.This controller is larger than the older foldable Mavic 2 controller, but the advantage is improved battery life of up to six hours. The RC Pro controller (above) that comes with the Cine version of the Mavic 3 is essentially a new Smart Controller with a 5.5in touchscreen and offers several other advanced features compared to the standard controller. The December firmware update came with improvements to obstacle avoidance, but when tested in the same highly complex environment as our original test the drone performed the same way. When flying within a tight avenue of trees, the Mavic 3 flew erratically and may have crashed into tree branches if it wasn’t stopped. Still, this was an incredibly tough test and when APAS was turned off, the drone was able to fly much more smoothly, albeit with a much greater risk of crashing. With the impressive onboard technology, it would be great to see further improvements to obstacle avoidance in future firmware updates. When it comes to controllers, except for the Mavic 3 Pro Cine Premium Bundle, which is only available with the DJI RC Pro, you can choose between the DJI RC and DJI RC Pro. Both are smart controllers featuring 5.5-inch touchscreens – the RC Pro is slightly larger, 43% heavier and offers up to four hours of battery life compared to three and a brighter screen. Both are excellent overall. The Pro model offers many more features, including a stronger signal, but it’s much more expensive. DJI Mavic 3 Pro: Features and flight

Our source in China says the Mavic 3 Pro will “definitely” have a rear-mounted battery. Mavic 3 Pro features recap The DJI Mavic 3 Pro was tested over several days of flying in a range of locations, environments and weather conditions (excluding rain) to test flight performance, flight features, overall handling and image quality for both photo and video capture. All testing is conducted in a way that meets local aviation laws and restrictions to ensure that all flights are safe and legal. Larger sensor is of minor interest and its improvements can be had with consideration to better lighthing.APAS 5.0 – the latest iteration of an autopilot system that automatically detects obstacles – will avoid them by creating a path around them. In the demo given to DPReview by DJI's team, the video shown to us demonstrating APAS 5.0 capabilities was recorded at a maximum resolution of 4K/30p. This is consistent with the Air 2S. If you went to 4K/60 or 120p, the feature will no longer work. DJI says it has updated APAS 5.0 to work properly in more complicated environments, including a congested city. This feature was not yet available for us to test in the beta version of the DJI Fly app. Another feature that sits in the area of safety is the Mavic 3's new positioning algorithm, which claims to improve hovering precision with less drifting by connecting to GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou satellites. This is, of course, welcome, but it’s impossible to see a difference between the Mavic 3 and previous-generation models when the drone is hovering.