Easy to fly and a fantastic cameraI’ve loved remote control vehicles for most of my life; back in the 80’s my dad got me a buggy that would go about 20 mph on asphalt and an old Futaba radio with the crystals you had to swap out. I had an absolute blast with that thing. Over the years I had gas and electric cars and trucks and the little indoor helis and quads. But I never really got good at the flyers. I’d carefully fly them around inside the house, but they were generally too light to use outside so I could never really practice effectively. And if I wanted to turn off the stability controls and go full ham, I’d lose control almost immediately.Well, I still would like to actually be good at flying those types of devices. The DJI Mini 2 won’t get me there, but I’m willing to bet it will help. You can’t turn off all of the helper electronics and start doing flips like you can with the sport quads, but that’s not really the point. The point is the camera, and the camera is fantastic.I’m going to start splitting this review up into sections because I can already feel like it’s going to be a long one.=== The Camera ===This isn’t one of those cheap no-name drones with a terrible camera that gives you a dark, laggy, choppy view until it blacks out at 60 feet away. To be honest, I’m not even sure how they do it, but I get full signal strength and clear 720p transmission well beyond where I start getting nervous and bring it back to me. You can set all sorts of options, including manually adjusting the exposure in flight or leaving it on automatic, setting it to 4:3 or 16:9 (the former gives you the full 12MP image, while the latter fills your screen better but you lose some pixels on the top and bottom), and you can shoot stills in JPG or JPG+RAW. Video can be shot at 1080p, 2.7K, or 4K.While flying, your recordings and photos will show up on your phone immediately, but in preview resolutions. I’m not sure what the still photo size is, but the videos are 720p (so the photos may be 1280×720 depending on your aspect ratio, but I don’t remember off the top of my head). This allows you to view and share immediately. The full resolution images and videos are located on the micro SD card, so you can pop that into your computer to see everything in its full glory. You can also create a wi-fi connection to the drone to transfer the full resolution stuff directly to your phone if you don’t want to wait. I only had to set this up once, and it seems to be able to do the transfers every time now, without any extra interaction from me (other than telling it to start the transfer). This alone is fantastic to me, I’m so used to devices that require you to drop your wi-fi connection in your phone settings, choose the new device, connect, do your thing, then disconnect and reconnect to your original wi-fi connection. This is all done behind the scenes seamlessly after initial setup on the Mini 2. What a breath of fresh air!=== Basic Flying ===This is the ultimate in beginner-friendly flying. You can’t (accidentally or otherwise) turn off the host of helper sensors keeping the craft stable and safe. It limits your movements to ensure you don’t end up upside-down or flailing helplessly out of control. Releasing the sticks quickly brings it to a stable hover. The three main flying modes (Cine, Normal, and Sport) are all fully aided by sensors, the only difference is how quickly it will allow you to move and change direction. Someone brand new to flying might want to start in Cine mode, as it is the most forgiving and the slowest moving. All three of these modes have separate settings for how fast and smooth the camera gimbal works, and these settings can be modified for each mode.=== Batteries ===Since I got the Fly More package, I got three batteries. I haven’t really tested them for real-world flight time yet, but that will naturally change a lot based on your flying style, the amount of work it needs to do to counteract wind, etc. They last a good amount of time, though – nothing like the little sport quad I have that gets about 6 minutes per battery. The controller has its own battery, which as far as I can tell is not replaceable. It’s charged via USB-C, and has the option (which you enable in the DJI app on your phone) to charge your phone while it’s connected.The Fly More package includes a charger that holds all three batteries and charges them in sequence via USB-C. I found this interesting because most multi-battery chargers charge everything equally in parallel, but of course for something like this you’d want all of the power charging one battery first so it gets to 100% quicker, and the others can charge while you’re using the full one.=== DJI Fly (the phone app) ===Wow. I’m speechless. The world is filled with absolute garbage apps. Everything has an app now. My grill even has an app. And the vast majority of things that have apps have garbage apps that might get updated for the first month or two after product release, but then are allowed to languish and die with none of the bugs ever worked out, and no support ever offered. It’s one of the worst things about connected devices.DJI Fly is gorgeous. It’s stable. It’s usable. It’s all of the things that every good app should be. It shows a live view of the camera along with TONS of useful information that is somehow always there but never in my way. Pre-flight status information tells you when it’s a good idea to take off (for example, it will stop you from taking off until you have a good GPS lock, unless you choose to override and take off anyway). Your photo and video options are all clustered on the right side, and the top right shows you things like the battery charge remaining, approximate flight time remaining, signal strength to the controller, GPS lock, etc. The bottom left shows things like your current speed horizontally and vertically, it’s current height off the ground, and the drone’s current ground distance from its home point. Tapping the map icon on the bottom left brings up a detailed map (with the camera live view going into the corner in an overlay window), and the map shows the path that the drone has taken since launch, as well as its current orientation, your current position, and the home point position. If you lose track of where your drone is and the camera imagery isn’t helping, you can just use the map to point your drone towards you and start flying back. If you don’t want to take your hands off the controls, you can set the Function button on the remote to quickly swap between map mode and camera mode.The DJI Fly app has integrated maps to show you where there are restricted airspaces around you. You can tap on a restricted airspace to see what the restrictions are. The app will actively prohibit you from getting into trouble by inadvertently entering a no-fly zone without authorization. It will even warn you as you get closer to a restricted area without entering (where you can still legally fly, but you’re approaching restricted airspace).Distance and altitude limitations are easily set in the app. The altitude limitation is particularly useful since you can’t legally fly above 400 feet without a waiver in the United States. I have my ceiling set to 400 feet, and when I hit it the drone stops climbing and I get a nice lady in the app telling me I’ve reached maximum altitude.=== Controller ===The new controller for the Mini 2 is excellent. It has a nice beefy battery that can optionally charge your phone while it’s connected and still have plenty of battery life for a number of flying sessions. It has a Function button that can be mapped to several different functions in the app. Two functions actually, because you can set it to do something when clicked, and another thing when double-clicked. Camera movement is controlled with a wheel under your left finger, the button to start/stop recording (or to take a picture) is under your right finger, and another button on the right switches between still and video modes.While I’ve never tried it myself, it is possible to use the controller to pilot the drone without a phone attached. Obviously you won’t get a camera display, and your flight is limited to something like 60 feet from you in any direction, but it can be done.=== Conclusion ===As someone who has been into photography for over 25 years now, I’ve always wanted a drone with a camera. But I never thought I’d be able to get one at this quality for this price. I’m completely blown away. If I continue to use and enjoy it for a while, I do plan to upgrade to something a little more feature-rich, like the Mavic Air 2 (or whatever version is out at the time). But this is the perfect drone to start with, to decide if I will ever need to move up and spend the extra money.

A lot of fun in a small packageThis thing is tiny! But the performance is not. It produces great images. It is quiet once launched to altitude. Much quieter in my estimate then the other larger droneI have. It is pretty resistant to winds, even strong winds.If there is a down side, it is that the size is such that it is more difficult to maintain visual tracking if you fly it very far. Probably best to have two people using it with one dedicated to visual tracking, preferably with binoculars.I gave it 4 stars for Easy to learn and For beginners, but that is very subjective and applies to ME. Others with more experience with drones and younger folks with gaming experience would no doubt find those two things no problem.It is lightweight, comes n a small package with battery charger which can double as a portable power source. Three batteries with the charger that can accommodate all three at once. The batteries have lasted very well I wold say between 20-30 minutes each, on average, depending on wind and flying conditions, even better than the larger drone with much larger and heavier batteries. I can fly it with my iPhone which is held securely in the front of the controller with the antennae in front of it. Very convenient.Overall great for me (an amateur) I do recommend it.

Does everything that you would want unless you are a pro, and then it will do most of that as wellWanted to get a drone for myself since I am retiring soon and want to take videos of my Kites. I fly really big kites and I thought it would be great to film them in action. I started looking for drones online and somehow, every session looking for them always stopped DJI. Best this, best that is what most sites said about the drone. (More on that later), But all of the reviews only had great things about DJI drones. The mini 2 has a 4K camera as well as 1080. You can change back and forth very easy. The basic model is $499 and I thought that this was a little steep. But I do remember buying ones about $100 dollars in the past and they all lasted about 30 minutes before it attached itself to a tree or wanted to be set free and just flew away. There was an option of getting the combo kit for $599 which is even more. But with the homework, I noted that I would save money by buying the combo kit. You get two more batteries, a charger that holds three batteries at once. You also get a rather sharp looking case as well. Also a few more spare props. Just two batteries and the charger were $150 online and this did not include the case so I bought the bullet and ordered the combo kit. It only took a day to get here. It is a good thing that I watched the videos of the Mini2 online to include the first-time setup and flying videos. I would recommend that you view these before flying, unless $600 is no issue to you. It is not hard to fly but unless you are already a drone pilot, watch the vids. The next day, I took my drone to the fairgrounds out for the first spin. Getting it into the air is really easy since I watched the vids. Could have done without them but they really help. I flew two batteries of flying time which about an hour plus a few minutes. It flies high and you will lose it from sight easy at about 60 meters out. But there is a map on the app and you can figure out which way it is going and turn it around if need be. One of the best features of this drone is the return to home function. It will come home if you push the button or it will come home when the battery is getting low. I used this function and it came with about three inches of where it took off from. Went out on two other days and used all three batteries. Was getting really good at flying it by now. Good thing about having the combo kit is that you can charge the batteries and the controller at the same time with different cords.Now, let’s get back to that Best this and best that part of the story. The wife and I went down to a local stream to look at the salmon coming upstream. After all of the other people left, I put the drone in the air. Was getting great footage with the 4K video when the wife started asking me a question and I turned to talk to her and was not watching what I was doing. I must have moved the drone backwards and it hit a very small climb and then went down hard in the water. Must to have wanted to migrate with the salmon. I was instantly upset and put down the controller and figured out how to get myself in the water. When I got to the drone the red light was still on when I removed it from the water. I immediately removed the battery and came back to shore. The drone was in water that was 34 inches deep and it was there almost two minutes. I live in Washington state and the water was COLD. I dried the unit for 24 hours with low heat. Today when I came home from work, I told the wife it was time to see what happens. I started the controller and then the drone per the instructions. My screen said that I had a battery fault. I got sick to my stomach and the shut off the drone and inserted another battery. Ok, time to see again if it would fly. All pre- flight checks were sat and then I tried to lift off. Next thing I know, my little drone was flying at my head level saying hi. All items checked out great. I think that the best rating you can give is a 5 so I give it a 10. There are a lot more features on this drone that I did not talk about. I have read reviews of pros saying that there are not enough features with the video, but it sure works for me. I am not going to be selling movies to any company anytime soon. I have not found any issues with the unit. $600 dollars in the water for a few minutes due to myself and she was perfectly fine. You can assure that I will always buy DJI from here on. Never saw the words “Water Proof” on the box. This drone is packed with great features for us average guys/gals going out to record things we like, Buy it, you will love it.

BEST Drone to use as a beginnerI purchased this drone after doing a lot of research. It is one of the best and most affordable drones on the market. They picture quality of the camera is AMAZING. I would suggest purchasing the entire package like this to make sure you get all of the accessories for the drone. I also recommend getting the protective ‘insurance’ through DJI IMMEDIATELY WHEN YOU OPEN YOUR DRONE. Three batteries is good for beginners. In CINE mode I can fly for 40-50 minutes per battery. In SPORT mode that time goes down to 30ish. Also, take in to account if the wind is blowing, that tends to drain the battery faster as well. I definitely and highly recommend this drone for ANYONE. It’s very easy to learn. Great DJI app that you use to fly the drone.

Awsome ltl droneSo i had to replace my android phone for 1 that would work with drone.. was not happy about that..It was easy to get the drone attached to phone and controller..This thing is small in your hands and tiny when in the air.It is basically a ltl flying camera.I do recommend getting the dji care when 1st syncing drone..49 bucks. I used it for 1 hour the 1st day then about 40 mins the second day. The second day a tree reached out over the fence and grabbed my drone sending it on a tree trimming mision. Ended up braking a rear arm after hitting multible tree limbs on the way down..dji care was contacted the next day.about 12 hours later i was told it would be repaired(after payment for 49.00 cleared) 24 hours after filing i received a email from ups to print out a lable..printed then dropped off…submitted repair request monday 10am dropped off at ups tuesday at 1030 am received replacement drone thursday at 11am… i wqs very impressed..you get 2 exchanges with dji care per year 1st is 49 second is 59.00..love the rapid response.. the drone handles great. Pretty much hovers in place and takes great pics..it covers all the areas i was wanting a drone to do..i wanted it juat for my camping and hiking trips. Always love the birds veiw of life and this gives it to me. Still getting use to flying it and im sure it will take more time but it is a fun ltl drone to fly. Slow for pics or fast for fun its a general all around fun drone. Two of my friends that have tinkered with it are looking to purchase 1 for themselves and as of this writing 1 has already order the fly more package just like mine he should have it in his hands by saturday.. had a holy stone drone that was a expensive kids toy would not hover properly pics was awful..but this ltl dji is def worth the money as far as i am concerned.. looking forward to hopefully many flights