The Best Camera Drone – DJI Mini Review

Buying a drone with a camera? DJI Mini series should be the first on your list. There are a lot of big and small drones you can buy out there, from drone companies you never heard off. But DJI has been a leader with 76% of market share of all commercial drones sold in the world in 2021. _^[1]

When the DJI Mavic Mini arrived in 2019, it was pretty unique design. Under 250gms, drone that packs 2.7K camera is still good deal today. Its since been succeeded by newer model DJI Mini 2 in 2020, which can shoot 4K video. So old Mavic Mini is just a fine drone if you don’t need 4K video.

One of the big selling points of the DJI Mini Series drone is its 249g weight, which narrowly avoids need to be registered with many civil aviation authorities. But that’s no longer the case in some countries, like the UK, which have since updated their registration requirements to include all drones with a camera.

Why DJI?

Ever got wowed by panning landscape intro videos on YouTube with shots taken from above? Chances are they were shot by sleek camera of DJI drones. Nothing has come close to DJI. There are reasons why these are the best and please let me, I’ll explain.

1. Camera Quality – Any cheapest DJI drones has capability to shoot over 2K. This makes them incredibly powerful tool to take clear and interesting looking videos.
2. Gimbal Camera – For that incredible stable videos, this is the design feature that makes DJI drone cameras what they are today.
3. DJI Software – With DJI’s Return-To-Home feature, the worry about losing the drone due to lost signal is reduced. The drone magically comes back where it took off from.

Why Mavic Mini?

So out of all the other expensive drones why am I saying DJI Mavic Mini or Mini 2 are the best drones? See both these drones are purposefully designed to be under 250g of weight. DJI packed as much technology as they could for it to weight approximately 249g.

As per Drone law in UK (might differ in other countries) any drone under 250g is classed as C0 or C1 class drone. This has a special advantage over other drones weighting above this borderline.

The CAA (Civil Aviation Authority UK) restricts drones above 250g to fly closer to people than 50m and must not intentionally fly over people. But permits drone lighter than 250g to fly closer to people than 50m and you can fly over them. _^[2]

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Additionally you can fly small drones and model aircraft that are lighter than 250g, or C0 or C1 class, in residential, recreational, commercial and industrial areas, where there are no special restrictions for drones. But with a drone more than 250g this is not possible.

Spec Compare

If choosing between DJI Mavic Mini (2019) or DJI Mini 2 (2020) it really comes down to your budget. If you really want 4K video and zoom capability Mini 2 to be the one for recommendation, you can spend a little more.

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DJI Fly App

Won’t lie, installing DJI Fly App and setting up the drone is slightly time-consuming. As all you want to do is see that drone fly, but it takes lot of patience. Once you are through the setup and tutorial, dont think you are done. As most drone accidents happen during first flights.

DJI Fly App looks very polished and keeps things very clear. It shows in Map which area are restricted and restricts flying into them. Within the same app you can not only learn and fly the drone but also edit videos and photos to post them directly to social media.

Limitations

These drones aren’t crash-proof, unlike its bigger and expensive DJI Mavic Air series which have obstacle avoidance sensors on their sides, front and back. DJI Mini series, only has two sensors at the base to enable smooth landings.

So its very easy to crash these drones or damage something or someone, if you are not careful enough. Thankfully they are available to buy with a “Fly More Combo” pakage which include a 360-degree propellor guard and two extra batteries.

Flying a drone takes patience. Its essentially an Aircraft that a person flying it is in control. As most accidents happen due to human error. DJI has this one also covered in its insurance plan called “DJI Care Refresh”. Which covers a wide variety of accidents, giving you greater peace of mind.

Photo Samples

Revolution Electrified Take

I cant say DJI Mini series is a beginner drone as it can shoot <2K video and the amout of technique required to learn to fly this or a 20kg drone is more or less same. So once you through the newbie phase of ‘jittery thumbs’ and ‘gonna loose the drone’ has past, you can enjoy flying drone.

DJI specializes in capturing highest quality Photos and Videos. But there is a new generation of obstacle avoidance AI powered drone already arrived in market. Its called Skydio and its an unbelivable drone which follows you without a worry of crashing. Its amazing but the technology is expensive today.

As drone industry keeps evolving, there are specialised varierty of drones been developed. FPV drones are used racng competitions, some giant drones for commertial jobs and gaint ones for transporting people are called eVTOLs.

Before drones were used to capture aerial shots and used for rescue missions, same job was down to a helicopter. This was tremendous expensive process and came with tons of emmisions. The ease that drone technology is making is remarkable. And this is just the beginning.

Disclaimer: Please be aware of rules and regulations of flying a drone in your country before purchasing one.