Droning around: DJI Mavic Mini Review

I’ve Been wanting a Drone for years. Someday when we get back into making videos it will be great to have. But until then I just get a new toy. To say I’ve been researching extensively is a slight understatement. I’ve been obsessively reading reviews and specs, and watching YouTube reviews of nearly every new drone that is made. Well, I finally broke down and picked one. The DJI Mavic Mini.

For me, the choice came down to price vs size vs features. There are several trad-offs here, but at $499 for the “Fly more” pack, the price really helped. My review here is as a first time drone flyer, so I cannot compare flight or characteristics to others, but I do have some thoughts that might help other first time buyers. If you want real reviews, there are MANY on YouTube.

I’ve flown a few RC aircraft before, and some super cheap “dumb” drones, so I have some experience with the controls. But to say I’m flying would be wrong. This thing flys itself. I just ask it to do what I want. I never had any trouble getting used to it. The controls are intuitive and the device responds quickly and accurately. Only when I’m really trying to push it have I even thought I might be out of control, but as soon as I release the control the drone stops and is waiting for whats next.

I’ve flown several more times now, and I’m getting to the point where I feel confident flying it between the masts of the boats at the pier, and soon enough Ill be letting it loose while were out sailing to get some great pictures of Nymeria.

Other reasons I picked the Mini over the Spark or one of the Mavic Pros was the size and weight. At 249g it is under the official limit for having to register with the FAA. I have no issues with registering, or even taking tests to qualify for more advanced rules. I just want to make sure this is worth it in the first place, so the mini is a good start with that.

The video and pictures it produces are fantastic in my opinion, and quite good enough for the enthusiast level photographer/videographer I consider myself to be. Eventually if I get better, upgrades will happen, but for now its perfect.

There are some cons though. Due to its size and weight limitations. DJI chose not to put all the smart sensors on it. Therefore it cannot sense if it is about to hit something. This limits some of DJI’s cooler features such as auto-tracking. I do find that missing feature fairly glaring as it is quite useful so that I can get shots of both Shannon and I without me staring at the controls. In the end though, It is forcing me to learn to fly smoother and more “cinematic”. Also, Shannon is a pretty enough subject on her own.

I’m hoping this will help kick-start us back into producing some videos to share. As well as force us to get out there more so we can take pretty shots of Nymeria.