so ive been tossing my mini 3 pro in a backpack with the dji shoulder bag thing and honestly its fine for local stuff but im heading to iceland next month and i dont want to risk it. the shoulder bag is just too soft, one hard knock and im worried about the gimbal.

been looking at the dji hard case and also some third party ones on amazon but the reviews are all over the place. some people say the foam cutouts are perfect, others say they had to mod it themselves which seems annoying. does anyone have one they actually trust for checked luggage or rough outdoor use? not trying to spend a fortune but also not trying to ruin a $700 drone either

i went through this exact thing before a trip to norway last year. ended up with the Hohem waterproof hard case, think it was around $45, and honestly it survived getting tossed around in a van for two weeks no problem. the foam wasnt perfect out of the box but i spent like 20 minutes trimming it with scissors and it fits snug now. carries the drone, three batteries, a couple nd filters and the controller which is more than the official dji case does at that price.

that said if youre checking it i would still put it inside a bigger bag just so it doesnt get flagged. hard shell drone cases do attract attention at security sometimes, at least in my experience.

not sure about the mini 3 specifically but i use a pelican 1510 for my air 2s and its basically indestructible. yeah its overkill and heavier than you maybe want but its carryon size and ive never once worried about it. you can get pick n pluck foam inserts and cut it however you need. probably more than you want to spend but just throwing it out there