DJI - Air 3

My active fleet is up to two Air 3s and two Air 3S's. I have a retired Air 2 that just chills on my shelf these days. Its a FUN hobby and good way to make extra money.

Check out the DJI Flip fly more combo. It was released January 2025 so its new. It shoots 4k/60fps, flies for 31 minutes, has active track, can go 36 mph(which is pretty fast for a boat), and video transmission is 13km. You can also fly it without a controller. You just press a button, point it at yourself so it picks you up as a target, and then it takes off and follows you. You can also check out the Mini 4 Pro or Air 3s(this one is top notch)

Registration in the US is so cheap and easy I don’t see why it would even be a factor here. It’s like $5 for 3 years and about as many minutes. I have a Neo and an air 3. I use the air 3 for photography because the cameras are great, it handles wind well, and it’s a real fun machine to fly. I use the Neo hardly all, because the camera is worse than a 5 year old cell phone and the high pitched screech is very loud.

I put some master airscrew stealth ones on, and it did help a bit. Also made it a little more visible in the sky, which was a nice bonus. It always gives me a bit of a chuckle to see how much quieter (at least in terms of perceptiom) the air 3 is since it’s huge by comparison. Makes sense with the props spinning more slowly, but it’s interesting to see back to back

Get a (used) Mini 4 Pro, or Air 3(S) to start and try - if you like it: Mavic 4 Pro

I agree that an ND not necessarily needed for photography. I added a ND4 + CPL filter to my Air 3 as I like the polarization effect

I held off on the Mini 4 Pro & got the Air 3 instead keeping my Mini 3 Pro as a back up. I’ll be retiring my Mini3P for this bad boy & when the Air 4 comes out hopefully with Dual 1” sensors I’ll retire my Air 3. Very good things coming out from DJI to bad I gotta smuggle them into the US

If you want to shoot urban I’d recommend the Mini 4 pro as it has O4 transmission. If you want anything bigger you will need special licenses depending on where you are country/state/city wise. For me in Texas I only need my 107 to do commercial or heavier drones. If you just want to make basic social media content the Neo is your best bet as well but with a controller / phone. The Mini 4k is a more basic mini 3 pro but still good.

You just said you weren’t tight on funds lol yeah man the newer & latest one is more expensive. Let the Mini 5 Pro drop and Mini 4 Pro sellers will saturate the market lowering the Mini 4 Pro overall price

DJI is basically the only choice now, except maybe Autel Evo models that are somewhat older now, but they are included in the ban too! By the way, the ban won't affect actually the legality of buying and operating the drones, just importing and selling, so if you can buy one, you are good. The only issue is that warranty and support may be not available. I think a used DJI air 2s is a very good value. Extra refurb batteries are much cheaper than newer air3 batteries. However I have an air3 as well and love the zoom lens for some of my shots.

You are probably not going to find an all in one solution for this. The avata 2 (what I use) or a cinewhoop style is what you want for interior fly through. But these are not going to handle as well outside for photos, no bracketing options, etc. Outside photos/video I would be looking at the mini series or the air series. I run the avata 2 and an air 3. I was doing a fly through today, in from front door, through kitchen, to living, up to main bed out the balcony and down walkway to beach. As soon as I got to the outside towards the beach, the wind was strong, and the horizon had a heavy slant. It almost cut the the screen diagonally with the horizon. So, I also shot some video with the larger drone outside just in case.

I own multiples of both the Air 3S and Mini 4 Pro, and two Air 3 units as well. What do you intend to shoot? How do you intend to shoot it? What lighting/time of day? What output do you expect to use? What wind conditions? What class/weight done can you fly regularly? The Air 3S has FAR better obstacle avoidance in low light on its normal obstacle avoidance sensors vs the Air 3 and Mini 4 Pro, plus it also has front facing Lidar, which has also been impressively good. On top of that, the Air 3S has D-log-M at extended ISO ranges, which happen to be the same ISO range the Air 3 and Mini 4 Pro only have shitty 8bit 'night mode' that SUCKS. I was NEVER impressed by the 'low light' capabilities of the Mini 4 Pro and Air 3, nor their Obatacle Avoidance tech even in what i would consider to be 'good lighting', sunset/dusk is too dark, Air 3S the sensors are fine even when its darker than im comfortable flying. The Air 3S exceeded my expectations in low light, both in terms of obstacle avoidance sensors (which are about 10x more light sensitive than the Air 3 and Mini 4 Pro) as well as 10 bit D-log-M performance vs shitty 8-bit 'night mode' on the Air 3 and Mini 4 Pro. Lidar works with zero light up front. The Mini 4 Pro is great if its calm weather and bright enough outside. Air 3 and Air 3S are FAR FAR FAR more stable in wind or gusty situations. The Mini 4 Pro is also quite small and handy if youre after something compact; its a killer piece of kit that punches WAY above its weight for what it is. We keep a Mini 4 Pro or an Air 3 in deployment as 'risky shot' drones for client work, the footage in proper lighting is GREAT! That said, i'd go Air 3S over a Mini 4 Pro, but we use both cams and low light/wind resistance matters for us.

It does have better wind resistance indeed. I myself bought an air 3 for that reason so that would be a good argument for the Air 3.

Never flew one... I have the Air 3

I’ve used a mini pro and a mavic 3 but my favorite to shoot with is still my air3. The 3x zoom seem perfect fP those nice compressed shots while still shooting 4k 60 in all the tracking modes.