Modern drones are amazing. You have a flying, stabilized 4K camera that you can fit into your pocket, and take it out and launch in a few seconds.
That’s truly an astonishing feat of modern technology.
Also: DJI Mini 3 Pro first impressions: A tiny, quiet, flying camera wrapped around a battery
I’ve flown countless hours with a variety of drones, and it still surprises me just how remarkable it is to be able to have a flying camera to take photos and from unique angles.
Spare batteries
Never believe the rated battery life for any drone. DJI claims the Mini 3 Pro is good for some 34 minutes of flight time. My testing suggests you’re lucky to get 25 minutes.
The other problem is that it takes about an hour to charge a battery from flat to full. That will put a dent in your flying fun.
My solution to this is to buy spare batteries. I like to have two spare batteries.
Having three batteries seems to be the sweet spot for me. I can be flying, have a spare, and one on charge.
Spare propellers
Don’t fly with damaged props. If they’re bent up or scratched or chipped, it’s time to replace them. After all, these are what’s keeping your drone in the sky.
Check your props before each flight, and if they’re damaged, change them.
The Mini 3 Pro’s props are held in place with screws, and to prevent the props working loose, replace the screws with the screws that come with the new props. The replacement screws have a dab of thread locker on them to prevent vibrations working the screw loose.
Use a good screwdriver — or the included screwdriver — to remove the props. If you chew up that screw using bad tools, you’re going to be hating life.
Don’t take chances with your props.
Note that a handy way to get two spare batteries and spare props is to buy the Fly More kit for the Mini 3 Pro. This also comes with a charging hub and a carry case.
ND (neutral density) filters
If you’re recording video, then you need ND filters.
What are ND filters? Think of them as sunglasses for your camera. They allow you to cut down the amount of light and slow down the shutter speed so it’s double that of your frame rate for that filmic look.
None of that makes sense?
Don’t worry, here’s a YouTube video that explains it all!
Bottom line, you can live without them, but with them (and a bit of know how) your videos will be so much better.
Spare microSD card
4K footage takes up a lot of space. You’re going to need storage on your drone for this. This is why you need a few spare microSD cards.
I recommend going for a couple of 64GB cards. Why not bigger? Well, the bigger the card, the more data I’m going to stuff onto it, and the more data I have on the card, the more data I could lose if I lose the drone.
I find 64GB to be the sweet spot.
As for brands, I recommend Lexar cards. This is what I run in all my drones and cameras now, and I’ve not had any problems.
