To Buy or not To Buy

[irvine]

Having seen numerous comments regarding the new Mini drone I am still pondering whether to buy one or not.

I have the Spark and the Mavic Platinum. Looking at the remote control on the Mini there is not there plus the lack of collision sensors puts me off.

Any suggestions guys and dolls bit of a ponder at the moment.

 

[nilanjan118]

If you already have the Spark or any drone better than that, you don't need the Mavic Mini.
However, for someone who has never flow a drone before, the Mavic Mini will be a great drone to buy. I bet it will the X-mas gift for a lot of people this year.

 

[DameEdnaBrown]

Having seen numerous comments regarding the new Mini drone I am still pondering whether to buy one or not.

I have the Spark and the Mavic Platinum. Looking at the remote control on the Mini there is not there plus the lack of collision sensors puts me off.

Any suggestions guys and dolls bit of a ponder at the moment.

A bit early wait a week or so

 

[theDRONEranger]

Since you have the Spark and the MP stay with them! If you still ponder this question after waiting yet another month, the re-evaluate. Just wait for it . . .
”My MM just flew right into a tree, house, rock, electric power substation, ICE van . . .“
“My MM doesn’t have obstacle avoidance, did I get a bad one?”

 

[Grin factpr]

If I had your drones, I wouldn’t be looking at the mini. Not much point really. It’s so close to the spark in many ways.

 

[cappellen]

I do have a Spark and a Mavic 2 zoom, still I ordered a mini. Why, because the best drone is the drone you have with you. The Mavic 2 is the best, but somewhat larger so from time to time I have the Spark with me. I edit my movies on a 27" 4k screen. On this screen the difference between mavic and spark video quality is quite large. The mini is in between. The other point is battery time. I often make my shots a few times which is fine with the mavic, but with the Spark I have to hurry a bit. For both drones I have 3 batteries and with the mavic I can often go to 2 spots on one battery. With the Spark this is hardly possible, with the mini this will be possible. I mostly make shots during hiking.
With the 3 axis gimbal I hope to get a better yaw. For the mavic 2 this gives much smoother video than with the Spark.
Until now I never had a serious warning from the obstacle detection system so I think this will not be a problem, however I ordered a care refresh.
With the Spark I had quite some connection problems in the past. Now with the right phone and an otg cable this is much less. I expect good connections with the mini.
So I like my Spark, but for me there are some advantages in the mini. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to sell my Spark. I sold my Mavic Pro after using the mavic 2 zoom for some time.

 

[hiflyer]

In my opinion the lack of obstacle avoidance is a minus. When it failed on my Spark I felt obligated to get it repaired even though I had never needed it. We all know you are not going to hit what you see. I wrote before that the thought of hitting someone worried me. I got flack about that from someone who said he didn't fly around people. Well like I say..you only hit what you don't see. The gimble is exposed more than the spark and that looks iffy to me. I like the size but the Spark is super small as well. Knowing me, I could end up buying one but I can think of lots or reasons not to

 

[Northwood Mediaworks]

The more reviews I see, the more I am tempted... seems the footage is quite nice, it can be fixed in post like anything else if necessary. My reservations had been the size versus the wind. The 40Mbs bitrate is an improvement, same with the third axis. I don't care about the light weight, I have no qualms about registering drones (silly marketing people), and if you want to add even the decal, you are over. So attaching a tracker makes it over too... I would be doing that for sure. But the biggest thing drawing me to it is the battery life. That is the weakest part of the Spark... flight time. OA is not an issue for me, as I generally fly well above everything.

Personally, I am going to wait until February next year before another drone purchase. Will it be DJI, probably, the other brands just don't quite measure up yet, the gap is closing though. I live in a perpetually windy place, another major factor, whomever gets my $$$, the product has to be able to fight stiff gusts and offer good compass/imu redundancy.

Not sure this helps you decide, but those are my key thoughts. Cheers and good luck.

 

[nilanjan118]

The more reviews I see, the more I am tempted... seems the footage is quite nice, it can be fixed in post like anything else if necessary. My reservations had been the size versus the wind. The 40Mbs bitrate is an improvement, same with the third axis. I don't care about the light weight, I have no qualms about registering drones (silly marketing people), and if you want to add even the decal, you are over. So attaching a tracker makes it over too... I would be doing that for sure. But the biggest thing drawing me to it is the battery life. That is the weakest part of the Spark... flight time. OA is not an issue for me, as I generally fly well above everything.

Personally, I am going to wait until February next year before another drone purchase. Will it be DJI, probably, the other brands just don't quite measure up yet, the gap is closing though. I live in a perpetually windy place, another major factor, whomever gets my $$$, the product has to be able to fight stiff gusts and offer good compass/imu redundancy.

Not sure this helps you decide, but those are my key thoughts. Cheers and good luck.

I think the 30 mins flight time will outweigh the few cons the MM has and many new pilots will be buying it. A seasoned pilot or drone photographer may get the perfect shot in just one or two attempts but a beginner pilot may require a few more attempts. That's where the increased flight time will come handy.

 

[Hamlet]

I mainly use my Spark for taking aerial photos and panoramas in particular. The stitched-together results are stunning. As far as I know the Mini doesn't feature panoramas. So I won't be upgrading, much as I'd like the extra battery life and 2.7k video.

 

[JoostGT3]

Having seen numerous comments regarding the new Mini drone I am still pondering whether to buy one or not.

I have the Spark and the Mavic Platinum. Looking at the remote control on the Mini there is not there plus the lack of collision sensors puts me off.

Any suggestions guys and dolls bit of a ponder at the moment.

Are you happy with your current drone line-up? If you are, then there is no reason whatsoever to upgrade. If you feel like your current drones are lacking in a certain area which you would really like to improve on, then check whether it is worth the cost for you. If not, maybe you can cover part of the cost by selling off one or both of your current drones.

In my opinion, both the Spark and the Mavic leave a lot to be improved in the image/video quality department. However, I am very spoilt with the Mavic 2 Pro. I have a Spark as well, and love it for its simplicity and portability. However, I am never really happy with the quality of the results. Also, I don't need the gesture control and obstacle avoidance stuff. In addition, I find that the Mavic 2 Pro in combination with the Smart Controller is quicker into the air than the Spark, so I only take the Spark when I really can't bring the 2Pro.

So for me, I bought the Mini (incoming this week), and will see if it is really an improvement over the Spark, especially in image quality and signal strength (flying the Spark in FCC mode in CE country for transmission reliability reasons). If not, I think I'll be selling it off pretty quickly.

 

[cappellen]

Are you happy with your current drone line-up? If you are, then there is no reason whatsoever to upgrade. If you feel like your current drones are lacking in a certain area which you would really like to improve on, then check whether it is worth the cost for you. If not, maybe you can cover part of the cost by selling off one or both of your current drones.

In my opinion, both the Spark and the Mavic leave a lot to be improved in the image/video quality department. However, I am very spoilt with the Mavic 2 Pro. I have a Spark as well, and love it for its simplicity and portability. However, I am never really happy with the quality of the results. Also, I don't need the gesture control and obstacle avoidance stuff. In addition, I find that the Mavic 2 Pro in combination with the Smart Controller is quicker into the air than the Spark, so I only take the Spark when I really can't bring the 2Pro.

So for me, I bought the Mini (incoming this week), and will see if it is really an improvement over the Spark, especially in image quality and signal strength (flying the Spark in FCC mode in CE country for transmission reliability reasons). If not, I think I'll be selling it off pretty quickly.

Yesterday I had my first flight with the mini. Video quality is pretty good although no filters (yet), battery time is great, but I was somewhat disappointed by the distance. Lost the drone twice at 500m probably because of ce mode. In standard p mode it flies faster than the Spark. Have to look at gimbal stabilisation in sportmode but when making the video it looked good on my phone.

 

[JoostGT3]

Yesterday I had my first flight with the mini. Video quality is pretty good although no filters (yet), battery time is great, but I was somewhat disappointed by the distance. Lost the drone twice at 500m probably because of ce mode. In standard p mode it flies faster than the Spark. Have to look at gimbal stabilisation in sportmode but when making the video it looked good on my phone.

Same here, flew the mini for the first time yesterday. Battery life is good enough to have you not worried about it. Flies quite well, it felt a bit slow, but that was subjective. CE range is to cry for, really pathetic. You really need to be close to something interesting to film in order to make nice footage (As opposed to the Mavic, where you can send the bird up and see if there is something nice to film around you). I think my phone did not have a good GPS lock, as the app showed me the total distance travelled, not the distance to me (which was quite confusing and quite useless if you ask me). It is reasonable quiet, but my Mavic 2 Pro is quieter. All in all, I am not sure which one to keep: my Spark with FCC hack or my new Mavic Mini CE. A weird side-effect of the Mini's small weight is that it really feels as a flimsy toy drone when you take it out of the case. The Spark always has this nice solid feel to it, which makes it feel not as a toy, but as a robust platform.

I did a comparison btw, measuring the weight of the entire mini fly more combo (minus the prop cages) in the bag vs the spark fly more with the portable charging station and the bag. The mini was approximately 500gr less than the Spark and in a more favorable geometry, making it the absolute favorite to take with you on hikes etc.

 

[cappellen]

Maiden flight mavic mini.

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Nice video quality, very good battery life, limited range under ce WiFi.

 

[v2kdj]

I got a mini sat here in a box unopened with receipt as it will sell better. Ordered it and then after a lot of research decided that I'm not going to get any great benefits from the mini that the spark has given which has performed well. The spark is a lot more versatile with software, fpv although there is the battery life restriction. I made a booboo ordering the mini so soon. What I should have done is go up to a Mavic zoom. That's my plan now. I have registered with the authorities here in the UK so the 249 gram rule is covered with the spark and any upgrade. Other rules regards drone use would apply either way. I can see the rules being changed soon to include the mini as it has a recording device on it. If you have never had a drone them the mini would be perfect.

 

[yanxun]

However, for someone who has never flow a drone before, the Mavic Mini will be a great drone to buy. I bet it will the X-mas gift for a lot of people this year.

thanks a lot for your post! christmas is coming and I think I've already come up with an idea