The summit of Mount Everest is at a height of 8.848.86m, which is over 28,000 feet and far higher than can be reached with a regular helicopter. It fact this has only been done once, by French test pilot Didier DelSalle, flying a powerful and specially lightened Eurocopter AS350 B3 Squirrel to the summit in 2005.
At the summit of Everest the air pressure is one-third that at sea level, meaning much lower levels of lift. Nevertheless, the DJI Mavic 3 was not only able to take off and circle the summit but take amazing panoramic shots of the surrounding mountain ranges too.
The Mavic 3 is a step above the average consumer drone, but still perfectly affordable and light enough to be carried to the summit of the world’s highest mountain. It comes equipped with a Hasselblad Micro Four Thirds camera capable of capturing 5.1K Apple ProRes video and 20MP stills, and yet has a take-off weight of under 900g. That’s less than a litre of water.
The feat was organized jointly by DJI and 8KRAW, a Chinese photography organization with more than 1,000 contributing photographers. The climb was completed in the early morning of May 27, but only now has the official film, called ‘Flying over Everest’, been released.
Get the Digital Camera World Newsletter
The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
