DJI Mini 4 Pro Review

Verdict

One of the best ultralight drone receives a raft of enhancements in its newest iteration, the DJI Mini 4 Professional, cementing its spot as a go-anywhere, fly-anywhere mannequin for demanding hobbyists and professionals alike.

Introduction

The DJI Mini 4 Professional is a brand new iteration of the sub-250g Mini line, providing a lot of small however vital enhancements at a barely increased worth than the DJI Mini 3 Professional.

One key level to contemplate right here, notably for potential consumers based mostly within the UK, is that the Mini 4 Professional maintains the 249g take-off weight, protecting it throughout the class of drone topic to the fewest flight restrictions beneath UK regulation.

Something above 250g can’t legally be flown inside 50m of uninvolved individuals or above crowds, and should be stored a minimum of 150m away from ‘residential, leisure, industrial and industrial websites’ – which when you concentrate on it’s nearly all of the locations you would possibly wish to fly a drone. Due to its low weight, nevertheless, the Mini 4 Professional doesn’t have to adapt to these legal guidelines, and may be flown in parks, on seashores and over buildings and folks (however nonetheless not over giant crowds).

Do the DJI Mini 4 Professional enhancements make it the perfect small drone round? I took it to the skies of southeast England in a quest for the reply.

Design and construct high quality

• Weighs 249g
• Folds to pocketable measurement
• Selection of distant controls

Like its Mini predecessors, the DJI Mini 4 Professional collapses right down to a tiny measurement. With its arms and propellers totally folded in, it’s simply 148 x 94 x 64mm – sufficiently small to suit into a big coat pocket.

It comes with one plastic cowl to guard the fragile digital camera and gimbal, and one other to maintain all of the propellers tucked away and out of bother. The entire thing is constructed of light-weight plastic to realize that aforementioned sub-250g weight however feels powerful sufficient to face up to the rigours of frequent use and transport.

That’ll be very true in case you plump for the £979/$1159 Fly Extra Combo package deal, which features a well-padded shoulder bag for carrying across the included drone, three batteries, a charging hub and the DJI RC 2 controller. That is the model that I used to be despatched, and I discovered the RC 2 controller’s 5.5-inch 1080p touchscreen to be wonderful by way of brightness, readability and measurement.

It’s also possible to buy the DJI Mini 4 Professional with the older, screenless RC-N2 controller for £689/$759 (utilizing your smartphone because the display screen and management software program), or with simply the RC 2 controller for £869/$959. Even the most affordable possibility is rather a lot to pay for a small, light-weight drone, however the construct high quality is spectacular.

For these on a tighter funds who need a sub-250g DJI drone, the DJI Mini 3 Professional stays on sale (from £639/$599), as does the DJI Mini SE (£285 for the Fly Extra Combo), DJI Mini 2 SE (from £309/$300) and DJI Mini 3 (from £429/$449).

If you happen to don’t purchase the charging hub, batteries may be charged by means of the drone’s USB-C port, which can be used for information switch. There’s a MicroSD card slot too, and also you’ll wish to use one to bolster the 2GB of built-in storage – it’s not sufficient room for quite a lot of quick minutes of 4K video.

Options and flight efficiency

• 34 minutes of flight time
• Omnidirectional collision avoidance
• ActiveTrack object monitoring

The flight setup, app and controls shall be acquainted to anybody who’s flown a DJI folding drone in recent times, however even newbies may have little bother selecting issues up inside a few check flights.

DJI has spent years assembling a very sturdy, user-friendly and safety-first flying and management system, with take-off and touchdown primarily automated and a gaggle of sensors to maintain observe of your drone’s actions, location, remaining flight time and extra. 

A full battery will give the DJI Mini 4 Professional as much as 34 minutes of flight time, which I feel is spectacular – albeit the identical because the Mini 3 Professional. The Mini 4 Professional can journey shortly (as much as 16m/s in S mode) however the easy twin-stick management setup is responsive and permits for exact actions, whereas the 4 motors are sturdy sufficient to maintain the drone regular in winds of as much as 10.7m/s (or about 22mph). So regardless of its light-weight construct, it’ll present a steady platform for photographs and video in all however very blustery circumstances.

Just like the Mini 3 Professional, it has impediment avoidance through imaginative and prescient sensors, however right here they cowl extra angles and instructions, with upwards added to entrance, again, sideways and downwards. All of them appear to work nicely from my testing, however DJI warns that they’re not as efficient in low-light circumstances and I recommend that you simply train care when flying round bushes, overhead cables and the like; smaller obstacles like wires and twigs shall be trickier for the sensors to select up, however can nonetheless ship your drone dropping to the bottom like a rock.

As a consequence of its boosted anti-obstacle tech, the DJI Mini 4 Professional provides a barely improved model of the ActiveTrack characteristic included on the Mini 3 Professional. ActiveTrack permits you to drag a field round an on-screen topic; the drone then retains the digital camera educated on that topic even in case you transfer the drone in a special path.

ActiveTrack 360 permits the drone to robotically circle across the topic whereas transferring up and again or ahead; the sensors assist it to keep away from crashing whereas doing so. It’s nice for capturing spectacular solo photographs whilst you’re biking, climbing or driving.

Video and picture high quality

• 4K at 60fps for regular video, 100fps for sluggish movement
• 10-bit color through D-Log M
• Night time Mode for clearer low mild photographs

The DJI Mini 4 Professional has the identical gimbal-stabilised 12MP, 1/1.3-inch CMOS digital camera sensor because the Mini 3 Professional, however picture high quality is certainly superior on this new mannequin.

By way of decision and body fee, each fashions report common 4K video at as much as 60fps, however in its slow-motion mode the DJI Mini 4 Professional may also seize 4K at 100fps (or 1080p at 200fps), permitting for smoother sluggish playback.

The brand new imaging processor now helps 10-bit color fairly than the 8-bit provided by the Mini 3 Professional by means of the D-Log M profile (an possibility that sits alongside Regular and HLG profiles), which implies a wider gamut of colors and better dynamic vary for customers keen to color grade and proper their very own footage. Recorded footage appears to be like implausible for a small drone. Footage shot in Regular and brought straight from the digital camera is okay, nevertheless – and I don’t doubt most customers will discover it completely acceptable.

Images may be captured at 12MP or 48MP decision as a result of Quad Bayer sensor, however when taking pictures in DNG RAW and processing our information in Lightroom I discovered the distinction isn’t actually noticeable. Photos are of a great high quality typically, akin to a higher-end smartphone, and I like the very fact you may rotate the digital camera 90º to shoot ‘tall’ 9:16 photographs (and movies) for social media use.

Picture high quality in low mild continues to be a bit hit or miss, particularly when in comparison with outcomes from the bigger sensor cameras on DJI’s Mavic fashions, however the brand new twin native ISO and Night time Mode provide barely higher readability and decrease noise for nightfall, twilight and after-dark taking pictures.

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