DJI Mavic 3 Pro – It’s ALL About the Cameras!

Alright, so I would have to say the number one thing that I like about having the triple camera system on the DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone is the compression effect you can get. I don’t know how to explain it, but it gives the video more emotion. Look at the difference here: here’s just the 1X camera, the Hasselblad camera, rotating around this elevator, and now here it is zoomed all the way into 7x. Look at that compression effect on the background – it just looks so much more cinematic. I know people are sick of hearing that word, but it looks really cool. So, there are many benefits to this triple camera system, but I think that’s the most important one.

DJI Mavic 3 Pro Video

So, DJI has a new flagship drone. When you first see the DJI Mavic 3 Pro for the first time, your eyes are immediately drawn to this impressive-looking camera system. Yes, those are three separate cameras on a single drone, and yes, it does look amazing.

In this video, I’m going to talk mostly about this triple-camera system because it truly is unique, and I think it’s the reason that this will be the most sought-after drone for so many filmmakers and creators.

Also, I’ll talk about the difference between this and the other versions of the Mavic 3, and I’ll show you some of the things you can do with this drone and the triple camera system.

Additionally, I do have a couple of test results to show you in this video, but I’ll have additional videos on this drone because I don’t want to make this one too long. Plus, I’m going to have several YouTube shorts videos that will dive deeper into the details on everything this drone has to offer.

By the way, if this is your first time here, welcome to the channel! My name is Russ, and it’s so nice to have you here.

The Mavic 3 Pro Fly More Combo with the RC Pro

What I have here is the Mavic 3 Pro Fly More Combo with the RC Pro. With this package, you’re going to get three of the 5,000 mAh batteries, the RC Pro controller, an ND filter kit, the power cable, the three-battery charging bank, the Mavic 3 Pro drone itself, a 100-watt fast charger, two USB-C cables, and two extra full sets of propellers, plus this much better, improved version of the canvas carrying bag that we saw when the Mavic 3 first came out.

I’m going to make a YouTube short about this bag specifically because it really is a good bag.

Now, there are other packages that you can get with the Mavic 3 Pro, including just the drone by itself, but I’m going to have a link in the video description with all the latest prices of each package that is available.

DJI Mavic 3 Specifications

Now, as far as specifications go, there’s really no need for me to just read off the specs to you guys, so I’ll put them up on the screen. These are the major specs; go ahead and pause the video if you want to read through those.

Now let’s talk about this camera system. This eye-catching camera has three separate lenses: it has a wide-angle, 20-megapixel Hasselblad with a Micro Four Thirds sensor, which is a 24-millimeter equivalent; it has the 12-megapixel, half-inch tele camera, which is a 166-millimeter equivalent; and rounding out the perfect trifecta of lenses is the newly added 48-megapixel 1/1.3-inch sensor, which is a 70-millimeter equivalent.

So why pack three cameras into one drone?

So why pack three cameras into one unit? Well, the purpose of this design is to provide the creator with the opportunity to capture a subject at a variety of perspectives at optimal image quality, allowing for more options when editing and more creativity when recording videos and capturing photos.

You can capture the overall location with the wide-angle Hasselblad, get an overview of the scene with the subjects and the surroundings using the new 3x medium zoom, and then get up close and personal without moving the drone at all with the 166-millimeter tele zoom.

This approach is very efficient, provides variety, keeps the viewers interested, and ultimately results in providing greater context for the viewer. You establish the scene, use medium angles to pull the viewer in, and then the close-ups bring the emotion.

Next time you watch a movie, I want you to look for those shots – look for those three things – and once you notice them, you can’t unsee it, every time you watch a movie.

So, on my first flight test with the Mavic 3 Pro, I went out to our new medical park, which is finally about to open. If you’ve been with the channel for a while, you know this has been a long time coming – I think it’s been over three years now. It’s an impressive campus, and it’s going to be a great thing for our community.

So here, I have the drone positioned at about 1,700 feet away from the hospital, and here’s a shot with the wide-angle Hasselblad camera. Then, here is the brand-new medium zoom camera at 3x, with the drone positioned in the exact same spot. And finally, here is the tele camera at seven times zoom.

Now, these are optical zooms, meaning that whatever you capture at those focal lengths will be of very high quality.

I just want to show you the difference here. So here’s a shot with that primary Hasselblad zoomed in to 3x, now that’s a digital zoom and it doesn’t look so good, right? But then, look at this lossless zoom from the 3x camera from that new camera, so much better.

And then here’s another really good example of how valuable it is to have three cameras in one drone. There are many times when opportunities to get a good shot are fleeting, your time is limited to get a variety of angles.

Well, as I was flying over the train trestle the other day, it happened to be really good timing and a train came by. And so I was able to capture three different high-quality focal lengths. I got the wide shot, I got it in a little bit closer, and then a nice zoomed-in shot, and I didn’t have to move the drone at all. It’s just so efficient, and it gives you more possibilities in a shorter amount of time.

Background compression with the telelens

Another really cool benefit of the zoom cameras on the Mavic 3 Pro is how they allow you to record with background compression. It looks a hundred times better than using that standard wide-angle lens. So when you zoom in on a subject and you move around it or alongside it, the background effect just looks so impressive.

Now, I don’t have any spectacular cityscapes to show you; I live in a rural community. But I do want to show you a project that I’m going to be working on this summer.

So one of the most exciting things that I plan to use the Mavic 3 Pro for this summer: we have this abandoned elevator downtown, and the city has hired an international artist to come in, Guido van Helten, I think is his name. I’ll put a link for his Instagram; it’s amazing what he can do, and I’m going to document the process of that.

And the reason I like the Mavic 3 Pro is that I’m going to be able to capture the downtown with the wide angle and just get the overall scene. And then, zoom in a little bit more with that medium 3x camera and just show the surroundings, you know, show his equipment, show his team. I don’t know if he does it by himself or if he’s got a team.

And then, zoom in with that 7x and just be able to capture his expression, capture him doing his painting, all without having to move the drone at all. So I’ll be able to stay far away; I won’t have to bother him or anything like that. I’m sure he’s used to it, but I’m really looking forward to that.

Waypoints on the Mavic 3 Pro

Also, you know, the Mavic 3 waypoints are so good. So, I’m going to be able to do a waypoints mission and come back here on a regular basis and run that same mission. My goal is to kind of capture how it looks now, you know, no paint on it at all, and then transition into the completed project. I’m going to have to practice that. I’ve tried that before, and it’s never worked out, but I think that’s going to look pretty cool.

So, if you want to see that, you want to see the progress on that, go ahead and subscribe. I think it’s going to be later this summer. They haven’t set a date yet.

They’re still trying to raise a little more money. But once they get it going and once we have a date, I’ll let you guys know. So, I’ll keep you updated on that.

But yeah, just being able to be so far away, like look at the difference here. So, I flew, I think I was, I have really, really good vision, so I think it was about 3,000 feet away from the elevator, and I took a shot with a wide angle, and then I just zoomed into the 3x, and then I zoomed into the 7x, and just that compression effect is just so amazing.

I just, I don’t know how to explain it. It just makes everything look so much more dynamic and cinematic. So, just being able to capture it like that, I know it’s really nice to capture aerial footage with that 1X camera. That Hasselblad is amazing. 20 megapixels, you can get amazing photos with it.

But being able to zoom in with that 3x camera is perfect. It’s just right. It’s not too close, and it doesn’t wiggle at all. There’s no movement at all, but you still get that parallax effect from the 3x camera.

So, yeah, I am very, very impressed with the camera system on this drone. So, you can choose to zoom in with these different cameras simply by tapping the icons on the screen, and it will switch to that precise focal length. It does take a couple of seconds. I kind of hope they may tweak that a little bit or speed that up in a future update.

But you can also switch into explore mode and just use the right thumb wheel to zoom in and out with those three cameras. Now, you’re going to see a slight jump when it switches between cameras. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to have like a smooth, smooth zoom from 1X all the way to 28x. I don’t think so just because it has to switch between cameras, but maybe that’ll happen someday.

DLog-M on the DJI Mavic 3 Pro

Now, let’s talk about DLog-M for a minute. What is DLog-M? It’s a proprietary profile from DJI that increases the dynamic range and the contrast of your video. It allows you to capture a wider range of exposure, and it provides you with more flexibility in the editing process.

So, here’s a shot of the dark side of the elevator this morning that I took in normal mode, and then here’s a shot using D log M with just a few minor adjustments in post-processing. It looks so much better.

Now, you can also record into the HLG profile on the Mavic 3 Pro, which I think the majority of drone creators prefer because it’s kind of a little bit easier to work with when you’re editing.

It’s totally a personal preference, but both of those are going to result in a much nicer-looking video than using the normal profile.

The DJI Mavic 3 Pro is front-heavy

Now, one thing I do want to say is I have a little bit of concern with is, as big and heavy as this gimbal is, it’s going to make this drone really front-heavy. It doesn’t feel front-heavy when you’re holding it, but just having this giant big gimbal out here, if you crash this drone, it’s going to land nose-first every time because of this big heavy gimbal on there.

So, yes, it does have obstacle avoidance 360 up and down and whatever, but as I learned the first week of flying my Mavic 3 drone, even with all those safety uh things in place, you can still crash your drone. So, there’s one little bit of a concern.

Battery life and performance on the Mavic 3 Pro

The other thing that I wanted to um see how this camera affects the performance of the drone is I wanted to see if it would affect the flight time. Now, of course, it’s 43 minutes advertised flight time, and the regular Mavic Pro, Mavic 3 excuse me, and the Mavic 3 Classic have a 46-minute advertised flight time, so it’s a little bit less.

But I wanted to see the actual percentage I could get on the drone, um flying as close to the parameters that DJI uses as possible.

So, what they do is they do in a controlled environment, they fly at 20.13 miles per hour with zero wind, they have APAS off air sense off the camera set to 1080 at 24 FPS, the video modes off, and they fly from 100 down to zero percent.

So, I try to get as close as I could to all those things except for, of course, zero wind, but it was as close it was going to get around here. It was like two miles per hour, it was a very slight breeze. I kept the speed under 20 miles per hour at all times. I flew it manually. I went from 100 down to one percent, and I got 36 minutes of flight time.

So, that’s about 83 percent of advertised, which I think is actually pretty good.

And then a couple of days later, I wanted to see how it performed in the wind. So, it was a really awful day with 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds. I flew all around. I flew at different speeds. I recorded some 5.1 K video in Dlog-M. I had obstacle avoidance on air percents on, and from 96 down to five percent, I got just under 20 my 29 minutes of flight time or right around 67 percent, which considering the conditions is pretty acceptable for me.

Anytime I can get over 72 percent of advertised flight time from a DJI drone, I’m pretty happy with that, considering everything that you’re doing with it.

So, with those windy conditions, I think that’s pretty good. Now, you’re normally not going to be flying in those conditions, so I think when you’re flying normally, you know, with 20-mile-per-hour winds or less, you’re going to get right around that 75 percent of advertised flight time, and that’s pretty good.

Top speed in sport mode

The fastest speed I was able to achieve with the DJI Mavic 3 Pro was 47 miles per hour in sport mode. This is very impressive considering it uses the same battery as other Mavic 3 drones, has the same airframe, and weighs an additional 58 grams with the large gimbal on the front that has to fight the wind.

The brains of this drone are functioning pretty efficiently right out of the box, and I believe it will only improve with firmware updates as they are released.

I also tested the active track feature while using the zoom cameras. I took it out with me on a battery-powered moped ride, and it tracked me beautifully. The trail was busy that day as it was nice out, and a great benefit of this triple camera system is that I was able to keep the drone far enough away from me that it didn’t cause any concern from the other people on the trail.

I was still able to get some close-up footage of myself. I think being able to keep the drone further away significantly reduces any uncomfortable interactions because most people won’t even know it’s there.

This is especially valuable if you’re going to be flying anywhere where there are other people or a lot of people that might be wary of drones.

The DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone has an amazing camera system, and I love it. I love the ability to get that parallax effect and background compression.

This is going to be my new drone, my workhorse for real estate and other projects. I will be making a lot more videos on it, including some long-form videos and YouTube shorts.

If you have any questions about it, please put them in the comments because that will help guide future videos about this drone. I will also make a video on the DJI RC Pro Controller, which I am using on a regular basis for the first time. I don’t know why I waited this long to use it, but it’s a very impressive controller.

Check out the link in the video description for all the options available on the Mavic 3 Pro. Subscribe if you want to see future content on this drone or future content about all kinds of other drones.

Follow me on social media (TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram) if you want to see more bonus content.

Thank you sincerely for watching the entire video today. Watch the video linked here next; I think you’re going to enjoy it. Have a great day, and as always, fly safe and fly smart.