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I've had the original Mini since it came out. Other than damaging a prop from it hitting a blade of grass on landing it is in perfect shape. Yes, they are so

I've had the original Mini since it came out. Other than damaging a prop from it hitting a blade of grass on landing it is in perfect shape. Yes, they are so fragile I landed very smoothly in the grass and soft grass is enough to damage the props! I don't fly it as much as I used to. These new ones are certainly an engineering marvel with how much they have added and still kept it under 249g. The big one to me though is the wind resistance. 10.7m/s is 23mph. The original specs 17mph. It is hard to say at which point it starts having trouble, but 23mph is a non-trivial improvement, it probably means 2x as many days you can actually fly. Now the things that suck about DJI, and I wonder if they are actually at all improved with a new drone: - Geofencing sometimes locks you out of legal flights, no way around that unless you can jailbreak - Some legal flights require you going through an unlock process, and if the DJI web infrastructure is having a bad day you also get locked out of flying in a legal place I would probably buy from another competitor, especially a US one, just over the unlock experience with DJI.

ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
Another gripe about DJI for video use is that they rip you off for a "license" to use CinemaDNG... which is an open, license-free codec.
- andy_ppp 3y ago
  Isn’t this because they have to pay Red for their ridiculous patent of compressed raw video?
  - bri3d 3y ago
    It's also only available bundled with ProRes, although it's almost certain there's also some backroom RED RAW-racket deal going on too.
    - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
      Well, that's DJI's decision.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    CinemaDNG is not always compressed. I have a BlackMagic camera that records uncompressed CinemaDNG. Also, DJI has gotten around some of this by putting the recorder in the body of the drone, making it technically not part of the camera. However, the oft-repeated claim that Red's patent applies only to internal raw recording does not hold up when you consider that Apple and Atomos have to pay extortion for ProRes Raw, which is used in EXTERNAL recorders.
ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
I have a friend that builds his own drones (and RC vehicles, like a really big, fast tank). He sneers at DJI, but keeps one to entertain the mensch (that's me). He also sneers at licensing, jailbreaking, geofencing, etc. I notice that there aren't any pictures that actually show people in close proximity to the drone. The "drone in hand" picture looks photoshopped, so I assume the drone is actually not-so-mini. I have a teeny-tiny drone, about half the size of a sparrow. It doesn't have cameras, though.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 3y ago
  > The "drone in hand" picture looks photoshopped, so I assume the drone is actually not-so-mini. Folded (without propellers): 148×94×64 mm (L×W×H) Unfolded (with propellers): 298×373×101 mm (L×W×H)
- coder543 3y ago
  The size of the drone is not some secret... you can search for the Mini 4 Pro on YouTube and find a bunch of hands-on reviews. The DJI Mini drones are very compact. The DJI Air 3 is arguably the next level up in the lineup, and it weighs 3x as much and is noticeably larger. The "teeny-tiny drone" you're describing just doesn't sound comparable or particularly useful.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
    It isn’t useful at all. Quite boring, frankly. I just realized the DJI that my friend has, is a mini. It’s small, but some of his hand-built ones are smaller.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - palata 3y ago
      > It’s small, but some of his hand-built ones are smaller. Aside from the size, how do his hand-built ones compare in terms of camera, gimbal, remote controller, radio, battery life, and potentially SDK?
roshin 3y ago
Do you have a recommendation of a drone with similar features that doesn't require jailbreaking?
- mlindner 3y ago
  I've heard good things about Skydio.
  - pinkorchid 3y ago
    They have discontinued their consumer products sadly: https://www.skydio.com/blog/skydio-to-sunset-consumer-drone-offerings https://www.skydio.com/blog/skydio-to-sunset-consumer-drone-...
    - FpUser 3y ago
      Yup. They could not get competitive so they had some politicos pimping for them and can now feed on taxpayer's money.
      - nebula8804 3y ago
        The empire is collapsing so might as well rip the last remaining scraps of wealth off the walls before it goes all belly up. I would do the same if I were in their position.
        mlindner 3y ago
        The US isn't an empire and it is not collapsing... Don't believe everything you hear on social media.
- bri3d 3y ago
  Autel drones tend to fall around a generation behind DJI's in terms of capability, and they don't have geofencing. Unfortunately, they are much more expensive like-for-like and if you are also concerned about China, they share the same China-problems. There are no US or European drones that really come close, unfortunately. Parrot are 2-3+ generations behind DJI in terms of capability: wireless link, camera, and even basic flight stability are all quite a distance behind. Skydio had unique autonomy capabilities which were really cool but were a long way behind in controller capability, camera, and wireless tech and exited the consumer market. Honestly, DJI no-fly zones in the US are not too onerous in my opinion - most of the places that are banned probably should be banned. I would recommend a DJI drone with a standalone remote (to avoid needing to install DJI apps on your phone). However, generally speaking in Europe their no fly zones are more restrictive and can be quite frustrating.
dreamcompiler 3y ago
I'd like to find a good competitor too, and not just because of the geofencing. DJI has been identified as a national security threat by the US DOD, essentially because there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2706082/department-statement-on-dji-systems/ https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/270608...
- MichaelApproved 3y ago
  > there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service. I checked your source and it didn’t back up this claim. I’m not a networking specialist but isn’t it possible to detect if something is transmitting a massive amount of data (such as video) to an undetermined destination? seems like this type of blatant data export would be easy to detect and subsequently ban the device doing it. I’m just a simple software developer, so the network stuff can go over my head sometimes (heh), but the claim that such a large amount of data is being transmitted in a way that couldn’t be confirmed enough to ban the product seems dubious.
  - aynyc 3y ago
    Given the volume of data, they can just box up the hard drives and ship via container ships or planes.
    - noknownsender 3y ago
      I assume he means at the device level.
      - MichaelApproved 3y ago
        I did. Thanks!
grecy 3y ago
I've got the original Mini too, and I had never encountered this before until very recently when I tried to fly it in the US. What happens if you turn off your cellular data (or are simply out of reception) ? Does it let you fly it anywhere then? In Australia and the Canadian Arctic I basically never had reception, and it never cared once.
- nhumrich 3y ago
  I fly on a cell phone without a SIM card. Basically, if you haven't logged-in in the last 30 days, your flights are limited quite a lot. You can only fly so far (100ft?), and so high. I just make sure to log in and get all firmware/map updates over WiFi before I leave on trips and have been fine.
pedrovhb 3y ago
I had the original mini too. Really fun, but mine is RIP in the water under a waterfall ravine. It's hard to say whether it was a GPS bug, a gust of wind, or just my own fault, but as I was shooting a video next to some rock walls, it went towards the rocks and I couldn't get it back. After the first hit it tumbled and hit some vegetation, and then it went all the way down, no way to recover. It's a good thing the new ones have collision avoidance, it could likely have saved mine back then. I'll someday get one of the newer ones, it was pretty fun and an impressive piece of engineering. Sometimes I think to myself "this would be a really great shot with the drone", or wish I had it to scout some terrain ahead when hiking or exploring. It's a pretty cool gadget!
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  My friend was flying his, lost it and asked it to fly back to him and it went absolutely full speed into a waterfall about 10 meters in front of us. It was hard not to chuckle. RIP.
GraceCat123 3y ago
Are there any good US competitors recommend?
- nebula8804 3y ago
  No because DJI, XPENG, BYD, and a ton of other Chinese companies have this 'move fast and break things' mentality X100 that most American firms don't have. They ran circles around GoPro and their attempts. Closest analog is Tesla/SpaceX but who knows if even those guys last long term when the guy running it is so easily distracted by nonsense (eg. Buying Twitter, starting yet another company, playing hours of Polytopia etc. )
  - bloodyplonker22 3y ago
    Come on. American software startups literally invented that motto. Just because you may be working at a slower paced company doesn't mean America does not have it.
    - nebula8804 3y ago
      I did label a few American companies that are operating at that speed. Nevertheless in many different fields China is determined to win and they will move as fast as possible to make that happen. Its a foregone conclusion in Renewable energy, nuclear, a lot of consumer electrics, and soon EVs.
      - drstewart 3y ago
        Ah yes, "breaking things" and nuclear are surely what I'd call a winning combination.
        nebula8804 3y ago
        If you look at China's innovation in nuclear tech they have soared past the US. That ship is LONG gone.
    - 3y ago
kaptainscarlet 3y ago
I think it's a good thing the props are fragile as the motor would be damaged if the props hit an object without absorbing the force of impact.
- qup 3y ago
  haha, check out freestyle fpv. you won't believe what the motors can survive.
bennyelv 3y ago
> The big one to me though is the wind resistance. 10.7m/s is 23mph. The original specs 17mph. It is hard to say at which point it starts having trouble, but 23mph is a non-trivial improvement, it probably means 2x as many days you can actually fly. That’s a huge one for me as well (also own a mini). I live near the sea and the number of days you can actually fly is surprisingly low. 23mph is still pretty low, but I understand the weight vs windspeed tradeoff.
theshrike79 3y ago
I think I paid 300€ for a Mini Fly More Combo slightly used (under 10 hours or flight time according to the drone). It's a fun toy, but can't stand the wind at all, so it's a bit nerve wracking to fly it over open water if it's not completely calm :D I really do want the Mini 4 Pro, but can't justify the 1000€+ price tag with the proper controller.
geon 3y ago
I have a race drone. It was fun to fly it through tall grass like a weed whacker. The first few props were super brittle and shattered at the slightest botched landing. I also think they were poorly designed with no fillets, so the stresses would concentrate at the base of the blades and the plastic would crack. A bought another couple of bags of props, and they were MUCH higher quality. Often I can just bend a blade back after a rough crash landing.

ShadowBanThis01 3y ago

Another gripe about DJI for video use is that they rip you off for a "license" to use CinemaDNG... which is an open, license-free codec.

andy_ppp 3y ago
Isn’t this because they have to pay Red for their ridiculous patent of compressed raw video?
- bri3d 3y ago
  It's also only available bundled with ProRes, although it's almost certain there's also some backroom RED RAW-racket deal going on too.
  - ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
    Well, that's DJI's decision.
- ShadowBanThis01 3y ago
  CinemaDNG is not always compressed. I have a BlackMagic camera that records uncompressed CinemaDNG. Also, DJI has gotten around some of this by putting the recorder in the body of the drone, making it technically not part of the camera. However, the oft-repeated claim that Red's patent applies only to internal raw recording does not hold up when you consider that Apple and Atomos have to pay extortion for ProRes Raw, which is used in EXTERNAL recorders.

ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago

I have a friend that builds his own drones (and RC vehicles, like a really big, fast tank). He sneers at DJI, but keeps one to entertain the mensch (that's me). He also sneers at licensing, jailbreaking, geofencing, etc. I notice that there aren't any pictures that actually show people in close proximity to the drone. The "drone in hand" picture looks photoshopped, so I assume the drone is actually not-so-mini. I have a teeny-tiny drone, about half the size of a sparrow. It doesn't have cameras, though.

SparkyMcUnicorn 3y ago
> The "drone in hand" picture looks photoshopped, so I assume the drone is actually not-so-mini. Folded (without propellers): 148×94×64 mm (L×W×H) Unfolded (with propellers): 298×373×101 mm (L×W×H)
coder543 3y ago
The size of the drone is not some secret... you can search for the Mini 4 Pro on YouTube and find a bunch of hands-on reviews. The DJI Mini drones are very compact. The DJI Air 3 is arguably the next level up in the lineup, and it weighs 3x as much and is noticeably larger. The "teeny-tiny drone" you're describing just doesn't sound comparable or particularly useful.
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  It isn’t useful at all. Quite boring, frankly. I just realized the DJI that my friend has, is a mini. It’s small, but some of his hand-built ones are smaller.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - palata 3y ago
    > It’s small, but some of his hand-built ones are smaller. Aside from the size, how do his hand-built ones compare in terms of camera, gimbal, remote controller, radio, battery life, and potentially SDK?

roshin 3y ago

Do you have a recommendation of a drone with similar features that doesn't require jailbreaking?

mlindner 3y ago
I've heard good things about Skydio.
- pinkorchid 3y ago
  They have discontinued their consumer products sadly: https://www.skydio.com/blog/skydio-to-sunset-consumer-drone-offerings https://www.skydio.com/blog/skydio-to-sunset-consumer-drone-...
  - FpUser 3y ago
    Yup. They could not get competitive so they had some politicos pimping for them and can now feed on taxpayer's money.
    - nebula8804 3y ago
      The empire is collapsing so might as well rip the last remaining scraps of wealth off the walls before it goes all belly up. I would do the same if I were in their position.
      - mlindner 3y ago
        The US isn't an empire and it is not collapsing... Don't believe everything you hear on social media.
bri3d 3y ago
Autel drones tend to fall around a generation behind DJI's in terms of capability, and they don't have geofencing. Unfortunately, they are much more expensive like-for-like and if you are also concerned about China, they share the same China-problems. There are no US or European drones that really come close, unfortunately. Parrot are 2-3+ generations behind DJI in terms of capability: wireless link, camera, and even basic flight stability are all quite a distance behind. Skydio had unique autonomy capabilities which were really cool but were a long way behind in controller capability, camera, and wireless tech and exited the consumer market. Honestly, DJI no-fly zones in the US are not too onerous in my opinion - most of the places that are banned probably should be banned. I would recommend a DJI drone with a standalone remote (to avoid needing to install DJI apps on your phone). However, generally speaking in Europe their no fly zones are more restrictive and can be quite frustrating.

dreamcompiler 3y ago

I'd like to find a good competitor too, and not just because of the geofencing. DJI has been identified as a national security threat by the US DOD, essentially because there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2706082/department-statement-on-dji-systems/ https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/270608...

MichaelApproved 3y ago
> there's no way to be sure that every second of GPS-tagged video shot by a DJI drone isn't going into a giant server farm owned by the Chinese intelligence service. I checked your source and it didn’t back up this claim. I’m not a networking specialist but isn’t it possible to detect if something is transmitting a massive amount of data (such as video) to an undetermined destination? seems like this type of blatant data export would be easy to detect and subsequently ban the device doing it. I’m just a simple software developer, so the network stuff can go over my head sometimes (heh), but the claim that such a large amount of data is being transmitted in a way that couldn’t be confirmed enough to ban the product seems dubious.
- aynyc 3y ago
  Given the volume of data, they can just box up the hard drives and ship via container ships or planes.
  - noknownsender 3y ago
    I assume he means at the device level.
    - MichaelApproved 3y ago
      I did. Thanks!

grecy 3y ago

I've got the original Mini too, and I had never encountered this before until very recently when I tried to fly it in the US. What happens if you turn off your cellular data (or are simply out of reception) ? Does it let you fly it anywhere then? In Australia and the Canadian Arctic I basically never had reception, and it never cared once.

nhumrich 3y ago
I fly on a cell phone without a SIM card. Basically, if you haven't logged-in in the last 30 days, your flights are limited quite a lot. You can only fly so far (100ft?), and so high. I just make sure to log in and get all firmware/map updates over WiFi before I leave on trips and have been fine.

pedrovhb 3y ago

I had the original mini too. Really fun, but mine is RIP in the water under a waterfall ravine. It's hard to say whether it was a GPS bug, a gust of wind, or just my own fault, but as I was shooting a video next to some rock walls, it went towards the rocks and I couldn't get it back. After the first hit it tumbled and hit some vegetation, and then it went all the way down, no way to recover. It's a good thing the new ones have collision avoidance, it could likely have saved mine back then. I'll someday get one of the newer ones, it was pretty fun and an impressive piece of engineering. Sometimes I think to myself "this would be a really great shot with the drone", or wish I had it to scout some terrain ahead when hiking or exploring. It's a pretty cool gadget!

ChatGTP 3y ago
My friend was flying his, lost it and asked it to fly back to him and it went absolutely full speed into a waterfall about 10 meters in front of us. It was hard not to chuckle. RIP.

GraceCat123 3y ago

Are there any good US competitors recommend?

nebula8804 3y ago
No because DJI, XPENG, BYD, and a ton of other Chinese companies have this 'move fast and break things' mentality X100 that most American firms don't have. They ran circles around GoPro and their attempts. Closest analog is Tesla/SpaceX but who knows if even those guys last long term when the guy running it is so easily distracted by nonsense (eg. Buying Twitter, starting yet another company, playing hours of Polytopia etc. )
- bloodyplonker22 3y ago
  Come on. American software startups literally invented that motto. Just because you may be working at a slower paced company doesn't mean America does not have it.
  - nebula8804 3y ago
    I did label a few American companies that are operating at that speed. Nevertheless in many different fields China is determined to win and they will move as fast as possible to make that happen. Its a foregone conclusion in Renewable energy, nuclear, a lot of consumer electrics, and soon EVs.
    - drstewart 3y ago
      Ah yes, "breaking things" and nuclear are surely what I'd call a winning combination.
      - nebula8804 3y ago
        If you look at China's innovation in nuclear tech they have soared past the US. That ship is LONG gone.
  - 3y ago

kaptainscarlet 3y ago

I think it's a good thing the props are fragile as the motor would be damaged if the props hit an object without absorbing the force of impact.

qup 3y ago
haha, check out freestyle fpv. you won't believe what the motors can survive.

bennyelv 3y ago

> The big one to me though is the wind resistance. 10.7m/s is 23mph. The original specs 17mph. It is hard to say at which point it starts having trouble, but 23mph is a non-trivial improvement, it probably means 2x as many days you can actually fly. That’s a huge one for me as well (also own a mini). I live near the sea and the number of days you can actually fly is surprisingly low. 23mph is still pretty low, but I understand the weight vs windspeed tradeoff.

theshrike79 3y ago

I think I paid 300€ for a Mini Fly More Combo slightly used (under 10 hours or flight time according to the drone). It's a fun toy, but can't stand the wind at all, so it's a bit nerve wracking to fly it over open water if it's not completely calm :D I really do want the Mini 4 Pro, but can't justify the 1000€+ price tag with the proper controller.

geon 3y ago

I have a race drone. It was fun to fly it through tall grass like a weed whacker. The first few props were super brittle and shattered at the slightest botched landing. I also think they were poorly designed with no fillets, so the stresses would concentrate at the base of the blades and the plastic would crack. A bought another couple of bags of props, and they were MUCH higher quality. Often I can just bend a blade back after a rough crash landing.