Whether you’re a drone enthusiast or considering purchasing one, you will be interested to know that DJI has a new drone from their mini series being released very soon. And, it is exciting.
With the massive explosion of personal drone products that hit the market in recent years, drones have been finding themselves in more homes across America. But homes are not the only ones. Businesses of all sizes across many industries have also found practical applications that drones can provide solutions for. Drones are ideal for photographers, content creators, home entertainment and home video, while being equally useful for work purposes. Between the options the consumer has now, it’s safe to say that there has never been a better time to shop for personal drones and DJI is about to release a next gen model to one of their best in class.
Through lots of speculation and leaks, there are a few things we know about the new DJI Mini 4 Pro. Even though there has been no official word on a release date or any official specs communicated, the few pieces of information that leaked are quite impressive and will make any fan of drones eager to check it out.
The DJI Mini 3 Pro is one of the best in class mini drones offering more power and efficient productivity through amazing specs and user friendly operations. The shooting modes and features in the Mini 3 Pro are the perfect tools to capture your vision to video or stills. It is exciting to see what this next gen model has in store for us. However, we do realize that the closer DJI gets to perfecting this model drone, the less changes that will need to be updated. So let’s review what we know and what we speculate about newest upcoming DJI Mini 4 Pro personal drone.
We know that the new Mini 4 Pro will offer an improved 4K at 100 fps video recording. This is a big bump from the Mini 3 Pro which offers 4K at 60 fps. Shooting 4K at 60 fps is pretty good for a small drone, but shooting at 66% more frames per second will enable smoother video recording and allow you to edit, slow down, and transition clips and video for more complicated productions and presentations. We speculate that to support this the Mini 4 Pro may have some hardware updates but the CMOS 1 inch sensor and dual native ISO currently found in the Mini 3 Pro offers enriched high dynamic range and an effective pixel rate of 48MP for images. We know the Mini 4 Pro will offer 48mp images so both drones may share the same sensor and processor. We also know that the Mini 4 Pro has HDR video but are unsure if it will be like the mini 3 which gives HDR in single shot mode and when shooting at 24/25/30fps or if there will be any enhancements which allows for HDR recording in greater frame rates. Some things we just have to wait to find out more.
Obstacle Avoidance is a crucial feature for drone pilots. Beginners will find this function to be very useful as it detects and prevents potential crashes. A good obstacle avoidance system will help you stay focused on capturing your shot especially during automated shooting modes like Quickshots. Obstacle avoidance can also act like training wheels during tutorials. Even the most seasoned pros can have accidents and this feature will ensure the safety of your expensive drone.
The Mini 4 Pro will showcase DJI’s newest Omnidirectional Active Obstacle Sensing system which detects objects and obstacles in every direction, up, down, front, back, left and right. This is the same system DJI unveiled with the DJI Air 3 that was recently released. The current Mini 3 Pro uses a tri-directional obstacle avoidance system which only senses forwards, backwards, and downwards. Naturally, omni directional is much better than tri-directional and can improve the overall experience and reflect in the quality of material produced.
Another leaked spec is the inclusion of DJI’s new OcuSync 4.0 connectivity. OcuSync 4.0 allows for Full video in HD transmission up to 12 miles or 20km. OcuSync 4.0 is supported through one of DJI’s amazing remotes such as the new RC controller and RC-N2. Older remote controller models like the DJI RC-N1 will still sync but not to the 4.0’s range, along with your android or apple iPhone devices when using the app.
Having incredible autonomous flight features can enhance your overall flying experience and help you nab better shots. The Mini 4 Pro comes with even more automatic flight modes with supported Waypoint flight. This is most probably enabled by the new omnidirectional sensing system. With the Mini 4 Pro you will be able to program a flight path for your drone and direct it exactly where and when to record video or capture images. The Mini 3 could only perform these types of functions while using hyperlapse mode (which is also included in the Mini 4 Pro along with Focus Track, True Vertical Shooting, Active Track, and all the Quickshot shooting modes such as Dronie, Helix, Rocket, Circle, Boomerang, and Asteroid).
The Mini 4 Pro weighs under 249g and features a foldable compact size, larger propellers, an aerodynamic body tilt, a powerful obstacle sensing system, and a reimagined gimbal which gives a wider rotation range for hard-angle shots and True Vertical Shooting. This is below the FAA weight restrictions and the Mini 4 Pro is one of the lightest most versatile mini drones available on the market today. Because of its compact size and foldability, this new drone is simple to store or travel with. It’s so small when folded that it can even fit in your pants pocket. The mini 4’s powerful low light performance is thanks to its mighty hardware which boasts stunning captures and image quality for video and stills even in poorly lit environments. The new Mini 4 Pro is ideal for professionals who want the power and control of a great drone but in a smaller size. The Mini 4 Pro offers options to choose color profiles such as normal or cinematic and photo formats in JPEG or RAW making the material produced easy to edit postproduction.
The Max flight time on the DJI Mini 3 has 34 minutes battery life and we don’t expect that to change for the Mini 4 Pro. Although it’s worth noting that you can expand the flight time to 47 minutes using the DJI Mini 3 Pro intelligent Flight Battery Plus and would assume there will be something equal to if not better for the Mini 4 Pro. The Mini 3 Pro currently has a max speed of 16m/s with no wind at sea level and we don’t expect these types of metrics to change much if any for the new Mini 4 Pro.
DJI are leaders in the personal drone space. They are the ones who brought us awesome drones like the Air 2s or the DJI Mavic series including the Mavic Mini and DJI Mavic 3 Pro. DJI knows what they’re doing and everyone who owns one of their drones is loving it. We imagine the Mini 4 Pro will be available with a DJI fly more kit which combos all the extra amenities within one package. DJI makes some of the best drones we have tested and we tend to lean towards the reliability in the quality of build, as well as the many specs which make us excited for the new Mini 4 Pro.