This is the third drone that I have owned. I have had it long enough to be familiar with its strengths and weaknesses. With the imminent release of the Mavic Air 2, I have had a chance to review my purchase. When I bought the little guy it was at a time when the punitive tariffs had put the Mavic 2 Pro out of reach. The 249g flight weight makes it perfect for traveling. For example when I went to the UK in March I did not have to pay the £11 registration fee. So that’s nice. It’s really small and light. I can easily throw the whole Fly More Combo kit in my camera bag along with my camera. So it is great as a travel solution.
On the weaknesses list there are many. Which makes sense for a system that only costs 25% of the Pro model. There really are four main weaknesses: camera, weight, range, and compatibility.
One of the things I love about drones photography is the ability to put the camera anywhere in three dimensional space. My first Parrot.AR drone had a camera fixed to its nose so when it flew, the camera pitched down. Looking back, the video is ridiculous with horrible jelly distortions. It was just a hint of what a drone can do. The Mavic line took that to a whole different level with a 3-axis stabilized gimbal. It’s truly amazing to have the drone swinging around in mid air with the camera staying stable. The camera on the Mini is pretty good. You only get 2.7K video and 12MP pictures. The Pro and especially the Pro 2 feature better cameras but the Mini is good enough for Instagram and most uses.
While the light weight is a feature, it’s also a problem if there’s any kind of wind. I use a wind app on my phone and know if there’s more than 15 knots of wind, I’m not flying. On my last trip I just wanted to fly up a hill to see what was on the other side but the wind whipping over the top of the hill was more that the little guy could handle. It was all I could do to drop altitude to avoid being blown out to sea.
My compatibility complain is directed at the company, DJI. They have intentionally split the market between consumer, prosumer, and professional. This makes for a confusing compatibility matrix with third-party software and even DJI’s accessories. One of the benefits of buying into an ecosystem is familiarity with the tools and some expectation of consistency. So hear my frustration when the Mini is not able to talk to KittyHawk.io or be used with the DJI Goggles. If they are going to have the Mavic family then I would like to see some consistency in the software and accessories.
My recurring frustration is that the range. This is not the fault of the drone. It is rated to have a 2.5 mile range. On paper this compares reasonably to the 4.3 mile range of my Pro. In practice theres a big difference. Today I went out to take a picture of a train trestle. I measured it on Google Earth at 1,600 ft away. The little Mini did fine even with some high tension power lines forming an L nearby. As long as I kept line of sight there was no problem. I know, I’m supposed to keep line of site anyway. If I tried to dip down below about 60′ I would temporarily loose signal. I would have to adjust my transmission location and pop back up. It also makes the Mini more sensitive to interference from other radiation. This all adds up to a very nervous flying experience dealing with signal loss.
I’ve grown accustomed to the Mini and it’s limitations. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone interested in drone photography or the drone hobby. DJI has created the perfect drone for that audience. And because of the sub 249g weight, it do not plan on parting with it anytime soon.
So the tri-lema at this point is to buy the Mavic 2 Pro (my original plan), buy the new Mavic Air 2 (tempting at half the price), or wait for a rumored Mavic 3 that may or may not be coming out this summer. The rumor mill predicted the Mavic 3 would come out January 2020. The Air 2 is certainly impressive. It is as capable as the Mavic Pro was. If it is an indication of what is coming on the Mavic 3, it’ll be worth the wait.