DJI’s Mini 3 Pro offers several improvements over its predecessors, but the feature that impresses me the most is the fact that the drone can fly on its own.
DJI has loaded the Mini 3 Pro with its ‘Active Track’ technology. This means that all you need to do is make sure the drone is a few metres off the ground, draw a box around yourself with the touch screen on the controller and select ‘Active Track.’
Once the feature is engaged, the drone follows you around like a little flying dog out for a leisurely walk, while still recording video like a live security camera. I had the most success with what I’d call the “standard video game character angle.” Since the drone travels forward from this angle, it’s able to use its front-facing sensors to avoid most obstacles.
It’s when the DJI Pro 3 is filming sideways that issues occur. Since there are no side-mounted sensors, the drone flies blind and crashes into things more frequently. In one situation while flying in a relatively open park area, the drone hit a lamp post with a circumference of only four inches.
Overall, if you’re careful with the DJI Pro 3, it can capture amazing footage of people, cars and pets without requiring direct control over it. This is a great feature for anyone who needs to film themselves alone.
Review
Watch my review of the DJI Pro 3 (below), or find the written version here.
Before buying a drone, you need to ask yourself what you plan to do with it. Are you shooting movies? YouTube videos? Maybe you’re snapping TikToks? Are you just using it to have fun and capture a few memories?
Surprisingly, the new DJI Mini 3 Pro works for most of those purposes better than you’d imagine. Sure, it’s not going to be used in Hollywood blockbusters, but if you want to see a device that looks and feels like a toy punch above its weight class, keep reading.
The DJI Mini 3 Pro features a beast of a camera. The footage blew me away specifically with how well it works under low-light due to a new dual ISO. In my experience, the Mini 3 Pro is the best drone for everyone that I’ve used since it packs so much into its highly desirable sub-250 gram frame. This weight limit is important since it means the drone can be flown without a license in Canada and the U.S.
What’s new and why it matters
This year there are several upgrades packed into the DJI Mini 3 Pro, so it’s hard to know where to start, but for me, the best new features are the camera upgrades.
DJI has increased the sensor size slightly this year to 1/1.3 of an inch. This means it can get a pixel size of 2.4μm, which captures more light than the previous Mini drone. Combine this with a new f/1.7 aperture on the Lens and the new HDR processing, and you get stunning low-light imagery. The drone does get a little noisy under low light, but it’s manageable and makes the DJI Mini 3 Pro way more powerful than the Mini 2.
When the sensor isn’t pixel binning, you can also take excellent-looking RAW images with the full 48-megapixel sensor. I’m used to smaller drones like the Mini 3 snapping pictures similar in quality to a smartphone camera, but DJI’s latest offering actually beats a lot of smartphones. The sharpness and clarity is astounding. My only complaint is that it’s disappointing you can’t focus on objects that are close to the camera.
The wingspan of the Mini 3 Pro is even wider than the Mini 2. The Propellers are a little longer too.
The extra processing power that unlocks improved low-light performance also allows you to record 4K 60fps footage, so you can get that excellent slow motion pan in the sky. However, you need to make sure you have a fast enough microSD card that supports it. That feature never became available to me during my review unit, so most of the video I shot for the video review was 4K 30fps on Auto since I didn’t have a chance to test the ND filters either. Still, it turned out pretty great.
I’ll also mention that DJI tacked a new D-Cine-like colour profile that’s set up for grading, which is another plus that makes this drone more accessible to creators wanting to capture a wider range of colours.
There’s one other important camera setting available here — vertical video. DJI has reengineered the drone’s gimbal so it can flip the entire camera array sideways, letting creators film nativity in portrait orientation. If you make a lot of vertical videos, this makes the DJI Mini 3 Pro the best drone you can get for that.
Some of the more exciting and single creator-focused modes like ‘Active Track,’ ‘Master Shots’ and ‘Quick Shots’ are all disabled in the vertical shooting orientation. This is annoying and something I hope DJI fixes soon. You can always crop down horizontal footage, but this is an extra step that shouldn’t be necessary when the drone can shoot vertically so easily.
When you’re shooting horizontal, these features work extremely well. During my tests, the Active Track mode responded expertly while I walked around. It was able to follow me through trees, crowds of people and over a bridge. The experience felt pretty amazing. I even cropped this footage in for a vertical video, and it held up well enough.
The final new feature is a design that incorporates the tracking sensors. DJI says the widened wingspan, longer propellers and smoother body shape help the little drone stay more stable in the sky. In my tests, the DJI Mini 3 Pro still got pushed around more than the larger Mavic 3, but it was stable enough.
However, the sensors unlock a lot of potential since they can track people, cars and pets, to follow them around like a little dash camera for your life. It’s astounding when it works, but since there are only sensors on the front and bottom, you need to be careful to make sure the drone doesn’t go sideways into things.
Overall, the Mini 3 Pro takes pretty much all of the desirable features from the DJI Air series of drones and puts it into a sub-250g body which means that it can be flown without a drone license, and it’s pocketable. This instantly makes the DJI Mini 3 Pro the most convenient on the market, which means a lot when you’re using a drone since they take so much practice and setup to get good with.
A sharper eye in the sky
The front ‘Lens hood’ area twists off so pilots can install tiny ND filters.
Right away you can notice a small bump in quality in still images over the Mini 2. This doesn’t sound exciting, but the Mini 2 was already really decent, so the extra sharpness that the Mini 3 Pro adds to the equation makes the images pop. In lower light situations, the game changes and the Mini 3 Pro performed way better with less noise and a stunning dynamic range.
If you actually want to print off some photos, the Mini 3 Pro is likely the better option, and for anyone who wants to take pictures or film sunsets (I think all drone owners), the new drone is a clear step forward. The colours on the Mini 3 Pro are also a bit richer straight out of the camera if you like shooting JPEGs.
Video is a bit of a different story. I’m sure for a lot of people the simple addition of 4K 60fps slow motion will be enough to make them salivate over this cute drone, but there’s so much more than that. The simple fact that this drone can shoot in HDR helps its footage look a lot cleaner, and the dual native ISO helps control noise in the image.
Obviously, the higher up and the further away from your subject, the better the picture looks as details blur together naturally. But even from moderately close distances, the drone’s footage is crisp and detailed.
There’s a digital 2x zoom that’s also there, it’s considerably less sharp and noisier than the main lens, but to be honest, I think with a tiny bit of help in editing, you can still get sweet shots with it. The subtle parallax that it adds to your frames and the compression you get from the 48mm equivalent focal length is something most flying videographers shouldn’t sleep on.
As I said above, this isn’t going to be featured in any Hollywood blockbusters, but for anyone more casually interested in drones, this is the model for you. As much as I loved the power of the Mavic 3 when I tested it, the large size made it pretty inconvenient to use and transport. The Mini 3 Pro doesn’t have that problem, and its footage is still more than enough for my use cases, making YouTube videos and casual photography.
A new controller and more
Most of the gear in the DJI Fly More Kit Plus.
Notably, this is the first Mini DJI drone to come without a controller at its base cost ($869 CAD). If you’re upgrading from a Mini 2 or Air 2S this is likely fine, but most people will likely want to shell out for one of the more expensive packages that come with a controller.
There are two. The first is the ‘DJI RC-N1’ that comes with most modern DJI drones. It’s the same controller that came with the DJI Mini 2 and the base model of the Mavic 3. This controller feels nice in hand, has a beefy battery and needs to be plugged into a phone to work. This new drone plus basic controller option is priced at $979 CAD.
Top controller is the new DJI RC. The Bottom controller is the DJI RC-N1 and it’s been the standard controller for a few years.
The new controller is called the ‘DJI RC,’ and it has a 700-nit screen built into it so you can keep your phone free for other tasks. This new controller even has a MicroSD card slot so you can back up your footage or check out the drone’s card on the go. There are also two USB-C ports on the bottom; you can use one for charging and the other is for a China-only accessory.
So far, I like the new controller, but it’s less about its new features and simply because it conveniently keeps my phone free which is a nice plus. Having said that, 700 nits isn’t as bright as some phones can go and in direct sunlight, I did find it hard to see the screen.
As usual, the DJI ‘Fly More’ bundles are a nice touch with a fun little bag, two extra batteries, a neat charger and lots of bonus propeller blades.
Like many other DJI drones, the Mini 3 Pro can take ‘MasterShots’ and ‘QuickShots.’ These are some preset flight paths that you can get the drone to follow around a location or a person. Basically, you just tell the drone what you want it to film and it will do it as long as that thing isn’t moving. If it’s moving you need to use tracking.
QuickShots are single motions like panning around a subject or a zoom in/out. MasterShots takes this to an extreme by connecting a bunch of QucikShots into one long take and then splicing that all together for you. Both are pretty handy to have, but I found myself using QuickShots more than MasterShots because I generally only needed one angle of a thing, not an epic edit of a bunch of shots. Still, both modes are fun, and I’m sure people will continue to get a ton of use out of both. These features along with the ability to take panoramas and hyper lapses are also on other DJI drones.
The tracking features are what blew me away the most with the Mini 3 Pro. Having a drone smart enough to actually follow you while you’re walking, biking or driving without another person actively controlling it is a huge plus. Seriously, if you’re part of a small filmmaking team or a solo creator, the utility of this feature can’t be understated. Part of the reason I’ve been unable to add drone shots to most of my recent MobileSyrup videos is that they take a lot of time, skill, practice and a pilot to film me, making moving cars and people pretty much impossible to capture. With the new active track feature, all that goes away.
The last thing I’ll mention here is the DJI 3 Pro’s battery life. Generally, I found the 34 minutes of flight time in ideal conditions to be enough (it.s closer to 25 with some wind). That said, if you want extra flight time, DJI also sells a battery called the Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that can boost the flight time to around 47 minutes, but there’s a catch. This battery raises the weight of the drone slightly above 249 grams meaning when you’re using it, you technically need a drone license.
The Mini 3 Pro is shaping up to be one of the most exciting drones to hit the market in years, but it’s not cheap.
The sub-250 gram drone is being sold in three packages this year. The basic package comes with the Mini 3 Pro drone ($869 CAD) and nothing else. This option is just for people who already own a DJI RC-N1 controller.
The next package includes the DJI RC-N1 controller and comes in at $979 CAD. This is the same controller that’s been standard with DJI drones over the past few years. The final buying option comes with the new DJI RC controller and costs $1,179 CAD. This controller has a built-in screen.
The company is also offering two ‘Fly More Kits’ to go along with the new drone. Both are the same, but one includes heavier batteries, each giving pilots up to 47 minutes of flight time, but at the cost of pushing the drone over the 250-gram limit and thus requiring a license to fly in Canada.
Beyond that difference, both kits include a fairly simple, but nice carrying case, two batteries, two extra propeller sets, a charging dock for the batteries, spare screws and a USB-C cable.
The standard Fly More Kit costs $250 CAD, and the Fly More Kit Plus retails for $320 CAD.
Pricing
DJI’s website lists the drones in USD, but you can still order them in Canada. The Canadian pricing we have reflects what third-party retailers should be selling the drone at.
DJI Mini 3 Pro (No RC) – $669 USD ( CAD 869 )
DJI Mini 3 Pro (RC-N1) – $759 USD ( CAD 979 )
DJI Mini 3 Pro (DJI RC) – $909 USD ( CAD 1,179 )
DJI Mini 3 Pro Fly More Kit – $189 USD ( CAD 249 )
DJI Mini 3 Pro Fly More Kit Plus – $249 USD ( CAD 319 )
DJI’s most consumer-friendly drone might be getting an even more consumer-friendly refresh sometime in 2022. This update could include longer flight times, better obstacle avoidance and an improved camera.
The new drone is rumoured to be called the DJI Mini 3 Pro, which might suggest that there will be a ‘Pro’ and a ‘Standard’ version of the next Mini. I’d expect the Pro to offer more features, but they may be software-only like DJI did with the Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Pro. In that case, the Pro version featured more storage and access to additional file codecs.
In the new leaks, the Mini 3 Pro appears to weigh 249-grams, making it suitable for flying without a license in Canada. If you want to fly a drone that weighs more than 250g, you’re legally required to complete an online course.
As a DJI Mini 2 owner, I’m the most excited to see what kinds of other camera improvements the company puts in the drone this time. According to a tweet from known DJI leaker Jasper Ellens, the new DJI Mini 3 Pro will feature an improved gimbal and a larger f/1.7 aperture instead of f/2.8, which should allow for more light to reach the camera.
This is the new #DJI#Mini3Pro. It has a bigger 2453 mAh battery. Improved 3-axis gimbal and camera E24 F1.7. Huge front and ground sensors and … new backwards sensors. Weight: 249g. Time to sell your Mini 2. I expect a announcement in a few weeks. pic.twitter.com/CvW9YfmkRg
— Jasper Ellens – 27 Leaks (@JasperEllens) April 2, 2022
The lens is also more recessed, suggesting that it might catch less glare and that the revamped gimbal position will be able to rotate the camera in new ways.
Other changes spotted in this leak suggest that there will be more obstacle avoidance sensors on the front and rear of the drone to help prevent it from crashing into things. These sensors could also help the drone automatically track and follow you. This feature has been exclusive to DJI’s premium drones for the past few years, but it would make sense for it to come to the Mini given it’s become popular with content creators.
Apart from the tweaked design, the final change is that the battery — at least in the 3 Pro — is reportedly 2,453 mAh, instead of the 2,250 mAh that the DJI Mini 2 features.
Ellens predicts that DJI Mini 3 Pro will be announced at some point over the next two weeks.