00:00:00
the DJI mini4 Pro is one of the most
00:00:01
popular drones and I've had such a
00:00:03
LoveHate relationship with this so today
00:00:05
I'm going to be talking about my
00:00:07
long-term review on the mini4 pro what's
00:00:10
good about it what I don't like about it
00:00:12
and crucially should you still go out
00:00:14
and buy it let's get into
00:00:18
this so the DJ mini4 Pro is released in
00:00:20
September 2023 about 10 months ago now
00:00:24
and the hype surrounding this drone was
00:00:26
huge it followed on from the really
00:00:28
popular DJI Mini 3 Pro so let's talk
00:00:31
about what this drone has been like my
00:00:33
honest opinions over these last 10
00:00:35
months it's not all going to be great
00:00:37
there's a lot of things about this which
00:00:40
could be better and things that if
00:00:41
you're thinking about getting this you
00:00:43
need to know as well so let's talk about
00:00:45
what I've liked on this drone over these
00:00:46
last 10 months first of all including
00:00:48
the new features we need to start in a
00:00:50
positive note and then we'll talk about
00:00:52
what's not too good on this drone as
00:00:54
well and if you do enjoy Tech and Dr
00:00:56
content please consider subscribing
00:00:57
about 15% of you guys watching these
00:01:00
videos are subscribers it would mean a
00:01:01
lot if you can get that to 20% so hit
00:01:04
that subscribe button sit back relax and
00:01:06
let's get into the positives now firstly
00:01:09
the size of it this is a huge Advantage
00:01:11
yes it's a little bit plasticky but it
00:01:14
really is remarkable just how the'
00:01:15
actually packs all of the features in
00:01:17
Tech we get in such a tiny drone like
00:01:20
this much smaller than the air series
00:01:22
the mavic series this could easily
00:01:24
travel with you and the portability
00:01:26
factor of this is a massive advantage
00:01:28
and it means being under 200 50 g it has
00:01:31
less restrictions you could fly this
00:01:32
drone in more places you don't need to
00:01:35
have the same drone licenses that you do
00:01:37
on heavier drones like the air series
00:01:38
and the mavic it means you can fly this
00:01:41
closer to places near people over people
00:01:44
you have a lot less restrictions when
00:01:46
you're getting a drone which is under
00:01:48
250 g like the Mini 4 Pro and it
00:01:51
continues with the batteries as well
00:01:52
these are really small and compact even
00:01:54
the battery charger it weighs nothing
00:01:56
you can charge three batteries at once
00:01:58
charge it VI USB see it is really
00:02:01
convenient in regards to actual drones
00:02:03
under 250 g that portability and
00:02:06
convenience factor nothing comes close
00:02:08
to this there is no competition if
00:02:11
you're wanting a small drone get this it
00:02:13
is literally the best of the best but
00:02:16
that said it's not perfect and that's
00:02:18
what we'll come on to having a small
00:02:20
drone like this it is a disadvantage as
00:02:23
well but there is more positives now the
00:02:25
camera on the mini 4 Pro this got a
00:02:27
slight upgrade now you can shoot in up
00:02:29
to 4K 60 you have 4K 100 for slow motion
00:02:33
and I have been really impressed with
00:02:36
the camera quality coming from the mini4
00:02:38
pro I've filmed in so many different
00:02:40
locations and I've never been like
00:02:42
that's not good enough the camera
00:02:44
quality considering the size of it the
00:02:46
size of this drone is really impressive
00:02:48
we saw new features added like the
00:02:50
ability to shoot in dlog M which is a
00:02:52
10bit color profile this captures 1
00:02:55
billion colors and you can shoot in this
00:02:57
flat color profile you can then use lot
00:03:00
and get phenomenal results and it's
00:03:02
never let me down it's also got really
00:03:04
good low light performance so if you're
00:03:06
shooting in low light nighttime you're
00:03:08
having low light nighttime video mode
00:03:10
now as well so you get noise reduction
00:03:12
added to get really good shots at low
00:03:14
light the video quality on here this is
00:03:17
going to be the main thing you're
00:03:18
getting a drone for you're not going to
00:03:20
get a drone like this just because it's
00:03:21
small you want to get a small drone
00:03:23
that's portable convenient but also
00:03:26
really good camera quality and this has
00:03:28
a really good camera and this also has a
00:03:30
huge advantage over other drones like
00:03:32
the air series and the mavic series that
00:03:34
the camera rotates at the touch of a
00:03:36
button the camera will change from
00:03:37
landscape to Vertical mode so you can
00:03:40
use photos and videos in vertical format
00:03:43
as well and this has saved me so much
00:03:45
time not having to crop or do any
00:03:47
processing whatsoever I can share my
00:03:49
content to reals Instagram instantly and
00:03:52
the photos are also great JPEG and RAW
00:03:54
photos you have the ability to shoot in
00:03:56
48 megapixel photos so you can crop in
00:03:58
if you need to as well and also the
00:04:00
super wide panorama photos are excellent
00:04:03
I've been taking loads of those recently
00:04:05
so photos and videos are really
00:04:07
impressive on this drone as long as you
00:04:10
do two things which I'll come on to now
00:04:12
we didn't see a lot of Hardware
00:04:14
improvements added to the Mini 4 Pro we
00:04:15
saw a lot of software added to it
00:04:17
instead the name DJI mini 3s Pro may
00:04:21
have been more suitable for this but we
00:04:23
did see some fantastic features added to
00:04:26
this drone and features that I've been
00:04:28
loving using of over the last 10 months
00:04:30
and features that you guys were asking
00:04:32
for for so long but with all the new
00:04:34
features that we've got on that Mini 4
00:04:36
Pro how many of these do you actually
00:04:39
use well the features I've been using
00:04:41
the most the active shots active track
00:04:43
is fantastic now when we saw this this
00:04:46
was a complete Game Changer and it's
00:04:47
actually got better with firmware as
00:04:50
well so now when you're actually
00:04:51
tracking yourself you get a full 360°
00:04:55
Circle in the corner and you can choose
00:04:57
get the Drone to distract you from any
00:04:59
angle what whatsoever you can also
00:05:01
customize that you can get the Drone to
00:05:02
actually pan around you it is fantastic
00:05:05
but now you can also track you from
00:05:08
close by and also far out as well and
00:05:11
the poor really expensive DJI mavic 3
00:05:14
Pro it doesn't come close to anything in
00:05:16
relation to tracking like that the
00:05:18
tracking on here is really good I've
00:05:21
been using that so much over this last
00:05:22
10 months features like way Points Way
00:05:25
points you asking for for so long as
00:05:27
well we had it in hyperlapse but now you
00:05:29
have a dedicated waypoints mode so you
00:05:32
can customize your own drone missions
00:05:34
tell the Drone exactly where you want it
00:05:36
to fly you can save that and then the
00:05:38
Drone will actually do that complete
00:05:40
mission for you and I've been using that
00:05:42
a lot as well especially when filming
00:05:43
myself and cruise control you can get
00:05:46
the Drone to go into autopilot so you
00:05:48
fly this drone on the controller you hit
00:05:50
the C1 button and the Drone will go into
00:05:52
autopilots and continue its path these
00:05:54
are fantastic features added to this
00:05:57
drone that you didn't see on the mini 3
00:05:59
Pro and then you got the classic
00:06:00
features like quick shots Master shots I
00:06:03
mean who still uses Master shots but
00:06:05
quick shots is really good then you've
00:06:07
got hyperlapse I'm always using
00:06:08
hyperlapse all the features that we have
00:06:11
accessible to us now it's not just
00:06:14
photos and videos we have tons of
00:06:16
intelligent flight features now also
00:06:19
this drone gives you a lot more
00:06:21
confidence we have full
00:06:24
360° of sensoring protection you didn't
00:06:27
get this on the mini3 pro so if you was
00:06:29
to fly sideways on that drone you could
00:06:31
crash it easily it didn't detect any
00:06:33
obstacles when flying sideways now it
00:06:36
does it detects it all over the place so
00:06:38
when you're flying if it detects an
00:06:40
obstacle it will go around it or it will
00:06:43
stop and you can see from this shot here
00:06:45
it actually works really well and that
00:06:47
works either in normal video mode or
00:06:49
tracking it works both the same and the
00:06:51
camera on here is an f1.7 which means it
00:06:53
lets a lot of light into this sensor so
00:06:56
that's going to be good for low light
00:06:57
video and also again with Weare those
00:07:00
last 10 months we've seen those color
00:07:02
profiles which I talked about you've got
00:07:03
normal you have hlg which is like that
00:07:06
HDR effect and you've also got dlog M
00:07:09
which is my personal favorite but when
00:07:10
you're using the features like in quick
00:07:12
shots you can also use that dlog M color
00:07:15
profile in that as well now and you can
00:07:17
also when you're using the vertical
00:07:19
camera you rotate this camera around you
00:07:21
can still use features like the tracking
00:07:23
and also quick shots using the dlog M
00:07:26
color profile so all these like soft
00:07:29
Ware related features have just made
00:07:31
this drone a really impressive one and
00:07:34
that's one thing that DJ are really good
00:07:35
at doing and we've seen this over this
00:07:37
last few years you buy the Drone when it
00:07:39
gets released and then like a month
00:07:41
later maybe a few months later new
00:07:43
features are added and this is something
00:07:46
which you don't get from other companies
00:07:48
so when the Mini 4 Pro was released two
00:07:50
features that I've really been enjoying
00:07:51
using is the first one is that you can
00:07:54
now see out of these obstacle avoidance
00:07:56
cameras so when you're flying if you're
00:07:58
flying in an aaway loads of obstacles
00:08:00
let's just say around trees I can
00:08:02
actually switch to the camera view the
00:08:04
obstacle avoidance cameras and actually
00:08:07
see on my controller exactly what is in
00:08:10
that area through these cameras is
00:08:12
really handy and also when flying this
00:08:15
with the DJI rc2 I'll talk about this
00:08:18
controller in a second but it's a good
00:08:20
controller you don't need to connect
00:08:21
your phone no wires everything's built
00:08:24
in but when you're filming outside then
00:08:26
it is quite tricky seeing that screen in
00:08:29
bright conditions but they've also with
00:08:31
firmware give us the ability so you can
00:08:33
actually fly the DJI Mini 4 Pro with the
00:08:36
DJI goggles so you can put these goggles
00:08:38
on you get this really immersive video
00:08:40
I've done a full video on this but you
00:08:42
can still fly it with the DJI rc2 so
00:08:44
that really is a great combo so to end
00:08:46
on the positives there the Mini 4 Pro
00:08:48
really is a great drone and has a lot of
00:08:51
advantages if you're a beginner this is
00:08:52
going to be perfect to you and also if
00:08:54
you want to just get really good quality
00:08:56
in a tiny drone nothing comes close to
00:08:59
this but you see to get the remot out of
00:09:01
this drone you're going to have to
00:09:02
change a lot of the settings by default
00:09:04
there's so many settings on here which
00:09:06
are just set incorrectly and your
00:09:08
footage isn't going to be great this is
00:09:10
what you need to change so that's why
00:09:11
today's video is sponsored by me you see
00:09:14
I brought out my own DJI cheat sheets we
00:09:17
go through all the different settings on
00:09:18
here tell you exactly how to fly this
00:09:20
how to get the very most out of it so I
00:09:22
brought out my own digital cheat sheets
00:09:24
these to go through all of these
00:09:25
different settings for you but recently
00:09:27
I released My ultimate set settings
00:09:29
guide and this is a physical product
00:09:31
it's is like a book and this goes
00:09:33
through all the settings again each one
00:09:35
of these are double-sided these sheets
00:09:37
all colorcoded so you can find all this
00:09:39
information really easily and it tells
00:09:41
you everything that you need to know
00:09:43
about the DJI Mini 4 Pro you can keep
00:09:45
this with you all the time it's actually
00:09:47
hole punch has a clip and a carabina
00:09:49
clip so you can attach this to a
00:09:51
backpack so you're never going to forget
00:09:53
these settings when you're outlying the
00:09:54
Mini 4 Pro and also if you want to use
00:09:56
that DLo M color profile to get really
00:09:59
good video results but you're not too
00:10:00
sure about color grading so I've got my
00:10:02
own DJI Mini 4 Pro Lots you drag them
00:10:05
onto your video clip and job done so I
00:10:08
highly recommend you go and have a look
00:10:09
on this website loads of different
00:10:10
products on there but especially these
00:10:12
These are brand new and these are
00:10:14
fantastic free shipping so go and check
00:10:15
these out so thanks so much for
00:10:16
listening to me let's get back into the
00:10:18
video so the Mini 4 Pro it does have a
00:10:20
lot of advantages and that is true but
00:10:22
also I've had a LoveHate relationship
00:10:25
with this drone things that have just
00:10:27
frustrated me or really that I just
00:10:29
don't particularly like on that Mini 4
00:10:31
Pro so let's get into the bad things so
00:10:33
as we said we've seen a lot of software
00:10:35
improvements on that Mini 4 Pro but we
00:10:37
haven't seen really any hardware
00:10:39
improvements and one of those Hardware
00:10:45
improvements is the battery we've got to
00:10:48
talk about battery and this is probably
00:10:51
the biggest problem with the Mini 4 Pro
00:10:54
so the battery life so the batteries are
00:10:55
tiny the Drone is Tiny everything's
00:10:58
great there in relation to the size of
00:10:59
this drone but the downside to that is
00:11:02
with all these new intelligent flight
00:11:04
features all the features on here and
00:11:06
because of the size of the Drone it
00:11:08
takes a massive impact on the actual
00:11:11
flight time you're going to get so DJI
00:11:13
Market it at 34 minutes of flight time
00:11:16
that is never going to happen so the
00:11:18
average you're going to get is maximum
00:11:20
I'd say 20 minutes is what I've been
00:11:22
getting of flight time per battery now
00:11:25
if it's windy expect that to be around
00:11:27
15 minutes sometimes less
00:11:29
because of this drone being small it's
00:11:31
going to have to work harder to fight
00:11:33
against that wind so batter life is not
00:11:36
great which means you're going to at
00:11:37
least have to buy when you get this the
00:11:39
flymore combo that's a combo I highly
00:11:42
recommend anyway but you're going to
00:11:43
need at least three batteries now this
00:11:45
charging case luckily is really good and
00:11:48
convenient charge it via USBC so have
00:11:51
the flymore combo with the two extra
00:11:53
batteries now when I travel around I
00:11:55
take the DJI Mini 4 Pro and six
00:11:57
batteries as a minimum sometimes time 9
00:12:00
but you're going to need at least three
00:12:02
batteries One battery on the mini 4 Pro
00:12:04
it's never going to be enough you're
00:12:06
going to be completely visible get to a
00:12:08
location you might see a few different
00:12:10
shots you want to capture and you're
00:12:12
going to have maximum 20 minutes to do
00:12:14
that I would have liked to have seen
00:12:16
somehow with new Battery Technology
00:12:19
where the battery is actually better on
00:12:21
the mini 4 pro at least a 4minute flight
00:12:23
time will advertise which means we're
00:12:25
going to get about 25 30 minutes but we
00:12:27
saw no battery Improvement if anything
00:12:30
this is less because of all the new
00:12:32
intelligent fight features and the
00:12:33
camera is fantastic really good quality
00:12:36
coming out of here but you'll notice
00:12:38
whenever I'm flying my Mini 4 Pro I've
00:12:41
always got ND filters on here and you
00:12:43
really do have to so if you don't have
00:12:45
ND filters on here your footage is not
00:12:47
going to look anything like any of these
00:12:49
clips that you've seen on this video you
00:12:51
see it's got an f1.7 aperture which
00:12:53
means it's going to let a lot of light
00:12:55
into that sensor this is going to be
00:12:57
great for low light and night time but
00:12:59
during the daytime an f1.7 I mean you
00:13:02
wouldn't really use f1.7 in daylight on
00:13:06
a normal camera without ND filters on
00:13:08
because your footage is just going to be
00:13:10
either really Overexposed or what the
00:13:12
Drone will do it will bump that shutter
00:13:15
speed really high to compensate for all
00:13:18
the light going into here so basically
00:13:20
without getting into all the technical
00:13:22
side of it if the Drone raises that
00:13:24
shutter speed really high the higher the
00:13:26
shutter speed the less realistic your
00:13:28
footage is going to look and the more
00:13:30
sharper it's going to look as well this
00:13:32
gives you a really unrealistic video
00:13:35
image so I've always got on ND filters
00:13:38
so ND filters think of them like
00:13:40
sunglasses for your drone so you put an
00:13:43
ND filter on this is then going to
00:13:45
reduce that light going into the sensor
00:13:47
so you can then have a lower shutter
00:13:49
speed so a lower shutter speed you're
00:13:51
going to have a more realistic looking
00:13:53
video so you have to use ND filters if
00:13:56
you haven't got any I'll link the ones I
00:13:58
use there to the top of the description
00:14:00
as well but they are crucial they were
00:14:02
crucial on the mini 3 Pro but especially
00:14:04
on the mini 4 Pro if you want to get
00:14:06
good video results just get some ND
00:14:08
filters we want that video file to look
00:14:11
like it looks in real life more
00:14:13
cinematic more natural and if you don't
00:14:16
use ND filters that's not going to
00:14:18
happen now the size of this drone is
00:14:19
phenomenal really nice and portable but
00:14:22
this drone's biggest fear is the wind
00:14:25
now it's remarkable actually just how
00:14:27
well it withstands the wind this drone
00:14:29
have had it in some really windy places
00:14:31
and it's been blown around all over the
00:14:33
place and still although that drone has
00:14:35
been getting battered the footage has
00:14:37
come out pretty good because of this
00:14:39
gimbal but it is still a disadvantage to
00:14:42
this and just like I mentioned before as
00:14:44
soon as it's windy and I'm talking like
00:14:46
over 25 mph winds the battery life is
00:14:49
going to drain right down and also the
00:14:52
Drone it might be too windy for this so
00:14:55
it's not stable it's getting blown
00:14:56
around all over the place it might be
00:14:57
getting pushed back or push forward
00:14:59
depending on the wind direction and
00:15:01
annoyingly there has been a few times
00:15:04
where I've not been able to get the
00:15:05
shots because it's been too windy so
00:15:08
luckily I may have had the A3 on me so
00:15:10
I've been able to use that and got the
00:15:12
shots now luckily this has only happened
00:15:14
to me about a dozen times over this last
00:15:17
10 months now yes it's frustrating but
00:15:19
it is also to be expected because this
00:15:22
drone is so small it's got really small
00:15:25
propellers on this it is impressive how
00:15:27
it can withstand the wind but it is also
00:15:29
in a disadvantage as well because of
00:15:32
this drone size one thing I really don't
00:15:34
like about this drone is that the
00:15:35
propellers are screwed in they not push
00:15:38
and turn and release like on the air3 so
00:15:41
if you're flying this drone and you
00:15:42
might hit something like a tree leaf or
00:15:45
a branch or twig or something like that
00:15:46
where you need to actually change the
00:15:47
propeller you're going to have to take
00:15:49
with you all the time the DJI
00:15:51
screwdriver it's this really tiny
00:15:53
screwdriver that you actually get with
00:15:55
this drone and there's been so many
00:15:56
times where I've actually forgot that
00:15:57
screwdriver and I'm sure you have as
00:15:59
well so if you're getting this drone
00:16:01
make sure to take that little tiny
00:16:03
screwdriver with you all the time so the
00:16:05
dve rc2 we saw this released with the
00:16:07
air3 and the Mini 4 Pro and this is a a
00:16:10
decent controller the external antennas
00:16:12
on here are much better now signal
00:16:14
performance ocusync 4 there's hardly any
00:16:16
breakup now with this signal on here so
00:16:19
transmission is much better it's got a
00:16:21
new chip inside of it so it's a bit
00:16:23
faster so overall it's actually a really
00:16:25
good controller for taking with you
00:16:27
because it is so lightweight it's not
00:16:30
like the RC Pro which is really heavy so
00:16:32
it combines well with the Mini 4 Pro
00:16:34
with the only downside of this
00:16:35
controller being it is still 700 nits of
00:16:38
screen brightness we didn't see any
00:16:40
improvements over the original DJI RC in
00:16:43
terms of brightness so it's going to be
00:16:45
fine flying at low light nighttime
00:16:48
indoors but as soon as it's like
00:16:50
scenarios where it's like High Noon
00:16:52
you've got really bright conditions it
00:16:53
is quite tricky seeing the screen on
00:16:55
here so during them times I'm like Sting
00:16:58
a car setting the passenger seat or
00:17:00
finding like a shaded area so I would
00:17:03
say that's the only disappointment with
00:17:05
the DJI rc2 now the camera on here is
00:17:07
phenomenal 24 mm so it's a really good
00:17:10
focal length but it would have been
00:17:11
really good to have some kind of
00:17:13
improved digital Zoom through
00:17:15
computational photography the algorithms
00:17:17
to be better we have a digital zoom on
00:17:19
here but it's not very good don't advise
00:17:21
you to really use that you see on the
00:17:23
air3 you've got that 17 mm dedicated
00:17:26
Telly lens it is fantastic you can get
00:17:28
close to things you get really nice
00:17:30
compression you can zoom in the mavic 3
00:17:32
Pro that has three different lenses you
00:17:34
are limited on the mini 4 Pro just that
00:17:36
one lens we are completely limited I
00:17:39
know because of the weight of this it
00:17:41
has to stay under 250 g so if you can't
00:17:43
have like hardware and physical
00:17:45
different lenses on here that digital
00:17:47
Zoom it needs to be better in software
00:17:50
hopefully maybe with firmware but that
00:17:52
would be an improvement I'd like to see
00:17:54
especially on the mini 4 Pro now with
00:17:56
all that being said a lot of the
00:17:57
disadvantages of this drone can can be
00:17:59
resolved as long as you get some more
00:18:00
batteries cuz the flight time is not
00:18:02
great on here as long as you get ND
00:18:04
filters so you can actually film and get
00:18:05
really good video during daylight you're
00:18:07
going to get fantastic results with that
00:18:09
Mini 4 Pro and out of all the different
00:18:11
drones that I'm flying the Mini 4 Pro
00:18:14
this is the Drone I'm flying the most
00:18:16
there just something about these drones
00:18:18
I think it's because it's so small and
00:18:19
convenient I'm not going to think about
00:18:22
it I can just take this Dr with me and
00:18:23
know I'm going to be able to get the
00:18:25
shots so the Mini 4 Pro it doesn't have
00:18:27
the zoom lens and the quality of that
00:18:29
air3 doesn't have the performance of the
00:18:31
mavic 3 Pro but it also brings you a ton
00:18:34
of advantages as well it has all the
00:18:36
features of the air3 it has the same
00:18:39
main lens camera as the air3 but it also
00:18:42
has the convenience factor which these
00:18:44
two drones don't have so it's been a
00:18:47
love hate relationship with the Mini 4
00:18:48
Pro over these last 10 months but I
00:18:50
still do recommend this it wasn't a huge
00:18:52
upgrade over the Mini 3 Pro but we did
00:18:55
see a load of features added to that
00:18:57
mini4 Pro to get it to where it is today
00:19:00
so do I still recommend you go on
00:19:01
picking up the DJI Mini 4 Pro it's been
00:19:03
out about 10 months after all now well
00:19:06
yes I really do you see I've not heard
00:19:08
about any successor DJI mini 5 Pro at
00:19:11
all on the radar so I don't think that's
00:19:13
going to happen this year at all I think
00:19:15
if it's going to happen it' be towards
00:19:16
the end or maybe summer
00:19:18
2025 so this is a great time to go and
00:19:20
pick one of these up especially now
00:19:21
we're getting better weather it's
00:19:23
summertime people are find their drones
00:19:24
more the DJI Mini 4 Pro it still is a
00:19:27
great drone just make sure you get the
00:19:29
flymore combo for the extra batteries so
00:19:32
I hope you enjoyed that guys I really do
00:19:33
enjoy doing these long-term reviews on
00:19:35
these Tech products it's really
00:19:36
important to tell you the good and the
00:19:38
bad completely my own thoughts so I
00:19:41
really do hope you enjoyed this if you
00:19:42
did do me a favor and hit that like
00:19:44
button subscribe if you're new around
00:19:45
here give me a fist bump in the comments
00:19:48
and I'll give you one of them back as
00:19:49
well go and check out my website for the
00:19:51
ultimate drone moves book this is
00:19:53
fantastic you're really going to love
00:19:55
this I really appreciate anyone watching
00:19:57
this now 4 Pro let me know in the
00:19:59
comments what do you think about this
00:20:01
drone as well loads of content coming
00:20:03
really soon and I'll see you guys on the
00:20:05
next one bye-bye
