A couple of yr in the past, I owned a DJI Mini 2, which I bought and determined to get the Air 2S. This won’t be a comparability between the Mini 4 Professional and the Air 2S.
I cherished the Mini 2 and will convey it wherever I went to create memorable footage.
Nonetheless, there have been options that I needed it had, and a number of other different pilots shared the identical thought. DJI tried introducing these options within the Mini 3 Professional, which was and remains to be an amazing launch.
However now DJI has knocked the Mini drone recreation out of the park with the brand new launch, the DJI Mini 4 Professional.
On this overview, I’ll share extra about these drones, their similarities and variations, and why I want the Mini 4 Professional over the Mini 2.
DJI Mini 4 Professional Overview
The DJI Mini 4 Professional is the newest launch from DJI and the last word Mini drone in the intervening time.
Under is a spotlight of its options.
- Two flight time choices permit for a variety of actions and are longer than these of earlier drones.
- 360-degree impediment avoidance for safer flight.
- A follow-me characteristic for creating gorgeous footage of out of doors actions.
- Vertical taking pictures mode for creating high-quality portrait pictures.
- Weighs lower than 250 grams, making it very transportable.
- Superior clever flight modes for creating gorgeous footage with ease.
- Improved transmission system for higher efficiency for brief and long-range flights.
- D-Log and HLG functionality supply extra room for post-processing.
- 1/1.3-inch sensor measurement, a good measurement for a drone of this measurement.
» MORE: DJI Mini 4 Professional Assessment (Is It Price to Improve?)
DJI Mini 2 Overview
The DJI Mini 2 was among the best Mini drones for a very long time, providing a variety of options whereas sustaining a really perfect weight.
Even with the discharge of the Mini 3 Professional and the Mini 4 Professional, beneath are the options that might nonetheless make this drone a very good choice.
- Excessive-quality most footage decision for a drone its measurement on the time of launch.
- Weight of lower than 250 grams for portability.
- RAW and JPEG footage choices relying on what you need to do with the footage.
- Clever flight modes like Quickshots and Panoramas for creating cinematic pictures extra simply.
- OcuSync 2.0, which affords respectable connectivity for short-range flights.
- Primary security options like imaginative and prescient sensors, GPS, and automated RTH to make sure a protected flight.
- Compatibility with third-party apps due to the SDK availability.
» MORE: DJI Mini 2 Assessment
Fast Verdict
The DJI Mini 4 Professional is the higher drone of the 2.
It combines all of the options we wished all the opposite Mini drones had.
These options embrace ActiveTrack, Impediment Avoidance, Waypoints, a bigger sensor, and even added options like Vertical Taking pictures, Cruise Management, Waypoints, and Night time Mode.
The DJI Mini 4 Professional and the DJI Mini 2 goal the identical viewers: informal customers in search of a drone that may do extra with out spending 1000’s of {dollars}, however the Mini 4 Professional comes with much more options.
Whereas the Mini 4 Professional appears to be like prefer it obliterates the DJI Mini 2, individuals with lower than $500 in search of their first drone might nonetheless use it.
But when it can save you up for the Mini 4 Professional, you’ll get far more to your {dollars}.
» MORE: DJI Mini 4 Professional – Preliminary Setup (Unboxing to First Flight with Video)
What are the variations?
DJI Mini 4 Professional vs. Mini 2: What’s new?
As talked about earlier, the DJI Mini 4 Professional is a way more upgraded model of the DJI Mini 2:
- Longer flight time – The DJI Mini 2 has a good flight time, however the DJI Mini 4 Professional affords much more flight time with its two battery choices.
- Extra flight modes – The Mini 4 Professional packs much more clever flight modes, a few of which we beforehand solely noticed in additional superior drones just like the Mavic 3 collection drones.
- Upgraded flight modes – Moreover including new modes, the Mini 4 Professional additionally upgrades present ones.
- Bigger sensor – Whereas the dimensions distinction isn’t that giant, it nonetheless counts and reveals that DJI might at some point add an excellent larger sensor with out compromising the burden and design of the Mini drones.
- Vertical taking pictures mode – A characteristic we first noticed within the Mini 3 Professional, it takes Mini drones to a complete new degree, contemplating much more superior drones don’t include it.
» MORE: DJI Mini 4 Professional vs. Mavic 3 Sequence (Right here’s My Selection)
DJI Mini 4 Professional
DJI has been upgrading their Mini line drones for some time now, and launched in 2023, the DJI Mini 4 Professional is at the moment the head.
The Mini drones are designed to be compact, light-weight, and user-friendly, making them accessible to a broader viewers, together with inexperienced persons and leisure customers.
These drones enchantment to customers who might not require the superior options present in DJI’s higher-end fashions however nonetheless desire a dependable and succesful drone for capturing aerial footage.
» MORE: Does DJI RC Professional Work with Air 3 (Answered)
The diminished weight and compact design additionally make these drones fall inside particular regulatory classes which will exempt them from extra stringent necessities in some areas.
DJI began with the DJI Mini drone in 2019, they usually have been on a continuing ascent. At its peak, the Mini 4 Professional presents probably the most options now we have seen in a drone.
DJI Mini 4 Professional (with DJI RC 2)
- 4K HDR Video Digital camera
- Beneath 0.549lbs/249g
- 34 Minutes Flight Time
- 20 km Max Video Transmission Distance
- Omnidirectional Imaginative and prescient Sensing
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11/23/2023 05:56 pm GMT
DJI Mini 2
Launched in 2020, we might regard the DJi Mini 2 because the Toyota Corolla of Mini drones.
It was not the primary within the collection; it got here second, bettering on the options of the primary DJi Mini.
The digicam, flight options, security options, and ease of use are precisely what some drone customers are in search of in a drone.
And regardless of DJI releasing different drones, the DJI Mini 2 remains to be thought-about a really dependable drone and a workhorse.
DJI Mini 2
Ultralight and Foldable Drone Quadcopter, 3-Axis Gimbal with 4K Digital camera, 12MP Photograph, 31 Minutes Flight Time, OcuSync 2.0 10km HD Video Transmission, QuickShots, Grey.
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11/23/2023 02:26 pm GMT
Head-to-Head Comparability
Weight and Design
Winner: Tie
As highlighted just a few occasions, DJI didn’t change the burden when upgrading these drones. They each weigh lower than 250 grams and have a foldable design.
Nonetheless, they did make the DJi Mini 4 Professional just a few inches bigger to accommodate the sensors and gimbal design, however not as huge because the Air 2S, Air 3, or the Mavic 3 drones.
However the remaining, together with the flight ergonomics like velocity, are related. Each fashions shall be best in the event you prioritize a drone’s weight and portability.
» MORE: Drone Legal guidelines in the USA
Photograph and video recording
Winner: DJI Mini 4 Professional
All issues thought-about, you stand to get higher footage with the DJI Mini 4 Professional than you’ll with the DJI Mini 2. Under are the primary explanation why.
- Sensor measurement – For starters, it has a bigger sensor (1/1.3) than the DJI Mini 2’s 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor. An even bigger sensor is all the time higher. It performs higher underneath low mild, provides you higher-quality footage, and offers you extra room for modifying because it captures extra colours.
Though each the Mini 2 and the Mini 4 Professional seize 12MP stills, the bigger sensor makes an enormous distinction within the high quality of footage you get. Nonetheless, the Mini 4 Professional additionally captures 48MP, which remains to be the 12MP enhanced by the Quadbayer method. There’s all the time a debate on whether or not the Quadbayer 48MP is best than the true 12MP, so that you’ll have to check them. I discovered the 12MP of a bigger sensor would suffice in lots of functions.
- Extra room for gimbal motion – The DJI Mini 2’s gimbal didn’t transfer sufficient to have the ability to take vertical pictures. And in the event you compelled it to, you’ll discover some twitching. DJI modified the gimbal design with the DJI Mini 4 Professional, permitting it to maneuver even additional. This design change additionally allowed the gimbal to vary from panorama to portrait orientation to take vertical pictures.
- Vertical taking pictures – Talking of vertical taking pictures, one of many causes I bought the Mini 2 is to create gorgeous footage of the locations I go to. Nonetheless, I usually needed to crop to put up on social media, which consumed time and generally lowered the footage high quality. With vertical taking pictures inbuilt, you’ll be able to rapidly seize and share footage with out a lot modifying.
- 10-bit D-Log M and HLG functionality – The DJI Mini 2 comes with the usual colour profile, which doesn’t provide you with sufficient flexibility for post-processing duties like including new colours. DJI Mini 4 Professional adjustments that by introducing HLG and D-Log M.
- Superior digicam options – The Mini 2 comes with 4K at 30fps, which is sweet sufficient since most platforms deal with 25 to 30 fps. The Mini 4 Professional, however, can shoot in 4K at 60fps HDR and 4K at 100fps. Many media productions use 60 fps, and if you would like cinematic slow-motion footage, the 100 fps would come in useful.
- Night time mode – One other characteristic that we solely noticed in additional superior drones, the Night time Mode reduces noise and adjusts the ISO robotically to provide you higher nighttime or low-light pictures. So that you not solely get a much bigger sensor however low-light imagery can also be enhanced.
As a lot as you might be in search of a newbie drone, the newest technological developments have made it potential to suit extra superior options in smaller drones.
An even bigger sensor, higher footage, and extra digicam options make the Mini 4 Professional well worth the increased price.
» MORE: Digital camera Expertise in Drones (Defined)
Third-party compatibility
Winner: DJI Mini 2
That is one cause I nonetheless want I might have saved the DJI Mini 2.
Whereas it didn’t have some options that some pilots wished, DJI launched SDK functionality, enabling it to work with third-party apps like Litchi.
I used Litchi to provoke Observe Me and Waypoints to create footage, which labored nice.
There are a variety of different options that you might unlock with a third-party app.
Many of the options you wanted an SDK to unlock within the Mini 2 are actually constructed within the Mini 4 Professional, however in the event you can’t get the Mini 4 Professional, having the choice to unlock a number of the options helps.
Will probably be a while earlier than DJI releases the SDK for the Mini 4 Professional. And since they launched the Mini 3 Professional’s SDK virtually a yr later, we might not get it quickly.
Whereas the Mini 2 wins on this class, it lacks some security options that restrict how effectively you’ll be able to make the most of the options you unlock.
If the SDK functionality is a deal breaker, think about the Mini 3 Professional, which isn’t as superior because the Mini 4 Professional however is just a few steps forward of the Mini 2.
» MORE: DJI Fly App Appropriate Gadgets (& Troubleshooting)
Clever flight modes
Winner: DJI Mini 4 Professional
DJI went all in with the DJI Mini 4 Professional, including clever flight modes we had wished they might add however by no means thought potential.
The DJI Mini 2 solely got here with Quickshots and Panoramas.
The QuickShots characteristic permits you to robotically create footage in pre-built flight patterns resembling Helix, Dronie, Orbit, Circle, and Boomerang.
The Mini 4 Professional comes with Quickshots and Panoramas and the next further options:
- Cruise management – I used to be shocked to see this characteristic on the Mini 4 Professional and didn’t know I wanted it till I bought to make use of it. This characteristic permits the drone to fly at a continuing velocity repeatedly. In occasions once I need to keep a continuing velocity for a shot, this characteristic is useful.
- Waypoints – This is likely one of the options that one might unlock with a third-party app on the Mini 2. It permits you to pre-program advanced maneuvers, which the drone will effectively execute. It additionally works nice when it’s worthwhile to create a time-lapse of a characteristic taken on the identical angle however at totally different occasions to showcase the progress.
- ActiveTrack 360 – DJI not solely added a comply with me characteristic, however they added a extra upgraded model that permits you to monitor the topic from any path. The Mini 3 Professional and even my Air 2S can’t do this.
- Mastershots – Mastershots works equally to Quickshots, however as a substitute of separating maneuvers like Dronie and Helix, it combines all of them into one shot, creating some dynamic footage in a single click on.
Whereas the Mini 2 excels in preserving issues handbook, the place you need to execute a lot of the maneuvers your self, having them inbuilt makes issues simpler and much more correct, saving you time and battery life.
» MORE: Good Options in Drones (Defined for Rookies)
Flight time
Winner: DJI Mini 4 Professional
The DJI Mini 2 got here with a 31-minute battery, which might go for about 25 minutes in precise use, which was nonetheless nice.
However the DJi Mini 4 Professional improves on that by introducing a 34-minute and 45-minute battery, although the latter is barely accessible in choose areas.
You continue to get about 28 to 31 minutes of flight time in an precise flight, which is respectable.
And if you’re fortunate to be in areas the place the 45-minute battery is allowed, you get much more flight time.
Nonetheless, the latter makes the drone weigh greater than 250 grams, however that’s a compromise I’d be prepared to accommodate.
» MORE: Drone Batteries (In-Depth Data)
Impediment avoidance
Winner: DJI Mini 4 Professional
When you might unlock options like ActiveTrack and Waypoints on the DJI Mini 2 with third-party apps, one factor was nonetheless a difficulty: it lacked impediment avoidance.
This limits how effectively you should use it because the entire level of automated flight is the drone ought to be capable of keep away from obstacles by itself.
DJI modified all that by including 360-degree impediment sensors and an upgraded APAS system that makes avoiding the obstacles smoother.
This makes the clever modes extra sensible because you don’t have to fret about crashing into obstacles on the best way.
Nonetheless, exercising warning when flying in areas with obstacles is a good suggestion since these programs should not all the time 100% correct.
» MORE: Impediment Avoidance in DJI Drones (Defined for Rookies)
Vary
Winner: DJI Mini 4 Professional
The DJi Mini 2 got here with OcuSync 2, which permits a spread of as much as 6.2 miles in optimum situations.
Nonetheless, this may be considerably diminished by interference from bushes, energy strains, cell towers, or another impediment.
When utilizing it in an open space for short-range flights, I by no means skilled many points with the vary, however all that might rapidly change with the slightest quantity of interference.
The Mini 4 Professional introduces the OcuSync 4.0, which guarantees a spread of as much as 12 miles. This improved system comes with 6 antennas, an enormous improve from the OcuSync 2.0 that has two.
This, coupled with the upgraded {hardware} and software program, improves the drone’s efficiency in areas with obstacles and permits higher high quality transmission in additional opposed situations.
» MORE: Lengthy Vary Drones: Final Information
Controllers
Winner: DJI Mini 4 Professional
The DJI Mini 2 is barely suitable with the DJI RC-N1, a really ergonomic controller the place you place a smartphone on the prime as a substitute of on the backside, as we noticed in earlier drones just like the Mavic 2 Professional.
Nonetheless, DJI has been upping their controller recreation too.
They began by introducing the DJI RC with the DJI Mini 3 Professional. The DJI RC has an inbuilt display screen, eliminating the necessity for smartphones and making deploying the drone a lot simpler.
With the Mini 4 Professional, they’ve launched the DJI RCN2, an improve to the RCN1, and the DJI RC 2, an improve to the DJI RC.
These controllers look related, however the newer variations have just a few design adjustments, together with further antennas and compatibility with the brand new O4 system.
Sadly, these newer controllers should not suitable with the DJI Mini 2.
» MORE: DJI RC 2 Assessment (Every thing You Must Know)
Conclusion
Having used each of those drones, I can affirm that the Mini 4 Professional is the Mini drone everybody needs that they had.
A greater digicam, extra clever flight modes, superior security options, longer flight time, and monitoring whereas nonetheless sustaining portability make it the right drone for informal customers, inexperienced persons, and anybody in search of an inexpensive drone to accompany them of their actions.
The Mini 2 nonetheless goes down as one of the vital dependable drones.
And in the event you don’t suppose you’ll use the Impediment Avoidance, vertical taking pictures, or another upgrades that include the Mini 4 Professional, otherwise you’re on a finances and might’t afford the Mini 4 Professional, the Mini 2 remains to be value a shot.
It’s also possible to go for the Mini 3, which is a little more costly than the Mini 2, and also you get the identical sensor measurement because the one within the Mini 4 Professional with out the opposite upgrades.
If you happen to already personal the Mini 2, the Mini 4 Professional is a worthy improve.
And if you’re available in the market for a mini drone and have the finances for it, the Mini 4 Professional remains to be your best option.
» MORE: DJI Mini 4 Professional vs. Air 3 (Right here’s My Selection)
