okay so this is gonna be a bit of a ramble but hopefully useful for someone. i had kind of a weird summer where i ended up flying three pretty different drones ? my own fpv setup which i've had for two years, a friends autel evo lite plus that i borrowed for a coastal trip, and then i rented a mavic 3 classic through a local camera shop for a week because i was shooting some stuff for my brothers small business.

i went in kind of assuming DJI would win everything because thats just what everyone says but honestly the autel surprised me. the image on that evo lite plus in good light was genuinely beautiful, colors felt a little more natural out of the camera without as much post work. the app is kind of a mess though and the obstacle sensing felt less refined than what i remember from using DJI stuff before. like it worked but it wasn't as smooth.

the mavic 3 classic was just... really good. not shocking. the hasselblad color profile thing is a bit overhyped i think but the overall image and the way it handles wind is noticably better than the autel for serious use. also the active track on the 3 classic just works in a way that the autel's tracking didnt quite nail every time.

my actual fpv quad is still the most fun to fly by a mile but obviously its apples and oranges for footage purposes. anyway just thought id share since i see a lot of autel vs DJI threads and most of them are pretty one sided

the autel app situation is something I keep hearing about and it's kind of frustrating because the hardware clearly has potential. curious what specifically felt messy to you ? was it the interface layout or more like actual functionality bugs? i've been considering the evo lite plus as a backup drone and the app thing keeps coming up

yeah fpv is always gonna win the fun category lol, no contest. good write up though, appreciate someone who's actually flown the things rather than just reading specs. the mavic 3 classic wind handling thing is real ? took mine out in some pretty gnarly coastal wind last fall and it held position better than i expected. that said 400 bucks cheaper than the full mavic 3 and you give up the tele lenses which depending on what you shoot could matter a lot or not at all