Tag Archives: mavic

DJI rolls out the Mavic 3 Classic, a ‘relatively affordable’ flagship drone with a Hasselblad camera

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While it’s standard to announce new products that are better than the stuff you’ve previously made, DJI’s switching things up by releasing a more affordable, lower-spec version of its high-end drone from last year. The Mavic 3 Classic is DJI’s answer to everyone who wanted the latest in drone technology but didn’t have $2,199 to spare on a drone. Priced at a much more conservative $1,469, the Mavic 3 Classic cuts back on the secondary telephoto camera found on its predecessor but retains all the other features that make it such a stunning piece of hardware. The Classic drone shoots in 5.1K at 50fps using a 20-megapixel 4/3 CMOS Hasselblad camera that provides incredible detail with industry-leading color accuracy and has a flight time of a whopping 46 minutes, which gives you enough time to pretty much capture everything from sports shots to aerial time lapses of cities and other landscapes.

Designer: DJI

For most people, I’d argue the vast majority, two shooters on a drone may feel like overkill. The Mavic 3, however, still pushed the limit by sporting the 4/3 Hasselblad camera along with a 1/2-inch telephoto camera. Probably realizing that the Mavic line (which was built for consumers and not professionals) may have gone a little off course with the Mavic 3, DJI decided to cut back on the secondary camera to deliver a drone that still outperformed others while being relatively affordable for most high-end consumers.

The Mavic 3 Classic, as its name rightfully suggests, brings the Mavic range back to its original trajectory. The drone doesn’t compromise anywhere at all – it still snaps 12-bit RAW stills, and has the ability to shoot 5.1K (5,120 x 2,700) videos at up to 50 frames per second, cinematic and UHD 4K at frame rates of 120, or Full HD can be recorded at 200 fps. The camera sits on the same 3-axis gimbal that captures incredibly clear images and stable videos, and packs a bunch of visual sensors for omnidirectional obstacle detection and avoidance, along with an AirSense ADS-B receiver to warn users of nearby aircrafts.

The Mavic 3 Classic also employs the same O3+ transmission standard for a 1080p/60fps live feed up to a range of 15 km (9.3 miles), with the ability to transmit captured footage over WiFi 6 to your smartphone as soon as the drone lands back on the ground. In addition to its standard features like subject tracking, the Mavic 3 Classic also comes with a new Cruise Control Mode that lets you set a speed and direction, allowing the drone to take control of its own flight so you don’t have to worry about manual controls. DJI also announced a new Night Shots Mode that lets you capture brilliant videos in low-light settings with reduced noise.

The Mavic 3 Classic starts at $1469 for just the drone, or $1599 for the drone with the RC-N1 controller. If you want the high-end controller with the 5.5-inch built-in display and the DJI Fly App pre-installed, the bundle will cost you $1749.

The post DJI rolls out the Mavic 3 Classic, a ‘relatively affordable’ flagship drone with a Hasselblad camera first appeared on Yanko Design.

DJI’s new FPV Drone gives you the superpower of flight… well almost!

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DJI‘s latest drone doesn’t want you to simply operate it… it wants to put you in a virtual cockpit. The DJI FPV Drone isn’t so much about being an incredible drone as it is about boasting of its one, standout feature – the FPV or First Person View. Armed with a pretty futuristic-looking pair of goggles, a low-latency video transmission unit, and a redesigned set of controllers, the DJI FPV drone is about giving YOU the thrill of the flight by allowing you to see exactly what the drone sees… in real-time!

At the heart of the DJI FPV drone are two incredibly revolutionary innovations. Firstly, its HD Low-Latency Transmission of video that gives you the ability to view high-definition footage from the drone in stunning real-time; and secondly, its set of hardware controllers, which allow all sorts of users to experience the FPV’s glorious adrenaline rush, whether you’re a novice or a pro drone-flyer.

The quadcopter drone was built for the thrill of racing. Its uniquely curved and aerodynamic design is engineered for minimal drag, as well as to house all of the drone’s modular, removable, and replaceable parts, including the battery, camera, gimbal, landing gear, and the top shell (which acts as a helmet, protecting the drone from head-on collisions). Needless to say, if your drone ever feels the wrath of a tree or a boulder, it can, for the most part, be fixed or repaired.

The Aircraft

Built for the thrill of racing, the DJI FPV drone boasts of a camera that’s arguably as cinematic as the ones found on its Phantom series of drones. The DJI FPV aircraft can record 4K/60fps video at up to 120 Mbps, capturing crisp details that make footage look as exhilarating as the flight. Electronic Image Stabilization reduces jitter during flight, while DJI boasts of being able to beam videos from the aircraft to the goggles with as little as 28 milliseconds of latency, up to a distance of a whopping 10 kilometers or 6.2 miles. With that kind of speed comes responsibility too, which is why the aircraft comes built-in with a whole set of preventive measures and fail-safes to ensure your drone doesn’t crash or plummet from the sky as its battery dies out. Multiple sensors located on the aircraft allow it to dodge obstacles, while smart RTH features ensure the drone makes its way back home when it’s low on battery. In fact, the gear comes pre-equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which receives flight location information of manned aircrafts in the area, sending alerts directly to your goggles to avoid problems.

The Goggles

The goggles/headset forms the primary sensory element of the FPV experience, allowing you to see what the drone sees. It isn’t like your everyday VR headset, but rather sports a super-wide 150° FOV (so obstacles never sneak up on you), along with a max frame rate of 120 FPS, giving you ultra-smooth video transmission with practically no delay… so you can zig-zag to avoid obstacles like a fighter-jet, make freefall dives like a falcon, or perform stunts like a, well, stuntman! The goggles even offer a virtual training experience with the DJI Virtual Flight App for your smartphone, allowing you to race through VR environments before you actually take to the skies.

The Controllers

To maneuver the drone, DJI offers two controllers that unlock the aircraft’s true potential. You have the standard handheld controller which lets you operate the drone as you would any other, albeit with three different modes. The S-Mode unlocks simplified flight, giving you the freedom of fully manual flight with simplified controls. The N-Mode, however, is ideal for new users and novices, offering a traditional flight experience with safety features like obstacle-sensing. The M-Mode gives you complete manual control, intended at seasoned FPV drone racers. You can customize parameters and enjoy limitless control over your aircraft, including acceleration speeds of 0-100km/h in a mind-numbing 2.0 seconds!

The second controller feels a lot like entering into VR territory. Styled like a joystick, or the kind of controller you’d get with a VR headset, DJI’s Motion Controller (sold separately) lets you literally control the drone with your hands. You can maneuver the drone by simply tilting and moving the joystick around, giving you an incredibly intuitive and natural controlling experience. Moreover, a dedicated stop-and-hover button lets you instantly pause the drone in mid-air (a feature that’s great in emergencies), and a return-to-home button allows you to summon the drone back with a simple push of a button. Every aspect of the DJI FPV aims at giving you unbridled control over the drone, and putting you in the drone’s virtual cockpit. Unlike DJI’s other drone offerings that are made for videography, the FPV is for the sheer thrill of being able to fly like a bird, jet, or quite frankly, like Tony Stark… minus the weapons and hand-repulsors of course!

The DJI FPV drone currently retails for $1,299 on DJI’s retail website, with an additional $199 for the Motion Controller.

Designer: DJI

DJI Mavic Mini review: A tiny drone with big ambitions

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What a difference four years make in the world of drones. If you spot someone with an iPhone 6s today, you'd barely flinch. But if you see someone rocking a Phantom 3, it feels quaint thanks to the major advances in size, weight and power. Enter the...

DJI Mavic Mini: A powerful drone the size of your phone!

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You’ve got to admire how DJI has absolutely perfected the art of stabilized video. Whether they’re the drones, consumer gimbals, or the massive handheld Ronin rigs used in cinema, DJI knows how to maneuver a camera, no matter whether it’s a massive cinematography instrument, or something as minuscule as the lens on the DJI Osmo Pocket. Now imagine taking that expertise, and that incredibly small and cutting edge tech, and giving it wings. That’s the DJI Mavic Mini. A camera worthy of the Mavic brand in the body that’s literally the size of three smartphones stacked one on top of the other.

If the smartphone put cameras in everyone’s pockets, DJI hopes that the Mavic Mini puts cameras in the skies. The tiny drone weighs a mere 249g, which means you don’t need to register it with the Federal Aviation Administration (the FAA requires you register any drone weighing 250g or more)… and at just $399, it’s reasonable, which means literally anyone can own and fly one. (Sneaky right? Yeah, I thought so too)

The Mavic Mini comes with 30 minutes of flight time, and clicks 12 megapixel photos and shoots in 2.7K Quad HD… honestly that’s good enough for beginners. The 3-axis gimbal is remarkable, which goes without saying, but the only con is that the Mavic Mini doesn’t come with obstacle avoidance, which may be a dealbreaker if you’re not an expert behind the wheel. It does, however, come with its own controller that you can dock your phone into, giving you an uncompromising drone-flying experience, and the fact that it folds up into a neat bundle you can literally carry in your pocket, makes this quite a contender in the drone space!

Designer: DJI

DJI Mavic 2 Review: Two fantastic drones, one tough choice

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The wait is over. DJI recently announced the sequel to the immensely popular Mavic Pro, and it looks like the new version has almost everything a Mavic fan could want. The new Mavic 2 comes in two variants, the "Pro" -- which features a Hasselblad...

DJI Mavic Pro 2 and Mavic 2 Zoom: Everything you need to know

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If you are a fan of DJI's Mavic Pro, today is a good day. Or a bad day, depending on your perspective. Why? Because, as rumored, the drone behemoth didn't just reveal the Mavic Pro 2, it also introduced a second option in the line: the Mavic 2 Zoom (...

Can drone aesthetics apply to cars or vice-versa?

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Drones don’t quite have a ‘visual language’ set yet. Some look like books that open up to become drones (take the Hovercam, for instance), others have four distinct legs, with propellers mounted on them (like the DJI Phantom), and some come with a relatively small, boxy design that folds down and fits into a bag, or even to the underside of your phone… so no, drones don’t have a distinctly streamlined visual language yet, so what about borrowing from another automotive category?

The DJI Mavic Car pretty much reverses that statement, by looking at the design of the Mavic drone and trying to see a four-wheeled vehicle in it. DJI’s products boast of a spectacular performance, but aren’t unified by a brand design language. Take the Mavic’s rather sporty exterior for example… it makes for quite a nice car design, with the spoiler on the drone literally translating into a spoiler for the car. The flight sensors on the drone are also positioned exactly where the car’s headlamps would be, resulting in a car that looks like a natural evolution of the drone’s design. I wonder if any other drone visual designs could be integrated into automobiles…!

Designer: Robert Kovacs

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