okay so ive been going back and forth on this for like three weeks now and i need someone to just tell me what to do lol. i fly maybe once or twice a month, mostly hiking trips and some beach stuff, nothing crazy. i dont do any professional work or sell footage or anything like that.

the mini 4 pro keeps calling my name because of the under 250g thing ? i live in a fairly regulated area and the idea of not having to register or stress about airspace apps as much is appealing. but then i look at the Air 3 and the dual cameras and omnidirectional obstacle avoidance and im like... okay that does seem genuinely better.

the price gap is like 250-300 bucks depending on which combo you get and honestly for a casual flier thats not nothing. has anyone gone from one to the other or owned both? curious if the Air 3 stuff actually shows up in real world use or if its mostly spec sheet bragging

had the mini 3 pro before and jumped to the Air 3 earlier this year and honestly for what you're describing i'd probably just get the mini 4 pro. the omnidirectional avoidance on the Air 3 is genuinely better but if you're flying beaches and hiking trails and not doing anything too technical, the mini 4 pro's obstacle avoidance is still pretty solid. the dual camera thing on the Air 3 is nice but i maybe use the medium tele like 20% of the time tops.

the weight thing is real too, i have a buddy who got stopped at a national park because rangers saw him pull out the Air 3 and asked to see his authorization. with the mini you often just kind of blend in more. not saying thats the right way to think about it but its a real world thing that happens.

im in almost the exact same situation as you lol, except i ended up just pulling the trigger on the mini 4 pro last month. only had it out four times so far but zero regrets. the footage looks incredible to me, like genuinely better than i expected, and i dont have to think about registration which for a hobby flier is kind of a big mental relief. the Air 3 is probably objectively better but i dont think id notice in my actual use case