Small is the New Big
Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd.—more widely known as Da Jiang Innovations, or simply DJI—is a Chinese state-backed designer and manufacturer of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
DJI drones are widely used in the music, television, and film industries, and are widely plied to ends both commendable and contemptible by police forces, militaries, and terrorist organizations. In 2021 DJI models accounted for approximately 76% of consumer drone sales.
On 09 December 2022, DJI introduced its Mini 3, a compact, ultra-lightweight camera drone which—at a mass of less than 249-grams—is exempt from UAV regulations in many parts of the world.
The Mini 3’s 34-millimeter camera sensor films 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) video and 12-Megapixel (MP) photos, and makes use of True Vertical Shooting—a social-media-friendly feature that allows the gimbal within which the Mini 3’s camera is housed to rotate ninety-degrees, thereby facilitating seamless transitions between landscape and portrait orientations.
DJI creative director Ferdinand Wolf states: “DJI Mini 3 arrives as a welcome addition to our growing compact drone lineup. It follows in the footsteps of its sibling, Mini 3 Pro, and offers many of the same high-performance features as a worthy alternative option. We created Mini 3 to invite even more new users to take off for the first time, and we can’t wait to see the moments they create with it.”
The Mini 3 includes DJIs standard Intelligent Flight Battery, which provides a maximum flight-time of 38-minutes. Sorties can be extended by up to 51-minutes with the company’s Intelligent Flight Battery Plus. DJI O2 digital video transmission delivers a 720-pixel/30-frame-per-second live feed from up to ten-kilometers away while using powerful anti-interference technology to deliver a reliable connection throughout flight operations. Resistant to winds as high as 10.7-meters-per-second, the Mini 3 is capable of hovering steadily and delivering stable images even under challenging meteorological conditions.
DJI’s Mini 3 drone features QuickShots, a suite of pre-programmed flight and filming protocols that facilitates outstanding content creation in both landscape and vertical shooting. QuckShots’s indigenous profiles include:
- Dronie: Aircraft retreats and ascends with its camera locked on subject.
- Helix: Aircraft ascends and circles subject.
- Rocket: Aircraft ascends with downturned camera.
- Circle: Aircraft circles around the subject.
- Boomerang: Aircraft executes elliptical orbits around subject, ascending as it retreats and descending as it advances.
Mini 3 users may also avail themselves of the wee drone’s numerous autonomous navigational functions, such as: Auto Takeoff; Return to Home (RTH), which includes Smart RTH, Low Battery RTH, and Failsafe RTH, all of which prompt the aircraft to return automatically to its starting point in the event(s) of dropped signal or low battery. What’s more, to hover stably and accurately, Mini 3 combines Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) capability with a downward vision system and an infrared sensing system.
DJI’s Mini 3 ships with DJI RC, a lightweight, easy-to-use remote controller with a built-in screen; an Intelligent Flight Battery; a two-way charging hub that—in addition to charging the remote controller and three batteries in sequence—serves as a mobile power-source and battery storage system; a set of lens filters that adapts the Mini 3’s camera to varying lighting conditions; a 360° rotor guard; a rotor holder that binds the Mini 3’s forward and aft rotors while the aircraft is folded for storage.
The DJI Mini 3 Fly More Combo (DJI RC)—which includes the DJI RC remote controller, shoulder bag, two-way charging hub, and two extra Intelligent Flight Batteries. Is available for the retail price of US $798.
Lower cost options are also available.
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