The DJI Mini 3 Pro in France

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In 2018, before we spent our Christmas holidays on Tenerife, we bought a drone, the DJI Mavic Mini. Back then, we had no experience with flying drones and had only quickly started it in our own living room before letting it fly in the strong winds of north Tenerife.

Funnily enough, we found ourselves in the same situation in July 2023. Whoops, we bought the DJI Mini 3 Pro 🛈 right before heading off on our vacation!

By now, the DJI Mini 4 and DJI Mini 4 Pro have come out already, so our opinion might be a bit outdated. However, if you are considering to buy the DJI Mini 3 Pro, this might be relevant for you. And you can always just enjoy the beautiful shots of the bloodred saltlakes further down!

Professional drone starting base - this is how it is done!

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The DJI Mini 3 Pro only weighs 249g, just like its predecessor DJI Mavic Mini, but it packs a few more features! Also, it can be bought with a seperate controller that does not require your phone - something that we’ve been looking forward to as it can get quite fiddly to insert your phone into and out of the old controller every time. Especially when we were in Norway, where we were flying in cold conditions with gloves and snow everywhere, it would have been nice to just pop out a controller, connect and fly.

DJI has updated its product line with this dedicated BarController, which in essence is just an android device integrated into the radio hardware and peripherals which comes preloaded with the DJI fly app.

DJI Mini 3 Pro photography
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Finding spots that are suitable for drone photography is different than finding regular photography spots as your need to imagine everything from above. Sometimes we have an idea for what we want to go after, but often we stop spontaneously when exploring. After stopping, the first thing we check is always the map to make sure we are in a zone where we are allowed to fly.

The most common reason not to fly is that you’re close to an airport or other infrastructure that you might be a hazard to, but always remember to check local legislations for drone flying where ever you travel.

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DJI Mini 3 Pro specs we liked

Here are some of the reasons for us choosing to buy the DJI Mini 3 Pro instead of the DJI Mini 3 (the DJI Mini 4 was not out yet):

  • 48 MP RAW photos
  • 4K/60fps or 1080p/120fps videos
  • Obstacle avoidance sensors
  • FocusTrack tracking suite

Beautiful French mountain roads from above, captured in high format

On top of that, you can actually flip the sensor by 90 degrees to make use of the full frame when taking high format shots, which makes framing way easier.

The whole stabilised “camera bit” swivels into place at the press of a button, which is super cool 🙌.

Especially when we’re posting pictures while travelling we used to have to crop images quite heavily when posting high format stories to Instagram, which doesn’t always do the beautiful wide angle shots justice, until we post them on the blog.

Example photos of the DJI Mini Pro 3

We let the drone fly a couple of times, but we especially enjoyed it at two locations:

  • above the red salt lakes
  • in the forestry mountains north of the Camargue

When taking photos of the saltlakes in human height, their red color felt rather diluted and flat sometimes. Taken from straight above without any direct sunlight pointing into the lens, their color took on a whole new tone - so to say.

DJI Mini 3 Pro photography

Four different types of water and four types of transportation methods in one photo - this drone shot is especially fun to dissect!

DJI Mini 3 Pro photography
DJI Mini 3 Pro photography
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There we are! 👋

DJI Mini 3 Pro photography

Which drone do you have? Let us know on Instagram or Mastodon!