(Pocket-lint) – DJI has taken a giant leap into creating the perfect pro-level consumer drone, and has officially announced the all-new Mavic 3. And, as far as performance and specs go, this one’s an absolute monster.
It represents a huge upgrade over the Mavic 2 series, particularly when it comes to videography/photography and battery life. It starts with an all-new camera arrangement.
The dual-camera Hasselblad system features a primary camera with a 20-megapixel 4/3 CMOS sensor, the largest it’s ever put on a Mavic drone. It’s joined by an additional zoom camera to offer up to 28x hybrid zoom. That particular camera features a 1/2-inch 12-megapixel CMOS sensor.
For still photographers, the addition of RAW 12-bit format will enable you to capture tonnes of colour/data and give you a lot to play with when it comes to editing them afterwards.
As always, the camera system is mounted to a 3-axis gimbal to ensure your footage stays super smooth.
Videographers will be delighted to see the capture capabilities we’re sure, with a maximum 5.1K resolution up to 50fps, and the ability to shoot 4K up to 120fps in either Apple ProRes 422 HQ on the Cine model, or H.264/H.265 codecs on the regular drone and a maximum 200Mbps bitrate.
It’s not just in video and photo capabilities it’s been improved either, the drone has a much longer battery life than any of its previous Mavic models, with up to 46 minutes flight time possible.
The Mavic 3 also sees improvements in the realm of obstacle avoidance with an improved APAS system. It uses six fish-eye vision sensors, plus two wide-angle sensors to detect obstacles in virtually every direction, and is able to plot routes to avoid them.
Location data is also improved, with the help of GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou satellites, plus an algorithm that keeps its position better locked, improving its accuracy and stability when hovering in one position.
There are other improvements too, like a smarter RTH (Return To Home) ability for when the battery is running low. Rather than go higher and start flying back, it’ll first calculate the quickest and most energy efficient route to return to its take-off position.
There are two models of Mavic 3: the standard version and the Cine model. Apart from price, the main difference between those two is that the Cine model has a built in 1TB SSD for internal recording, and the ability to shoot in ProRes HQ codec.
Mavic 3 is available from today in three different combinations: Standard, Fly More Combo and Cine Premium Combo.
The standard kit costs £1,879 and includes the drone, a battery, remote controller, cables, propellers, storage cover and a battery charger. The £2,549 Fly More Combo includes all of that, plus two additional batteries, a charging hub, carrying bag and a set of ND filters.
As for the Cine Premium Combo, that’s a whopping £4,279 but comes with the internal 1TB SSD and has the new DJI RC Pro controller, which has a built in screen (no phone required).
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Writing by Cam Bunton.