so ive been flying my mini 3 pro for about a year and a half now and honestly its been great, no complaints really. but im starting to get into more serious stuff, mostly real estate video for a friend who does listings and some travel stuff when i can. a buddy of mine keeps telling me to grab an air 3 and i keep going back and forth on it.

the omnidirectional obstacle avoidance is the main thing pulling me toward it, because the mini 3 only does front/back/down and ive had a couple close calls in tight spots. also the dual cameras are interesting. but then i think about losing the sub-250g thing which has saved me so much headache in terms of where i can fly without dealing with LAANC or waivers.

has anyone actually made this switch and regretted it or been really happy? or is there like a specific use case where you went ok yeah this was the right call

made exactly this switch about 6 months ago and honestly... mixed feelings. the air 3 footage is noticeably better especially in lower light and the omnidirectional avoidance has already saved me twice, once flying through some trees at dusk which was just dumb on my part. but you are going to feel the weight class thing more than you expect. i travel a lot and there have been 3 or 4 situations where i just couldnt fly at all because of local rules that the mini would've slipped under no problem.

for real estate work though the air 3 is kind of a no brainer if your friend wants that polished look. the medium tele lens alone makes exterior shots look so much more professional, flattens the perspective in a way clients seem to love. so i guess it depends what you're optimizing for

i have the air 3 and love it but i never had the mini 3 pro so cant really compare directly. what i will say is the RC2 controller with the screen built in is genuinely really nice, especially on bright days. my old phone mount setup was always kind of a pain