We’re big fans of the DJI Mini series, which brings some of the outfit’s best aerial photography and videography features in really compact packages. The newest entry in the series, the DJI Mini 4K, continues to play up on this strength by combining good 4K video quality with an even more affordable price.
Now priced at sub-$300, the 4K consumer drone retains the same compact size that exempts it from FAA registration, all while bringing a good balance of video quality and overall performance. Sure, you won’t get some of the more important safety features from DJI’s more expensive models, but for a bare basics drone that can record in 4K, it’s really hard to beat the price on this thing.
The DJI Mini 4K is equipped with a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor that allows it to capture 4K footage at 30 fps and 2.7K footage at 60 fps. It offers bitrates up to 100Mbps, too, so it should record impressive-looking videos at both resolution settings. For stills, it can take 12MP photos. Naturally, it comes with the standard three-axis gimbal used throughout their drone models, ensuring your framing is mechanically-stabilized the entire time, with electronic image stabilization also onboard to clean up any leftover jitters. Suffice to say, this thing will make your aerial videos look plenty stable.
It can transmit 1080p footage at a 10km (32,800 feet) range, making it easy to keep track of what exactly the drone captures in its frame the whole time. How long can it stay airborne? A single battery is enough to keep the drone running for up to 31 minutes, which should be enough to capture a good load of photos and videos. If that’s not enough, the battery is swappable, so you can just bring it back to home base and swap in a fresh cell to extend the session.
The DJI Mini 4K has all the basic flight features of DJI’s drones. There’s one-tap takeoff and landing, so you can get it up and bring it down with very little work on your part, as well as a GPS-guided return-to-home feature that allows it to come back to it’s launch spot all on its own. It comes with GNSS, downward vision, and infrared sensing systems, all of which work together to keep it hovering in a stable manner at all times, while the powerful brushless motors allow it to resist winds up to 38 kph, so it can stay airborne without getting pushed around even on windy days. The drone can get up to altitudes of up to 4,000 meters.
You get all the basic filming features available in DJI’s more expensive models, including helix (center a subject while flying around it in an outward spiral), rocket (frames subject downward as it ascends rapidly), boomerang (flies around the subject in a boomerang pattern), dronie (centers a subject while panning out), circle (rotates around the subject at the same altitude), and panorama (spherical, wide angle, and 180-degree panoramic shots), so it can do most of the work for you while it captures your photos and videos. It comes with a companion app that can let you know about nearby flight spots, local restrictions, and even offers flight tutorials for complete novices.
The DJI Mini 4K is available now.
