I Was a Drone Virgin, But the New DJI Mini 2 Has Me Hooked

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Getting your feet off the ground — both literally and figuratively — to try drone photography for the first time is intimidating. DJI’s Mavic Mini lowered the entry point to drone photography with a sub $500 price and lightweight design while still including several safety features from the company’s pricier drones. The DJI Mini 2, announced today, adds 4K video and RAW shooting, more powerful motors, and a more reliable connection.

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Review: DJI Mavic Mini (Finally, a Drone That’s City Friendly)

The DJI Mavic Mini is a lightweight drone that’s finally making flying in cities more friendly. 

When DJI invited us to their DJI Mavic Mini event, we didn’t know what we’d be seeing. But the DJI Mavic Mini is surely the first drone that has really caught my attention. It’s under the 250-gram weight that the government puts restrictions on. Additionally, the DJI Mavic Mini has image stabilization built-in and isn’t to terribly built either. It folds down and is lightweight. So finally, photographers who dwell in cities have a better option to work with that sort of skirts the laws for drone flight. Of course, you need to exercise caution and common sense. If anything, you should always be a bit more conservative when flying with a drone like this and act responsibly.

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First Impressions: DJI Mavic Mini (The Drone for Everyone)

The DJI Mavic Mini was designed to be a drone everyone can use without hassle that you can bring everywhere.

The DJI Mavic Mini is a super small drone, and could honestly be the one that gets me over some of my personal issues with drone photography. As a city dweller, working with drones has always been a bit of a scary thing because of the designated zones. As the EIC of a website, I need to be careful to ensure we’re always following the law. This is a mentality that I embed within my staff. So for me, the DJI Mavic Mini is very refreshing. Though we’re familiar with options from Parrot and others, the DJI Mavic Mini is packing just enough of the technology we love within a small form factor. To be clear about how small it is, the DJI Mavic Mini fit into my skinny jeans. Moreso than any other drone release, I’m incredibly excited about the DJI Mavic Mini.

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Field Report: Using the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom in NYC

The DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom are fun tools to use for the enthusiast and hobbyist, but serious photographers will surely want more.

Testing drones here at the Phoblographer has always been pretty difficult; NYC has very strict rules about where you can fly, times, etc. and to that end it’s not always as simple as setting up a camera and shooting. It draws attention, and doing it responsibly and legally can provide a number of challenges. Take for example the day we went out with DJI to play with their new DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom drones–Trump decided to do a flyover of NYC and so the locations, timing, and altitude were all pretty difficult to make work. Despite the Pro designation, it doesn’t really feel quite pro. Professional photographers will surely be able to do great things with it, but the heart of the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Zoom leave me really wanting.

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First Impressions: DJI Mavic 2 Pro and DJI Mavic 2 Zoom

The new DJI Mavic 2 Pro and DJI Mavic 2 Zoom feature major camera improvements.

DJI introduced the next iteration of the Mavic drone series in Brooklyn this morning. Replacing the Mavic Pro are two new drones: the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, and the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom. It’s been almost two years since DJI first released the Mavic Pro, and DJI has included some major improvements to the pair of new Mavic 2 drones. Front and center are two brand new cameras which differentiate the two Mavic 2 models. The DJI Mavic 2 Pro comes equipped with a Hasselblad L1D-20c camera that features a 28mm lens with an adjustable aperture range of f2.8 to f11. At the heart of the Mavic 2 Pro’s camera is a 1″ 20MP CMOS sensor. The DJI Mavic 2 Zoom on the other hand comes equipped with a 24-48mm optical zoom lens, capable of 2x optical and 2x digital zoom, and is paired with a 1/2.3″ 12MP CMOS sensor. The DJI Mavic 2 Pro’s camera will benefit from Hasselblad’s world renown color science, while the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom comes with a new “Super Resolution” mode that stitches nine images together onboard the drone itself to create one large composite.

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First Impressions: DJI Mavic Air (The Drone That Fits Into a Coat Pocket)

The new DJI Mavic Air is so small it can fit into a coat pocket with ease.

Today, the new DJI Mavic Air was announced to an absolutely astounded crowd. Designed to be put into a coat pocket and carried anywhere along with the remote, your phone, and all the other stuff you normally bring with you, the new DJI Mavic Air also brings with it a lot of technology. For starters, there is a three axis gimbal that works in conjunction with the 12MP camera. At the heart of the camera is a 1/2.3″ CMOS sensor – not that big, we know – but everything you’re shooting also has a very deep perspective. There are cameras and sensors all over the body to help protect it from crashing into things. Additionally, the antennae were designed to be fit into the landing gear yet face outward to ensure that the signal connection stays strong. It’s designed to be high wind resistant and has some pretty cool features such as a smart pathing technology and hand gestures that are built in.

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First Impressions: PowerVision PowerEgg Drone

When you look at drones these days, many of them have a very similar design. But as of recently, things have started to change. And with today’s announcement of the new PowerVision PowerEgg, things are really starting to look different. For the uneducated, the Portal-Turret-Looking-Drone may not even look like a drone. But indeed, it’s a beautiful product that wants to promise users a simple experience and a fun time overall.

More importantly, it will change the way you look at a drone.

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