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DJI Mavic 3 announced, DJI Mavic Mini release date, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Police Drones being used as first responders, Phantom 4 Pro Production Updates
Our biggest news this week is about the DJI Mavic 3. You heard that right. DJI is all set to come out with a successor to their wildly successful flagship drone, Mavic 2 Pro.
To be released in January 2021, the Mavic 3 will come with 4K60 and ADS-B receivers. It is certainly no small coincidence that DJI chose to “leak” the news of a new drone right after the launch of the Skydio R2. But, considering the R2’s impressive autonomous capabilities, it remains to be seen if DJI can up the ante, yet again with the Mavic 3.
Our second news story is about the DJI Mavic Mini. The big selling point for this soon-to-be-released drone is that it weighs just 245 grams. As we have discussed on this show before, drones weighing less than 245 grams need NOT be registered with the FAA. But, does this mean that you can fly these drones without following any drone laws? Can you fly drones weighing less than 250 grams without a commercial drone license? We reveal the answers to these commonly asked questions in this segment of the show.
Other topics discussed on this show include the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Police drones, radar systems for detecting drones and Phantom 4 Pro production updates.
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Timestamps
- [01:20] Haye witnesses the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta for the first time ever; check out his reaction
- [04:06] The DJI Mavic 3 announced right after the Skydio R2 launch; Will DJI manage to stave off the competition with the launch of this new drone?
- [05:05] What is the release date for the DJI Mavic 3?
- [06:38] Unlike the Mavic 2 Pro, will the DJI Mavic 3 come with 4K60?
- [08:26] Will the Mavic 3 come with a global shutter?
- [09:43] When is the DJI Mavic Mini coming out?
- [12:50] Are DJI’s autonomous capabilities comparable to that of Skydio?
- [13:20] Interested in the Skydio? With the first two batches completely sold out, when can you expect to get your hands on the Skydio R2?
- [14:47] Police drones now being used as first responders – Is this a wise move?
- [20:53] Airplanes equipped with radar systems being used to detect drones
- [23:03] Is DJI planning on resuming production for the Phantom 4 Pro?
Read Full Transcript
[00:00] PAUL: But I also am kinda convinced that DJI might be playing games, and what do I mean by that? Well, if you remember the GoPro Karma, as soon as the GoPro karma came out, DJI launched a drone right after that, almost as if they were waiting for the Karma to come out to then say, “Oh, no check us out.” To steal the thunder. Well, Skydio comes out last week, the new Skydio drone, and not… What is it 48 or 24 hours later…
[00:27] Haye: Something like that, real fast.
[00:29] PAUL: The DJI Mavic 3 is displayed. Hey, we’re gonna see the DJI Mavic 3. So Haye, as I always wanted to stay with you in the studio, what do you have for us?
[music]
[00:42] Haye: Well, so we did this. Of course, it started with that tweet from OsitaLV, the guy on Twitter who’s been leaking information from DJI. He’s been wrong in the past, he’s been right as well, more often than he has been wrong, actually. If you look at this tweet that’s on the screen right now, that’s what kick-started it off. We ran this by some people that we know in the drone industry to see if we could confirm these specs. What we know now is that the DJI DJI Mavic 3 is expected to be released at the end of January in 2020. Now if you remember, DJI is gonna equip all their new drones as of January 1, 2020 that weigh over 250 grams with an ADS-B receiving functionality. Meaning, that if helicopters or airplanes fly close by, you might be able to pick up those signals, and of course, make sure that you stay clear of any manned aircraft. Going back to the specs for the DJI DJI Mavic 3, we know that that ADS-B receiving capability is gonna be on board. We also know that the video footage or the quality of the video footage is gonna be at least on par with the Phantom 4 Pro. My guess is that it’s gonna be slightly better probably.
[01:49] Haye: And then furthermore, we know it’s gonna have active track 3.0, so that will be the next generation. Osita suggested that OcuSync 3.0 might be included on that drone as well. We’ve heard otherwise, we don’t think that’s gonna be the case. So we think DJI is gonna outfit it with the OcuSync 2.0 which is a really good system anyway, so I don’t think that’s gonna be a deal breaker for anybody. I think really, people are very focused on the video quality and the photo quality of the new drone. Of course, you have the portability factor that you get with the Mavic versus the Phantom, but I think many people were slightly disappointed with the 4K video footage that you got from the Mavic 2 Pro, so hopefully the DJI Mavic 3 is gonna be a big step up. And again, end of January 2020, so not that far away anymore.
[02:36] PAUL: Yeah, no, I have to say the Mavic 2 Pro, while the color is amazing in photos and videos, you’re so right about the quality of the video is, it degrades so much from photos. You’re wondering what’s going on in the back end, almost as if the sensor has more capability than what it’s showcasing because when we were showing that low light footage from the first day of Balloon Fiesta… In fact, let me pull it up really quick. When we were showing that, you can really see the sensor just absolutely struggling in pretty much every way possible. And I have to say Haye, one thing that I really like about the Mavic is the dynamic range in the color, but me and like other people, you can’t really shoot 4K60, the edges just get so soft and it’s really not something that you really wanna show to your clients. Here’s one particular clip that I thought actually came out pretty good, this was from the north side of Balloon Fiesta. And actually, this footage doesn’t look too, too bad as far as the noise is concerned, but I think the reason that the noise isn’t too bad in this imagery is look how bright the background is starting to become. So obviously, you got some really killer shaky movements there, but look at the…
[03:49] Haye: You see, you still see the graininess and the noise in the colour in the sky though.
[03:51] PAUL: Yeah, and looky here in the fog too. And it wasn’t until I just slightly turned where the color of the whole image changed, or excuse me the light in the whole image changed, and then it degrades a crazy amount. So I would say, I would love to be able to shoot a full 4K60 on the Mavic 2 Pro, but frankly it’s not there. But here’s the question is: Dear DJI, we still need a global shutter camera, so whenever you launch a new drone, please include a global shutter so we can actually do fun things like mapping with it. So it’s interesting because all the rumors that I’ve been hearing, Haye, still no global shutter, right?
[04:32] Haye: No, not as far as we know.
[04:35] PAUL: It’s so frustrating.
[04:36] Haye: There’s not that much known about the DJI Mavic 3 at this point, so I wouldn’t discount it. I would expect that DJI is gonna make sure that the DJI Mavic 3 outperforms the Phantom 4 Pro version 2 for sure. I’m not sure if they would include a global shutter or mechanical shutter, but hopefully they will.
[04:54] PAUL: It would be difficult to outperform the Phantom if it doesn’t have a global shutter.
[04:58] Haye: Yeah, true.
[05:00] PAUL: Yeah, you kinda kill the argument right there with that because you can’t map with one of these things. And people say, “Oh, yeah, you can map with the linear rolling shutter.” Sure you can if you’re not running a business that’s actually creating volume and revenue. Because I don’t wanna fly, let’s say for example, we had a lady at a recent Denver mapping class, and to fly the whole mission was 11 minutes on a Phantom, but to fly it on a Mavic 2 Pro, ’cause you have to fly it in safe mode, 24 minutes, and in the process…
[05:25] Haye: Yeah, so for mapping purposes, you need a global shutter. But for other things, like photography, videography, it might not be as much of a concern, but still.
[05:35] PAUL: It’ll still serve a lot of people. But in other news, in this next piece of drone news.
[music]
[05:45] PAUL: Well, we’ve got another drone coming out from DJI, but we’ve been knowing about this one, or we have known about this one for some time, Haye, what’s going on with the new Mavic Mini?
[05:55] Haye: Yeah, DJI Mavic Mini. We knew it was coming, we have of course the leaked photos and video footage.
