As long as antigravity never becomes a real thing, I predict that drones are unlikely to go out of style anytime soon. For geeks who grew up loving everything about aircraft, flying and gadgets, drones tick all the boxes. They're easy to fly, they can shoot virtually cinema-quality video and they are an excellent hobby even in the social distancing world of the coronavirus. And though you can get a "toy" drone for $100 or less, if you're at all serious about quadcopters, you'll want to invest in a more serious model, like one from DJI.
If that sounds like you, there are some great deals to be had on DJI gear right now. For example, you can get a free battery with the purchase of the well-reviewed DJI Mavic Mini, or get $180 off either the Mavic 2 Zoom or Phantom 4 Pro V2.0. Here are the details.
This is far from the best deal we've seen for the DJI Mavic Mini, but it's still an opportunity to get a $45 battery for free in this DJI Mavic Mini bundle. Because the Mini gives you about 30 minutes of flight time, that's an hour of flying right out of the box. And equipped with the 2.7K HD camera and three-axis motorized gimbal, this is an awesome platform for shooting video on a budget.
DJI's Mavic 2 Zoom usually sells for $1,439, but you can save $270 right now. Its killer feature? The Mavic 2 Zoom is the world's first foldable consumer drone with optical zoom capability, ranging from 24-48mm. Add to that a 2x digital zoom that's lossless when recording video at 1080p and you can go from 49mm to 96mm (all focal lengths in 35mm equivalent). It shoots 4K video as well at 30fps with a bit rate of 100Mbps.
Usually priced at a sobering $1,599, you can save $180 on the Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 right now, making the price a slightly more approachable $1,419. This is the drone that so many budding drone operators and cinematographers cut their teeth on -- it has a 20-megapixel camera that shoots 4K video with a three-axis motorized gimbal and a slew of intelligent and automated flight modes. This V2.0 trades the original drone's Lightbridge system for the OcuSync transmission system and better collision avoidance, but is otherwise largely the same.
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