DJI is definitely improving! Although I appreciate Skydio's prowess on avoiding obstacle, I can't help feeling that it results in a video which is less cinematic, it's like the camera is moving all over the place
@@McStoolio I don’t typically do them, purely from a regulatory standpoint. However, I will say that very consistently on multiple continents I was hitting max range limits of 1,100-1,200m, with a singular exception of 1,500m once. This was with the DJI RC, before signal drops started.
It depends so much on conditions 1/10 claimed range is probably realistic expectations with low flying where there's tree cover and interference in populated areas .
The Mini 3 Pro did remarkably well in this test. The Mini 3 had trouble keeping up with you in the open area's, but I thought the video it captured, due to its smoother moves made it feel more cinematic than the Skydio. Great testing, you are always so thorough in these tracking video's. Thanks for sharing.
Who doesn't love your tracking videos! I love watching you smashing into trees and signs, or go into the freezing water to retrieve your crashed drones. I haven't come across anyone else that does this even remotely as well as you do. Nice work. I'm glad they're sending you drones to test even though you give honest feedback and seem to pay for some of your own equipment. THANK YOU!
I feel like even though the mini was slower it had a more cinematic feel to it, I think if they allowed you to 'accept' it being slightly more aggressive that would be a big win. The Skydio honestly I wouldn't really even want that footage as a whole but it would probably have lots of good clips come out of it.
Completely agree with this. Even though DJI loses on the object avoidance, it at least made some good usable footage, I feel like with the Skydio just rubber banding all over the place negates any useful footage you would want from that feature.
I'd rather have a non-crashed drone over "cinematic feel." If I want cinematic shots, I'll have someone control it. The most important thing is not crashing in following, because most people cannot eat $750 drone crashes because it looked a bit smoother.
@@rustler08 I'd rather use my drone appropriately and get results I want than pay for a drone that gives me shit footage. Maybe that's just me. This guy was pushing them through tough scenarios, doesn't mean you have to, but in any case the footage looked better. I choose the DJI. Also worth noting there is an option with BestBuy, DJI, insurance, etc to cover loss of drone.
@@KirsiKitten I think there is the ‘nice video’ aesthetic aspect Vs the functional “follow that car!” . The skydiving has a more ‘epic’ look about it. Like an action movie!!
Always the most in depth testing in here. You challenge the drones..you risk the drones...and you explain it all as you go. No one does it better. You answer exactly what people are wondering without playing suck up to the manufacturers. So appreciated.
Your DJI vs Skydio tracking videos are the best!! I'm really impressed with the Mini 3's tracking ability - more so than its big brothers. I think this is the drone I'll be getting to track my bike rides. Thank you!
@@Nonius9 its competitor was just lucky to not boost into branches after thinking for ten minutes jow to avoid the obstacles and delivered almost 0% usable footage 😂 This piece of trackinggarbage acts like a bird on acid and almost hit some trees while trying to fly some eights around it.
As soon as I saw the post from DJI, I got home in the hopes you had made a video on it! You're my go to RU-vidr for drones, so I'm stoked you got this video up so quickly. Cheers!
Great video, thanks! I mean as a video editor I think most of the clips from the Skydio are basically unusable for any sort of professional video. It is way too wobbly. Mini 3 is seemingly the way to go if you don’t fly in the jungle.
if you dont fly in the jungle the skydio would stick to the position you place it. the skydio is "wobbly" because its trying not to lose tracking the subject, so prioritize tracking instead of not being "wobbly". thats why it never lost tracking in his test.
I think one of the things that many people (including myself) often do is we look at a long-form cut of these shoots and think about how the footage might not be as usuable due to wobble/etc. However, in reality, from a video editing standpoint, we're often only using 3-5 seconds of it as b-roll/etc... Meaning, very few people are watching it end to end (if ever). Certainly, the Skydio gives you less 'clean' b-roll chunks to choose from. No doubt. However, inversely, some of the higher speed shots it gets when you do have those pockets just blow away the DJI Mini 3 in terms of speed/creativity/closeness. Sadly, there isn't a perfect unit that does both of those yet.
Nice - thanks for the detailed tests. I've been flying DJI since Phantom 2, tracking since Mavic Pro, and Skydio all models. I would've thought DJI would've done better against Skydio by now but they are still improving and that's great. I like them both and they both have different strengths.
New to DJI products. I ordered the Mini 3 to create videos of my kids' wakeboarding at a cable park, not on a nice open lake, so the obstacle avoidance information is very helpful - thank you 👍🏻.
Wow!! I must admit that your drone comparisons are very detailed and a joy to watch if you are going make a choice to buy one from the comparison. Nicely done!
Gotta say, freaking love how the skydio tracks. It looks like someone is filming it to get the best shot. The mini just looked like it was trying to do what it could to not hit stuff.
@@gianlucaalessia5538 Nah, i don't think so. I agree with you about the amazing obstacle avoidance ability of the Skydio, but interm of the amount of usable shots that you can actually use, i still prefer the Mavic over Skydio, it was a bit slow but smooth, the Skydio was fast but it went all over the place.
Personally I'll take it trying to move fast and actually choosing routes that follow the person vs. It going up and around and losing the person completely until they come out from the trees on the other side. To me all that footage is useless. Plus if your watching the 2 videos one adds dramatic effect of speed and the other, completely kills any kind of action but to each his own
@@gianlucaalessia5538 so why do you want drone to follow you aggressively but can’t record steady shot? What the point you buy the drone then? Just to follow you around for no reason?
If I'm going to purchase anything technical to do with the outdoors you have always been my first source of info and, again, you haven't disappointed. Your reviews are comprehensive, honest and without any 'attention grabbing hype' other than the odd bit of canal diving searching for the elusive marine drone. David Attenborough would be proud!
Certainly the Mini 3 is the best tracking of all the DJI drones, plus it is quite smooth in its tracking. Hopefully the Mini 4 will have a full 360 obstacle avoidance.
Wow. I'm really impressed with The Mini 3's tracking and dodging ability. It works so much better than the first version of Active Track. The Skydio 2+ definitely avoids obstacles much better, but it's pointless if the footage is unusable--and I would consider all of the footage it took unusable. It's far too inconsistent and lacks the smoothness of DJI Active Track.
a tracker is supposed to keep you all throughout the journey giving you peace of mind to enjoy your ride. with the dji youre gonna be monitoring it every minute and hope its not crashed or lost you. also the skydio footage is usable, anyone making a video is gonna cut into parts where they prefer. better to have footage than crashed drone, or lost drone.
@@truthseeker6804 Have you actually used Active Track ever? No one with common sense is going to put 100% blind trust in a tracker. It works great if you’re not an idiot choosing where you use it keeping the drone’s sensor locations in mind. Haven’t crashed a single time. And no, that Skydio footage is completely unusable for anything cinematic or remotely professional, even if you cut it up. It looks amateur and inconsistent.
@@HCG then its a baby tracker and not very dependable tracker if youve got to keep helping it. active track is not as good as skydio tracker and this video clearly proves it. also anyone making a video isnt going to post all the video from the skydio as one video. a professional would cut into parts the scenes they like. unless youre an amateur, seems like. again, better to have footage than crashed drone or lost drone.
@@truthseeker6804 Go ahead and reread my original comment. I clearly stated that the Skydio had better obstacle avoidance. Your comments about what a professional would do are hilarious coming from someone who thinks that footage is not only usable, but good, and the solution is to just “cut it up”. If you had any real experience or cinematic taste you’d know that you often need long shots. I can’t believe I need to clarify this for you, but yes, obviously you wouldn’t use entire clips without editing. Again, my point is even if you cut that footage into 3 second clips they would still look bad because it is objectively bad footage. Stop role playing like you know what you’re talking about and accept the fact that you’re just an upset amateur that feels the need to defend their favorite drone brand to strangers on the internet.
Two very different approaches to tracking. I ordered the Mini 3 but I gotta say even though the skydio is going back and forth a lot, it makes some much more interesting shots compared to the mini 3. There were multiple small 1 - 2 second snippets in the footage where the drone came from behind to the side, weaved around the trees etc. With good editing i think the footage allows for a lot more creativity.
Props (HA) to skydio for their crazy obstacle avoidance system, but you are right, it’s anything but cinematic. The mini 3 pro seems to track about as well as my air2s, which is great, impressive even-and this is on early firmware. With the addition of 10 bit in this new update, this is going to be great companion to the air2s.
On the skydio drone, he had it on "motion track" mode which is why the drone was flying all over the place. If he selected "fixed track" instead, the footage would have ran just as cinematic or smoothly as on the dji mini 3.
Must say love your channel for both the bike and small camera tech. It has been a great resource for myself. I lost a Skydio 2 in the local mountains when the it flew away and self landed in inaccessible terrain. The only thing I miss about it is what you mentioned at the end about not needing a controller. The Skydio drone size is not convenient, but the fact you can fly it with just a phone was great. With that said, my old Mini 2 replaced the Skydio (when I still had it) really quickly due to it's compact size and just being able to always bring it. Which was a huge advantage. I've order the new mini 3 today :)
Yeah, I agree on the Skydio 2 feeling unpredictable sometimes in landing. It's a reason I don't actually use it as much as I'd like. The landing aspects can be tricky in 'spicy' terrain situations (like on the side of a mountain).
The most usefull active track function is to be able to shot yourself when you ride alone. But it mostly requires one simple but very critical function - lock all controls on remote control before you can put it in your back.
awesome comparison, now I know what I want to buy for my 4wding action trips, skydio 2+ i can rely on its obstacle avoidance and not worry about it all the time while I drive
I want to use a drone to track my form while mountain biking for training alone. The mini looks good, but so much of the footage is useless, obstacle avoidance while mountain biking is a deal breaker. Your analysis is spot on, from what I see here.
I just got a M3P and never heard of SkyDio, honestly kinda wish I knew about this drone. It is all over the place in tracking so creating one continuous video with the footage would be bad. But what I saw was it was more competent in not crashing and staying with you, it kept up better, and it created more dynamic and cinematic shots that would be great when cut and spliced together as a reel. The reality of being a content creator, nobody is going to want to watch a 10-60 min video, they will want a highlight reel, and for that I think the SkyDio was the winner, and of course as the operator, not needing the controller and less worry of baby sitting for tracking or a crash is a big win.
If Skydio added an option to smooth things out preferntially, it'd be untouchable. The tracking is just incredible vs. the Mavics I own; I had no idea that level of obstacle avoidance was even possible in a sub-$1000 unit
Ordered the mini 3 pro and wasn't 100% sure it was good enough upgrade from my mini 2 but this video has confirmed that for me. Roll on delivery day. Great video!!
Oh boy, this is nail-biting. Thanks for showing what it can do. Interesting enough, DJI has much smoother footage, yet Skydio produces quite a lot of short cinematic moments that can be picked in editing.
Ghost Platoon, the novel, describes JDAM like smart mortars with HE warheads coupled with small POV drones strapped to the soldier's backs which act like surveillance and targeting system. Published in 2019 and an exceptional read. Worth my 8 bucks or whatever.
I really appreciate your active track videos for each drone and comparing them with skydio. I also appreciate your other videos too. I think dji is never gonna be like skydio when it comes to tracking. But mini 3 pro is awesome!
That's impressive coming from dji mini 3 Pro. Dji truly has improve its tracking feature. If mini can do this, then expect it's bigger brother mavic line will get the upgrade soon probably better with more sensors.
Damn I'm impressed with what this little drone can do. Good thing you reminded us to hit the like button cause I was so engrossed with your usual awesome test that I would have forgotten to hit it. The Skydio 2+ is definitely in a class by itself. But you stayed away from the water. Can't wait for the wind torture test. (Edit: I saw the test ... awesome video as usual)
Great review. Thanks! 🙂Active track looks good enough to be viable in controlled environments. I am looking forward to watching from the sidelines what creators will be able to do with it.
Fantastic testing!!! I've been looking at the Skydio for cycling. Not sure it would handle really deep woods with face slappers during overgrowth season but looks promising!
In my experiance, neither drone handles deep woods well. My originial Skydio 2 test covers this a bit in MTB scenarios, and basically, it's kinda rough. In theory, Skydio makes a 1m bubble (1m radius from aircraft) around itself that it needs to clear to get through. So that's like 2m/6ft of actual distance. Many times in MTB, you'll squeek through some trees barely bigger than your handlebars. So, it quickly gets stuck. If you have more open terrain, then it's fine. But for everything I have around here, or the Alps in the woods, etc...no luck.
I appreciate you’re only doing a tracking comparison, which was brilliant, but there are so many things that make the skydio second rate compared to the mini; weight being just one major difference.
Very nice video! Shows the pros and cons of both well. Personlly I do like the DJI more due to the more cinematic following behavior. Skydio stays tracked in worse situations but with a lot of janky movement. As someone already said in the comments, if DJI would make a setting to set the aggressiveness basically Tesla like it would probably improve it even more!
Great video! Was wondering about the tracking capabilities. I guess downhill mountain biking is still out of the question unfortunately, maybe it would work in open sections. Skydio 2 with the beacon is still the King.
Brilliant review - thanks for doing that review, exactly what I've been looking for! Looks like the obstacle avoidance is even better than I thought originally. Skydio gotta watch out now!
"Parallel" tracking on my Mavic Air 2 usually turns into Trace mode, unless I'm going VERY slow. Anything faster and the drone always ends up following behind no matter where it started off. I'd like to see what this one does in those regards.
Nice comparison! I’ve recently got my mini3 pro as my first drone so I’m not that brave yet. Looking forward to kayaking and cycling with it when I’m sure I can control it adequately. Thanks!
This technology is absolutely amazing.. there is still some work to be done but it is only going to get better and better. I hope soon it will simply follow your path..
Thanks for the high speed test. I bought a drone a couple of years ago not knowing it wouldn't be able to keep up when tracking fast skiing. Even worse, what it doesn't do at all is follow me downhill. Can you do a back to back with a very steep altitude change?
Lol this was really enjoyable to watch. Cool seeing the test as I don’t have a bike or somewhere like this to fly, impressed how it went backwards and found you again I was rooting for the technology inside the drone lol
