DJI announces Mavic 3 Classic with a 46-minute flight time and only one camera

While we wait to see what DJI has up its sleeve for tomorrow's new drone launch, this is the perfect time to remind you all about Black Friday. 

This year, Black Friday is on November 25, and the majority of the best camera deals won't be live until then however, that doesn't mean there aren't some pretty good deals about. Whether you shoot with a mirrorless or DSLR camera, price cuts were available on all types of cameras and photography accessories in last year's sales. Any action camera, instant camera, or drone enthusiast could bag a bargain in this year's sale, such as the DJI FPV Combo – this was the star of the show at last year's event sporting a whopping discount down to just $999 / £899. 

Take a look at our Black Friday hubs and grab yourself and yearly bargain before the holiday sale begins:

Best Black Friday camera deals

Canon Black Friday deals

Nikon Black Friday deals

Sony Black Friday deals

DJI Mavic 3 Classic: What we expect to see

Rumors of the DJI Mavic 3 Classic have been circulating for some time now, and the specs of this new drone have been up in the air for a while.

According to leaks from WinFuture, @DealsDroneand @JasperEllen, the Mavic 3 Classic is likely to omit the telephoto camera seen on DJI's current consumer flagship, the DJI Mavic 3. That means that, as DJI's invite suggests, it'll only offer a single 20MP Four Thirds CMOS sensor for video and photos - which is still worthy for 4K video and able to deliver outstanding aeriel photography, while leaked images of the drone also sugged that the Hasselblad collaboration is still present in this lesser spec drone.

This type of strategy has worked well for DJI in the past, originally offering the DJI Mini 2, and then offering the DJI Mini SE as its cheaper alternative by removing its RAW photo capture, and only offering 2.7K video capture over the more expensive DJI Mini 2's 4K video recording.

To get the price down DJI will have to make some cuts somewhere and without knowing any official information it is hard to speculate what might come to fruition, however, If we were to guess we would say a strip down on the massive 1TB SSD found on the Mavic 3, with DJI opting for a 256GB / 500GB option on the Mavic 3 Classic, this would be a good reduction in price, while not entirely giving up storage freedom to do multiple flights in a day.

Obviously, the next issue would be recording codecs, if DJI were to slash the internal memory we can also see them limiting recording codes such as Pro Res from Apple to make the DJI Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Cine the go-to options for truly serious areal cinematographers. Other options could be reducing the optical zoom to 10x rather than the bigger 28x of the Mavic 3, then we could see a decent price drop to around $1,500 / £1,300 - which would fit right in-between the current DJI lineup of the DJI Air 2S and Mavic 3

All of those combined with the lack of a telephoto lens make for a compelling argument for the new DJI Mavic Classic – but please take into account that no official information from DJI has been announced and that the above is our own personal speculations.

Today's the day DJI is due to launch a new drone scheduled for  9am EDT / 1pm GMT (which works out as 12am AEDT on November 3) and the big clue that it could be a new Mavic is that the camera lens has been teased already by DJI themselves.

We have included the YouTube video below which will showcase this new Drone as it happens LIVE - Is anyone else excited? we're excited!

DJI - Introducing Mavic 3 Classic - YouTube

Watch On

The DJI Mavic 3 has been out for just under a year, with its 12MP telephoto lens along with a 28x Hybrid Zoom made in collaboration with Hasselblad. This fancy pro-grade drone is able to capture 20MP photos and 5.1K videos thanks to its Micro-Four-Thirds CMOS sensor and has an impressive flight time of up to 46 minutes. 

If you want our full thoughts on this drone take a look at our DJI Mavic 3 review.

You might say this sounds like an amazing drone, and you'd be right, but all those features do come at a cost, and that cost is currently a whopping $2,049 / £1,729 – so it's a hefty price to swallow. But that could all change today as recent rumors suggest the flagship will soon get a more affordable little brother called the DJI Mavic 3 Classic - which could be the drone that DJI is going to announce today at 9 am EDT / 1 pm GMT (which works out as 12 am AEDT on November 3)

Leaked photos and an FCC filing suggest the launch of the Mavic 3 Classic is now imminent. Which can mean great news for those aerial enthusiasts, as the price will most certainly be less than the current DJI Mavic 3.

According to earlier leaks from the reliable DJI leaker @DealsDroneaccount on Twitter, the main difference will be that the Classic version will omit the Mavic 3's telephoto camera and only offer a single 20MP Four Thirds CMOS sensor for video and photos - which to use doesn't seem that much of a downgrade on this already -professional-grade drone - so you could actually get a really good price to performance ratio out of this new drone, which is always nice.

Obviously, the next issue would be recording codecs, if DJI were to slash the internal memory we can also see them limiting recording codes such as Pro Res from Apple to make the DJI Mavic 3 and Mavic 3 Cine the go-to options for truly serious areal cinematographers. Other options could be reducing the optical zoom to 10x rather than the bigger 28x of the Mavic 3, then we could see a decent price drop to around $1,500 / £1,300 - which would fit right in-between the current DJI lineup of the DJI Air 2S and Mavic 3

All of those combined with the lack of a telephoto lens make for a compelling argument for the new DJI Mavic Classic – but please take into account that no official information from DJI has been announced and that the above is our own personal speculations.

As you would expect the comment section in the YouTube waiting room is full of suggestions on what this new drone might be with user Dronie commenting:

"Maybe they are taking the camera design off the Mavic 3 to make the inspire 3" - I don't think this is really the thing DJI does to make a new drone, especially one that is so cinema-focused as the Inspire series.  

While others are really wanting a DJI Pocket 3 to be announced with comments such as "Pocket 3, Pocket 3, please launch it" from Amusement And Adventure, or "no pocket 3 this year then? sigh..."

While sadly it is highly doubtful that DJI will announce a new Pocket camera in the announcement today, I personally think it is due to an upgrade and think DJI should certainly consider a predecessor tot he handy vlogging camera.

How to watch the DJI drone launch event

You can watch the official announcement over at the  DJI YouTube channel waiting, and you can sign up via the official DJI website to be noticed when the announcement is going to take place. But if all that is too much hassle we have included the YouTube link below so you can watch the live announcement with us LIVE!

DJI - Introducing Mavic 3 Classic - YouTube

Watch On

We are now 8 minutes away from finding out what the new DJI drone will be, will it be a cheaper Mavic 3 as rumors suggest, or something completely different, only time will tell!

Incase your just joining us, DJI is set to announce a new drone, rumors suggest a cheaper version of the popular DJI Mavic 3. You can watch the live announcement with us LIVE via the YouTube video below:

DJI - Introducing Mavic 3 Classic - YouTube

Watch On

It's here the DJI Mavic 3 Classic!

The new Mavic 3 Classic represents DJI’s answer; a cheaper way to access the Hasselblad 4/3 rds CMOS 20-megapixel camera, 46-minute flight time of the original drone without laying down as much cash.

Retaining the original chassis also means the drone takes the same batteries, has the same ADS-B receiver, and sports all-round collision sensing and APAS 5.0. 

What the Classic doesn’t have is the internal storage or ProRes codes of the Mavic 3 Cine, but that remains a significant step up from the Mavic 3 (original) anyway – like that drone users will be expected to provide fast MicroSD storage.

Pricing:

That concludes the announcement of the DJI Mavic 3 Classic, a quick whirlwind ride of the latest DJI drone which looks to take technology further with a 46-minute flight time.

DJI - Introducing Mavic 3 Classic - YouTube

Watch On