DJI Mavic 3: 46 minutes of autonomy and 4/3 room

The price goes up, but we are facing a masterpiece of aeronautical engineering. The Mavic 3 truly has everything a user could ever want from a drone.

DJI does not stop, and flies very high. Fly in the true sense of the word, because its new Mavic 3, announced tonight, is a technologically dream product. The Mavic 2 was already a great product, but the new version goes further by increasing not only flight minutes but also 360 ° performance. From the camera to the sensors, to the video transmission and the transfer of photos and footage, the Mavic 3 improves every aspect of one of the best-selling prosumer drones of recent years.

The Mavic category for DJI was incredibly successful: the 2016 Mavic Pro was the first drone with folding arms, it was as big when closed as a 1.5 liter bottle and could fit in a bag or backpack. Then came the Mavic 2, which raised the photo and video quality thanks to the adoption of a 1 ”sensor.

Mavic 3 now changes everything: today drones are mainly used for photos and videos and the new model has been built around photos and videos. It starts with a new camera module called L2D-20c, which integrates a 4/3 inch sensor larger than the 1 "one in the Mavic 2. A very high dynamic sensor, in front of which a 24mm lens was shown stabilized by the gimbal and capable of recording videos in 5.1K at 50 fps, 4K at 120 fps and 20 megapixel photographs in 12-bit RAW format.

The sensor, and its colorimetric adjustment, were made in collaboration with Hasselblad, a company of the group, and DJI talks about a dynamic range of 12.8 stops and the user can choose to take full advantage of it by recording in 10-bit D-Log format for a subsequent HDR grading, currently being edited. The main camera of the Mavic 3 also has a variable aperture lens: it can be adjusted in a range from f / 2.8 to f / 11.

We talked about the main camera because the Mavic 3 has two cameras: above the 24 mm there is a 162 mm telephoto with 28x hybrid optical zoom and f / 4.4 aperture which can be useful for some types of shooting.

Despite the variable aperture, DJI also comes with a full complement of ND filters divided into two sets, ND4 / 8/16/32 and ND64 / 128/256/512, further reinforcing the idea that this drone it is also perfect as a portable solution for cinemas and documentaries.

For those who want to use it as a flying camera DJI has thought of a special version: it is called Mavic 3 Cine and allows the encoding of videos in Apple ProRes 422 HQ format up to 3772 Mbit / s. To manage the huge amount of data that this datarate entails this version has a built-in 1TB SSD drive. The company has thought of all the needs of field operators: to quickly transfer clips from the 1 TB hard disk to a laptop, a dedicated DJI Lightspeed data cable is provided, which guarantees a transfer speed of 10 Gbit / s. To the eye it looks like a normal thunderbolt cable.

In addition to the camera, DJI has also drastically improved flight time: the company says it has remodeled every element of the package, developing high-efficiency motors and propellers, reducing the weight of the frame and the various components and improving aerodynamic resistance. In the wind tunnel the Mavic 3 produces 35% less resistance than the previous generation and this, combined with a larger battery, allows you to touch the 46 minutes of autonomy. For such a drone there are many.

This is just the appetizer, because then all the components related to the flight itself and the transmission arrive. DJI used O3 + (formerly Ocusync) which promises control at a distance of 15 km, but the real difference is not so much the distance as the latency, minimum, and the transmitted signal: the live feed is at 1080p and 60 fps.

DJI explains that thanks to O3 + the pilot control is much more responsive and above all the video rendering is close to what the camera is shooting. DJI has also introduced a new remote control , and it is thanks to its enhanced antenna that the distance reaches 15 km; this remote control has a 1000 nit high brightness screen to make outdoor viewing under sunlight much sharper.

The assisted navigation system has also been completely renewed: the APAS 5.0 obstacle detection system is obviously omnidirectional and uses 6 fish-eye vision sensors and 2 wide-angle sensors to adjust the flight path in real time. Not only that: they are also used for the detection of people in ActiveTrack 5.0 mode, the classic follow me. The version on the Mavic 3 allows the drone to move with the subject while moving forward, backward, left, right and diagonally, and to fly sideways and around. Also, according to DJI, if the subject moves too fast and temporarily exits the frame, the visual sensors on the camera body will continue to intelligently track and frame the subject and they will pick it up again when it reappears in the frame . It also improves the locking of satellite signals with full support for GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou constellations.

DJI has also thought about safety: geofencing to alert pilots while flying at sensitive locations, altitude limits to ensure pilots are aware of altitude restrictions and of course the AeroScope Remote ID system, which allows authorities to identify and monitor. drones flying in sensitive places. The Mavic 3's built-in AirSense system also alerts pilots to the presence of nearby airplanes and helicopters that transmit ADS-B signals. Finally, it improves the Return To Home (RTH) system, the one that automatically returns a drone to its starting point if the battery is critically discharged or loses the connection to the controller. The Mavic 3 has improved this system by allowing the aircraft to automatically determine the shortest, safest and most energy efficient route to return to the starting point and land. “ At the same time, the drone measures the wind speed of the surrounding environment and calculates in real time the power needed to go back based on the wind speed and the return path. This allows users more time to fly safely before activating RTH . " explains DJI.

DJI Mavic 3 is available starting today in three different configurations, one of them dedicated to cinema users. The first is the standard version Mavic 3 which is sold for € 2119 and includes the drone, the battery, the simple RC-N1 remote control and the cover.

The Mavic 3 Fly More Combo version is sold for € 2829 and includes the drone, 3 batteries, the basic remote control, a set of ND filters (ND4 / 8/16/32), the carrying bag and other essential accessories.

Finally there is the “Cine”, the DJI Mavic 3 Cine Premium Combo. It costs € 4839 and it's not too much if you think that a cinema drone costs a lot more. In this configuration there is the integrated 1 TB SSD and in addition there is support for video recording in Apple ProRes 422 HQ. There are also three batteries, the DJI RC Pro remote control with screen, a double set of ND filters (ND4 / 8/16/32/64/128/256/512), the convertible carrying bag and the DJI Lightspeed data cable to 10 Gbit / s and other essential accessories.

A final question, the one related to the CE sticker: DJI has issued us the following statement: “ The standards for the drone class identification labels have not yet been finalized. To date, the notified bodies that are required to provide the class identification labels have not yet been appointed by the authorities of any EU state. Therefore we cannot know today or even speculate what type of class identification label could be applied to current or future DJI products. DJI participates in standards consulting and is working with potential notified body candidates, and we will work accordingly to ensure compliance of relevant products. We are aware that the current situation has led to a lot of uncertainty among users regarding the compliance of DJI drones with the new European drone regulations and class identification labels. Rest assured that this problem is of the utmost importance to us, and we hope to resolve it as quickly as possible. "

Source dday.it