TOP-13 Drones With Long Range and Camera

Introduction

In the life of every UAV user, there comes a moment when the expe­ri­ence gained from fly­ing allows you to turn your atten­tion to drones from a more expen­sive seg­ment. As a rule, the ama­teur park is divid­ed into drones for shoot­ing and high-speed FPV flights. When choos­ing rac­ing drones, first of all, they pay atten­tion to the frame size, the flight con­troller used, the pow­er of the motors, and such a cri­te­ri­on as range is prac­ti­cal­ly not tak­en into account, since flights are car­ried out main­ly at short dis­tances.

What can not be said about drones whose main pur­pose is high-qual­i­ty pho­to and video shoot­ing. Here, in addi­tion to the qual­i­ty of per­for­mance, size, autonomous func­tions and qual­i­ty of shoot­ing, an impor­tant cri­te­ri­on is the flight range. In this top, we have select­ed the best drones with a long range and a cam­era.

Features of the distribution of models

This time we took a more sub­tle approach to the selec­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of mod­els for the rat­ing. In this con­nec­tion, we want to give some expla­na­tions about how this result turned out. Let’s start with the fact that for all mass-pro­duced UAVs, the trans­mis­sion / recep­tion of con­trol sig­nals and video stream is real­ized through two fre­quen­cy bands — 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz. The flight range as a whole pre­de­ter­mines the pow­er of the trans­mit­ter used, which is legal­ly lim­it­ed in each state, as well as the use of the above ranges. For exam­ple, in Euro­pean coun­tries, the pow­er poten­tial of trans­mit­ters is notice­ably lim­it­ed, and pri­vate use of the 5.8 GHz band is lim­it­ed or pro­hib­it­ed alto­geth­er. The same can­not be said for the US, where pow­er restric­tions are min­i­mal and there are no bans on the use of both bands.

To ensure legal com­pli­ance with their prod­ucts, devel­op­ers using soft­ware taught the drone sys­tem to auto­mat­i­cal­ly, based on the received GPS posi­tion­ing coor­di­nates, switch between bands / pow­er, and there­by com­ply with the cur­rent radio approval stan­dards of a par­tic­u­lar coun­try: FCC (USA) / CE (Europe) /SRRC (China)/MIC (Japan). As a result, the max­i­mum poten­tial of drones in range is revealed in the so-called FCC mode, espe­cial­ly in the 5.8GHz fre­quen­cy band (not active in the RF) and is notice­ably lim­it­ed in the CE mode (active in the RF; Avail­able band: 2.4GHz).

In this con­nec­tion, in order to make the rat­ing as objec­tive as pos­si­ble, using the avail­able video con­tent on var­i­ous video host­ing sites, we ana­lyzed the user expe­ri­ence obtained in both modes (FCC / CE) for each mod­el, where the result was con­sid­ered not a sin­gle case of flight to the max­i­mum dis­tance, but the one which most pilots man­aged to achieve, thus high­light­ing the aver­age max­i­mum flight range result obtained in prac­tice. This approach allowed the future user to see the real num­bers, which in most cas­es can be count­ed on when buy­ing a drone.

Let’s start from the last — 13th place. For those who do not have time to ful­ly famil­iar­ize them­selves with the rat­ing, we have pre­pared a table below.

comparison table

13. DJI Mini 2

The sec­ond ver­sion of the only light­weight and at the same time ultra-com­pact solu­tion that can eas­i­ly com­pete with the best of the best in the drone hob­by. Now the poten­tial of the Mini 2 will be appre­ci­at­ed not only by beginners/amateurs, but also by advanced users who are pro­fes­sion­al­ly involved in photo/video shoot­ing. The devel­op­er has not for­got­ten about those who are just start­ing to get acquaint­ed with the hob­by, and has done a lot of work to improve the inter­face of the DJI Fly mobile appli­ca­tion, which has become even more intu­itive, sim­ple and func­tion­al.

Declared max. FPV Removal Dis­tance (FCC/CE): 10/6 km. Aver­age max­i­mum flight range result in prac­tice (FCC/CE): 4.6/3.5 km. Max. flight time: 31 min. Release date: Novem­ber 2020. The price, depend­ing on the con­fig­u­ra­tion (stan­dard / extend­ed) — $ 449/599. As much detail as pos­si­ble about the Mini 2 in our review.

DJI Mini 2 from $449

Func­tion­al­i­ty

9/10

Flight time

10/10

flight qual­i­ties

8/10

com­pact­ness

9/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Flight weight 249 g
• Qual­i­ty of per­for­mance and work
• More durable than its pre­de­ces­sor
• Fold­able design
• More pow­er­ful and at the same time less noisy pow­er plant
• Exem­plary wind resis­tance
• 4K zoom/JPG/RAW/AEB/Panorama cam­era
• New More Com­fort­able Remote/OcuSync Technology/Max. flight dis­tance 10 km/Support DJI Smart Con­troller
• Max. flight time 31 min
• Direct upload and instant photo/video edit­ing func­tions

Minuses

• Does­n’t fly around obsta­cles
• The charg­ing hub can­not charge the bat­ter­ies and the remote con­trol at the same time
• Pro­peller guards are not includ­ed in the com­bo
• No Tri­pod Mode

Video

Range test (CE mode)

Range test (FCC mode)

12. DJI Mini 3 Pro

A pow­er­ful solu­tion in an ultra-com­pact and ultra-light design that can com­pete with full-sized UAVs from the pre­mi­um niche. In the arse­nal of this mini machine, only the most mod­ern tech­nolo­gies inher­it­ed from the old­er top mod­els, allow­ing even the most inex­pe­ri­enced user to get impres­sive results from aer­i­al pho­tog­ra­phy.

Declared max. FPV Removal Dis­tance (FCC/CE): 12/8 km. Aver­age flight dis­tance result in prac­tice (FCC/CE): 5/3 km (Note! Obvi­ous­ly, the cur­rent bot­tom line will be improved by the devel­op­er in the near future, as it does not match the actu­al per­for­mance of the top-end DJI O3 video trans­mis­sion sys­tem today, just look at the posi­tion of the DJI AIR 2S drone. Accord­ing­ly, as soon as this hap­pens, the posi­tion of the mod­el in this rat­ing will be changed). Max. flight time (battery/battery Plus): 34/47 min. Release date: May 2022. Price: from $759. Max. Learn more about the Mini 3 Pro in our review.

Video

Range test (CE mode)

Range test (FCC mode)

11. DJI Inspire 2

The best avail­able solu­tion to com­pete with pro­fes­sion­al unmanned cin­e­ma sys­tems. The arse­nal of this drone has every­thing you need to deliv­er high-qual­i­ty con­tent in res­o­lu­tions up to 6K. Depend­ing on the goals, the user can upgrade the drone with one of three high-per­for­mance cam­eras.

Despite such a pow­er­ful poten­tial, the drone is extreme­ly easy to oper­ate and will be indis­pens­able in the pro­fes­sion­al pho­to / video indus­try. Video trans­mis­sion sys­tem: Light­Bridge. Slave. fre­quen­cy range: 2.4/5.8GHz (CE/FCC). Declared max. inter­fer­ence-free dis­tance (FCC/CE): 7/4.9 km. Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 5/4 km (FCC/CE). Max. flight time: 27 min. Mod­el release date: Novem­ber 2016. As much as pos­si­ble in detail about an afford­able pro­fes­sion­al in our review.

DJI Inspire 2 from $3299

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

9/10

Flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

5/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Qual­i­ty
• Design
• Reli­able (com­plex of redun­dant sen­sors + 2 bat­ter­ies)
• Flight qual­i­ties (han­dling / dynamism)
• Cin­e­mat­ic poten­tial of a pro­fes­sion­al lev­el
• Sup­port­ed cam­eras
• Pos­si­bil­i­ty of sep­a­rate con­trol (Drone/Shooting)
• Auto­mat­ic flight and shoot­ing modes
• Flight time
• Price

Minuses

• Dimen­sions
• Noisy

Video

Range test (CE mode)

ten. Autel Robotics Evo

The top cre­ation from Autel Robot­ics, which has proven itself in prac­tice exclu­sive­ly from the best side. The EVO fea­tures a fold­able design, a 4K cam­era in a 3‑axis mechan­i­cal gim­bal capa­ble of shoot­ing 4K video at 60 fps, front and rear obsta­cle detec­tion sen­sors, auto­mat­ic flight modes, a 30-minute flight dura­tion and a max­i­mum dis­tance dis­tance up to 7/4 km (FCC/CE). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 6/3 km (FCC/CE). Slave. fre­quen­cy range: 2.4GHz (FCC/CE). The devel­op­er offers the drone at a price of $799. You can learn more about Autel Robot­ics EVO in our review.

Autel Robot­ics EVO from $799

Func­tion­al­i­ty

9/10

Flight time

9/10

flight qual­i­ties

9/10

com­pact­ness

10/10

Equip­ment

8/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Fold­able design
• Com­pact and con­ve­nient con­trol pan­el with a wide infor­ma­tion­al OLED dis­play
• Mobile appli­ca­tion (con­ve­nient and infor­ma­tive inter­face)
• Fly­ing qual­i­ties + hold­ing posi­tion (con­fi­dent­ly holds posi­tion even in strong winds)
• Posi­tion­ing accu­ra­cy
• 4K at 60 fps (gen­er­al image qual­i­ty)
• Obsta­cle sen­sors front and rear
• Removal dis­tance up to 7km
• Autonomous flight modes
• Ready to fly out of the box

Minuses

• In track­ing mode, prone to los­ing the object
• Rear sen­sors are extreme­ly demand­ing on the struc­ture of the rec­og­nized sur­face

Video

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

9.FIMI X8 SE 2020

One of the few high-qual­i­ty full-sized solu­tions sold in the $400+ price range, the flight, as well as pho­to / video poten­tial, which is able to com­pete with top-brand drones. Since the release of the stan­dard ver­sion, the mod­el has firm­ly entrenched itself in the UAV niche, and with the advent of key improve­ments, it has received uni­ver­sal con­sumer recog­ni­tion, which is con­firmed by a steadi­ly grow­ing user audi­ence. It is rec­om­mend­ed as an alter­na­tive option in cas­es where the pur­chase of drones from the pre­mi­um seg­ment is not con­sid­ered. Video trans­mis­sion sys­tem: TDMA HD 2.0. Slave. fre­quen­cy range: 5.8GHz. Declared max. FPV removal dis­tance in an inter­fer­ence-free zone: 8 km. Aver­age max­i­mum flight range result in prac­tice: 5 km. Max. flight time: 35 min. Release date for the revised ver­sion: April 2020. Price in the devel­op­er’s online store, includ­ing deliv­ery: $419. Read more about FIMI X8SE 2020 in our review.

FIMI X8 SE 2020 $419

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

10/10

flight qual­i­ties

9/10

com­pact­ness

6/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Exe­cu­tion qual­i­ty
• Portable (fold­ing arms and props)/Props with quick release mech­a­nism
• Pow­er­ful, qui­et pow­er plant
• Con­trol­la­bil­i­ty and posi­tion­ing accu­ra­cy
• Improved cam­era qual­i­ty / Added HDR mode for pho­to / video; Added night mode
• Added H.265 codec
• Auto flight and shoot­ing modes
• FPV flight up to 8 km
• Slid­ing remote design with remov­able sticks (for smartphone/tablet)
• Price

Minuses

• Does­n’t fly around obsta­cles
• No 4K at 60 fps
• Bulky remote

Video

Range test

8. Hubsan Zino 2

Top solu­tion from one of the best devel­op­ers of bud­get radio con­trol solu­tions. It is the only hob­by offer­ing in the sub-$700 price range capa­ble of shoot­ing in 4K at 60 fps, which, togeth­er with oth­er key fea­tures, makes it the best alter­na­tive to expen­sive pre­mi­um drones if buy­ing the lat­ter is not con­sid­ered for var­i­ous rea­sons.

Video trans­mis­sion sys­tem: LEAS 2.0. Oper­at­ing range fre­quen­cies: 5.8GHz. Declared max. FPV removal dis­tance in an inter­fer­ence-free zone: 8 km. Aver­age max­i­mum flight range result in prac­tice: 6 km. Max. flight time: 33 min. Release date: Decem­ber 2019. The price in the Hub­san online store, depend­ing on the con­fig­u­ra­tion (stan­dard / extend­ed): $ 549/599. Read more about Hub­san Zino 2 in our review.

Hub­san Zino 2 from $499

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

10/10

flight qual­i­ties

9/10

com­pact­ness

6/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Exe­cu­tion qual­i­ty
• Fold­able frame and pro­pellers
• Easy to oper­ate
• Flight per­for­mance
• 4K at 60 fps
• FPV removal dis­tance 8 km
• Auto­mat­ic flight and shoot­ing modes
• Flight time 33 min­utes
• Price

Minuses

• Does not iden­ti­fy obsta­cles
• No prop guards includ­ed

Video

Range test

7. DJI Mavic Pro (Platinum)

A rev­o­lu­tion­ary solu­tion and the most desired prod­uct in the drone hob­by. At the time of release, the mod­el incor­po­rat­ed all the most advanced inno­va­tions from DJI. It is by far the best portable “fly­ing cam­era”. It has all the known autonomous qual­i­ties, up to the flight of obsta­cles, as well as excel­lent flight char­ac­ter­is­tics.

Video trans­mis­sion sys­tem: Ocu­Sync. Slave. fre­quen­cy range: 2.4GHz/5.8GHz (CE/FCC). Declared max. Inter­fer­ence-free FPV dis­tance: 7/4 km (FCC/CE). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 6/4 km (FCC/CE). Flight time: up to 27/30 min­utes (Pro/Pro Plat­inum ver­sion). Aver­age price per drone: $1000. Details of the Mav­ic Pro Stan­dard Edi­tion here. Details of the upgrade to the Plat­inum ver­sion are here.

DJI Mav­ic Pro (Plat­inum) from $999

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

9/10

Flight qual­i­ties

9/10

com­pact­ness

10/10

Equip­ment

8/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Com­pact when fold­ed
• Portable con­trol pan­el
• Ocu­Sync
• Range of flight
• Camera/Gimbal (image qual­i­ty)
• Autonomous qual­i­ties
• Ges­ture con­trol
• Object fol­low­ing mode
• Com­pat­i­ble with DJI Gog­gles
• Ready to fly out of the box

Minuses

• When fly­ing with a pro­tec­tive cap, glare appears on the record­ed video / pho­to
• Nar­row cam­era angle
• No mech­a­nism or sys­tem warn­ing when the gim­bal lock is not removed
• The obsta­cle detec­tion sys­tem is not per­fect. Cau­tion is required when pilot­ing.

Video

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

6. DJI Mavic Air 2

The sec­ond gen­er­a­tion of the leg­endary Mav­ic Air, the poten­tial of which has chal­lenged the need to pur­chase most of the top mod­els and at the same time set a new stan­dard in tech­nol­o­gy for all future drone hob­by prod­ucts. Its portable size, fold­able design, and, with­out exag­ger­a­tion, indica­tive cin­e­mat­ic capa­bil­i­ties for a drone in its niche, made not only fans of the pop­u­lar hob­by, but also advanced users in pho­to / video shoot­ing pay atten­tion to the Air 2.

The key arse­nal of MA2: 48MP 4K cam­era built on a 1/2‑inch Sony IMX586 CMOS sen­sor with a pix­el size of 0.8 microns and a built-in Bay­er col­or fil­ter array, max. 4K video qual­i­ty at 60 fps with a bit rate of up to 120Mbps, H.264/H.265 video com­pres­sion for­mats, as well as intel­li­gent flight and shoot­ing modes. Video trans­mis­sion sys­tem: Ocu­Sync 2.0. Oper­at­ing range fre­quen­cies: 2.4GHz/5.8GHz (CE/FCC). Declared max. Inter­fer­ence-free FPV dis­tance: 10/6 km (FCC/CE). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 8/5 km (FCC/CE). Max. flight time: 34 min. Mod­el release date: April 2020. The price, depend­ing on the con­fig­u­ra­tion, starts at $ 799. Read more about the Mav­ic Air 2 in our review.

DJI Mav­ic Air 2 from $559

Func­tion­al­i­ty

9/10

Flight time

8/10

flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

9/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Portable Design/Foldable Design
• Anterior/posterior and infe­ri­or envi­ron­men­tal imag­ing sys­tem
• Ocu­Sync 2.0 Dig­i­tal Video Trans­mis­sion (Max FPV Dis­tance 10km) / Sup­port DJI Smart Con­troller
• Max. flight time 34 min
• 48MP 4K cam­era (best image qual­i­ty among competitors)/4K@60fps
• The best poten­tial in pho­to / video shoot­ing (due to var­i­ous modes and func­tions that improve the qual­i­ty of the footage)
• D‑Cinelike col­or pro­file (more free­dom in post-pro­cess­ing)
• Focus­Track Intel­li­gent Fol­low­er Suite
• APAS 3.0 (Secure Man­age­ment)
• Price

Minuses

• No Tri­pod Mode

Video

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

5. DJI AIR 2S

A rev­o­lu­tion­ary addi­tion to the leg­endary mid-bud­get AIR series, the pow­er­ful poten­tial of which even made some users think about sell­ing the pro­fes­sion­al Mav­ic 2 Pro, which gen­er­al­ly pre­de­ter­mines a very quick upgrade of the lat­ter. To the sur­prise of many, the devel­op­er includ­ed not only top-end, but also inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies in the key pack­age of improve­ments for the nov­el­ty, which ulti­mate­ly allowed the car from the mid­dle niche to show the pos­si­bil­i­ties of pre­mi­um solu­tions at the out­put only at a more advanced lev­el.

The key arse­nal of the drone includes: top-end dig­i­tal video trans­mis­sion tech­nol­o­gy Ocu­Sync 3.0, a 20MP 5K cam­era built on a 1‑inch CMOS matrix with a pix­el size of 2.4 microns, a pow­er­ful 4‑sided visu­al­iza­tion sys­tem of the sur­round­ing world, a top-end and more advanced set of intel­li­gent object-fol­low­ing modes Focus­Track, the inno­v­a­tive Mas­ter­Shots smart func­tion, auto­mat­ic Quick­Shots modes, the lat­est gen­er­a­tion advanced pilot assis­tance sys­tem APAS 4.0, and sup­port for DJI Smart Con­troller. Declared max. FPV dis­tance in a clear zone: 12/8 km (FCC/CE). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 8/5 km (FCC/CE). Max. flight time: 31 min. Release date: April 2021. Price: from $999. Read more about the best all-around drone in our review.

DJI AIR 2S from $999

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

7/10

flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

9/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Portable Design/Foldable Design
• 4‑Way Envi­ron­ment Visu­al­iza­tion Sys­tem
• Ocu­Sync 3.0 Dig­i­tal Video Trans­mis­sion (Max FPV Dis­tance 12km) / Sup­port DJI Smart Con­troller
• Max. flight time 31 min
• 20MP 5K cam­era built on a 1‑inch CMOS sen­sor with a pix­el size of 2.4 microns
• 10-bit Dlog‑M/RAW col­or pro­file with dynam­ic range up to 12.6 stops
• Active Track 4.0
• DJI AirSense/APAS 4.0 Secu­ri­ty Sys­tems
• Inno­v­a­tive intel­li­gent flight and shoot­ing func­tion Mas­ter­Shots
• Price

Minuses

• 8 GB built-in mem­o­ry
• There is no EV con­trol scroll on the remote
• Edit­ing with the app is lim­it­ed to 1080p
• HDR HLG work­flow for pro­fes­sion­als only
• Raw images are not auto­mat­i­cal­ly trans­ferred to smart­phones and tablets
• No Tri­pod Mode

Video

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

4. DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0

An improved ver­sion of the Phan­tom 4 Pro quad­copter. As a result of improve­ments, the P4Pro V2.0 received the Ocu­Sync video trans­mis­sion sys­tem, new sine-wave speed con­trollers (FOC ESC), as well as low-noise rotors. In the arse­nal of the top ver­sion: 20MP 4K cam­era built on a 1‑inch CMOS matrix, mechan­i­cal shut­ter, max. 4K video qual­i­ty at 60 fps with a bit rate of up to 100Mbps, H.264/H.265 video com­pres­sion for­mats, con­trol equip­ment with a built-in super-bright 5.5‑inch Full­HD dis­play, intel­li­gent flight and shoot­ing modes. Oper­at­ing range fre­quen­cies: 2.4/5.8GHz (CE/FCC). Declared max­i­mum FPV dis­tance in an inter­fer­ence-free zone: 10/6 km (FCC/CE). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 8 km/4 km (FCC/CE). Max. flight time: 30 min­utes. Price: from $1599. Learn more about the Phan­tom 4 Pro V2.0 in our review.

DJI Phan­tom 4 Pro V2.0 from $1599

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

10/10

flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

5/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Qual­i­ty
• Design
• Mod­i­fied low-noise pow­er plant
• Flight char­ac­ter­is­tics
• Autonomous qual­i­ties
• Ocu­Sync video trans­mis­sion sys­tem
• Camera/Mech. Shutter/Gimbal (Best in niche image qual­i­ty)
• Removal dis­tance up to 7km
• Price

Minuses

• Side obsta­cle detec­tion sen­sors are not active for all flight modes
• Bulky lug­gage in tran­sit

Video

Range test

3. DJI Mavic 2

The top con­tin­u­a­tion of the leg­endary Mav­ic series, which absorbed all the best and imple­ment­ed in two portable drones at once. In addi­tion to excel­lent flight and autonomous qual­i­ties, high-qual­i­ty pho­to and video record­ing, DJI devel­op­ers endowed the drones with the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion of Ocu­Sync dig­i­tal video trans­mis­sion tech­nol­o­gy, thanks to which it was pos­si­ble to increase the FPV dis­tance declared in the spec­i­fi­ca­tion in a clear zone up to 10 / 6 km (FCC / CE) and reduce delay time up to 120ms. Oper­at­ing range fre­quen­cies: 2.4/5.8GHz (CE/FCC). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 9/6 km (FCC/CE). The price of the Mav­ic 2 Zoom Starter Kit is $1349. The Mav­ic 2 Pro starter kit price is $1599. We rec­om­mend our detailed review.

DJI Mav­ic 2 Pro from $1599

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

10/10

Flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

9/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Portable
• crash resis­tant
• Zoom/Pro cam­eras (fea­tures and qual­i­ty)
• dynam­ic
• Guided/Flight Modes
• Offline modes and fea­tures
• Active Track 2.0
• Ocu­Sync 2.0/FHD FPV
• FPV removal dis­tance up to 10 km
• APAS

Minuses

• Does not shoot in 4K at 60 fps
• No pro­tec­tion against water and dust
• The abil­i­ty to change cam­eras only through a ser­vice cen­ter
• Unlike its pre­de­ces­sor, it does not have a Wi-Fi con­nec­tion (the abil­i­ty to launch the drone from a smart­phone is exclud­ed, which, for exam­ple, is very impor­tant dur­ing a bike ride when the drone is in the Active­Track object auto­mat­ic fol­low­ing mode). As a result, you have to con­stant­ly both­er with fix­ing the tan­dem (remote con­trol + smart­phone) on the steer­ing wheel.

Video

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

2. Autel EVO 2

The sec­ond, com­plete­ly redesigned gen­er­a­tion of the pop­u­lar EVO from Autel Robot­ics. Today it is a top tool in the UAV niche, imple­ment­ed to solve a wide range of tasks both in hob­by and in busi­ness. The pur­pose of the drone is pre­de­ter­mined by three options for inter­change­able high-per­for­mance cam­eras, thanks to which the drone is avail­able in three ver­sions: EVO II / EVO II Pro / EVO II Dual.

Oper­at­ing fre­quen­cy range: 2.4 GHz (FCC / CE — trans­mit­ter pow­er is elec­tron­i­cal­ly reg­u­lat­ed). Declared max. Inter­fer­ence-free FPV dis­tance: 9/5 km (FCC/CE). Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice: 9/6 km (FCC/CE). Max. flight time: 40 min. Mod­el release date: Jan­u­ary 2020. The price, depend­ing on the ver­sion and con­fig­u­ra­tion, starts at $1495. Read more about Autel EVO 2 in our review.

Autel Evo II Pro from $1795

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

10/10

flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

9/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Portable (Dimen­sions when fold­ed)
• 3 quick change cham­ber options
• 6K cam­era qual­i­ty
• 10-bit A‑LOG Col­or mode (more free­dom in post-pro­cess­ing)
• 10-bit 4K HDR video mode
• Dynam­ic (up to 72 km/h)
• Man­aged
• Com­pre­hen­sive obsta­cle detec­tion and avoid­ance sys­tem operation/Dynamic Track 2.0 sys­tem oper­a­tion
• Max. flight time 40 min
• Max. FPV removal dis­tance

Minuses

• Not offi­cial­ly sup­plied in the World / No ser­vice sup­port in the World
• No pro­tec­tion against water and dust
• Ques­tion­able qual­i­ty of shoot­ing 8K cam­era (pos­si­bly cor­rect­ed with the next firmware updates)

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

1. DJI Mavic 3 (Cine)

Today, this is the best portable solu­tion that top devel­op­ers Vic­tor Has­sel­blad AB and DJI Inno­va­tions can offer us for pro­fes­sion­al pho­to / video shoot­ing from the air. The poten­tial of the drone turned out to be so indica­tive that it allowed the mod­el to stand side by side with the leg­endary Inspire 2 in a num­ber of key fea­tures, which essen­tial­ly takes the man­u­fac­tura­bil­i­ty of pro­duc­tion mod­els to a whole new lev­el.

The Mav­ic 3 (Cine)‘s key arse­nal includes: top-of-the-line DJI O3+ video stream­ing tech­nol­o­gy, Has­sel­blad’s unique dual-sen­sor cin­e­mat­ic dual cam­era (Low­er Has­sel­blad L2D-20c: 20MP 5.1K, 4/3 CMOS / Upper Tele Cam­era: 12MP 4K, 1/2 CMOS), 360-degree obsta­cle detec­tion and avoid­ance sys­tem, fifth-gen­er­a­tion advanced pilot assis­tance sys­tem APAS, Focus­Track set of intel­li­gent fol­low­ing modes (Spot­light 2.0/ActiveTrack 5.0/Point of inter­est 3.0), intel­li­gent auto-flight and Mas­ter­Shots, 16- bit auto­mat­ic col­or cor­rec­tion sys­tem Has­sel­blad Nat­ur­al Col­or Solu­tion (HNCS), sup­port for the Apple ProRes 422 HQ codec and 10-bit D‑Log col­or pro­file, as well as built-in mem­o­ry up to 1TB. Declared max. Inter­fer­ence-free FPV dis­tance (CE/FCC): 12/15 km. Aver­age max­i­mum flight dis­tance result in prac­tice (CE/FCC): 10/14 km. Max. flight time: 46 min­utes. Release date: Novem­ber 2021. Price: from $2,049. As much as pos­si­ble about Mav­ic 3 (Cine) in our review.

DJI Mav­ic 3 from $2049

Func­tion­al­i­ty

10/10

Flight time

10/10

flight qual­i­ties

10/10

com­pact­ness

9/10

Equip­ment

10/10

Reli­a­bil­i­ty

10/10

Price qual­i­ty

10/10

pros

• Portable
• Avail­abil­i­ty of secu­ri­ty sys­tems (APAS 5.0/AirSense)
• Auto­mat­ic flight and shoot­ing modes
• 5.1K video sys­tem from Vic­tor Has­sel­blad AB built on a Micro 4/3 matrix
• Video stream qual­i­ty (1080p at 60 fps)
• Flight range up to 15 km
• Sup­port con­nect to 4G con­nec­tion
• Flight dura­tion up to 46 min
• Built-in 1TB SSD (Cine ver­sion)
• Wi-Fi 6 Quick­Trans­fer func­tion

Minuses

• No sup­port for the first ver­sion of DJI Smart Con­troller
• DJI RC Pro does not sup­port oth­er drone mod­els (but this may be tem­po­rary)
• Giv­en the poten­tial of the drone, but­tons like 5D / C1 and C2 are miss­ing on stan­dard equip­ment
• No dual-equip­ment con­trol mode (pilot/camera oper­a­tor)
• Max. 15km range only avail­able with DJI RC Pro
• When record­ing in ProRes for­mat, video is record­ed only on the built-in SSD
• No pos­si­bil­i­ty to change SSD
• Giv­en the cin­e­mat­ic poten­tial of the drone, 8GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry is very small (for the Mav­ic 3 ver­sion)
• No Tri­pod Mode

Range test (FCC mode)

Range test (CE mode)

Conclusion

At the moment, this is the best that man­u­fac­tur­ers of house­hold drones can offer for a sane price tag. For those who are look­ing for some­thing more long-range, it is worth prepar­ing mate­ri­al­ly for this, since drones with a high flight range dif­fer sig­nif­i­cant­ly in price, for exam­ple, such as: