Can you believe it’s already been six months since the DJI Mini 4 Pro came out? I certainly can’t, but it’s time for my long-term review of this drone, and I want to share all of my impressions with you today. Let’s check it out.
DJI Mini 4 Pro 6 Month Review
So, you already know what the Mini 4 Pro is. If you’re looking for a review of this drone, watch my previous videos on my channel. You will certainly get that information from these videos.
In today’s video, I will focus more on my own impressions, my own thoughts on using this drone, how it fits into my workflow, how it fits into my day-to-day type of shooting with a drone, and what I think of it. Will I keep it? Will I keep shooting with it? And all that good stuff.
And I want to share that with you without having to focus that much on specific features that I’ve already talked about in my initial review of the Mini 4 Pro.
The Size and Weight of the DJI Mini 4 Pro
First things first, the size and the weight of this drone, as well as the build quality, how has it held up since the release?
Well, I can say that even though this drone definitely feels a lot more plasticky compared to a more premium drone like the Air 3 or the Mavic 3 Pro, for example, I can still confidently say that the build quality is fantastic. Everything is holding up very well. I don’t have scratches, I don’t have any DSE on it, I don’t have any damage on it, even though this drone has definitely seen some trees from a very close distance.
But I’ve never really crashed it that hard into anything, so for just regular usage, my props are all good, my body shell is all good, everything is holding up very nicely, so I’m definitely very happy about that. Now, of course, in terms of how it feels in your hand, doesn’t really matter that much, but I can definitely feel the difference between, like I said, a more premium drone like the Mavic 3 Pro, for example, and this one.
But at the end of the day, nobody cares about this stuff because as soon as you launch it into the air, the camera is all that really matters.
The Camera on this Mini Drone
Which brings me to the next thing that I want to focus on before I get into the camera, and that is the size and weight. Of course, the weight of 249g opens up a whole new world of opportunities when it comes to flying spaces, flying regulations, flying close to people. You can do a lot more with this drone than you can do with a bigger, heavier drone, so that’s a huge, huge benefit for the Mini 4 Pro.
But for me, the biggest thing that really matters when we’re talking about size and weight is not that much the regulations, which of course I’m always complying with, but mostly the fact that it takes so much less space than anything other than a mini drone inside my backpack.
Because I’m always on the go, I’m always packing extra heavy for a lot of things. I’m always bringing my camera, bringing a tripod, bringing an action camera, FPV Drones, remote controller, goggles, all that good stuff. Everything is packed inside my backpack.
So when it comes to deciding what drone to bring, it’s always important to consider the size and the weight. And because of that, I cannot always bring my Mavic 3 Pro, for example. And since this drone is that good, that actually puts me at ease about actually bringing it with me every time I go out.
There’s one saying that MKBHD said a few years ago about cheap smartphones are getting good, and we should kind of get used to that. I think we’re at the point where we should get used to small drones being super good as well, because a few years ago, it was kind of like the norm that a small drone is always a compromise.
But now, I wouldn’t say it’s a compromise anymore. It is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to create content online, even for some commercial jobs. Now, personally, I’m not big on commercial jobs. I fly for myself, I fly for the channel, and I record footage mostly to use on YouTube.
So because of that, I don’t have that many restrictions when it comes to picking the right drone for the job. So, if you’re a content creator and you want to add a drone to your arsenal, you want to start shooting with a drone, the Mini 4 Pro should definitely be on your radar. And that’s mostly because the camera, which is fantastic.
And even in all automatic camera settings, even if you don’t know what you’re doing, you have no idea about how to use the different manual camera settings, even if you set everything to auto, the drone will still give you a fantastic, exceptionally good image that you can use for social media.
Using ND Filters
Now, personally, I always use manual camera settings. I use ND Filters as much as possible. I use the flattest color profile available every single time when I shoot with any drone, and the Mini 4 Pro is no exception because I prefer to color grade my footage myself.
So, if you’re looking for ways to easily transform your flat color profile to a vibrant, saturated, and contrasty, punchy, great-looking footage, then of course, my LUTs will be available down in the description if you want to check them out. See how they can really transform your footage. Feel free to check them out and ask me any questions down in the comment section below if you have them. I would love to help you out.
While we are still on the topic of color grading and manual camera settings and stuff like that, there’s one product that I can definitely highlight and encourage you to check out if you’re looking to get more out of your Mini 4 Pro, and this is this filter set.
This is the Mega filter set from Freewell, which comes with a variety of different ND filters. Now, you don’t have to buy this; keep that in mind. But if you want to kind of extract more out of your drone and you want to use it in manual camera settings and you want to maybe get more smoothness in your shots while you’re doing hyperlapses, for example, then of course, you need to put an ND filter so you can use a longer shutter speed on your footage to kind of introduce some more motion blur.
Those are things that, of course, I’ve talked about many times here on my channel, and I’ve made specific videos about them. So if you need help with that, let me know by commenting down in the comment section below, and I’ll guide you towards that video. But as of right now, the filters that I use the most on this Mini 4 Pro are the ND32 PL, which I believe currently I have installed.
Yes, that’s the one that is currently on the drone, and it’s being used 90% of the time I’m flying. Now, for the most part, I switch between ND32 PL, ND64 PL, and ND16 PL. It really depends on the lighting conditions. And I use ND2000 in case I want to shoot a hyperlapse, and I want to have a lot of motion blur by using a shutter speed of about half a second or something like that. Really depends, again, on the lighting conditions.
But those ND filters are the ones that I highly encourage you to buy. Now, of course, the other ones are also necessary in some specific scenarios, but they’re not really mandatory to have. But this is a great all-in-one bundle that gives you everything that you ever might need with the Mini 4 Pro.
So, to finish off that camera chapter, I can confidently say that the Mini 4 Pro is ideal for content creators. If you’re not too fussed about creating commercial content, then of course, this will be plenty of camera for you.
If you are looking for, like, the next level of camera features, of course, the Air 3 and the Mavic 3 Pro are the better options. But they, of course, come at a much higher price.
When talking about an eye in the sky, I have to talk about something that is my favorite thing about this drone, and that is how incredibly quiet it is and how inconspicuous it is to fly around people.
Sometimes I’m with my friends, we’re flying FPV, and they are setting up their drones, and by the time they have their backs turned around me, I’ve already set up everything and I’m launching the drone in the air, and they don’t even hear it when it goes up in the air. It’s that amazing, and it just makes it so much more enjoyable without everyone knowing that you’re flying straight away as soon as you start turning the propellers and you turn on the drone.
It’s just so much more enjoyable to be inconspicuous, to start flying, to check out different angles, different perspectives, and just relax and enjoy at the same time. Because, as we all know, it’s getting harder and harder to enjoy this hobby without Karens and, you know, everyone looking over your shoulder.
Obstacle Avoidance on the Mini 4 Pro
Obviously, the biggest thing about the Mini 4 Pro is the safety that it brings to the hobby because of that obstacle avoidance, which is now omnidirectional, with the front and back sensors, with the sensors that cover all sides pretty much.
And with the ActiveTrack 360, which is a brand-new feature from DJI, which allows you to be tracked without having to really worry that much about the drone hitting an obstacle because it’s smarter now and it’s able to detect them and avoid them.
For the most part, this is the biggest difference, I would say, between this drone and the Mini 3 Pro, which, of course, doesn’t have omnidirectional obstacle avoidance and doesn’t have Active Track 360.
It’s still an amazing drone, the Mini 3 Pro, and still, I would advise you, if you have one of those and you’re wondering whether you should upgrade to the Mini 4 Pro, I would advise you to just think how much you would use omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, how much you care about that, and how much you would use ActiveTrack 360.
Which, by the way, is an amazing feature but not everyone is riding around on a bike and not everyone has a Onewheel. Not everyone wants to be tracked by the drone. It’s not a necessary feature for absolutely everyone; it’s a little bit more specific.
So, if you’re one of those people who cares about that, then, of course, yes, the Mini 4 Pro is the better option. However, if you don’t care about that, if you’re a careful pilot with, I would say, a decent amount of hours flying a drone, and you know what you’re doing, then the Mini 3 Pro is still a fantastic choice.
And it brings a great feature set to the table that shouldn’t be neglected because it’s still a great drone, and you don’t have to always upgrade to the latest drone.
Limitations of the Mini 4 Pro
In terms of limitations, there are a few things that I want to mention, and most of them are again connected to the weight and the size of this drone. Now, you’ve seen a video of mine where I flew this drone in very strong winds, and the drone held up without any problems.
Now, this was not exactly the case when I flew it recently in a very strong wind scenario again, but this time I had some jello in my footage, just because of how the air was pushing the camera constantly up and down, so that kind of introduced a little bit of jello, a little bit of vibrations in my footage, which was not ideal.
Which I’m definitely sure wouldn’t be the case if I had the Mavic 3 Pro in the air and not the Mini 4 Pro. It is a small thing that I want to just tell you about because it is something that happened to me. It was extremely windy, so it’s kind of on me for putting the drone in the air and not staying on the ground with it. But I just wanted to capture some shots very quickly, and I had to do it, and I paid the price for it.
And the last limitation that I want to talk about, quite literally, is the 120m limitation of the Mini 4 Pro here in Europe because the drone is sub-250g and it has the C0 rating.
Now, this, for me, is not a problem. I decided to keep the drone as it is with the C0 label and to have that 120m height limitation because, for the most part, I don’t ever go over 120m from my takeoff point. If I’m in the mountains or if I plan to fly somewhere where I know I will have a large altitude shift and a large elevation that I will need to follow.
So I will have to go over 120m, then, of course, I will use another drone because the Mini 4 Pro is one of these drones that I take with me for everyday stuff. And if I travel and I know that I will have a lot of elevation change and I will need something different, then I will take another drone.
That’s not an issue for me, and for some of you, it might be an issue if you don’t have another drone. I don’t really know your specific use case, but for me, 120m is plenty of height, plenty of altitude that, for the most part, I never go over because I personally think when it comes to flying drones, the higher you get, the less interesting things are.
I think for things to be interesting, you have to be kind of close to them; you don’t really have to go to such a high altitude to really showcase that you are very high unless the specific environment requires you to. But for the most part, that doesn’t really happen to me that much. So for me, it’s not an issue, but I have to say that for some people, it might be an issue because here in Europe, it’s just a limitation that we have to deal with.
Other than that, it is a fantastic drone that I personally can recommend to everyone looking to have an all-in-one drone that is packed with different intelligent flight features, with Active Track, with safety features such as omnidirectional obstacle avoidance, with a large battery life, with a great camera, even in automatic camera settings, but even more if you put it in manual if you start grading your footage, then you can even kind of fake that you’re using a more expensive, better drone than the Mini 4 Pro because people, they don’t really know when they’re watching your videos.
They wouldn’t really notice a big difference, or any difference, between this and the Mavic 3 Pro main lens, for example, to the untrained eye, I’m talking, not to a professional. But for the most part, it won’t be a very drastic difference to the casual viewer of your videos.
So that’s what I wanted to say and share with you in today’s video. I’m really happy with the Mini 4 Pro. I think it’s a fantastic piece of kit, and I think I will definitely keep using it the way I’m using it right now, which is as my go-to drone for everyday scenarios.
So, I hope you enjoyed this video. Please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, anything that you want to ask about the Mini 4 Pro. Don’t hesitate to drop that comment down below, and I would love to help you out if I can. This is Mike from Drone Supremacy.
Take care, everyone, stay safe, and I’ll catch you very soon in my next video. Ciao! Do I recommend it in 2024? You bet I do. Yeah, I definitely recommend the Mini 4 Pro, and that’s pretty much everything I wanted to say about this drone in this video.
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