DJI Mavic Mini 2 Review – My New Toy!

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This is my new DJI Mavic Mini 2 – a “drone” (quadcopter) that I paid my own money for, and love using. I bought it as a production tool for my car channel, At The Wheel, but since it’s still pretty new – and new to me – I thought I’d run it through its paces here first. Let’s take a look at it, what it can do, and more importantly, what it can film. But first, if you haven’t already, consider subscribing for more videos like this one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

First up, the important bit. According to the UK Drone laws, even though this is a 249g quad as it clearly labels on the side, because it has a camera, anyone who flies this must register for an operator ID, and you may as well take the theory test and get a Flier ID too (that’s what I did). There are some benefits of using a sub 250g drone though, namely the ability to fly directly over people (safely, of course), and within 50m of people – whereas larger drones unless they are “consenting parties”, that’s prohibited.

But, for your 249g, it’s an amazing bit of kit. First off, I have to talk about it’s insanely small size. You can literally fit it in a large pocket. That’s insane. As has become standard, it folds up neatly and comes with both a gimbal and blade guard I’d highly recommend you use. The gimbal guard just clips over the camera, whereas the blade guard nicely wraps around letting you tuck all the blades in, keeping them safe in transit.

If you buy the Fly More Combo, which I did and highly recommend you do too, you get a nice carrying case, two spare batteries and a triple battery charger that can double as a power bank. Oh and spare propellers, because you’ll need them. Everything fits neatly into the carrying case, and makes it really easy to take with you while out for a walk, or on a shoot.

Speaking of shooting, the camera is really impressive. It can shoot at 4K30, 2.7K60 or 1080p60 with a maximum bitrate of 100Mbps, or if you prefer stills it’ll do up to 4000×3000 thanks to its 12MP 1/2.3” sensor. It’s on a 3 axis gimbal that is remarkably steady – take a look at this shot out in the peak district. It looks like it’s on a tripod – but in reality the wind is buffeting it around. The gimbal can be used in a couple different modes, and you can manually control the tilt angle with a wheel on the controller, which can make for some really interesting shots like full on top-downs over cars. Looks sweet.

The shots this thing can get are incredible, especially for something this light. Having it zoom off at a little over 30MPH in sport mode over some rolling hills makes for an awesome shot – take a look.

Or if cars are more your style, you can get some interesting stuff with this too. I’m still working out what sort of shots work and what don’t, and the controls do take some getting used to, but yeah some cool shots are definitely possible.

I mentioned the controls having a learning curve – I’m used to “traditional” mode 2 controls, like you’d get on any ‘regular’ quadcopter or RC plane . The left stick normally would be spring loaded to the bottom and the vertical axis on that is the throttle, so if you want it to hover you would need to hold the left stick in place and balance it. If you want to go forward, you’d push forward on the right stick which would tilt the drone forward, then you’d increase the throttle. On DJI drones, it’s more obfuscated. The left stick is now centred by default, and it’s now “height control” rather than throttle. Same for the right stick, as that is now “forward/back/left/right”, and you don’t need to touch the left stick to make it go faster. This took a while for me to get used to, but when you see the stability and ‘idiot proof’ nature, you’ll understand why they’ve done it this way.

I’m still getting used to the spacial awareness with it, and I did run into a pole on my second flight. Nothing terminal, but I do have the insurance for a year in case I do anything too stupid. I’m also not too comfortable with it being too far away, the max I got it was around 300m before I couldn’t see it and had to bring it back. Even height wise, where you can only go 120m up, I’m still only going 50-70m before it seems a little too high. Over time as I get more comfortable with it I’ll be happier to run it further and higher when needed.

Overall I’m very pleased with my purchase. It’s going to be a great tool that will unlock some really interesting and unique shots. Would I recommend this to you? Well, it’s one of the easiest (and least regulated) options DJI has to offer. Yes it’s still pricey if it’s just a toy, and you might enjoy a race quad better if that’s all it’s for, but if you want to take some awesome shots for work or just while your on holiday then it’s great for that.