Premium Photography Brought Closer to Reach of Normal Operators with New Variation of Flagship Drone

DJI has unveiled the Mavic 3 Classic, striking a balance between cost and performance to offer a pseudo-flagship product at a price point closer to their greatest sellers.

How did they do it? By taking their premium Mavic 3 and cutting away some of the more specialized photography kit, omitting its high-performance telephoto lens to bring that premium Hasselblad camera into reach of the average consumer. The end result is a Mavic 3 with most of the performance and quality of its forebear, with about 500 bucks knocked off the price for a feature that may or may not be missed in your mission profiles.

The Mavic 3 Classic boasts a 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad camera capable of shooting in 5.1K/50 fps, 4K/60 fps and 1080p/60fps using H.264 and H.265 encoders. Slow-motion filming remains supported at 4K/120fps and 1080p/200fps. Its 24mm equivalent focal length lens opens to an adjustable aperture spanning f/2.8 to f/11 for 12.8 stops of native dynamic range, producing 12-bit RAW photography and 10-bit D-Log footage. All the color tuning and whiz-bang visual effects are there, just like the first Mavic 3, at least. Battery life should allow for 46 minutes of flight using the same batteries as the rest of the 3-series. Similar commonality with the rest of the DJI lineup allows for use of all the same controls, apps, and accessories as the previous Mavic 3, allowing for additional savings for those premium users eyeing an expansion of their Mavic fleet without a feature they may not use. 

Pricing for the Classic starts at around $1,500 for the solo drone, with the basic RC-N1 controller adding another $1,600 to that, or $1,750 for the advanced DJI RC controller. DJI has obtained Remote ID approval just like the last entry in the Mavic series, and has already obtained the world's first C1 Euro drone certificate for use in the A1 Open Category. 

FMI: www.dji.com