DJI Air 3 vs DJI Air 3S

Used to order ‘newer’. Firmware and class marks can change after launch (Mini 5 Pro’s C0/C1 battery split is the example). Discontinued as new still belongs in the table if you already own one.

Consumer DJI camera drones use DJI Fly. Avata also needs Goggles firmware. This is not a different picture; it is which glass is on your face.

Takeoff weight is what the CAA cares about, not the number on the box without a battery. In the UK, crossing 250 g is the line between a C0/UK0 Mini you can treat as a travel camera and a drone that needs a Flyer ID and tighter distances from uninvolved people. A 4 g swing on the Mini 5 Pro is therefore a legal fact, not trivia. Always weigh the aircraft you actually fly, with the battery you actually use.

C0 is under 250 g. C1 is under 900 g. C2 is the next step up and changes where you may fly near people. DJI now prints class marks; some older airframes are unmarked and fall under transitional UK rules. Fitting a heavier ‘Plus’ battery can move a Mini out of C0. The mark on the aircraft you take off with is the one that counts.

The UK Open category (March 2026 code) splits into A1, A2 and A3. C0 and, until 31 December 2027, C1 fly in A1. C2 needs an A2 Certificate of Competence to use A2 distances; otherwise it is A3. This is not a DJI marketing tier.

A1 (C0, and C1 until 31 Dec 2027): you may fly closer than 50 m and over uninvolved people, but not over crowds or assemblies. A2 (C2 with A2 CofC): 30 m, or 5 m in low-speed mode; no overflight. A3: 50 m from people and 150 m from residential, recreational, commercial or industrial areas. Always 120 m height unless you have other permission.

Open-category flights stay at or below 120 m above the surface unless the CAA has given you something else. Max takeoff altitude on the spec sheet is how high the launch site can be, not a UK height limit.

DJI quotes folded without propellers unless noted. A Mini that is 148 mm long is cabin-bag honest. Mavic 4 Pro folded with props is still a day-bag, not a jacket pocket. Avata does not fold — the millimetres are the guarded cinewhoop.

A 1-inch sensor gathers substantially more light than 1/1.3-inch; 4/3 is another step. Megapixels on a small chip mostly crop. In noon sun many of these cameras look closer than the table suggests. After sunset, or in high-contrast interiors, sensor size is the difference you would actually notice in a still or a grade.

f/1.7–f/1.8 on Mini 5 Pro / Air 3S is the dusk advantage versus older f/2.8 Minis. Hasselblad f/2.8–f/11 (Mavic 3) and f/2.0–f/11 (Mavic 4 Pro) are for depth of field and ND-less bright days. You would notice this in bokeh and in how hard you need an ND, not as a resolution number.

Most wide camera drones sit around 82–84°. Mavic 4 Pro’s 28 mm Hasselblad is 72° — tighter, more ‘photo’. Avata is 155°; Avata 360’s lenses are 200°. Comparing FOV across FPV and Mini is usually the wrong argument.

100–6400 stills is the DJI default. Video often goes higher (Mini 5 Pro / Air 3S 12800, Avata 25600). A high ISO on a 1/2.3-inch chip is not the same picture as 6400 on 4/3. Treat this row as a capability flag, then look at sensor size.

D-Log M and HLG are the current consumer pair. Older airframes use D-Cinelike or D-Log. ProRes exists on Mavic 3 Pro Cine, not the standard box. If you do not grade, this row is quiet.

Digital zoom on a Mini is a crop. A 70 mm camera on Air or Mavic is a second optical path: compressed backgrounds, portraits, details you cannot walk to. If your flying is landscapes and holidays, you may never miss it. If you shoot people, architecture or wildlife from a respectful distance, it is the reason to leave the Mini class.

4K/30 already fills a television. 4K/60 HDR and 4K/120 matter for motion and for highlight recovery in log. 6K on the Mavic 4 Pro Hasselblad is a crop-and-reframe tool as much as a sharpness tool. If you deliver straight from the camera to Instagram, you will not see most of this table.

A gimbal that rotates to portrait uses the full sensor; a crop-to-vertical Mini wastes pixels. 225° tilt (Mini 5 Pro) and 360° infinity (Mavic 4 Pro) are for Dutch angles and overheads, not for ‘more stable’. If you only ever shoot landscape 16:9, this row is quiet.

DJI’s published times are wind-tunnel figures at a stated speed until forced landing. Real winter UK flights with 4K, wind and a return home are often 60–70% of that. A 2-minute gap on the spec sheet is not a difference you plan a job around. A 10-minute gap, or a Plus battery that also changes the class mark, is.

Hover burns more than DJI’s cruise figure. A 5-minute gap here is real on a mapping or orbit job. A 2-minute gap is weather. Plus batteries change this and, on Mini 5 Pro, can change the class mark.

Minis are honest in a park and tiring on a headland. Air and Mavic carry more mass into the same Level 5 number, which is why they feel calmer. The published m/s is a maximum resistance, not a comfortable filming envelope. If most of your flying is west-coast or hill, this row beats sensor size.

UK radios and EU speed caps are CE. Avata’s 27 m/s manual mode is not legal-fast in the EU (19 m/s). Camera drones in the 54–72 km/h CE band feel similar until you fly FPV. You would notice this on a tracking shot or a cinewhoop, not on a park orbit.

Mini-class 5 m/s versus Mavic 8–10 m/s is a top-out, not a filming speed. Useful for getting above a cliff or down before rain. You would not notice it on a reveal if you fly Cine mode.

6000 m is a Himalaya number. UK legal height is 120 m above the surface unless you have permission. Neo’s 2000 m and Avata 360’s 4500 m only matter if you take off on a mountain. Do not read this as a UK height limit.

Downward-only (Neo, Mini 3, Mini 4K) will not stop a tree in front of you. Front/back/down (Mini 3 Pro, Flip) is the old Pro pattern. Omnidirectional (Mini 4 Pro and up) adds sides. Nightscape / LiDAR is the dusk version of the same idea, and it still needs texture and a minimum lux. None of this replaces looking.

UK radios are CE. DJI’s big number is usually FCC (US). CE is typically about half. You also fly visual line of sight. A 10 km CE Mini and a 15 km CE Mavic are the same practical radio for a legal UK flight. Quote CE on this site; treat FCC as a footnote.

Wh tracks endurance better than ‘Intelligent Flight Battery’ as a name. Mini packs sit around 19–21 Wh; Air ~38; Mavic 3 77; Mavic 4 Pro 95. Families do not cross (Mini 4 Pro packs are not Mini 5 Pro packs). Cabin-bag Wh limits are a travel fact, not a camera fact.

A Mini with 2 GB fills in minutes of 4K. 42 GB on Mini 5 Pro is enough to finish a walk if the card fails. Bitrate still wants a fast microSD for anything you care about. Internal storage does not change the picture; it changes whether the flight ends when the card does. Flagship boxes sometimes ship a bigger module (Mavic 4 Pro Creator is 512 GB); the table is the standard airframe.

UHS-I Speed Class 3 / V30 is the usual floor. Some airframes list 512 GB, some 1 TB. Neo has no slot. A slow card drops frames; a missing card ends the flight when internal fills.

Current DJI camera drones are GPS + Galileo + BeiDou. This row is here so a missing constellation would show. It is not a reason to upgrade Mini 4 Pro to Mini 5 Pro.

UK winter is inside −10 °C until it is not. Batteries sag before the airframe fails. This row exists so a future airframe with a different envelope would not hide. It is almost always the same number today.