DJI Mavic 3: New Drone with newly designed frame.

New DJI Mavic 3 drone may take design elements from the Phantom series and Inspire series with new H frame design for increased stability, speed and accuracy.

DJI may be building the best features from their various drones into one awesome drone platform.  As we know convenience reigns king in any industry, DJI might squeeze other manufacturers by providing the optimum drone platform.  A drone with interchangeable camera-gimbal may require videographers to look twice at the new Mavic 3 drone platform.

Imagine a drone with the flying capability of the Inspire 2, matched with the mapping capability of the Phantom 4 Pro combined with the color gamut of a Hasselblad sensor.  As a drone pilot myself, I would drool at a drone built like this.  A great photography drone that I can travel with or create an ALTA Survey or even subject tracking my buddy’s racing boat… PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY.

At a time when the Corona-Virus has threatened supply chains and consumer demand, DJI must awe the market to gain attention to sell enough drones.  If DJI is expected to sell any aircraft at the scale of the Mavic Pro, they must provide a drone that crosses various industry verticals.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, how are we coming to the conclusion that the Mavic 3 Pro may take design elements from other drones?  DJI has always left bread crumbs from OsitaLV dropping leaks to patent filings in china.

Mavic 3: A Drone Design we haven’t seen before.

If you’ve been staying up to date on the drone news, you’ll know that DJI just lost a patent war with Autel Robotics.  Frankly, I always (erroneously) assumed the patent war would be focused around the folding design of the Mavic vs. the Evo.

After recently coming across a new patent filing from DJI, it looks like they’ve come up with a new folding design.  This folding design would allow for the arms to fold OVER the center frame of the aircraft.  While that is great for folding your drone like a laptop, it would also make the center of gravity very low as well.  With a lowered CG, we can expect an aircraft to have increased stability and maneuverability.  DJI has steadily increased stability in the Mavic series by offering folding props and cantered motors.

The Inspire 2 and Inspire 1 aircraft offers increased maneuverability and stability due to the H Frame build of the aircraft. DJI’s new patent indicates this H frame design may be evident in the new Mavic 3.  Yet, the H frame design is not a design we have seen before.

When Drone DJ wrote about the frame leak, one very small detail mentioned was the front mount for camera loading.  And yet, we just saw a new patent for an optically stabilized camera system.

Mavic 3 Platform: Osmo Included?

One of the best features that videographers loved about the original Inspire 1 was the ability to detach the X3 camera and mount it to a gimbal.  Should drone pilots expect to see this added convenience come back to the market?  Creatives may be facing restricted budgets as creative drone jobs dry up.  Market conditions may drive creatives to think about more practical equipment to serve their clients.

Drone pilots would rejoice if DJI launched a Mavic 3 with an interchangeable payload!  Imagine taking your stabilized camera off of the drone to mount onto a hand-held gimbal.  With DJI’s patent on image stabilization, we expect to see numerous utilizations of this technology as years go on.

What can drone pilots expect from the Mavic 3 drone and when will it be released? We expect to see the new Mavic 3 this July or August as the The Mavic 2 Pro was launched in August 0f 2018.  With Parrot launching the new Anafi 2 drone, maybe DJI will launch the Mavic 3 sooner rather than later.