Mavic 3 / Mavic 3 Cine

colors and dynamic range look pretty good. looks pretty sharpened? something about the motion cadence looks odd as well, although obviously there's a lot of speed ramping going on. Personally, I don't drone enough to merit the upgrade from my phantom 4 advanced. but to be sure, the new feature set and sensor upgrade, etc, are awesome
 
looks pretty sharpened?

Interesting. I literally had the opposite reaction to the footage . The one thing that really jumped out at me in all of the promo footage is that finally a non-Inspire level drone by DJI has come out that does not look artificially sharpened in-camera. For the first time, I am seeing a lot of detail with natural looking edges.

That said, what I really want to see are the comparisons between the Pro-res Cine version vs the lower level codecs of the normal version. That price diff is HUGE, so I'm leaning the same way you are in terms of cost/benefit WRT to upgrading. I'd love to have that Cine, but I'm not using drones often enough at the moment to justify 5 grand.
 
I thought the footage looked great. This is the drone I am looking for.


I'd love to have that Cine, but I'm not using drones often enough at the moment to justify 5 grand.

It's an interesting strategy, they do not sell the Cine standalone, but as far as I can make out it's only ~$600 more than the $2200 standard Mavic 3. It's just that you have to buy it in the package that includes all the bells & whistles:

- $1200 Controller
- 3x $179 Batteries
- 2x $179 ND Filter Kits
- $$$ Misc charging hub, convertible bag, etc.

The Cine is identical to the standard $2200 Mavic except for ProRes & 1TB internal storage to hold ProRes.

Do we *really* need ProRes with 10-bit h.265 these days? For those of us working for others as a professional drone operator or on higher level productions sure, I imagine so. But as my own shop, drone footage for me is pre-dominantly establishing b-roll shots and something that adds some flare to a production. I don't even shoot my primary content in ProRes, I shoot on the S1H/EVA1/GHx cameras in h.264/h.265. Also, do we *really* want it all stored on 1TB internal drive? After every flight, I pull out the MicroSD card and store it safely away on the ground. I carry a distinct microSD card for each drone flight (usually 2 cards per battery). This is essentially a safeguard against crashing the drone and losing all my footage, so I am "backing it up" after each flight.

All that said, I will probably end up with the Cine version ANYWAY... only because I want every one of those accessories. If I get the $3k fly more combo, I still want the $1200 pro remote and the $180 higher stopping power ND kit and now I'm at $4400, so I might as well just get the Cine at that point.

So it's a smart pricing strategy, the Cine is "only" $600 more. But they won't sell it standalone at $2800, no doubt because they make a killing on all the marked up accessories (like a $320(???) convertible bag and $180 ND filter kit!). And the way they distribute accessories is very clever, too (why does the $3k fly more combo kit not include the far more valuable higher stopping power ND filters? The main lens has adjustable aperture, so by and large when you need ND filters you will need the more powerful one. To upsell you of course!). Tricky devils.

Main bummer is that if I ever break the Cine model, doesn't seem to be a way to repurchase it standalone, so I'd have to just get the $2200 base model. Which is basically identical save for ProRes/1TB... two things I don't think I really need anyway.... so I guess it's fine. But a $600 price jump to the cine package is only $350 increase after tax write off so it doesn't seem reasonable to piece meal it out rather than get the model with ProRes.

Whatever. The drone and footage look incredible. This is the drone we have been waiting for.
 
Basic package + extra batteries and a set of NDs is all I need. I don't need another bag, especially one at that ridiculous price which also screams "steal me shiny toys inside."
 
The new flight times are amazing. The drone looks good and while I'm sure it would pay for itself over time, it's another thing to "pay off" so I'd rather not buy one at all!

With the odd shaped filters, what about polarizers? There will be third party products like this - https://www.pgytech.com/products/dji-mavic-3-filters

They've gone with a design that covers both lenses rather than two individual filters. Do polarizers work the same way if they're not in the centre of the lens?

My initial reaction is the tethered cable sucks. Sometimes I leave cards with people but maybe I won't dislike it as much as I think in actual use?

I've seen enough good looking footage to be happy with the IQ but one scene from their promo stuff looked awful, like a beginner photographer making bad HDR photos:

m3.jpg
 
The Mavic 3 produces good looking footage for sure. But not a big enough jump in quality to enable me to charge any more on my invoices. For me like many, the drone is an added value tool primarily for B roll shots. The old trusty Phantom 4 Pro is still filling that role quite satisfactorily for the time being. Sure I would like it to be smaller and easier to stow but I can live with what it is. Part of my rationale is if I ever total the 4 Pro there are now dozens to choose from on the used market at quite reasonable prices. The used market is a veritable spare parts bin for us not so skilled flyers.

Chris Young
 
The Mavic 3 produces good looking footage for sure. But not a big enough jump in quality to enable me to charge any more on my invoices. For me like many, the drone is an added value tool primarily for B roll shots. The old trusty Phantom 4 Pro is still filling that role quite satisfactorily for the time being. Sure I would like it to be smaller and easier to stow but I can live with what it is. Part of my rationale is if I ever total the 4 Pro there are now dozens to choose from on the used market at quite reasonable prices. The used market is a veritable spare parts bin for us not so skilled flyers.

Chris Young

With the mavic 3 cine, the image is closer to what the inspire cameras are providing without requiring the same workflow (read headaches: higher level of skills, more people, more planning, fewer approvals, a boatload of batterires etc.)

So who knows, there may be new demand for people wanting to have less jarring cuts between the drone and ground cameras but weren't quite willing to go down the path of the dedicated drone crew/heavier aircraft (didn't have the $$$).

The cine 3 isn't as good as an x7 but it's a new option we haven't been able to provide until now. I'd love to see cinematch DJI cine 3 mixed with various well-known cameras and see where we truly stand as far as matching.

I'm a huge phantom 4 pro fan but ultimately I think the cine 3 will be rapidly decreasing how long the older generation of drones will be acceptable.

I think if I went with the regular version, I'd run into enough times over the course of a few years where I wished I bought the cine version.

Other than IQ, to me the things like flight time, smaller package, no attaching/removing propellers, nice bright screen are pretty welcome changes.

I won't be running out to buy one but if that changes then hopefully it won't be so difficult leveraging the new tech for a higher equipment rate.
 
The old trusty Phantom 4 Pro is still filling that role quite satisfactorily for the time being. Sure I would like it to be smaller and easier to stow but I can live with what it is.

Chris Young

This is exactly how I feel at the moment. I'm based in US - so for me - the thing I am mostly looking for in an "upgrade" to my existing P4Pro - is that is comply with the FAA's remote ID - which "compliance" dates are not that far away. And it's strange to me that DJI doesn't have this somewhere in bold in their marketing materials.
Straight from the FAA's site about remote ID...

Next, there are compliance dates:
  • September 16, 2022:
    • Manufacturers and producers of UAS must comply with the final rule's requirements for them.
  • September 16, 2023:
    • Commercial and recreational UAS drone pilots must meet one of the three ways to comply with the rule when flying their drone.
 
The big issue with Remote ID compliance is, the specs that manufacturers have to comply with by next September haven't even been released yet.
 
So I'll share my thoughts on the Mavic 3 Cine.

For me, this is exactly the product I've been waiting for. As a solo shooter, I'm almost always working by myself. Every once in a while I get a project where I need a team and when that happens, I hire the guys I need which would include a dedicated aerial crew if necessary. But for most of my work, it's just me. My projects are commercial, corporate, documentary, large land real estate, events and live-streaming.

I would wager to say about 50% of new customers I get ask me during our first meeting if I have a drone. This is common because customers today see the value in aerial shots, especially when their competitors have aerial shots in their videos or photos. This used to not be a question I got asked, but over the past four or five years it gets brought up by about 1 out of every 2 customers. As you can see, my clients value aerial shots, therefore I value them too.

Up until now, we had really two viable options on the market. You could either A.) purchase a consumer drone with a 1/2" to 1" sensor or B.) you could purchase something like a DJI Inspire 2 with the Zenmuse X5 or X7 camera, or perhaps go even further to get something like a Freefly Alta, DJI Matrice, or something along those lines. Basically you were either getting a consumer drone, or you were investing a lot of money into a professional drone that is big, heavy, slow to setup and that is really meant to be flown by two people.

Because of this, people like me who usually work alone, but who's customers want aerial shots, we were likely to just go the consumer drone route because anything else would set you back serious money and would be more of a hassle than you would likely want to deal with. For me, this was how I felt, so I have been working with a Phantom 4 Pro since 2016 and only this summer did I replace it with an Air 2S which is a nice little quadcopter, but isn't really that much better than what my P4P was IQ wise.

When DJI announced the Mavic 3 Cine last week, it was the first time that I felt we had a different option, a middle option that was more than a consumer product, but that wouldn't set you back $7,500-15,000. A drone that had a Micro 4/3 sensor with a built-in 1TB SSD, ProRes HQ internal with 10-bit color, 5.1K up to 60p, 4K up to 120p, an incredible remote with a built-in high-bright screen that costs $1,200 by itself, and all of this in a small portable package that's quick to setup and that has Active Track modes, Point of Interest and other available modes that make getting complex shots as a single operator really easy. Plus, it has world class obstacle avoidance, a 47 minute flight time and comes with 8 ND filters, a 3 bay battery charger and a custom made bag to carry it all in. For $5,000, this is incredible.

Just think about what I wrote in that last paragraph. If you read those specs 3 years ago, you wouldn't have believed me. This is where we are today and as a solo shooter, what more could you ask for? Anything this can't do, you need to hire a dedicated aerial team for and that is exactly how people like me will operate. And when you look at the rest of the market, there's really nothing else like it.

The next closest option is the XDynamics Evolve 2 which is a $3,700 Micro 4/3 drone with the ability to use interchange lenses. In theory this is a great option, but in practice this product is already a year behind its original shipping date because it's made by a relatively small and unknown company who didn't have the ability to get their product out when they said they would. As such, would you want to trust their drone on a paid commercial shoot? It reminds me a lot of Blackmagic in its early days when they came out with interesting products at great price points, but they always missed their launch dates and usually came with some problems. For many, they couldn't put their job on the line with a BM camera, so they went with Canon or Sony who were companies you could trust. That's exactly how XDynamics feels, not to mention that their drone is much bigger than the Mavic 3 Cine, doesn't come with ND filters, only comes with one battery, and has a much shorter flight time. Plus, it also doesn't have the same Active Track modes or the other flight modes that the DJI Mavic 3 Cine has which means it won't be as easy to get complex shots with as a solo operator.

As you can see, there's not really a lot of options out there like the Mavic 3 Cine. Even the Inspire 2 with the X5 camera costs more by the time you add the ProRes license and accessories ($7,100 starting price for the Inspire 2 X5S Advanced Kit) and that's 5 year old tech by this point, not to mention how much bigger and slower it is to use. So really your options are limited at this price point and for a drone that bridges the gap between consumer and professional.

Speaking of the price, let's dissect that real quick. People keep saying that you're paying $2,000 extra for the Cine kit vs the Fly More Combo and that the only thing you're paying for is ProRes HQ. As such, many are arguing that you're paying $2K just for ProRes. But, that isn't true at all. You're getting a second set of ND filters ($180 value), a pro remote with a built-in High Bright screen ($1,200 value), a built-in 1TB drive (let's guess that's a $100-200 value) and the ProRes license which sells for $500 when you buy an Inspire 2 without the license, so let's call that a $500 value. When you add that all up, you're looking at $1,980-2,080 worth of add ons. That's where the $2,000 price increase comes from. So from that perspective, the DJI Mavic 3 Cine is priced appropriately and when you add the fact that it fills a gap in the market, it justifies its price even more. The only question is, is a $5,000 Mavic 3 Cine worth it to you?

For me the answer is yes. I've been longing for a drone that had a Micro 4/3 sensor and that could record in a format that has enough data to capture the fine details you see from the air. Previous DJI drones with their H.265 codecs and smaller bitrates often look mushy as they didn't record enough data to handle the fine details. With ProRes HQ, that problem goes away. Plus from my understanding DJI's previous consumer drones shot 10-bit 4:2:0 in H.265 whereas the Mavic 3 Cine records in 10-bit 4:2:2 when recording in ProRes HQ. And if you don't want to deal with the amount of data you record in ProRes HQ for a certain project, you can always fall back to the H.265 codec to save space when needed and have the option to add up to a 2TB micro-SD card in the drone to give you a total of 3TB of space for H.265 projects which you will never fill up.

Another point for me is that I hate editing H.265. It slows down my computer dramatically when working in post and is even a pain just to review on my laptop in a hotel at night. And if you need to stack shots, forget about it. As such I was always having to transcode my shots to ProRes to have smooth playback and manageable edits. With the Mavic 3 Cine, you no longer have to do that as you can record straight to ProRes HQ in camera. This saves a lot of time and as we all know, time is money. Therefore for people like me, this drone will literally save you money in the long run. Plus, while $5,000 may seem like a lot of money, if you're shooting stills or video professionally for a living, you'll make that back. It's simply another tool to help you do your job.

So is the Mavic 3 Cine for everyone? No, it's not. Is it priced appropriately? I would argue yes. And is it worth it for some people? I would again argue yes as I myself am the target market for this product. So if you're like me, you get it and maybe you'll buy this drone to help you get footage from the air that can better match what you're getting on the ground. That's what I'm after as I don't want my drone shots to look like drone shots. I want them to look like aerial shots that are nothing more than a continuation of the story or video. I want something that can better cut with my FX6, A1 and A7SIII when shooting projects as a solo operator. And for those projects where I need something bigger, I'll just hire a dedicated aerial team. Those are my thoughts!
 
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I think the Mavic 3 Cine is slightly overpriced for what it is. That Smart Controller is not really a big step up from the one they sold for $750 two weeks ago to go with the Mavic 2 Pro... but it's $1200 because that's what DJI decided it would cost for the Mavic 3. That said, while $5k is more than I'm interested in spending for it, I don't think it's "off the planet" expensive like some people have characterized it.

The M3 "Smart Controller" might have justified $1200 if it had a bigger screen like the one for the Autel Evo II.

My issue with the Mavic 3 Cine is the fact that the high-end recording is integrated into the drone itself and is NOT REMOVABLE. This seems like a minor inconvenience initially (it's gonna really suck to have your drone sitting there dumping ProRes HQ for an hour), but if you think about "what could go wrong" it's even worse.

You crash your Mavic 3 Cine to the point where it won't "boot" to the point of having the disk accessible. If it had a removable card, you could likely pop that card into a reader and still get the footage you shot off of it. In the case of the Mavic 3 Cine's integrated SSD... you're relying on DJI to get that footage for you if they even claim they can. More likely, it's just gone because DJI isn't going to do a data transfer for you when you use one of your Care Refresh cases to get a new Mavic 3.

I don't want non-removable media on my ground-based cameras... no way I'm going for it on my aerial camera (that are in a lot more risky situations).
 
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