DJI Mavic Mini drone gets major upgrade – and it won't cost you a dime!
Our favorite budget drone is now even better – thanks to a firmware upgrade that adds manual white balance & exposure
The big news in the drone world this week may well have been the launch of the DJI Mavic Air 2. But with much less of a fanfare, DJI also released something that may well be just as spectacular... and that's a completely updated version of its best-selling Mavic Mini drone.
The $399 sub-250g drone was released just in time for Christmas last year – but thanks to a free firmware upgrade this week, the DJI Mavic Mini now gets a number of significant new features, that make this UAV even better value than before.
Most significantly, for serious stills photographers and videographers, the firmware upgrade gives you manual exposure and manual white balance control. As any drone operator (or landscape photographer) will know bright skies, and sunsets, are not dealt with well by automatic systems – so this feature addition is a real game-changer for Mavic Mini pilots.
The v01.00.0500 firmware can be updated via the latest v1.0.8 version of the DJI Fly app, or by using DJI's Assistant 2 For Mavic software. To use the exposure and white balance control, you will need to using the latest version of the DJI Fly app anyway.
Another cool feature that the new firmware provides is a 24fps option when shooting 2.7K video. This framerate gives a more cinematic look to video footage than the standard 30fps rate. You also now get both 24fps and 48fps options when shooting at Full HD 1080p resolution.
We are also told that the firmware will also improve the download speed for both photos and videos, and will improve flight stability "in some scenarios".
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Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography.
His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.
He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.