As the year is coming to an end, I wanted to make this video, which is kind of like a tradition for my channel, and talk about the favorite drone of 2023. Especially this year, I think we’ve seen a huge leap in Drone Technology in general.
We’ve seen some amazing new releases, mostly from DJI, because the competition is just falling behind, unfortunately. But what can you do? These are currently, in my opinion, the best drones that you can buy right now on the market, and I wanted to talk about my personal favorite of them.
But I also wanted to include some of my favorite drone creators on YouTube, people that you should definitely follow if you’re into drone tech and you want to know everything there is to know about drones.
Make sure you check the links to follow all of the amazing creators who managed to join my video and talk about their personal favorite drone of the year.
So let’s start with them, and then I’ll meet you back to talk about my personal favorite of 2023.
Jake Sloan’s favorite drone: DJI Air 3
Thanks, Mike, for asking me to be part of this. If you’d asked me at the beginning of 2023 what my favorite drone was, I definitely would have said the Mavic 3. But since then, we’ve had a lot of other drones come out.
And if you don’t know me, my name’s Jake, and I do lots of drone work in Alaska. By far, my favorite drone in 2023 has become the DJI Air 3 because it’s this perfect combination of size, weight, and capability.
The image quality coming out of it is actually really good. It could be super dynamic, and because you get both the 24mm and the 70mm lens, you can compose your shots really differently and get some really cool incredible scenery.
And because both of them shoot 10-bit D-Log-M, you can color-grade them to get some just absolutely spectacular results. I’ve taken this drone everywhere with me, from hiking in the rain in the mountains to the deserts of Nevada, to working in the mountaintops with heli-skiing companies at minus 5°F.
Which is insane that this drone has been able to handle all of those extremes without any issues and deliver on some fantastic image quality.
But it’s not just the image quality; it’s the fact that in this fairly small frame, you get like tons of flight time, 40-something minutes depending on how you’re flying.
And you get a top speed of like 47, maybe even 48 miles per hour, which is huge when I’m working air to air with other aircraft because obviously they’re not going to go that slow.
But it’s not just the speed; it’s the fact that DJI gave us really great active track in it, and you can do all kinds of things with that.
But my favorite is waypoints. The fact that they’ve included waypoints in the DJI Air 3 means you can pre-program these really cool drone moves that make it look like you’ve got somebody else flying the drone while you’re filming yourself.
Or even just getting these really neat one-take shots that just aren’t possible without waypoints. Thanks again for asking me to be part of this, Mike. Cheers.
Billy Kyle’s favorite drone: DJI Inspire 3
What’s going on, guys? Billy here, and Mike, thanks so much for having me on the channel to discuss my favorite drone of 2023, which was the DJI Inspire 3.
Now, this drone was released this year. It was officially unveiled back in Las Vegas at NAB 23. It was at DJI’s booth, flying inside of the drone cage, and they had some out that we could actually interact with.
Once I saw this drone actually sitting there in the drone cage, hovering, I knew I needed to add it to my kit. So from there, I brought it with me across the country over the course of the past six months. I went to Pittsburgh; I went up to Newport, Rhode Island.
I brought it everywhere with me. Despite its size and despite the somewhat long setup time, it is well worth it because of the great images that I was able to capture.
This drone is filled with so much technology that I couldn’t possibly discuss my favorite features here in a quick minute clip that’s going to be featured among other great drone creators.
But I’ll just say that there are two things I love about this drone: it’s the image quality and how powerful it is.
I feel like when I get this drone up in the air, there are no bounds to how fast I can fly, what I’m able to capture, what I’m able to photograph, what I’m able to take video of.
This thing really is the ultimate aerial cinematic tool, and for that reason, it is my favorite drone of 2023. Thanks again, Mike.
Terry Warfield’s favorite drone of 2023: DJI Mavic 3 Pro
What is Terry’s favorite drone of 2023? You know, I’ve flown a lot of drones, and I’ve owned a lot of drones this year. And out of all of them, my absolute favorite is freaking Dark Wing, my Mavic 3 Pro.
I know this thing cost a whole lot of money. I’m not even going to hold you. And it is a big drone, although it’s not huge. But let me tell you something, no matter where I take this drone, I’ve taken it locally, I’ve flown it out of the country, in normal conditions, in extreme conditions.
It doesn’t miss a beat. This thing is a freaking tank. The battery life is incredible, getting 43 to 45 minutes of battery life in harsh conditions, I might add.
Having three cameras on one drone is, let me tell you something, it’s so good creatively because you can get three different looks without needing to land the drone.
The main camera has an adjustable aperture. The color out of the camera, the Hasselblad color, if you’re into all that stuff, like, seriously, the image is so good out of it.
And then you can obviously film in ProRes too if you need to or if you just want to burn through your storage for no reason.
But anyways, what I’m saying about this drone, obstacle avoidance, amazing, flight time, amazing, imagery, great, battery life, it’s just the all-around beast of a drone.
So my favorite drone of 2023 is my Mavic 3 Pro, aka Dark Wing.
Flytpath’s favorite drone of 2023: DJI Mini 4 Pro
Alright, Mike, thanks for having me on your video. In 2023, we definitely did not have a shortage of drones to choose from.
And just to kind of cut to the chase, if I’m shooting locally here in San Diego, for the most part, I’m going to be taking up one of these, either the Mavic 3 Pro or the Air 3.
The size and the quality are unmatched. But in the second half of 2023, I actually started traveling again for work and a bunch of other personal projects.
And this drone is probably the one that I flew the most mainly because of a few different reasons.
Reason number one, of course, is the size. When I would pack a lot of my gear in my backpack, I would try to just stuff as much as I could get in there.
And having a smaller drone just makes things a lot easier. And the reason why I also like bringing the DJI Mini 4 Pro around is because this we have 360 omnidirectional sensing, same what we have here on the bigger drones, we now have that.
So if you are going to do some tracking or going to do some circles or orbits, you know you have at least some obstacle avoidance on the Mini 4 Pro.
And the last thing is quality. It does shoot 4K 60 frames a second and also has 10-bit DLog-M. So if you are going to do color grading and you want to match some of your drone footage to your land shots, you do have a little bit more flexibility with this mini drone compared to some of the other ones.
So for me, as far as 2023 goes, I did end the year using the Mini 4 Pro the most, mainly because, like I said, I was traveling a little bit more than when I’m here in San Diego. And I have the ability to, I will then throw up one of these drones.
Eddie Nunez’ favorite drone of 2023: DJI Mavic 3 Pro
What’s up, guys? This is Mr. Eddie Nunez from New York City. Mike, thank you so much for allowing me to collaborate with you and participate in this wonderful session.
You did ask a very difficult question, however, which is my favorite drone in 2023.
And that was a difficult one to answer, Mike, because I really had to sit back and think.
But the answer was actually very easy when I sat back and thought about it.
There’s only one king in this marketplace. And to me, and this is my opinion, that one king is the Mavic 3 Pro.
That’s right, the DJI Mavic 3 Pro. I think it wins hands down. And for me specifically in 2023, this is the drone that I flew the most.
For quite a few reasons. Number one, just stability in the air. This drone is rock-solid. It’s amazing. Number two, camera quality.
So you have Hasselblad with the 10-bit colors when you’re shooting in DLog and you’re exposing correctly, and you go into color grade, it is just amazing the final product that you can get out of here. Not to mention the three different cameras on this lens.
You have the wide-angle lens, you have the three times, and the seven times. You can really get some really dynamic, complex shots with the Mavic 3 Pro.
And then also, battery and signal strength. It’s phenomenal on the Mavic 3. Yes, it is OccuSync 3. I know that there is AccuSync 4 out there, but to be honest, with everything that I just mentioned, OccuSync 3 is fantastic.
When you think about having three lenses and AccuSync 3, I am not complaining. So, you know, thinking back in 2023, out of all the family vacations that I did and even here when I know that I’m going to some epic locations in the Northeast or New York City, this is always my go-to drone because I know that the Mavic 3 Pro is going to do its job.
And when I get back to sit down and edit to showcase to my audience, I will feel extremely satisfied with the production quality coming out of this drone. So, for that reason, Mavic 3 Pro is my top favorite drone in 2023. Thanks, Mike.
Ken Dono’s favorite drone of 2023: DJI Air 3
And because I haven’t flown a lot of FPV, I’ve really gone back to relying more on my GPS drones. And there’s been some really fantastic releases this year.
But the drone that I find myself using the most and TRUST the most to take on travels is this. This is the DJI Air 3. For me, Ken Dono, this drone is absolutely amazing.
There’s a lot of awesome features built into this, but most importantly, it’s incredibly fast, it’s stable, OccuSync 4, it just blows my mind how consistent it is even at a large distance.
And then having that 70mm lens and a wide-angle lens gives me options so I don’t really have to choose and compromise when I need photos or video.
So, for sure, this is what’s been in my bag. I would say 60% of the time when I’m traveling, I’m definitely taking this. I’ve used this professionally and recreationally, and I’ve just never been disappointed.
But there you go, DJI Air 3, that is my choice for 2023. This is going to be hard to beat in 2024. This may even be in my bag in 2024 if they don’t come out with anything that can beat this.
Alright, that’s going to do it for me. Stay original.
Mike’s favorite drone of 2023: DJI Mavic 3 Pro
It’s so cool to see how many different points of views we have and how different creators manage to use different drones and integrate them into their own workflow to really extract the most out of these drones.
And I want to thank them once again for joining this year’s video. I’m super thankful for being able to connect with these people, these creators, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s video, so stay tuned for that and make sure you follow each and every one of them in the description below.
With that being said, though, I want to now focus on my own personal favorite drone of the year, and I’m sure this will not be a huge surprise to many of you.
I’m going to choose the Mavic 3 Pro. The Mavic 3 Pro is simply the best drone that I’ve ever used. It’s amazing what you can extract out of it, especially with the three cameras, with the amazing flight characteristics and the flight performance, the battery life.
You can really rely on this drone in pretty much any scenario you throw it in. You will have no worries flying this in strong wind; you will have no worries flying this in low light.
Anywhere you put this drone, it will perform. And that’s not to say that these will not, but this is just one drone that can do it all, and there are no compromises here.
And there you guys have it. This is everything from today’s video. Do me a huge favor and drop a like on this video and follow all of the amazing creators who joined this video. I will link their channels down in the description.
Make sure you check them out. And thank you so much for watching, supporting me during the years, and allowing me to do literally my dream job every single day here on this YouTube channel.
It’s really appreciated, and I couldn’t do it without you. This is Mike from Drone Supremacy. Happy holidays, everyone. I’ll catch you very soon.
Once again, ciao.
+ There are no comments
Add yours