DJI Air 3S vs Mini 5 Pro: Real-World Comparison on an Alaskan Glacier

This is the DJI Air 3S and this is the DJI Mini 5 Pro. I took both drones up an Alaskan glacier to test and compare them so you can decide which drone might be the right one for you. Just to be clear, DJI didn’t send me either of these drones. This video is not sponsored. I bought and paid for the Air 3S myself. The Mini 5 Pro is actually a friend of mine’s drone, but after using it for the last couple of weeks to test and compare, I’m probably going to pick one up.

What These DJI Drones Share

The Air 3S and the Mini 5 Pro share a lot of similarities. In fact, there’s only really a few areas that the Air 3S now wins over the Mini 5 Pro, but there’s a couple areas where the Mini 5 Pro definitely wins over the Air 3S. One of those is what I’m doing today, which is portability. The Mini 5 Pro is so much smaller and lighter. If I wasn’t carrying this plus batteries, plus the Mini 5 Pro plus batteries, it’d be a lot nicer and a lot lighter weight.

Both of these drones film great 4K 60. They both have two different focal lengths, and they also both film slow motion 4K up to 120 frames a second and HD up to 240 frames a second.

DJI Mini 5 Pro’s Slow Motion Limitation

One of the big differences between the two is the Mini 5 Pro can only film 4K 120 in its full field of view. You can’t use it on the 2x, at least not yet. Whereas the Air 3S, you can film slow motion in the 3x lens if you want to, which is really nice, especially if you’re chasing something like a boat or cars, because you don’t have to get as close to get that really nice depth of field.

The Focal Length Game Changer

One of the things that I used to struggle with with the Mini series drones was the fact that you only had one focal length and that was it. In the past, the Air 3 and Air 3S would have totally won over any mini drone because of that. But the Mini 5 with the 2x crop in—it’s not another camera, it’s not a separate lens, it just crops in on the sensor—but it looks really good.

There’s still some differences between the Air 3S and the Mini 5 Pro. If you want that deeper depth of field, if you want that more extreme compression with the background and the foreground, the Air 3S is still really hard to beat. But the Mini 5 Pro is no slouch.

Where Mini 5 Pro Wins: Close Focus Distance

In one case, visually or image quality-wise, the Mini 5 really does beat the Air 3S, and that’s in close focus distance. Check out these ice worms I found. One thing about this glacier is it has tons of ice worms. I literally mean ice worms. They’re tiny, they live in the ice, and the Mini 5 Pro actually because it has such a close focus distance, you can see and get close to the ice worms.

Sensor and Dynamic Range Comparison

Because both of these drones share a 1-inch sensor on the main camera, you’re not going to see a big difference in video quality. They’re both capable of filming 4K 60 D-Log M 10-bit color, which is spectacular.

The one difference is the Mini 5 Pro does seem to have a bit better dynamic range because of this new dual ISO fusion system that DJI is using. You can see in these two shots there’s a bit more detail in the shadows between the Air 3S and the Mini 5 Pro. So the Mini 5 Pro definitely wins a little bit when it comes to dynamic range. Not to say that the Air 3S is a slouch—it’s not, it still gets great image quality—but the Mini 5 Pro definitely has the edge when it comes to just pure raw dynamic range. But the caveat to that is that you have to film in auto ISO.

Vertical Content: Mini 5 Pro Dominates

While the Air 3S wins if you want to get closer to a subject without actually getting closer because it has that 70mm camera, the way the Mini 5 Pro wins over the Air 3S is when it comes to vertical content.

My buddy John, whose drone this is, he shoots a ton of vertical content. And because the Mini 5 Pro actually flips the entire camera, you get a full 4K vertical video as opposed to the Air 3S where you get 2.7K only. But the other difference that comes into play there is that not only do you get full 4K readout of vertical video, but you also get a wider field of view because of that flipping the entire camera. So if you film a lot of vertical video content, the Mini 5, the Mini series drones are still—you can’t beat them.

Photo Capabilities

On the main camera, they both share the 1-inch 50-megapixel or 12-megapixel sensor, which is spectacular and can give you some beautiful detailed imagery. But again, because the Air 3S has that second telephoto lens or camera, you can actually get some really great punched in shots, which is really nice for certain situations and certain scenarios. Not to say that the Mini 5 Pro is a slouch—it’s not. You can still capture some incredibly beautiful images with it, but you’re just a little more limited in how you’re going to compose your shots and the sort of field of view that you want to be able to use.

Low Light Performance

I did run an actual low light test, and again, because these are basically the same sensor, same camera, if you have everything set to the same, you’re going to see almost no difference in image quality. You can see I’m ramping through the ISOs in D-Log. And then if you switch to normal, it switches to the automatic night mode when you’re shooting at that much higher range ISOs. And honestly, either one of these drones does pretty surprisingly very well in very low light conditions.

Active Track Improvements

When it comes to active track, there have been some improvements on the Mini 5 Pro. You now get access to things like cycling and other options for how it active tracks. I hope they add that to the Air 3S in a firmware update, but honestly, I didn’t see much of a difference in either one of them in how they active track. They both tracked very well in any situations I tried them in.

Size, Weight, and the Controversy

Obviously one of the biggest differences is size and weight. The Mini 5 Pro is a much smaller drone and much easier to carry. And especially if you’re carrying extra batteries, the whole package for the Mini 5 Pro is tiny compared to the same package for the Air 3S.

There has been some controversy over the weight. Yes, the Mini 5 Pro is over the 249-gram or 0.55-pound weight limit. Honestly, for me, it doesn’t matter because I operate commercially and so I have to register and do everything as a commercial operator anyway. But that is something to be aware of. In some places it is still classified as a small lightweight drone and in other places it’s not. So it’s really honestly kind of a mess right now, and hopefully it will all get sorted out down the road.

Battery Life and Speed

For battery life, the Mini 5 Pro is beating the Air 3S by about 10 minutes in my test. I was getting a good solid 40, 41, 42 minutes out of the Mini 5 Pro, depending on how I was flying. And I usually get about 30 to 35 minutes out of the Air 3S, depending again on how I’m flying and the conditions I’m flying in.

When it comes to speeds, the Mini 5 Pro has been actually dramatically improved from its predecessor with a much better top speed now. But the Air 3S is still going to beat it hands down because the Air 3S can actually get up to almost 60 mph (96.5 km/h) with a slight tailwind, which is insane, but also really nice to have sometimes.

Wind Performance

I tested both of these on a mountaintop with some pretty high winds and they did okay. They both did well, but the Mini 5 Pro, even though it does better than the Mini 4 Pro did in higher winds, it still moves and bobs around quite a bit, and you can see that in some of the footage. Whereas the Air 3S just tends to hold a much more stable position because it’s larger, it’s more powerful, it’s a little heavier, so it just doesn’t get pushed around by the wind nearly as much. That being said, in high winds, if you’re really close to a subject, you’re going to see that movement no matter what.

Noise Levels

I tested the noise levels at about 4 feet, maybe a meter and a half away. You can hear the difference in the full video.

Pricing and Final Verdict

Obviously, the Air 3S is a fair bit more expensive, and depending on the package you buy, it’s going to be quite a bit more expensive, maybe up to about $1,000. The Mini 5 Pro is going to save you a fair amount of money and still give you some really top-end performance.

For me, the Mini 5 Pro actually fills a lot of the bill. Especially when I’m running around mountains, having a small, lightweight drone that is as capable as the Mini 5 Pro makes it absolutely worth it for me to go ahead and pick one up, which I am going to do as soon as I can.

The Air 3S is still a drone that I would probably use over the Mini 5 Pro when it comes to things like client work or maybe larger areas where I know I’m going to be hitting a lot of wind, or I really really want that extra telephoto lens because that really does come in nice and handy, or I need some higher speed like when I’m going to chase a helicopter around or something like that. The Air 3S is still a fantastic drone.

Honestly, I think if you’re looking for the best fusion of capability and image quality, the Air 3S is probably the best drone that you can buy from DJI right now. If you’re looking for more of the portability, but still get excellent image quality, the Mini 5 Pro is where it’s at.

As always, if you have questions, ask me in the comments below or join my live stream, which happens most Wednesday nights at 4:00 p.m. Alaska time, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We can have more of a conversation. I can answer questions that maybe I didn’t get to in this video. I’ll see you again soon in the next one.