The Mavic You Can Actually Afford: Introducing the New DJI Mavic 3 Classic
DJI released the Mavic 3 back in November of 2021. This next iteration of their flagship drone brought with it a ton of upgrades users had been eagerly waiting for since its predecessor, the Mavic 2 had been released three years prior. We wrote a series of articles about this much-anticipated release, including two fantastic deep dives by my fellow APA writer György Palkó that you can find here and here.
But many aerial enthusiasts balked when the Chinese drone powerhouse decided that all those new features would necessitate a hefty increase in price. The Mavic 3 costs $2,849 (with the Fly More Kit) while the higher end Cine model comes in at a staggering $4,999.
If those prices turned you off from upgrading, you may now be in luck as DJI has just announced the more affordable Mavic 3 Classic. Let’s take a look.
- $1,469 Drone only
- $1,599 Drone + RC N1 remote control
- $1,749 Drone + (new) RC remote control with built-in screen
- $649 Fly More Kit (two extra batteries, charging hub, bag)
Here’s a brief summary of how the cheaper Mavic 3 Classic differs to the two original releases:
- Does not have the telephoto 7x zoom lens
- Does not have 1TB of built-in SSD storage (that the Cine model has)
- Does not have ProRes 422 HQ for video (that the Cine model has)
Otherwise, the Mavic 3 Classic is the same drone and comes with the:
- Same 5.1k Hasselblad camera
- Same 46m battery life
- Same omnidirectional sensors
- Same Ocusync 3+ transmission
Additionally, DJI has added two new features:
- Night video which automatically raises the ISO and applies noise reduction
- Cruise control which works similar to how it does when driving a car. When applied, the drone will continue in the same direction at the same speed until the features is disabled. This has the potential to help you capture more stable and interesting camera movements for your videos.
For a more detailed summary on this new drone release, you can check out this video here from DM Productions.
