
Between the lightweight body and other design efficiencies, DJI said the flight time is up to 30 minutes on its battery pack. When I first saw the Mini I fully expected the battery life would be down around 15 to 20 minutes. And you still get features like its preprogrammed cinema shots and flying circles or helixes around subjects.Ī door on back covers the Mini's small battery pack.

That makes it easier to focus on framing your shots and flying. The camera's on a three-axis motorized gimbal so you'll still get the same smooth video and stable pictures as you would with DJI's other drones.Īlso, there's a new streamlined DJI Fly app for the Mini that gets rid of a lot of the onscreen clutter of its other drone apps. It can shoot video at up to 2.7K at 30 frames per second and 1080 at 60fps and 12 megapixel photos. The Mini's camera is a step up from the Spark's. Left to right: DJI Mavic Air, Mavic Mini and Mavic 2. What it can't do is point straight up like Parrot's Anafi. Despite the small size, you do have controls for the camera in back including a tilt dial so you can point the camera straight down, straight forward or anywhere in between. Neither it nor the drone are so large that you'll hesitate bringing them with you. The controller is compact like the drone and folds up nicely.

Less noise and a small size will make this a better choice for more discreet, inconspicuous flying, kind of like the difference between shooting pictures with your phone instead of a large SLR camera. I was standing within a few feet of it having a conversation without shouting or having problems hearing.
