so i got into a conversation at my local flying club last weekend and mentioned i was looking at the autel evo lite+ as an alternative to the mini 4 pro and you would have thought i suggested buying a fisher price toy or something. like three guys immediately started telling me to just get dji and stop overthinking it.

and look i get it, dji is the safe choice, the ecosystem is mature, the support is there, whatever. but im genuinely curious about the evo lite+ because the variable aperture lens on it is something dji doesnt really offer at that price point and for the kind of sunset / golden hour stuff i shoot that actually matters to me.

has anyone here actually flown one for more than a few weeks? not looking for a spec comparison i can google that, i want to know if the app is still as buggy as people said it was a year ago, how the obstacle avoidance actually performs in real conditions, stuff like that. my club guys clearly havent touched one so their opinions are kinda worthless to me on this

your club guys arent totally wrong but theyre not totally right either. i flew an evo lite+ for about four months before going back to dji and the variable aperture really is legitimately useful, youre not wrong about that. golden hour stuff especially it makes a noticeable difference being able to stop down a bit instead of just cranking nd filters.

the app though... it improved a lot from where it was but its still not as smooth as dji fly. had a couple weird disconnects that never fully explained themselves and the waypoint mission stuff felt clunky compared to what im used to. obstacle avoidance worked fine in testing but i honestly didnt trust it enough to use it aggressively. if the aperture thing is a real priority for your shooting style its worth a serious look, just go in knowing the software side isnt quite as polished

the dji fanboy thing is real but also kind of earned if that makes sense, like people recommend it so much because it genuinely works and the resale value holds up which matters when you want to upgrade later. but i dont think thats a reason to not look at alternatives, competition is good. i havent flown the autel personally but curious what you end up deciding