Weekend Drone Fun video and pics

DJI updated the firmware/software for my Mavic 3 Drone last month. I intended to play with some of the new "smartmode" features like horizontal and vertical panorama, active tracking, 360 panorama, slingshot, etc. but instead got carried away playing with the zoom camera again. So more on those fancy features in another post.

For this one, I thought I would show some actual pictures and videos of the Drone in action, not just pictures taken from it. Although there's some of that too.

Here is the Drone flying. It has amazing self-hovering capabilities and auto-correction for the wind. Here I was flying it with one hand, or no hands as I was working my cell phone camera with my other hand while flying.

The birds in the tree were just the camera zooming out while the drone hovering on the other side of the house. The little jump in the video is the camera switching from one to the other. The Hasselblad camera does 1-7x and the other DJI camera does the 14-28x. The second bird is a little soft on the focus because of all the tree branches. I love shooting wildlife and can't wait to see some of the pics I'll be able to get on deer or larger animals without getting close enough to spook them or them even know it's there.

This shows just a hint of the speed and controllability. See the DJI site for more specs, but basics are:
Speed = 47 mph (75 km/h)
Flight time = 45 min (per battery)
Distance = 9 miles (15km)
Max flight ceiling (altitude) = (19,700 ft) (6000m) (400 ft legal limit in many areas)
2 Cameras 20MP / 12MP - 1-28x zoom variable shutter speed, iso, aperture.
4K, 5K video

It was still cold today, only about 10F (-12C), while I filmed the actual drone coverage from outdoors with my phone. I was able to just let the drone hover above as I walked back into house and then filmed the bird video pieces and the other pics from my warm office.

Here is the optional RCPro controller with built-in screen. I like this much better than the default controller that allows you to use your phone's screen. They don't seem to keep up with new Android phone releases very well, so using the dedicated controller eliminates that issue. It also provides much longer battery time, providing several hours of usage between charges (I seldom go thru more than the 3 drone batteries.

Once done flying, I was able to continue piloting from my office and then land back on the exact same 18" brick I took off from without any real effort. I could easily have landed straighter and more centered if I took a few seconds more to tweak it.

And just a few additional pics.

I just love the blues this captures and the cloud pics taken with it. They always seem striking. I may do some sessions just focused on cloud pics with it.

Tagging my feathered friends for the bird video portion. Can't wait to play more with that zoom!

Enjoy your weekend!