ok so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i cant make up my mind. currently flying a mini 2 SE which i know isnt exactly top tier but it does the job for weekend trips and some family stuff. my budget is around $800-900 and both the mini 4 pro and air 3 fall in that range depending on where you look.

the omnidirectional obstacle avoidance on the mini 4 pro seems like the obvious win for someone like me who still occasionally panics in tight spaces but then the air 3 has dual cameras and that medium tele lens which honestly looks really useful for the kind of landscape stuff i do. also the air 3 sensor is bigger i think? i read that somewhere but im not 100% sure if it actually matters at the level im flying at.

anyone gone from a mini series to the air 3 and felt like it was worth the jump or am i just gonna notice the extra weight every time i cross a border

went through almost the exact same decision last spring and ended up with the air 3, no regrets honestly. the tele camera is way more useful than i expected, especially for anything outdoors where you just cant get physically closer to what youre shooting. the sensor difference is real and you will notice it in low light situations even if youre not doing professional work.

the weight thing is a real consideration though if you travel a lot internationally, some countries have stricter rules for anything over 250g and the mini 4 pro keeps you under that threshold which is genuinely useful. but if most of your flying is domestic and you care about image quality the air 3 is just a better camera drone at that price point. the obstacle avoidance on both is pretty solid these days so i wouldnt base the decision on that alone.

i have the mini 4 pro and love it but tbh if i was buying again today and didnt care about the weight class thing id probably get the air 3. the vtol on the mini 4 pro is great but that second camera on the air 3 just opens up so many more creative options, like you get proper subject isolation at distance which looks way better than just cropping in post